Minutes
Town of Greenfield
Greenfield Town Offices, 7 Sawmill Road Greenfield, NH
Selectboard’s Meeting Minutes
Wednesday, October 29, 2014 – 4:30 PM
Selectboard: Chairwoman Debra Davidson – arrived at 5:15PM, Selectwoman Karen Day, Selectwoman Margaret Charig Bliss
Staff: Administrator Patt, DPW Supervisor Tim Murray, Welfare Director Leah Conway
Public:
The meeting was called to order at 4:30 PM by Selectwoman Day.
Documents for Approval/Review/Signature
The Selectboard reviewed and/or signed the following items:
§ A/P Invoices
§ A/P Checks
§ Capital Reserve Fund transfer request: Fire/Rescue Apparatus
§ Capital Reserve Fund transfer request: Buildings Maintenance
§ Deputy Fire Warden Appointment – C. Babb
§ CMRC raffle permit application
§ Selectboard Minutes of 10/22/14
§ Resignation Letter – Fire Chief Loren White
Selectwoman Day opened the meeting at 4:33pm.
4:30 PM: Chris Lawton, Lamplight Christian Church
At 4:30 pm the Selectboard welcomed Mr. Lawton to the meeting. Mr. Lawton has rented the Sanctuary for Sunday night events and wanted to report that the space is working well for his group. He discussed the space and the use of the downstairs with the Selectboard. Mr. Lawton said that there is a high level of interest in his group continuing to use the facility and to expand to include community suppers and possibly a movie night, on another night. Mr. Lawton inquired whether the Board would be willing to entertain a lease agreement with the Lamplight Christian Church. He also wanted to know if it were possible to put a sign out on the common during their rental. The sign would be a sandwich board type sign. The Selectboard deliberated and Selectwoman Charig Bliss explained to Mr. Lawton that they have not thought through
a long term lease yet. They were interested in whether it was working for his function or not before they examined doing anything other than rent the hall on a month to month basis. Selectwoman Day suggested that Mr. Lawton’s group rent the hall for another month and let the Board think on it some more. Selectwoman Charig Bliss said that the Meeting House is a beautiful but fragile building that has some issues, which should give the Board pause before entering long term agreements as they are charged with preserving this very special site.
At 5:15 PM Chairperson, Debra Davidson arrived to the meeting. After some discussion and catching up the Board agreed to extend the rental agreement by another month and to allow a 2’ X 3’ signboard. Mr. Lawton thanked the Board for their support.
It was noted by the Chair that Fire Chief Loren White had forwarded a letter of resignation to the Selectboard. After review of the letter and some discussion it was noted that Mr. White recommended David Hall as Chief. Chair Davidson made a motion to accept the resignation of Chief White and to accept the recommendation of replacement, David Hall, as the new appointed Fire Chief of the Town of Greenfield. Selectwoman Day seconded the motion. The motion passed 3-0 and the Selectboard signed the paperwork appointing David Hall as the Fire Chief.
5:35 PM: Brian Giammarino, Police Chief
The Board welcomed Chief Giammarino to the meeting. The Board reviewed the budget proposal from Chief Giammarino. The Board went through the budget noting that many of the line items are set by the Town Office when the embedded costs such as insurance are updated. The embedded costs includes additional examples, such as health insurance for full time employees who are not enrolled elsewhere, property and liability insurance, vehicle insurance, and the NH retirement program. The line items that were discussed included the police personal equipment (an inherited amount unchanged over the 11 years of the Chief’s service), Vehicle Repair and Maintenance, and Police Training. The Vehicle Repairs and Maintenance budget has been exceeded this year from its budgeted amount. Chief Giammarino said that he had anticipated
lower costs for service this year since the cars were still fairly new, but that there had been a number of issues that had cropped up. A leak in the transmission on Car 2 had been fixed, both cars needed new snow tires this year and the Chief hadn’t planned for new tires until 2015. When asked about whether the department should be using the Ford dealership in Hillsborough rather than local mechanics, the Chief said that he has been able to keep cruisers for up to nine years as a result of local maintenance. He felt strongly that the town was being well served with the current arrangement. In addition to the good work provided, the Chief said that sending cruisers out of town for maintenance meant that they weren’t here to respond to emergencies. The Board and Chief Giammarino discussed the Police Training line, which is up $500. Chief Giammarino said that ammo has gone up tremendously over the past couple of years. This increase is unavoidable.
