Talking Money With The Highway Department
By Doug La Rocque
On Thursday, June 6, the committee that was formed at the May Grafton Town Board meeting to discuss salaries and benefits for Highway Department employees, held its first meeting. The problem, however, as was revealed by Town Supervisor Ingrid Gundrum at the Monday, June 10 board meeting, was that the committee contains three Town Board members – herself, Jeff Wagar and Eric Buckley. This constituted a quorum of the Board, and as such, has to be considered an illegal meeting, as it was never properly noticed. Supervisor Gundrum apologized for this, and noted that no decisions were made at the gathering. She did say there was some very positive discussion about where to set the wage scale for the Highway employees, and promised any future meetings of the committee that will involve all three board members, will be noticed ahead of time. The highway employees, decertified from the Teamsters Union last month, are once again talking directly with the town about their financials.
The Department has had one of its newer full-time hires leave already, and as such, they are back to one full time and three part time workers. Fully staffed, the department should have five full time employees in addition to the Highway Superintendent. Because of the decreased staffing, Superintendent Herb Hasbrouck said they are behind on the springtime road maintenance, but are starting to catch up now that there have been a few rain free days.
Grieving Assessments
Town Assessor David Galarneau sent in a report saying that there were 66 individual grievances presented to the Board of Assessment Review (BAR) on Wednesday, May 29. Twelve of these were settled by stipulation between him and the property owners, and the rest await a decision on the appeal of their assessment from the BAR. Those not happy with the outcome have the right to challenge their assessment in court, and indeed, some of those who filed have indicated they are retaining legal counsel.
Other Business
Overall, it was a very smooth and relatively short meeting. Codes Enforcement reported there were 20 new building permits out to date, and that new housing starts are up over last year.
The Grafton Rescue Squad received 15 calls in May, but were unable to respond to five of those during daytime hours, a situation that is mirrored across the county. Grafton Lakes State Park Manager Melissa Miller stated in her report, they are having trouble with trash being left around the Dickinson Fire Tower site, as well as other locations in the park. It was also noted during public comment, it appears sections of the park entrance are becoming overgrown with un-mowed grass. Councilwoman Lisa Dooley responded the park has a new directive from New York State, to reduce mowing by at least ten percent this year.
Town employee Steve Beaudry has repaired the windstorm damage to the Town Hall roof, but reported he doubts the roof will make it through another winter without replacement. Councilwoman Jodi Deschaine has taken it upon herself to do a lot of sprucing up, including pressure washing the Town Hall, planting new flowers at the Veteran’s Memorial in the Town Park, in front of the Post Office and other locations in the community.
The first phase of the renovation work to the back entrance and parking lot for the Grafton Community Library is nearly complete, and the second phase, work in the main room upstairs, should begin soon.
Councilman Eric Buckley turned over a check for $112.50 cents, representing bottle returns collected by his children for the youth program, and Town Clerk Vicky Burdick presented the town with $3,362.26 representing revenues from her office in May.