Minutes
Town of Greenfield
Greenfield Meeting House, 776 Francestown Road Greenfield, NH
Selectmen’s Meeting Minutes
Tuesday, February 12, 2013 – 6:00 pm
Greenfield Board of Selectmen: Rob Wimpory, Karen Day, and Debra Davidson
Antrim Board of Selectmen:
Bennington Board of Selectmen: Jim Cleary, Steve Osienski, and Jeff Rose
Francestown Board of Selectmen:
Hancock Board of Selectmen:
State Representative: John Manley
Staff: Town Administrator Patt,
The meeting was called to order at 6:00 PM by Selectman Wimpory.
There is no Selectmen’s Meeting Agenda for Tuesday, February 12th
6:00 PM: Opening Remarks
Greenfield Selectman Wimpory opened the meeting at 6:00PM.
The purpose for the meeting, from the Selectboard in Greenfield, was to follow-up on the ConVal budget and the deliberative session in order to assess the best way forward. The motion by the Selectmen’s Advisory Committee to cut the proposed operating budget for the ConVal school district did not pass. In March the residents of the district will vote on the proposed budget or will adopt a default budget. In either instance the Selectmen will continue to feel the increased pressure of the district expenses on the local tax rate. Bennington Selectman Cleary said that it’s the fiduciary duty of the Selectmen in Bennington to continue to explore all of the available options. During a discussion about the impact of the tax rate, Bennington Selectman Rose offered that based on the continued increase in costs it was
easy to imagine a regional approach to some of Town services fifteen years down the road, however, its very difficult to actually get the ball rolling. The transition period has been so difficult that shared services haven’t got off the ground between Antrim and Bennington. Greenfield Selectman Wimpory suggested that rather than look at combining services right away, the Town’s work with their police force and have the Chiefs work out a program that will provide scheduled coverage 24 hours a day among participating towns.
A discussion followed of the history of services increasing over time and the associated cost that came on the heels of the service expansions. The discussion included acknowledging that there is redundancy of equipment across the local towns, and the question is whether the purchase and replacement cost of the equipment could be reduced if there were a cooperative effort among participating towns. In the case of the fire departments both Greenfield and Bennington acknowledge that there are very few volunteer firefighters in town during daytime hours as people work out of town. There was discussion about the local rules that govern the fire equipment and the number of firemen required on the vehicle before the vehicle can leave the station. The fire engines are governed by rules that state that a certain number of
volunteers must be on the truck before it can proceed to the site of an incident. Depending on the vehicle, there may be a requirement for two or three people before it can roll. In Greenfield, five members are retiring this year, and while this opens up opportunities for younger volunteers, it also results in a significant near-term loss of experience. Bennington also has a young volunteer force.
At this point the two Boards opened the conversation to include Representative Jon Manley for questions about the status of education funding. Representative Manley discussed the history of the State budget, the stimulus, and the adequacy cut-backs. Representative Manley indicated that to his knowledge there has not been a bill entered to repeal the cuts to adequacy. The legislature is past the deadline for a proposal to repeal the vote on education. With respect to the stimulus money from the Fed, Representative Manley indicated that the State had an $800M deficit when the stimulus ran out. As a result, at the State level there have been significant cuts to programs that have downshifted to the Counties, the Towns, and the Schools. The State pays for programs out of fees whereas they are paid for out of taxes at the
local level. All of the cuts therefore ultimately end up impacting local property taxes. Each of the county, towns, and school districts have received significant impacts from the withdrawal of the State’s participation in Medicaid, Retirement, Education, and other areas. Using retirement as an example, there has been a 50-50 split between the employee and a contribution from the State and towns. Of the 50% that the State and towns provided, 35% was provided by the State and 65% was provided by the towns. Going forward the towns are picking up the 35% that the State used to provide. Representative Manley reported that there are several bills that "nibble around the edges" of the adequacy program but nothing that will solve for the local impact completely. Long story short the adequacy money will not be coming back, quickly, anytime soon.
The conversation turned back to the Selectmen and it was agreed that the fire chiefs and police chiefs should address the issue of coverage with support from the Boards of Selectmen. The Selectmen were very interested in solving for scheduling and coverage issues in the near term and members of both Boards expressed a strong interest in exploring next steps.
The Boards set a follow-up meeting time for March 5th at 6PM at the Meeting House.
The meeting adjourned at 7:25 PM.
Respectfully submitted:
Aaron Patt
Town Administrator
| 
