Minutes
Town of Greenfield
Greenfield Town Offices, 7 Sawmill Road Greenfield, NH
Selectmen’s Meeting Minutes
Thursday, February 07, 2013 – 4:30 pm
Board of Selectmen: Chairman Rob Wimpory, Selectwoman Karen Day, and Selectwoman Debra Davidson
Staff: Town Administrator Patt, Supervisor Murray, Librarian Smith, Librarian Riedel, Catherine Shaw, Planning Board Chair Marshall, Fire Chief Loren White, and Budget Advisory Committee Chair Nickerson
Public: Ken Paulsen, Public Hearing attendees listed below
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
§ Monadnock Mountaineers Schedule
§ Town Report cover choices
§ DES request for Meeting House reservation
§ Update on Postage fees
§ Returned Check Fees Notice – updated
§ Cash Receipts policy – returned check fee updated
§ Road Toll refund application
4:30 PM: Review and Approval of Documents
At 4:30 PM Chairman Wimpory opened the meeting. Chairman Wimpory announced that the Board would be holding a work session to finalize the budget prior to the budget hearing scheduled at 6:30 PM. There is no agenda published for tonight’s meeting to allow the Administrator to have time to print the final draft budget and warrant. The Public Hearing of the 2013 Budget has been noticed in the Monadnock Ledger, and posted in two public places according to the statute. The notice has also been run in the Greenfield Spirit, posted on the website calendar, and sent out on email to all those that subscribe to the News and Announcements email service.
The Board reviewed a quote from Todd Land Surveyors that would allow the Town to open a gravel-processing center on the town property adjacent to Greenvale Cemetery. The quote included a range of possible engineering and surveying fees from $13,604 -$15,604. In conversation with Todd Land Use, the Administrator learned that the company felt their work could be completed by June of 2013 and that DPW could be on-site in August. With this schedule Supervisor Murray had reported that DPW could use product from the site in 2013 and that a cost savings of $10,000 could be realized from the Salt and Sand line item in the DPW budget. The total amount of sand and gravel purchased in 2012 was over $72,000 with more than $30,000 of that going toward road projects. Supervisor Murray indicated to the Board that he would continue to
need funds for sand and gravel, as there are some products that cannot be produced in town. The Board agreed to advance this project as a warrant article for $15,600. The Administrator updated the warrant article with the finalized amount for printing.
The Board of Selectmen reviewed the order of warrant articles and agreed that with the impending weather that the DPW warrant articles would be read first in order to let Supervisor Murray go home at an early hour. A list of the warrant articles was provided by the Administrator to be read that would provide for the revised order.
The Board of Selectmen revised the order of the warrant articles on the Town Warrant and after much discussion provided a list to the Administrator of renumbered articles for Town Meeting.
At 6:30 the Public Hearing to discuss the 2013 Budget was opened by Chairman Wimpory.
The following people were in attendance:
Ken Paulsen, Clifford Shaw, Gary Smith, Agneta Brown, Neal Brown, John Gryval, Myron Steere, Jack Moran, Lee LeBlanc, Ellen Dumas, Conrad Dumas, Patty Donovan, Don Winslow, Andre Wood, Brighid Wood,
The 2013 Budget was noted by the Chair as being –1.7% compared to 2012. The 2013 draft Town Warrant was read by Chairman Wimpory with DPW related articles moved to the beginning of the meeting. The public was agreeable to the change in order and the warrants were read starting with the DPW related articles, which are:
q article #8 to open the property adjacent to Greenvale Cemetery and to raise and appropriate $15,600 for the purpose of surveying and engineering,
q #10, the DPW Budget of $510, 414 and associated line items
q #13, for the purpose of purchasing a 2014 MACK 10-wheel dump truck for a total of $176,194 with $25,171 for the first year’s payment
q and #9, for the purpose of Road Reconstruction with a budget of $125,000 as also provided in 2012
Myron Steere asked about the use of the property adjacent to the Greenvale Cemetery and the potential to locate a salt shed there in the future. There was a brief discussion about the potential use of the property and whether the engineering company would be finished in time so that DPW would have enough time to realize the savings in the sand budget vs. running out of time and having a lower budget come winter.
There were no questions on the warrant article for a 2014 MACK truck.
There were questions about article #9 Road Reconstruction. Diane Boilard did not understand why the individual roads were not mentioned in the article. Jack Moran questioned why the line items were overspent to such a degree in 2012. Supervisor Murray replied that in 2012 he had moved funds from other line items (“rob Peter to pay Paul”) in order to maximize the road reconstruction that occurred on Slip Road and other roads in town. He also talked about the cost of mud season and how difficult mud season was last year. As a result he preferred to have the warrant article somewhat vague so that DPW could use the funds to respond to circumstances as they arose this year. If there were a significant number of roads affected by mud season this year then he would like to have the ability to use funds for the dirt
roads, however, if the season is mild and more money could be used for paving, he would work on Mountain Rd. and parts of Old Bennington Rd. At some point Supervisor Murray said he would re-evaluate the priorities depending on how the weather and other issues play out. Ken Paulsen indicated that there would likely be a conversation about the distinction between maintenance vs. reconstruction. Supervisor Murray indicated that he had addressed road reconstruction in his conversation and that maintenance funds provided culverts, fill & grading, which is different from reconstruction.
