Minutes
Town of Greenfield
Greenfield Town Offices, 7 Sawmill Road Greenfield, NH
Selectmen’s Meeting Minutes
Thursday, November 29, 2012 – 4:30 pm
Board of Selectmen: Chairman Rob Wimpory, Selectwoman Karen Day, and Selectwoman Debra Davidson
Staff: Town Administrator Patt,
Public: Ken Paulsen, Ashley Saari Monadnock Ledger Transcript
The meeting was called to order at 4:30 PM by Chairman Wimpory.
Documents for Approval/Review/Signature
The Selectmen reviewed and signed the following items:
§ A/P Manifest
§ A/P Checks
§ A/P Invoices
§ Wastewater Checks
§ Economic Development Committee recommendations
§ Landscape contract review
§ Updated proposal for Gravel Pit
§ Assessing correspondence
§ Intent to Cut R1-24
§ Meeting House rental agreement / Community Holiday Stroll
4:30 PM: Open Meeting
At 4:30 PM Chairman Wimpory opened the meeting and noted that the applicant for the Building Inspector/Code Enforcement officer was present for a scheduled interview. After deliberation the Board decided that the interview should be held in non-public session. At 4:35 the Board of Selectmen voted under 91-A: 3 II b, the hiring of any person as a public employee, on a motion by the Chair and a second by Selectwoman Day for a roll call vote of 3-0, to enter non-public session in order to interview Scott Osgood for the position of Part-Time Building Inspector & Code Enforcement Officer. The Selectmen’s non-public session was held until 5PM. On a vote of 3-0 the Board voted to go out of non-public session. The Board discussed whether to schedule a formal interview with Richard Boucher, another applicant that had
previously been introduced by Peter Hopkins.
5:30 PM: Bob Marshall, Planning Board Chairman
Planning Board Chairman Bob Marshall came before the Board of Selectmen to update them on the Planning Board’s requested budget for 2013, and to discuss the establishment of the Economic Development Committee. There was a brief discussion of the Planning Board budget request, which is up $100 over 2012. The budget through December is only 16% spent reported Chairman Marshall, largely due to the fact that the Planning Board did not have the legal expenses anticipated at the end of 2011. 2013, however, was another year where a significant subdivision application was likely and the therefore the Planning Board did not want to reduce its legal line item. At the end of the year the Planning Board reports it is happy it can give money back to the Town.
The conversation turned to the establishment of the Economic Development Committee that had been introduced in a previous Selectmen’s meeting. Planning Board Chairman Marshall talked briefly about the committee’s goals and conversations that he has had with people in town who might be interested in serving on a committee of this type. The conversations included people who live in town as well as business owners who work here but live in other towns. The result of the conversations was the conclusion that there are people who would like to volunteer and work on specific deliverables for short-term engagements of 9 months to a year. At the end of this timeframe a deliverable would be accomplished and people could then choose whether they wanted to work on the next deliverable or let someone else take a seat at
the table. Planning Board Chairman Marshall provided a list of names of people that he felt were interested in serving the Town in this fashion. The Board of Selectmen discussed the Economic Development Committee and quickly reached agreement to schedule appointments for the committee at the next Selectmen’s meeting. The Board requested that 30 minutes be scheduled and that the list of people presented by P.B. Chair Marshall be contacted and their interest confirmed. The appointments are to be one-year appointments by the Board of Selectmen.
6:00 PM: Resident requested meeting – Cancelled at residents request
The 6:00 PM meeting was cancelled by the requesting resident, earlier in the afternoon, and the Board used the time for review and approval of documents. The first item of business was a review of an updated proposal from Gagnon Landscaping for the 2013-2014 time frame. The Board discussed several items related to the landscaping contract. These included the beds around the Meeting House, the cemetery landscaping, Sunset Beach, and specific areas in town that needed attention. The Board voted 3-0 on a motion by Selectwoman Davidson and a Second by Chairman Wimpory to extend the contract for two years with the municipal contract language included. DPW Supervisor Murray shall be the report for Gagnon Landscaping.