The Board took the opportunity to discuss communication from the police department to the town, with Chief Giammarino. The Chair asked if it would be possible to be updated on untimely deaths that occur in town. Untimely deaths are deaths that occur from natural causes. After some discussion the Chief said that he would not report deaths by natural causes as they were handled by other agencies, and/or families, and the police department may not be responding; it was not possible to be consistent as a result. The Chief said the he felt very confident that when there are issues in town that warrant communication that he was very responsive and informative to the Town Administrator and the Selectboard. He said that the threshold for naturally occurring deaths did not reach the level where his department would be forwarding
information to the Board.
Selectwoman Charig Bliss suggested that residents in town want to hear what is going on with the police department. She asked whether there could be more information put into the Ledger Transcript. Chief Giammarino said that he felt his office was very responsive to the paper when they call. He always stops what he is doing to answer their questions and update them on cases when they inquire. He went on to say that the paper has been interested in two things: ‘Who’ was arrested and ‘Why’. The paper was not focused on the community in a way that makes sense to use them as a vehicle for information about the department. Selectwoman Day said that the Greenfield Spirit could be a good avenue for articles or reminders to residents; such as when residents go away on vacation, residents can ask that
police checks can be made on the homes; the department sponsors certain programs such as the bike safety day that was held last year. These are things that could be included in the Spirit, which could be of interest to people in town. Chief Giammarino said this was a better example and they could do that. Selectwoman Charig Bliss said that she was interested in having people know about things that are happening in town such as break-ins, and other issues that people may want to know about in order to protect their property. The Chief said that the newspaper runs the court log every week that outlines the cases that the department is working on. As far as some of the actual case details, he stressed that he was uncomfortable providing information during the investigation stage because of privacy issues. He stated that the police department is very active and very responsive on behalf of the community. The Chief cited the number of criminal cases that the department has had this
year. The Chief said that he would do what the Board wants as always, but he felt strongly that some of the case information was inappropriate for the general public; and that the current practice is working well. After some additional discussion, the Board thanked the Chief for his budget and the meeting ended.
6:30 PM: Leah Conway, Welfare Director
Leah Conway, Welfare Director visited with the Board and asked for a non-public meeting in order to discuss a family in town. After some discussion it was agreed that the meeting should be held in non-public session to protect the family’s privacy. On a motion by the Chair and a second by Selectwoman Charig Bliss the Board voted on a roll call vote, with the Chair voting ‘Aye’, Selectwoman Day voting ‘Aye’, and Selectwoman Charig Bliss voting ‘Aye’. The motion passed 3-0. The Board entered non-public session at 6:33. There were no visitors and no persons were excluded at this time. At 6:48 PM the Board voted to exit non-public session on a vote of 3-0. The Board thanked Leah for her hard work.
7:00 PM: Document for Approval/Review/Signature
The Selectboard signed A/P Checks and A/P invoices. The Board approved two Capital Reserve Fund transfer requests: for the Fire/Rescue Apparatus CRF and the Buildings Maintenance CRF. The Board reviewed and signed the minutes of their 10/22 meeting. The Board signed the appointment paperwork forwarded by Charles Stevenson, Fire Warden for C. Babb. The Board approved a CMRC raffle permit.
Adjournment
On a motion by the Chair, and a second by Selectwoman Day, the Board voted to adjourn. The motion carried 3-0. The meeting adjourned at 7:45 PM.
The minutes are final when approved and signed by the Selectboard. A signed copy is on file in the Selectboard’s office.
______________________ _______________________ ______________________
Chair, Debra Davidson Karen Day, Selectwoman Margaret Charig Bliss, Selectwoman
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