Gilford board keeps DPW report secret

GILFORD — The Department of Public Works remains two employees short, but DPW Director Jason Hayden Sr. gave a positive report on what the department has accomplished, despite turnover that has been linked with allegations of harassment and a hostile work environment.

Selectmen held a nonpublic session prior to Wednesday night’s public meeting to discuss potential litigation and an independent report by Municipal Resources, Inc., which interviewed DPW employees about the complaints.

Town Administrator Scott Dunn said he “would love to release” the report to the public, but the town’s attorney has advised that it must remain confidential.

Selectmen engaged MRI in April to speak with all of the department’s employees to determine whether there was a problem with the work environment. Dunn has said that the recent turnover was unrelated to the allegations, but that one former employee had filed a claim against the town. He told The Laconia Daily Sun that the employee had not completed the six-month probationary period, but the person’s attorney had sent a letter seeking a monetary settlement in lieu of a lawsuit.

 A busy season

In his report to the selectmen, Hayden said there are two open positions — one for a buildings and grounds supervisor and the other for a highway department truck driver.

Hayden told the board that the highway department had had to deal with 40 “winter events” that dropped a total of 71.5 inches of snow, with spring rain delaying the start of spring road work.

The town used 1,900 tons of road salt and 623 tons of sand to treat the roads, as well as experimenting with the use of brine to reduce the amount of salt needed.

“The experiment with brine showed positive results, hopefully leading to the expansion of the utilization of brine going forward in the efforts of … salt reduction,” he reported.

Hayden saw an increased use of cold patch for filling in potholes, which he attributed to the rainy weather.

Since the weather improved, the department has paved a section of Morrill Street, shimmed and overlaid pavement on Alvah Wilson Road, and shimmed Stark Street, as well as starting the reconstruction of Liberty Hill Road.

The department has taken delivery of a new Mack highway truck and new work order software has been installed to help track projects, with training to begin next week.

Hayden also reported on the completion of the new building at the recycling center and the ordering of the equipment necessary to operate it. He listed successes in recycling, reporting that the town generated $5,239 from scrap metal and $1,661 from wood chips. It had 28 tons of recycled cardboard and 60 tons of glass for recycling.

The crew crushes the glass and combines it with crushed concrete for use as a base for road work, and also crushes used asphalt. It grinds all wood that is hauled to the facility to produce wood chips.

Finally, he listed the repairs completed at the maintenance garage, including the repair of 10 sanders and 12 wing arms, and six transmissions.

Area Road

A public hearing to discuss lowering the speed limit on Area Road drew no comments, and selectmen approved the change, which reduces the posted speed from 35 mph to 25 mph.

Before the vote, Selectman Dale Channing Eddy noted that the traffic study by the police department showed that very few people exceeded 25 mph anyway, so “it shouldn’t be an undue burden.”

Chair Richard Grenier observed that “there couldn’t have been a lot of speeding” to prompt residents to seek a lower limit, but he supported the change in a unanimous vote.

Vendor permit fees

As a result of Gary Circle resident Joe Wernig’s complaint at a previous meeting that the town’s vendor permit fees are excessive, Dunn said he examined the fees of 20 other communities, concluding that only two that charged higher rates than Gilford.

Wernig said the current annual fee of $2,500 is prohibitive to someone with an ice cream cart, and suggested lowering it to $500.

Selectmen plan to hold a public hearing at their next meeting to discuss reducing the daily vendor permit fee from $65 to $50; the weekly fee from $400 to $100, the monthly fee from $1,500 to $250, and the annual fee from $2,500 to $500.

Dunn said the new rates would still be above average for the 20 communities, but Selectman Gus Benavides pointed out that the new annual rate is less than $10 per week.

“I think they’re very reasonable,” he said.

Comcast check

The town received an unanticipated $5,000 check from Comcast to cover the cost of setting up an emergency alert system.

Dunn explained that the money was the result of the cable company’s negotiations with the city of Laconia, which required an emergency system if Comcast was to establish a franchise there. The Laconia City Council raised the issue because the other cable supplier doing business there, Atlantic Broadband, provides emergency alerts as part of its agreement with the city.

Dunn said the town would set the money aside for its intended purpose.