Minutes
Town of Greenfield
Greenfield Town Offices, 7 Sawmill Road Greenfield, NH
Selectboard’s Minutes
Tuesday, Nov. 15, 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
- Payroll Check Register
- Minutes of Selectboard Meetings – 11/10
- Capital Reserve Funds & Expendable Trust Fund – Request for payments
- Town of Greenfield Fire Department – Wal-Mart Letter from Selectboard
- Crotched Mountain Raffle Permit – 2017 Events
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 requested an update on the town office’s server power supply failure. As background, during the morning of the previous day, staff arrived to find that the server was not functioning and that the battery back-up was emitting a high decibel warning note. The IT company responded that same morning and replaced the power supply. The server was up and running before noon. A loaner battery back-up was provided to replace the town’s, which was discovered to have failed after a power surge. Selectman Marshall commented that the service provided by the IT company sounded highly responsive.
6:00 PM: Carol Burgess, Recycling Center Supervisor
At 6:00 PM Carol Burgess, Recycling Center Supervisor arrived and provided a budget worksheet for the 2017 Recycling Center budget. Shortly after, Gerry Cornett, the Recycling Center Manager for the town of New Boston joined the meeting. Supervisor Burgess explained that she had asked Mr. Cornett to provide Greenfield the benefit of his expertise in designing a new layout for the recycling center in Greenfield. Mr. Cornett has visited with the Board in the past. He has been with New Boston for over 12 years. He explained that he faced many of the same challenges that Greenfield faces today, when he first took over the recycling facility in New Boston. As the community has grown there have been a number of changes made to that facility to enable fewer staff to perform the job functions in a safer and more ergonomic manner.
This resulted in fewer accidents at the facility and significant cost savings over time. A discussion followed regarding the facility in Greenfield using a layout provided by Supervisor Burgess. The layout drawing provides a future look at the facility. A central component of the center’s revision is the removal of the hill next to the loading dock. DPW has provided a plan to create gravel out of the material on-site, which, over time, will reduce the hill and allow the center to centralize its operations in that area and expand parking. A discussion followed with Mr. Cornett and Supervisor Burgess providing background to the layout design for the benefit of the Board.
At 6:45 pm Mr. Cornett excused himself from the meeting and Supervisor Burgess took up a discussion with the Board regarding the 2017 budget. Most of the line items are essentially flat. The Waste Management contract for hauling trash away will continue through 2017 and that line is flat at $28,000. Based on activity from previous years, Ms. Burgess has made some slight adjustments to certain line items. Some lines have decreased, and some have increased slightly to account for certain increases, such as with the electricity line item. The single largest area of increase is in part-time wages in order to cover an on-call facility operator that can cover for Ms. Burgess’s vacation and sick time. The cost for an on-call operator is greater than for a person that fills in part-time. The town used to have a part-time
level-three operator available but that person has since retired. To attract someone to fill that capability will require a wage of at least $15.00 an hour explained Supervisor Burgess. She said that some towns are paying much more to attract part-timers. The Board went over the cost of covering vacations in light of recent changes in the vacation-section of the employee personnel policy. Ms. Burgess explained that the center has tried to work with part-time employees without offering any part-time benefits. In the past it has been very difficult to attract people to work at the facility. The wages are low and the work can be demanding on high volume days. In 2016 there has been a move back to a permanent part-time position of approximately 20-25 hours a week. This has been working out well and the town has a person in that role. With the State’s unemployment rate at 2.9% the competition for part-time work is very high, which is why some towns have had to offer very high hourly
wages. Supervisor Burgess said that they do so in order to be sure that someone will show up when they need them, otherwise on-call or very part-time attendants are not always reliably willing to be there when you need them. Beyond the operations of the facility, the permanent part-time person needs to attend classes as part of a DES certification requirement. As such the part-time position will also have class room days in addition to pro-rated vacation hours. An on-call position can cover for those hours as well. After some additional discussions the Board closed the meeting and thanked Supervisor Burgess for her explanation of the 2017 budget.
7:30 PM: Selectboard Work Session
At 7:50 PM the Board reviewed the Consent Agenda. The Chair made a motion to approve the consent agenda and the motion was seconded by Selectman Marshall. On a vote, the approval passed 3-0.
Next the Board went over several items from previous meetings. Selectman Marshall went through a list of follow-up items that covered the following:
- Assigning a Selectboard member to attend the ConVal Selectmen’s Advisory Committee meetings. The Chair suggested sending the Town Administrator. Selectman Marshall advocated sending a selectboard member and indicated that he would vote as such. No vote was taken. The discussion will be continued.
- A review of Ken Garnham’s letter regarding the RSA for Emergency Access for Ice House Lane. It was the consensus of the Board that the RSA provided sufficient guidance that the benefit should not be primarily for abutters. See RSA 231-59-a III.
- A review of the committee that was formed at Town Meeting to include the Sportsmen’s Club and members of the Conservation Committee.
- The 2017 Budget process.
- Letter to Barbara C. Harris Center regarding the PILOT agreement was reviewed and signed.
- The 2017 non-departmental budgets were reviewed and conditionally approved – pending finalized End of Year numbers.
- Discussed the Rymes Gas Station property with no decision.
- Discussed the need for an insurance solution, or, alternately to provide a vehicle for town business due to the potential issues with having employees drive their personal vehicles on town business. The potential of keeping a police cruiser this purpose was explored. No decisions were made.
Adjournment
The time being 9:45 pm Selectman Marshall moved to adjourn. Selectman Atherton seconded. All were in favor, and 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, Margaret Charig Bliss, Selectman, Stephen Atherton Jr. Selectman, Robert Marshall
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