On article #10 Diane Boilard asked why the health insurance had increased so much. She had been under the impression that we would save money with the switch to a new health care provider. The Administrator indicated that there had been a new person hired and as a result a single had become a two person while a two-person plan had changed to a family plan. These changes, added to the 6.7% increase of Schoolcare, were responsible for the increase. It was mentioned that LGC’s rates had gone up by 15% so the Town actually did benefit from the switch to a new provider, however this budget showed several changes that were reflective of change in plans in addition to the percent increase year over year.
Next article, #2 outlined the generator grant and the savings that would result. The Administrator outlined the necessity to gross appropriate the funds under direction received by the Department of Revenue Administration. As a result of rewording the article the town would save just over $3300. A report on the grant application, which has cleared the Environmental and Historic preservation Boards, was also presented.
Article #3 the Assessment Capital Reserve was outlined. There were no questions on this but there were some comments about Avitar the assessing company.
Article #4 Recycling Center was read. The budget for the Transfer Station is down this year compared to last year. There were no questions about the Transfer Station budget.
Article #5 Town Operations: this article is lower in 2013 than the previous year by over $7,000.
Article #6: Fire Department Capital Reserve. This article carries $20,000 into the capital reserve fund. No questions were asked about this article
Article #7: Fire Department Operating Budget: The Fire Department budget now includes the Code Red article in the EMD line. The Selectmen indicated that the line item in the warrant would have this information in parenthesis. Jack Moran asked about the EMD line and John Gryval responded to the question by outlining the use of funds in the past.
Article #1l: Stephenson Memorial Library: the Librarians and Trustees were in attendance to discuss the budget. A question about the insurance line was asked and the Administrator noted that in previous years the insurance for the library was held in the insurance line but as with other departments, the Library now has the liability cost included as a line item. Notwithstanding this increase to the budget, the Trustees brought the budget down so that it was only up slightly over the previous year.
Artilce #12: Police Department. The Administrator outlined the increases to retirement for group II employees, the network server migration and the cost to route the wireless for Crimestar securely so that the public would not have access to the police department’s wireless account from the parking lot. The police budget includes a new IT maintenance line item. The result of the increases to IT, Retirement, wage increases for the part-timer and the percentage increase for health insurance has caused the increases that appear in this budget. Chief Giammarino indicated that the increases in the police department budget were outside of the department’s control.
Article #14: The repairs to the library in warrant article number 13 were discussed and Trustee Neal Brown outlined the problems with the woodwork at the rear of the building. There were no follow up questions.
Article #15: Meeting House roof and Steeple repairs. The Administrator outlined the research into vendors for slate and steeple repair that were undertaken over the last year. Supervisor Murray found a vendor for slate repairs that had been used to address some emergency repairs to the Meeting House roof during 2012 at a very cost effective price point. The vendor is a specialist that works closely with the Preservation Alliance group, and other restoration companies. The slate specialist works by word of mouth. The slate roof company owner referred a specialist in restoration to the Town. The subsequent bids from the two companies would repair the steeple and fix the slate roof for less than the cost of the Morgan quote that was provided for just the steeple repairs last year. A question from Patty Donovan: is there
someone that can wind the clock? The Board addressed this issue and indicated that there is the question of safe access to the clock that would be addressed during the restoration work.
Article #16: Used oil collection grant. This grant was outlined and there was one question regarding the time frame. The grant is for the latter half of 2013 and the first part of 2014 as it runs on the State’s calendar.
The Board indicated that a non-financial warrant (#18) would be removed and would not appear on the Town Warrant at Town Meeting.
A question regarding petition warrant articles was asked; and whether there were any this year. It was noted that the time had passed for submission of petition warrant articles and that there had not been any submitted this year. The Administrator said that the final wording of the Warrant Articles would be reviewed by the Department of Revenue and that the wording may change on some of the articles.
The conversation moved from the warrant articles to a general discussion of the ConVal school deliberative session that had occurred the previous night. It was reported that 72 people from Greenfield had attended, which was the highest number of people ever. This was attributed to the Board of Selectmen’s informational flyer that had been mailed out to every home, outlining the increases to the tax rate if the current budget proposal passes. There was general agreement by everyone in attendance that there was support for spending up to $3000 dollars of the legal budget to research the withdrawal from the ConVal School District. The Board held a brief vote of 3-0 on a motion made by the Chair to undertake the research on withdrawing from the district based on the direction of the public in attendance. A second from
Selectwoman Davidson was voiced in response to the motion and the motion passed as outlined.
Shortly thereafter the meeting broke up. The Public Hearing was closed at 7:55 PM
Adjournment
There being no further business, Selectman Wimpory moved to adjourn the meeting at 8:12 PM. Selectwoman Day seconded the motion. The motion carried 3-0.
The meeting adjourned at 8:15 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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