Minutes
Town of Greenfield
Greenfield Town Offices, 7 Sawmill Road Greenfield, NH
Selectboard’s Minutes
Tuesday, Dec. 13, 2016 – 5:30 PM
Selectboard: Chairwoman Margaret A. Charig Bliss, Selectman Stephen Atherton Jr., Selectman Robert Marshall
Staff: Aaron Patt, Town Administrator; Brian Giammarino, Police Chief; Carol Burgess, Recycling Center Supervisor
Public: Ledger Transcript Reporter Abbey Kessler,
5:30 p.m. The meeting was opened by Chairwoman Charig Bliss.
Documents for Review/Approval
- Payroll
- Minutes of Selectboard Meetings – 12/06
- Application for Current Use – R6-36
- Purchase Order – Jaws of Life
- Meeting House Rental – Resident
- Vacation/Time-Off Request – DPW
- Welfare Voucher
5:30 PM: Public Forum
At 5:30 pm the Chair noted that the meeting was open. There being no public present the Board reviewed the Consent Agenda. On a motion by the Chair and a second by Selectman Marshall the Board voted 3-0 to approve the Consent Agenda.
5:45 PM: Brian Giammarino, Police Chief
At 5:45 pm Brian Giammarino came before the Board and provided an updated budget. The Selectboard discussed the updated part-time wages line item. Chief Giammarino provided a budget worksheet outlining part-times wages for the neighboring towns of Bennington, Deering, Hancock, Francestown, Dublin, Stoddard and Fitzwilliam. Part-time wages range from $17.00 to $23.00 per hour with several towns budgeting $20.00 an hour for part-time wages. Chief Giammarino stated that his department has been paying at $15.00 an hour and therefore needs to increase its rate of pay for part-timers. The target rate of pay for Greenfield should be $20.00 an hour, he said. The budget hand-out included the number of part-time hours required to cover vacation, holidays, and personal time within the department. The neighboring towns have
significantly more budgeted for the year than does Greenfield. Greenfield originally had $15,000 and Chief Giammarino calculates the actual need is $20,320 for the year. This compares to Bennington at $36,000, Deering at $44,000, Hancock at $22,500, Lyndeborough at $72,000, Francestown at $47,128, Dublin at $6,800, Stoddard at $42,000, and Fitzwilliam at $64,000.
Depending on the number of full-time and part-time officers in each department, the individual departments will run a certain number of part-time officers and require more or less hours budgeted. In Greenfield, the Chief explained that the town has approximately four part-time officers. The Selectboard discussed this at length and suggested to Chief Giammarino that the town would be better served with a larger number of part-time officers on the part-time bench.
The difference between the current budget and the proposed budget in this part-time wage line is $10,320. The proposed budget of $233,608 is 9.5% greater than the current budget of $221,788.
6:00 PM: Carol Burgess, Recycling Center Supervisor
At 6:00 PM the Board welcomed Carol Burgess, Recycling Center Supervisor to the meeting. Supervisor Burgess provided her budget to the Board and noted that the budget had been broken out to include actual part-time wages for the upcoming year, which includes the possibility of hiring a part-time on-call Operator status employee to cover for the recycling supervisor. Also up for discussion was the possibility of adding additional hours at the Recycling Center. The Board discussed the increase from $104,035 in 2016 to $108,686 in 2017, which includes increases primarily to part-time wages to account for vacation, holidays, and personal time off for both staff people. The amount needed to afford additional hours increases the budget to $111,474. The increase from 2016 is $4,831 for the current hours (4.6%), and $7,619
(7.3%) for the additional open hours compared to this year. After some deliberation the Chair indicated that the Board would address the question of new hours at the Recycling Center at a later date.
6:30PM: Move to Stephenson Memorial Library
At 6:30 pm the Board moved their meeting to the Stephenson Memorial Library to coincide with the Library Trustees meeting, in order to discuss the library foundation and drain proposal. At the Library Trustee meeting, Chair of the Library Trustees, Bruce Dodge made some opening remarks about the bid process for the foundation and drainage repair at the library. After some brief remarks he turned the meeting over to Library Trustee Raymond Cilley. Mr. Cilley explained that he had been working with Underwood Engineers during the bid process on behalf of the Trustees. He went through the bids and outlined the costs associated with each individual bid. The range is from $45,215 to $92,734. Two of the bids were close to the original estimate provided by Underwood Engineers of $65,000. Two of the bids were closer to $90,000.
The low bid was discussed at length. It was noted that the three lowest bids all used the same sub-contractor for the foundation work. The low bidder did not mark-up the sub-contract price. The other two bids apparently did mark-up the sub-contractor’s price to seal and coat the foundation. This was discussed in depth. At the conclusion of the presentation, Mr. Cilley suggested that the middle price of $69,500 be used for budgeting purposes while the due diligence into each firm was completed. Several of the Library Trustees voiced concerns over the low bidder. Some suggested that it might not be in the best interest of the town to use a low bid if the bidder had never worked on this particular type of project. Selectman Atherton said that the Trustees should not be scared off of the low bid just because it’s so much lower the other bidders. He said he felt comfortable knowing that the subcontractor was the same for all of the foundation work for the lowest three bids. There
followed an extensive discussion on the potential use of the capital reserve funds currently saved for this project in the amount of $15,000. The amount needed for reserves is 10% according Underwood. As a result, using the second low bid, the town would need to leave approximately $7,000 in the capital reserve account. This would allow the use of $8,000 in capital reserve funds. Based on the second low bid, this would provide the Selectboard with a $62,000 figure for a warrant article. After some additional discussion the Selectboard took leave of the meeting.
8:00 PM: Selectboard Work Session
The Selectboard reviewed the Other Items on the consent agenda.
It was noted that the Baseball Shed storage facility at Oak Park had been vandalized by fire and that the contents and the building may be a loss. This coincided with a letter from the 225th Anniversary Committee wanting to donate the remaining funds in their fund raising account to an Oak Park project. The Board asked that the committee be contacted regarding the storage shed and its contents.
The Board discussed their end of the year schedule. Town Administrator Patt suggested that the Board post a meeting for December 29th in order to entertain any requests for encumbering of funds and end-of-year purchases. The Board agreed and the Chair requested that the 29th be posted. She noted that the meetings on the 20th and the 29th should be limited to Work Sessions if possible. Public forums will pick up again in January.
Adjournment
The time being 9:30 pm Selectman Marshall moved to adjourn. Selectman Atherton seconded. All were in favor, and the motion carried 3-0.
The meeting adjourned at 9:30 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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