Minutes
Town of Greenfield
Greenfield Town Offices, 7 Sawmill Road Greenfield, NH
Selectboard’s Minutes
Thursday, Nov. 10, 2016 – 5:30 PM
Selectboard: Chairwoman Margaret A. Charig Bliss, Selectman Stephen Atherton Jr., Selectman Robert Marshall
Staff: Aaron Patt, Town Administrator;
Public:
5:30 p.m. The meeting was opened by Chairwoman Charig Bliss.
Documents for Review/Approval
- A/P Check Register 11/03, 11/09
- Wastewater Register 11/09
- NH Retirement
- Selectboard Minutes
- ConVal Payment Schedule
- Health Benefit Plan Update for 2017
- Auditor Contract Renewal
- Transfer Request – Conservation Fund to General Fund
- Meeting House Rental (3)
- Welfare Voucher (2)
5:30 PM: Public Forum
At 5:30 the Chair noted that the meeting was open and no members of the public were present to speak. The Board reviewed the Consent Agenda. The Board members received budget worksheets on the non-departmental budgets.
6:00 PM: Library Budget
At 6:00 PM the Library Trustees met with the Selectboard to go over the 2017 Library budget. Julie Perrin, Library Director provided a brief snapshot of the Library fund raising to date. The Library has received $18,441.10 in donations and grants to the Books, Print, Digital Collections line item; $5,910 to the Programs/Entertainment line item; and approximately $6,800 to the Computer Technology line item. These donations and grants are above and beyond the library’s operating budget line items. The total of these donations and grants to date, through the beginning of November is $31,151.10, with more to come by the end of the year. There followed a discussion on programs at the Library and it was noted that children of all ages are offered something through the programming budget. This includes meeting the school-bus
as children are dropped off at the library after school. The Library and its programs often fill the ‘after school program-gap’. The Selectboard Chair asked if these were children primarily from Greenfield and it was noted that 99% of the children are from Greenfield. In contrast the Adult Programming draws adults from up to nine communities. Those programs are open to the public even if the attendees are not library card holders. The Stephenson Memorial Library is outpacing other libraries in the area for both Children and Adult programming. Library Trustee Mary Ann Grant stated that the program marketing is excellent and widespread.
Additionally, there are school programs where children attend the library as part of a class program at the Greenfield Elementary School. Children visiting the library often will talk about the programs and offerings at home and end up bringing adults to the Library to sign up for a membership.
To underscore the program growth, Library Trustee Chair Bruce Dodge stated that the October circulation numbers are greater than in previous months and greater than last year. He said that the expectation has been that the library attendance will plateau, but every month the library hosts more people than the previous month. In October of 2016 the number of people that used the library was 1,685 vs. October of 2015 when 1,148 people used the library. Books and materials checked out in October 2016 were 1,015 vs. 760 in October of 2015. In addition, Mr. Dodge stated that the Library employs three young adults from the community and has been having a positive effect as an employer. Mr. Dodge turned the comments over to Trustee Raymond Cilley. Mr. Cilley discussed the library drainage and foundation bid that was recently
published. Mr. Dodge noted that there will be a warrant article from the Trustees once the bids are received. The date for the on-site meeting for bidders is November 21 and the bids will be received up through December 7th, when they will be opened that evening at a Trustee meeting.
The Library Director went through the line items noting that there are few changes. The most noticeable being the decision by the Trustees to keep the Library Director position as a salaried exempt position and meet the newly published Federal Department of Labor Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) law. The FLSA requirements changed significantly and will go into effect on December 1, 2016. Other changes to the budget included combining two lines for Dues and Professional Expenses with Educations/Conventions; additional funds were added to the Clerical line item to allow the Trustees to pay for one additional meeting during the year. Otherwise the budget is flat compared to the previous year.
7:00 PM: GIVers
At 7:00 PM Mary Ann Grant, Neal Brown and Lee LeBlanc met with the Selectboard to discuss the role of the GIVers in town events going forward into the future. One of the concerns that the GIVers have is that the members of the volunteer organization are aging and there are no newly retired people filling the ranks. As a result the annual programs such as the Memorial Day parade are being coordinated by the same people every year, and the work is demanding. Mr. Brown said that they can continue to coordinate the Memorial Day parade but wanted to see whether the governing body was particularly interested in these types of events, or, was the effort better suited in some other capacity. There was a discussion about the Memorial Day events of the past. Selectman Atherton cited his remembrance of Memorial Day parades when he
was young; they were significant events for the entire community. There followed discussions about the veterans, and the community participation. Volunteerism is down in many areas and some ideas were discussed on how to address this. At the conclusion of the meeting the Selectboard agreed that the Memorial Day event is an important reminder of the people who gave their lives for the good of their country. The Selectboard was clear that this was an important day for the community. There followed a discussion about how the GIVers could reach out to other retired people in order to keep the GIVers spirit alive.
7:30 PM: Mary Ann Grant
Mary Ann Grant is the Greenfield Gardener. She has been purchasing the flowers for the flower beds around the town buildings and recently wrote to the Board indicating that she needed to cut back on certain areas of maintaining the flower beds, but, would like to continue to purchase and plant flowers for the town flower beds. Ms. Grant said that she needed someone else to take over the watering. There followed a discussion on her role at the Library and the role of the groundskeeper. The Board asked the administrator to follow-up with the DPW Buildings & Grounds Manager to communicate the need for the groundskeeper contract to be updated to reflect the work at the Library and for watering the plants. The Board also asked if the GIVers could provide watering of the beds on the weekends.
Adjournment
The time being 7:50 pm the Selectman Marshall moved to adjourn. Selectman Atherton seconded. All were in favor, and the motion carried 3-0.
The meeting adjourned at 7:50 PM.
The minutes are final when approved and signed by the Selectboard. A signed copy is on file in the Selectboard’s office.
_________________ _______________________ _______________________
Chair, Margaret Charig Bliss, Selectman, Stephen Atherton Jr. Selectman, Robert Marshall
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