by Frank Schroth
The Board of Selectmen’s meeting was short. They received the Fire Departments’s quarterly report from Chief Grant and discussed how to deal with a bit of a monkey wrench that the Planning Board has thrown into the October Town Meeting Warrant.
Chief Grant began by introducing Adam Donovan the most recent addition to the department. Grant said he is still one person short of a full complement. Asked about the overtime status, which had been an issue of concern for selectmen in the past, the Chief said that it is running approximately 40% below last year. Asked why by Chair Keohane, Grant said there were several reasons: there are fewer injuries, there is no one out on military leave, and it has not been as busy a summer in terms of calls as last year.
Grant also spoke to the issue of using fire personnel for medical calls, specifically one of the larger engines that is pressed into use to answer them. He said “The simple answer is time.” The large truck has the perfect complement of staff to attend to a cardiac situation. “Every thing we do is time constrained.” He also discussed the relationship with Fallon Ambulance whereby they provide EMT training to fire personnel. Grant estimated that ~50% of personnel are EMT certified. Lastly, on the issue of medical response and the option of bringing it in-house , Grant acknowledeged that many departments in the state had done that, though other departments in this area also use Fallon. ONe issue is pending before the legislature regarding insurance billing. Insurance firms want to bill shifted to client. This could be onerous and ambulance service or fire department would need to bill individuals rather than insurance companies.
The department responded to 952 calls, the majority of which were medical related. Asked about the formation of a fire space needs committee, Grant did not know much. Moderator Walsh is to form the committee coming out of last town meeting. Grant said he beleived there were a couple of names being considered.
He ended on a positive note saying that $32K had been returned to the reserve fund. The department was enjoying good health and sick time etc came in lower allowing the money to be returned.
The board discussed 4 articles the Planning Board has included in the fall 2013 Warrant. The issue is that the Planning Board wants to withdraw them. Currently numbers 10, 11, 13 & 14 in the draft of articles. Articles 10 and 11 pertain to allowing bed & breakfast establishments and taxing them. The Planning Board wants to withdraw them, according to Bill Clark who was present , because they have not developed rules and regulations around how they would operate. Articles 13 and 14 seek to amend language in Chapter 10 of the General Bylaws which Mr. Clark characterized as housekeeping.
The issue for selectmen is that they either need to re-open the warrant which is not something they want to do or leave as is which will unnecessarily take up time at town meeting. “We do not like to open and close a warrant”, said member Hurley. If they leave the warrant with articles that the Planning Board essentially wants to have referred back to them, it will require the moderator to read the articles etc and follow a process that already has a pre-determined outcome. The Planning Board is in a time crunch which is why they want to pull the articles. They need to schedule hearings in advance of the articles being heard at town meeting. The bed and breakfast is the most challenging. There needs to be a hearing, regulations defined, and coordination with other vested boards (e.g. Board of Health etc). Keohane expressed a desire to keep articles in place if only to put some pressure on Planning Board to move ahead with hearing. The selectmen agreed to leave for now and resume the discussion at their next session.