Minutes
Town of Greenfield
Greenfield Town Offices, 7 Sawmill Road Greenfield, NH
Selectmen’s Meeting Minutes
Thursday, November 07, 2013 – 4:30 PM
Board of Selectmen: Chairman Rob Wimpory, Selectwoman Karen Day, and Selectwoman Debra Davidson
Staff: Town Administrator Patt, Recycling Center Supervisor Burgess,
Public: Myron Steere, Norm Nickerson, Diane Boilard
The meeting was called to order at 4:30 AM by Chairman Wimpory.
Documents for Approval/Review/Signature
The Selectmen reviewed and/or signed the following items:
§ A/P Invoices
§ A/P Checks
§ Payroll Checks
§ Avitar letter re: Fairpoint Appeal
§ Avitar letter re: Preliminary Sales to Assessment Ratio
§ Sand & Gravel Operation Draft
§ Auditor’s agreement for ’13,’14, & ‘15
§ NH Planning Grant Agreement
§ Minutes of 10-31-13 PM
§ Property Tax Summary Booklet
§ Response from LGC Legal – ConComm W.A.
§ Correspondence & letters
The Selectmen reviewed two letters from Avitar and requested that Avitar forward the preliminary assessment data to the Department of Revenue (DRA). The Selectmen reviewed the NH Planning Grant agreement and approved the contract. The Chair signed the grant copies. The Board of Selectmen reviewed the Minutes of October 31st and accepted them 3-0. The Board reviewed the response from LGC Legal staff regarding the funding of the Conservation Commission’s Conservation Fund. The opinion upheld the funding process used by the Town Office. The Board of Selectmen requested a letter be sent to Ray Cilley to advise him of the lawyer’s opinion.
4:35 pm: Recycling Center Supervisor Burgess, Budget Review
The Board of Selectmen and the Recycling Center Supervisor went through the proposed budget for 2014. The budget is pending the receipt of the 2014 healthcare increases and any wage related changes. In the line items under her control, Supervisor Burgess had lowered the budget from last year by several hundred dollars. The Selectmen went through each line item and made several recommendations regarding protective gear, the telephone account line, and the intake of glass. The Board discussed the need to provide lighting behind the trailers near the metal pile for people who drive around behind the trailers. The Board indicated its support for installing a light that would be wired to the circuit breaker and turned off when not in use. It was hoped that there would be enough money left over in the budget to accomplish that
project this year. The Board discussed the need to replace the snowblower that had been donated. The snowblower was used extensively by DPW and the Recycling Center and beyond repair for its age. The Board agreed that Supervisor Burgess should replace the snowblower and suggested that a used machine might be available for a reasonable cost. Supervisor Burgess discussed the need for a warrant article to handle the cost of storing and trucking glass from the site. The Board thanked Supervisor Burgess for her hard work and commented that her budget preparation and explanation were excellent.
5:15 PM: School Board Update
Myron Steere asked to provide a quick update to the Selectmen regarding the School Board budget. He reported that the Health Insurance line items were down so far this year but that there were several warrant articles planned that would take the place of increases in the budget, so people would have to look at the amount of monies committed in the warrant articles closely in order to understand the real impact if all of the warrant articles pass. School Board Rep. Steere said that he had provided eight or nine recommendations that would lower the budget but hadn’t received a lot of support from other members of the school board. Steere stressed that the 2014 revaluation is critical to lowering the overall assessment of the town so that it will stay in proportion to the other towns with respect to the ConVal budget.
Following the report by School Board Rep. Steere, the Selectmen discussed the potential of replacing the furnace in the Meeting House with Budget Committee members Steere and Nickerson. The Selectmen requested that DPW follow up on propane as well as oil furnaces, since propane is more efficient and could be vented directly out of the building rather than through the chimney.
5:30 PM: Town Clerk, Budget Review
At 5:40 PM Dee Sleeper came before the Board of Selectmen to provide a courtesy review of the Town Clerk budget. The Clerk explained that in 2014 she wanted to begin offering registrations by mail. As a result of the extra time required to provide this service the Clerk had increased the wage line items. That Chair noted that the increase in the wage lines was approximately 15%. The mail-in registrations were a big success in other towns and Sleeper felt that it would be a good program for Greenfield. It would take about a year to work out all of the bugs but it promised people some convenience. New registrations would not be covered but renewals could be much less hectic for people. The addition to the wage lines would help to cover the extra hours required to provide the new service. Sleeper also reported that the vital
records system appears to be back on-line. Lastly the Clerk’s office would be looking to offer boat registrations at some point. The Board thanked the Clerk for outlining her budget needs and expressed an appreciation for her time.