6:30 PM: Selectmen’s Work Session
The next order of business was to review bids for slate repair on the Meeting House roof. When the Town received a donation from American Steel of crane and operator time, pictures were taken of several locations that were in need of immediate attention. The Board of Selectmen noted that there are several areas on the roof where slate is missing and exposed portions of the roof are directly open to the weather. The Board reviewed the bids received for this emergency repair and on a motion by Selectwoman Day and a second by Selectwoman Davidson, voted 3-0 to accept the bid from Gerard A. Leone Slate and Copper Roofing with a not-to-exceed ceiling of $3600 for these repairs.
The Board discussed the current years budget, reviewed the budget Year-to-Date print outs, and compared revenues to expenditures - to date. It was noted that several revenue line items could fall short of projections, most notably the interest on overdue taxes. A conversation was held about department budgets and it was noted that the Welfare Budget would be going over budget by as much as $4500 dollars. While most of the departmental budgets were in good shape approaching the end of the year, the Board had concerns about the revenue shortfall and some of the recent emergency expenditures for the Meeting House. Chairman Wimpory made a motion that all department line-item expenditures (not including personnel costs for wages and benefits) must be pre-approved by the Town Administrator. Selectwoman Davidson seconded
the motion and the vote passed unanimously.
Next the Board discussed the possibility of meeting with other selectmen in the area to discuss regional services and other ways to offset the increasing costs the town’s face from the school district. The Board instructed the Administrator to reach out to neighboring towns to see if their selectmen would be willing to respond to an invitation from Greenfield and have a meeting exploring regionalizing services and, also, whether there is any interest in leaving the SAU district.
Next it was noted that in the Transfer Station Recycling Center budget there is a line item of $500 dollars for tires. The line item is based on the expenditure to have tires removed from the center. However, the Town does charge more than the removal cost for tires left at the facility so tires are a revenue generator in this department. As a result the Board discussed increasing this line item to allow for more revenues. The Board noted that the Town Report should have an explanation that this is a revenue line item, because increasing the line item on the expense side results in the overall budget appearing to be bigger. A short conversation was held about the auditor’s request for gross budgeting of every line item. This includes the police detail income line item, which has not been gross budgeted in the past.
It was suggested that if the police detail income line were gross budgeted it should be separate from the police department budget because otherwise it will inflate the expense side of the budget. The Board agreed that the people at Town Meeting would understand.
Next, Jarvis Adams came before the Board to briefly update them on an emergency service for a welfare recipient. Mr. Adams outlined a temporary fix that he hoped would solve the issue in the short term. He also provided a cost to the Board to have a replacement part installed should the temporary fix fail.
The Board then had a short discussion on wages for Town employees. There was a discussion about the previous year when a 1.5% cost of living increase was voted. The Board reviewed the CPI (Consumer Price Index) and noted that in October the rate was 2.2% for the year with the cost of energy having the biggest jump across all CPI components. The Administrator noted that there had been personnel activities in 2012 with a new hire, a promotion, and new hours for the librarians. The Board reviewed the Police department request. Selectwoman Davidson indicated that she was not in favor of providing raises across the board to all employees this year. On further discussion the Board indicated that they would look at merit based wage increases for 2013. The Board directed the Administrator to schedule personnel reviews for the
Department Heads.
The Board discussed the ability of the Town Forester to flag town owned properties for logging and for excavation. A cost comparison was discussed in general terms compared to the quote received from Meridian Engineering to open up a gravel pit in town. It was thought that with the help of the Forester, the Town could look at logging certain properties to generate revenues. It was requested of the Administrator to contact the Forester to see if she has the ability to flag property and file the permits necessary to open a gravel pit.
8:20 PM: Adjournment
There being no further business, Selectman Wimpory moved to adjourn the meeting. Selectwoman Davidson seconded the motion. The motion carried 3-0.
The meeting adjourned at 8:20 PM
Respectfully Submitted:
Aaron Patt
Town Administrator
The minutes are final when approved and signed by the Board of Selectmen. A signed copy is on file in the Selectmen’s minutes.
_____________________ _____________________ ______________________
Rob Wimpory, Chairman Karen Day, Selectwoman Debra Davidson, Selectwoman
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