Minutes
Town of Greenfield
Greenfield Town Offices, 7 Sawmill Road Greenfield, NH
Selectboard’s Work Session Minutes
Thursday, Oct. 29, 2015 – 5:00 PM
Selectboard: Chairwoman Karen Day, Selectman Stephen Atherton Jr., Selectwoman Margaret Charig-Bliss,
Staff: Administrator Patt,
The meeting was called to order at 5:00 PM by Chair Karen Day.
Documents for Review/Approval
- A/P Invoices
- A/P Checks
- Employee Vacation Request
- Wastewater Control Panel Replacement Quote
- Southwest Regional Planning Commission 2016 Dues Quote
- River Center – Request for Support /2016
- American Red Cross – Request for Support /2016
- Healthtrust 2016/2017 Renewal Rates
- Avitar Letter – PSNH Appeal
- Sandford Eng. – Dredge & Fill Applications Russell Station Rd.
- FEMA payment for Jan2015 SnowStorm
- Purchase Order – Carrol Concrete Co. – concrete blocks
- Meeting House Rental – Turkey Raffle
- Meeting House Rental – GCCC Fundraiser
- Meeting House Rental – Historical Society Fundraiser Dance
- Abatement – V3-10
- Employee Change of Wages Worksheet(s)
5:00 PM: Raymond Touchette, Resident Non-Public
On a motion by the Chair and a second by Selectwoman Charig Bliss, the Selectboard voted on a roll call vote to enter into non-public session under RSA 91-A:3 IIc, Reputation. The Selectboard voted 3-0 to enter non-public session at 5:00pm.
At 5:25 pm the Selectboard voted 3-0 to exit non-public session. It was noted that no votes were taken and that no decisions had been made in non-public session, and the minutes were voted sealed.
5:30 PM: Selectboard Budget Session
At 5:35 the Selectboard welcomed Police Chief Brian Giammarino to the meeting. Chief Giammarino said that he had only a couple of changes to the 2016 police department budget compared to 2015’s budget. The first was a change to increase officer equipment from $3,500 to $4,000. The Chief said that this line has been unchanged over the past twelve years. The cost of police equipment for the officers has increased to the point that he feels it necessary to increase the line item by $500.00. Chief Giammarino noted that the only other increase that he is asking for is an increase in wages for his two full time officers. He said that he is basing the request on a demographic wage study that he conducted over the past year. He provided the notes to the Selectboard. The wage survey is a compilation of the wages that each of the
surrounding towns is paying their officers. The Chief noted that his employees take emergency call time, which amounts to 20 hours per week and there is no additional pay for that commitment. The Chief is looking to add $10,000 to full time wages.
There followed a conversation about timeframe to replace police cruisers. The Chief noted that one of the cars has 70,000 miles on the odometer and the other has 80,000. The police department will be looking for a new vehicle in the 2017 time frame. The cost of additional upfit was discussed since the cage and some of the equipment in the Crown Victoria will not move to the newer police vehicles. The Chief noted that the new SUV Explorer models use about the same amount of gas as the sedans.
At 6:00 PM the Board welcomed Fire Chief David Hall to the meeting. Chief Hall discussed some of the changes to his budget, noting that it is up only $5,000 over the previous year. He said that he wants to add $5,000 to expense reimbursements. He said that this is in consideration for the hard work that the department does and that he would like to see his volunteers receive more in their stipend payments. He also noted that he did adjust some of the line items from this year but that on the whole he was happy with his original budget estimates, and that the 2015 budget is serving the town well.
There followed a discussion about turn-out gear and the use of the Capital Reserve Funds to cover the cost of turn-out gear year over year. The Chief asked the Selectboard to look at purchasing structural turn-out gear again this year, saying that he didn’t think it made sense to fund and spend the Non-Apparatus Capital Reserve Fund in the same year. Looking at other lines, it was noted that the Forest Fire Reimbursement line could not be used to fund the Forest Fire Savings account, according to the Department of Revenue. That line item would need to be dropped and the savings account brought to Town Meeting and converted to a capital reserve fund or to an expendable trust fund.