6:00 pm: Gravel Processing Report by the Selectmen
The Selectmen reviewed and approved a flyer prepared by Selectwoman Day. Selectwoman Day read the flyer out loud so that it would be noted in the minutes.
“Sand and Gravel on Forest Road. The total size of property equals 23 acres and the total size of the project is 5.7 acres. The approximate volume of material available is 105,000 cubic yards. Currently we are seeing a mix of 83% sand and 17% gravel but this mix may vary over time.
If we purchased this material at its current mix, the cost for the two materials (Sand and Bankrun Gravel) would be:
Screened Sand = $871,500.00
Bankrun Gravel = $160,650.00
For a total of $1,032,150.00
This is a long term project that could last approximately 26 years depending on how much product we use each year. DPW estimates that 4000 yds of these materials are needed each year. More could be utilized if needed for road reconstruction. 4000 cubic yards per year equals 26 years
Other materials will be needed to be purchased for road & property maintenance. This year, we removed approximately 3000 yds of material from the Forest Road location.
If we had purchased this material, it would have cost:
$24,900 = Screened Sand
$ 4,590 = Bankrun Gravel
$29,490 = Gross Savings
There are one-time costs. The one-time costs are spread over 26 years. Yearly costs are amortized as follows:
$15,600 = Surveying & Engineering
$15,600/26 = $600 per year
There are costs for equipment in order to excavate and screen the sand. These are:
$3,350 = excavator/screener per year (plus)
$ 600 = One-time cost over life of project (see above engineering costs)
For a total cost of $3,950 the first year.
The costs of trucks and personnel are not included because the yearly budget for these items is fixed. The total saved with one-time costs spread over 26 yrs: $25,540 in net savings. In addition, the DPW budget was reduced by $10,000 at Town Meeting last March so that can be added to the $25,540 for a total of $35,540 of savings.”
The Board asked that the information be posted on the website and included in the minutes. Myron Steere was recognized and said that the costs outlined do not meet recognized accounting standards. Selectwoman Davidson said that the goal of presenting the information was not to meet accounting standards but to provide the information in a way that people could understand it. Norm Nickerson was recognized and asked about the cost of the personnel and the trucks. It was explained that the Selectmen had discussed whether to include all of the detailed expenses but chose not to do so during their October 17th meeting. All of the metrics that were presented were decided upon in the October 17th minutes.
6:30 pm: Library Trustees’ Department Budget
Neal Brown, Chairman of the Stephenson Memorial Library provided a hand out of the proposed 2014 library budget to the Selectmen. Mr. Brown outlined that the library budget was up $6,739 over the current year. This was primarily due to increased spending in three areas:
1) Books: the Library has traditionally budgeted about $10,000 in funds for the purchase of books. A portion of this budget comes from the Town and a portion from the Merrill fund. It was usually about $7000 from the Town and $3000 from the fund.
2) The Trustees would like to see a 4% raise to the librarians
3) The remainder is spread across several accounts
The Trustees provided additional explanation regarding the book fund. In the last couple of years there has been more taken from the Merrill fund and it needs to replenish. Interest income in not very high. The Trustees would like to see the Town provide the funding it used to provide prior to the start of the recession.
The Children’s Librarian Kristin Readel received an Ezra Jack Keats mini-grant to help bring inventive programs to students. She also received the official gavel marking her turn as president of the Children’s Librarians of New Hampshire. The Board of Selectmen congratulated Readel for her accomplishments.
There followed a brief discussion of the Trustees’ interest in discussing a possible parking plan at the Library in order to add badly needed parking spaces. The Trustees have a preliminary plan for review by the Board as well as by their neighbors, the Manginis. It was thought that funding for a survey of the plan could be funded by a warrant article at Town Meeting in March. The Trustees requested that the Board of Selectmen approach the abutters in order to discuss the parking plan.
7:30 pm: Work Session
The Selectmen discussed several budget related issues. Also discussed was the need to provide department heads with annual reviews. The Board requested that the department head annual review documents be drawn up and distributed. Appointments were to be scheduled during the month of December.
A discussion was held regarding the question of whether to have a policy on the posting of minutes was necessary. No decisions were made.
A discussion of department record keeping touched on inventory lists and call volumes. The discussion turned to the fire department call records. On a motion by the Chair and a second by Selectwoman Davidson the Board voted 3-0 to request an 18 month call log of Fire Department calls broken out into mutual aid calls and local calls.
The meeting broke just after 8PM.
Adjournment
On a motion by Chairman Wimpory and a second by Selectwoman Davidson the Board voted to adjourn. The motion carried 3-0. The meeting adjourned at 8:06 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 office.
_____________________ _____________________ _____________________
Rob Wimpory, Chairman Karen Day, Selectwoman Debra Davidson, Selectwoman
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