Minutes
Town of Greenfield
Greenfield Town Offices, 7 Sawmill Road Greenfield, NH
Selectboard’s Minutes
Tuesday, March 22, 2016 – 5:30 PM
Selectboard: Chairwoman Margaret A. Charig Bliss, Selectman Stephen M. Atherton Jr., Selectman Robert Marshall
Staff: DPW Manager Neal Beauregard
Public: Linnea Stevenson
5:30 p.m. The meeting was called to order by Chairwoman Charig Bliss.
Documents for Review/Approval
- A/P Invoices
- A/P Checks
- Payroll
- Selectboard Minutes
- Conservation Commission Appointment
- Oak Park rental – updated information
- Selectboard Minutes
- Swim Instructor Certification Reimbursement
- Music on the Common – Funding Requests
5:30 PM: DPW Manager, Neal Beauregard
Mr. Beauregard informed the Board of his need to take emergency leave to attend to a medical event of his father. He may need two or three days. He has informed members of his department who are prepared to cover in his absence. He left contact numbers for the Board and his staff. The Board consented to the emergency leave.
He also raised the following:
- Grinding/Paving of Russell Station Road Mr. Beauregard has received three quotes for this year. The Town will provide the grading work once the grinding has taken place and the actual paving will be done by others. The Board will review the proposals.
- DPW Uniform quotes for the DPW staff Mr. Beauregard shared with the Board samples of the DPW uniforms he is proposing from Cintas Corp. At a cost of $53 per week, Cintas will provide 4) sets of 11 shirts, 11 pants and 4 DPW Jackets. The plan includes a Protection Plan that provides repair of any damage to the uniforms and weekly cleaning.
After reviewing the DPW budget, it was determined that by combining the Protective Equipment line and the Protective Clothing line in the existing budget, $2000 of the approximately $2750 amount could be found. Mr. Beauregard said that the annual Boot purchase allowance of approximately $150 per man would not be done this year. It was felt that the balance could be found here and in economies of other lines.
RMarshall moved to support the expenditure for uniforms for the DPW, subject to contract review by Town Administrator Patt. MCharig Bliss seconded. All in favor, the motion carried. Mr Beauregard will move forward with this with Town Administrator Patt
- Surplus Cordwood Mr. Beauregard informed the Board of the abundance of wood, approximately 30 cords +/- that has accumulated at the pit. Because of time limitations for work there, the practice has been to cut down trees and stockpile them to assure material removal takes place within allotted guidelines. As a result, we have a large amount of wood stockpiled there that needs to be removed in order for excavation to continue. The Board agreed to discuss this next week.
- Work schedule Change Mr. Beauregard requested that his DPW crew switch to a 4 day per week, ten hour a day work schedule to run from May 1 to November 1. This improves productivity of his department. The Board suggested that he might consider having the Building/Grounds person be on a five day, 8 hour day week. The Board supported the proposal and asked that he consult with the Town Administrator for final arrangements.
- DPW Building Floor Drain Mr. Beauregard informed the Board that the Floor Drain storage tank is leaking and groundwater is filling the tank when water tables are high. When the water table lowers later in the year, it is safe to assume that the floor drain effluent is leaching out. The tank is approximately 15 feet from the well at the garage. The tank has been pumped in the past but no determination has been made as to the amount of sludge in the bottom of the tank. The Board agreed that this needed to be discussed and will do so at the next meeting.
- Gravel Roads Maintenance Plan Mr. Beauregard presented to the Board a proposed Ten Year plan he has prepared for the maintenance of gravel roads in town, modeled after the Roads Commission Paved Roads study. His chart identified priorities for full length road maintenance and partial length road maintenance as well as estimated gravel needs. Gravel costs were estimated based on purchased material and DPW made materials. The Board felt that we need to engage the Roads Commission to review these projections and make recommendations.
- Pavement Preservation Presentation Mr. Beauregard requested that the Board set up a time when they could view a Power Point Presentation by UNH on new technologies available for Paved Road Maintenance. He felt that this presentation might provide some alternatives for more cost effective care and maintenance options to extend the life of our paved roads. The Board scheduled April 19, 2013 at 6:30 p.m. for the presentation.
7:08 p.m. Selectman Atherton suggested that perhaps the Board should have copies of the agenda printed up for members of the public in attendance at these meetings so they could see the schedule of events at the meeting.
Selectwoman Charig Bliss suggested that in the interest of increasing public information that the Selectboard schedule a time slot of 15 minutes at the outset of each meeting to enable the public to raise issues of concern or make public comments. Should more time be needed for the conversation, a time could then be scheduled for further discussion. Linnea Stevenson suggested to the Selectboard that they print an announcement about the DPW work schedule change in the Greenfield Spirit.
7:11 Non Public Session
On a roll call vote of 3-0, the Selectboard moved to go into Non-Public session as prescribed by RSA 91-A:3 c to consider a Personnel issue. At 8:06pm the Board exited non-public session and noted that no votes were taken.
8:07 p.m. Right-to-Know Request
Selectboard Chair Charig Bliss moved “Pursuant to RSA 91 A:5, ix the Selectboard voted to release the 2016 Town Administrator Contract, on approval. Selectboard Atherton seconded. Roll call vote was 3-0 in favor of the motion.
8:09 Supervisor of Buildings and Grounds
The Board discussed the recent announcement by our Buildings and Grounds Supervisor of his resignation.
Chair Charig Bliss suggested we might want to reconsider the position, recognizing that the effect of designating this position to buildings and grounds exclusively had been to reduce the amount of staff available to work on DPW projects as a whole. She felt we might want to do a cost /benefit analysis of creating a DPW Supervisor position to oversee and coordinate all DPW departments including Roads, Recycling, Buildings/Grounds and Waste Water Department.
SAtherton suggested that in light of the importance of the work done by the buildings & grounds manager in the past year, we should probably continue the position as it is and post the position. He felt that though the DPW Supervisor position might be worth consideration, we didn’t have time to do that analysis at present.
RMarshall felt that we had not budgeted for a supervisor position this year and that we should move forward with the posting of the current position.
SAtherton moved that we post the position for the Building and Grounds position. Chair CBliss seconded. All in favor, the motion carried.
Adjournment
Chair Charig Bliss moved to adjourn. SAtherton seconded. All in favor, the motion carried.
The meeting adjourned at 8:27 PM.
The minutes are final when approved and signed by the Selectboard. A signed copy is on file in the Selectboard’s office.
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Chair, Margaret Charig Bliss, Selectman Stephen Atherton Jr., Bob Marshall, Selectman
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