Next the Selectboard and the Fire Chief talked about the Peterborough Ambulance invoice for 2016. It was noted that 2016 figure had jumped from $32,956 in 2015 to $60,374 for 2016. In 2013 the Ambulance bill was $16,225, in 2014 the Ambulance bill was $20,555 and in 2015 the bill had increased by 50%. The 2016 bill is based on a new formula that Peterborough Fire and Rescue had created for 2015. The formula includes a capital replacement cost, an administration component, and a fee for risk. Chief Hall said that he distinctly remembered the Peterborough Town Administrator saying that the cost would not be dramatically different in 2016.
It was noted that the total number of calls for all towns had increased from 1245 in 2014 to 1331 in 2015, a 6.5% increase. Greenfield’s blended computation used for cost purposes had increased from 11.8% to 14.4%, a 2.6% increase (blended computation uses a percentage of population and a percentage of 911 calls). It was noted that for 2016, Peterborough was assigning more of the capital cost and shortfall costs to the 911 program; moving from a 50/50 allocation of costs to a 60/40 allocation of costs of the 911 program vs. the Transport program. It was noted that the budgeted expenditures for the 911 program, from 2015 to 2016, were increasing by 128.45% and that the collections shortfall was increasing from $121,219 to $231,623, a 191% increase. It was noted that Peterborough’s collections efforts
appears to have declined after the previous year’s meeting despite member towns having requested that collections efforts be increased.
Altogether Greenfield’s share is up 183% over 2015. Chief Hall reported that he did not have a solution to the cost of the program. The Board asked whether it was feasible for the town to provide ambulance services and not have to rely on Peterborough. The Chief replied that it might be possible in three years but that there are a lot of milestones that need to be met before that could happen. For one, the department does not have a transport license so Peterborough Fire and Rescue provides transport services for every call where the person needs to be moved, whether or not a paramedic is needed. Peterborough paramedics are not needed on every call but the town would have to increase the number of Emergency Medical Technicians from the current pool of Emergency Medical Responders. Even if the town were to take on its
own ambulance service, Peterborough would need to respond if there were a need for a paramedic, and/or Mutual Aid would be needed if the town’s ambulance was already on a call. The Chair asked whether the town would need two ambulances in order to provide comprehensive service. Chief Hall said that with the number of calls that Greenfield responds to, two ambulances would likely be necessary. He said that the town is not in a position to accelerate the replacement of the current ambulance based on the Capital Improvement Plan that he saw from the Planning Board this year.
7:00 PM: Paul Renaud, Economic Development Advisory Committee
At 7:00 pm the Board welcomed Paul Renaud, Chair of the Economic Development Advisory Committee (EDAC). Mr. Renaud reported on several Broadband developments in the region. He advised the Board that Broadband is seen as a requirement by the EDAC in order to compete with other towns for the development of economic interests. He outlined that economic development efforts are the focus of the committee as opposed to community development. The focus of the EDAC is to increase the number of businesses in town to help offset the reliance on residential taxes. He noted that Fairpoint has been installing Service Area Interface boxes throughout the town, which will allow the phone company to provide DSL level services to portions of town that were previously unable to have DSL service due to distance limitations. Mr. Renaud said
that there are five distinct areas of town that are unserved by some form of high speed internet. He said that we was interested in doing some kind of community outreach from EDAC to let people know that the Fairpoint services would be available by the end of the year.
Mr. Renaud went on to describe several other companies that have provided information about possible Broadband service expansion in the Greenfield area. These include TDS Telecom and Wi Valley. TDS would require a build out in the area but provides bundled phone, ISP, and TV services. Wi Valley provides a hybrid network called fixed point wireless that uses relay antennas to reach areas in town. Mr. Renaud thought that the fixed point wireless service might require an ordinance if the town was to look at this service. Mr. Renaud said that many people were interested in cable TV, some were interested in cable TV and were not that interested in broadband. In the past ComCast had said that the town would need to pay 505 of the cost for its build out in order for the company to provide service in town. ComCast asked for
$16,000 to pay for a comprehensive survey on the construction requirements in town. The cost for the build-out would be $1.25M for Greenfield alone, said Mr. Renaud.
