Chief Grant was called before the Board of Selectmen to explain high overtime costs paid out at the end of FY12. The department paid out $79,000 in overtime in one pay period at the end of June. Grant had an explanation.
When Denis Keohane said that the overtime figures raised a “red flag’ for him as a new member to the board, Chief Grant acknowledged that “It would for anybody given the amount of money spent in such a short period.” In his discussion with the board, Grant said that the overtime pay was due to costs associated with the 350th and off-site training. The training was “live burn” training that took place in Boston and training at Ulin rink in rescue procedures. Grant stated that the training is something they should do every year but do not have the budget for. Chairman Hurley acknowledged that a couple of years ago, when he was Warrant Chair, the budget had been so tight there had been “brown outs” (ie partial shut downs) because the budget was not sufficient to cover overtime. Grant had money in the budget for training this year because salary positions went unfilled for a large part of the year. “I forecast that in 2 years I will not be able to do this, ” said Grant. He added that, “I hope you would recognize the fact that we do need to do training.”
Partway through the discussion, Keohane asked Hurley for confirmation that the budget figures were public information. Interim Town Administrator Annmarie Fagan confirmed they were. Keohane noted that it appeared departments were paying too high a penalty for not spending their budgets. Hurley responded that it was an unfortunate fact of municipal finance, that “if you did not use it you were going to lose it.” Grant for his part said that he was taking advantage of the fact that he had salaries sitting there but that “I don’t view this as a case where I was trying to spend my budget down.” Grant said, “I don’t do anything with any of our money that I don’t think there is any value to.”
The Fire Department actually gave back money to the town. Keohane asked for a figure. An exact amount was not known but estimated to be a couple of thousand dollars.
The Selectmen also discussed the traffic and parking situation with members from the Chamber of Commerce. DPW Director Joe Lynch was present as were Chief Wells of MPD and Bill Clark, Town Planner.
Following are two plans being considered (see end of post).
Note that Plan B routes all Adams street traffic south. There is no “slip lane” going to the left (north) onto Granite Street. The officials discussed testing this traffic configuration. The slip lane would be closed, and all traffic entering the square heading east on Adams Street would be directed south – turning right after the post office. However, DPW director Lynch highlighted the need to put in necessary wayfaring signage, etc. He estimated that painting arrows on the roadway to direct motorists would cost ~$4 – $5,000, and there was a question as to where funding for that would come from. Also he would need to put it onto a contractor’s calendar, and implementation would depend on their schedule. They were in agreement to close the slip lane for a 30-day trial though timing depends on coordination of resources. The Selectmen also passed a motion to move forward with the next phase of development. Though there is not currently consensus on which plan they will go with, there was agreement that they did not want to put funding at risk, and a firm could be sought to develop plans that would be based on one of the two proposals. W hich one is to be determined.
Hybrid plan A
Hybrid Plan B