Mr. Renaud described some of the efforts in the area to look at regionalizing the efforts to attract Broadband. This effort is still just getting started and is primarily in the information gathering stage. Greenfield and Peterborough have run surveys of their communities to indentify the issues surrounding broadband, and/or the lack of broadband in geographic areas.
8:05 PM: Selectboard Work Session
At 8:05 Library Director Julie Steenson requested an audience with the Selectboard. Director Steenson asked about the progress of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that we being circulated between the Selectboard and the Library Trustees. The Selectboard and Ms. Steenson discussed the MOU briefly. The Selectboard has not finalized its revisions of the MOU and was not prepared to discuss the MOU in any detail. Ms. Steenson was there in advance of the Library Trustees meeting and asked if it were possible for the Board to provide a date for when the MOU would be returned to the Trustees. The Board did not have a date specific for when the MOU would be available. Ms. Steenson said that there are budget implications if the MOU does not get worked out before the 2016 budget gets finalized. She said that if the MOU did not
get finalized then she would want the Building and Maintenance line item left in the Library budget.
At 9PM on a motion by the Chair and a Second by Selectman Atherton the Board voted 3-0 to replace the existing wastewater electrical components in the existing analog control panel at the Waste Water Plant, and to use funds from the Wastewater program checking account. The amount of the proposed work is $3,450 from K.A. Electric. K.A. Electric is the preferred vendor for the wastewater plant since its original installation and has been the sole source electrical company working on the panel since the early 2000s.
Next a review of the DPW roof quotes was taken up. DPW Buildings and Grounds Manager Patrick Greene had gathered a number of quotes for standing seam, or asphalt roofing and presented the quotes to the Board in past meetings. DPW Manager Neal Beauregard had commented in a previous meeting that the roof was leaking buckets over the bay area closest to the office area. Because the cost of the metal roofing and the asphalt roofing was higher than was feasible in 2015, the Board had settled on having a corrugated metal roof put on, with strapping over the existing shingles. KS LLC General Contracting had provided a quote to remove all roofing and underlayment and re-sheath and install new corrugated metal roofing for $27,000. KS LLC also provided a quote to strap and re-roof the building with corrugated metal for $10,500. W.
Ticos Roofing LLC had provided a cost of $28,000 to install metal roofing, and $13,500 to re-roof with asphalt shingles. Blue Seal Feeds of Milford provided a material-only quote of $4265.42 for painted metal corrugated roofing to be installed by the DPW. R Seneschal Builder provided a quote to strap the existing roof and install new green corrugated metal roof for $11,115 with a municipal discount of $1000, for a total of $10,115. The Board discussed whether or not it was prudent to purchase just the materials and have the DPW install the roofing. It was decided that it wasn’t feasible this far into the season to take DPW off of winter preparations and gravel road grading to install a new roof on their building.
On a motion by Selectman Atherton and a second by Selectwoman Charig Bliss, the Board voted 3-0 to install corrugated metal and strapping per the low bid, and to award the project to R. Seneschal Builder, and to further move left over money from DPW Road Maintenance to DPW Buildings Maintenance and Repair to fund the project.
Adjournment
On a motion by the Chair, and a second by Selectman Atherton, the Board voted to adjourn. The motion carried 3-0. The meeting adjourned at 9:45 PM.
The minutes are final when approved and signed by the Selectboard. A signed copy is on file in the Selectboard’s office.
_________________ _______________________ ___________________________
Chair, Karen Day Margaret Charig Bliss, Selectwoman Stephen Atherton Jr., Selectman
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