Gilford DPW summer work hours

The Board of Selectmen met Director of Public Works Sheldon Morgan's recommendation to change the summer work schedule for the Highway Division more than halfway this week.

Concerned that the department would be shorthanded in June, July and August, Morgan proposed replacing the four-day week, introduced in 1997, with a five-day week during the summer months. However, the selectmen, while agreeing to a five-day week in June and July, preferred to retain the four-day week during August.

Morgan recalled that the four-day week, running from Monday through Thursday, was originally introduced to keep the roads clear of crews and equipment on summer weekends when traffic was heavy.

In a memorandum to the board, Morgan said that the four-day week had become a hindrance to scheduling jobs as personnel have earned more vacation time as they have gained seniority. Assuring the board that the issue was not governed by the union contract, he told the selectmen that highway personnel, who cannot take vacation between November 1 and May 1 when they are needed to cope with winter storms, plan their vacations in the summer months. Morgan concluded that "we are short staffed from the end of May through the middle of August." Together with the four-day week, he continued "we are not able to accomplish, in a speedy fashion, our planned summer work assignments." Moreover, Morgan also expressed concern about crews working through the hottest part of the day. He suggested these problems could be overcome by working five days a week between 6 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. during the summer months, instead of four days from 6 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Selectmen Kinney O'Rourke suggested that the problem was not the four-day week, but the vacation schedule, which was within Morgan's power to control. Morgan agreed that he could deny requested vacation times and adjust vacation schedules, but was reluctant to do so. Reminding the board that personnel worked through the winter — often for long hours, on holidays and weekends — without vacation, he said that "in all honesty I won't nickel and dime them. I'll let them go. I can say no, but in all honesty I don't," he conceded. "Sheldon, you set yourself up for this," replied O'Rourke.

Bob Marden, a truck driver who has worked for the town for 18 years, said that Morgan exaggerated the problem, saying the employees all preferred to retain the four-day throughout the summer months. He said that even when they were taking vacation enough workers were able and willing to lend a hand if necessary. "There's no way he can say they'll be shorthanded," he said.

Likewise, he discounted Morgan's concerns about working through the heat of the day. Marden said if crews stopped work at 2:30 p.m., the result would be more over-time. "We'll be stopping a project before it's done, filling up the hole and coming in the next day to open the hole and finish the job," he said. "Either that or over-time and if they have to pay us, they'll be mad."

Selectman Dennis Doten offered a motion that the board direct Morgan to resolve the issue, allowing him "flexibility." O'Rourke disagreed. "I do not think that is a motion and I'm not going to second it," he said, reminding his colleagues that the board has routinely reaffirmed the four-day week summer schedule. "I don't want to say anymore," an impatient O'Rourke remarked, "because it will end up in the newspapers and you'll be mad at me."

With that Doten moved to accept Morgan's recommendation of the five-day week. "I'm not happy about it, but I'll second the motion," grumbled O'Rourke. Chairman Alice Boucher returned to an earlier suggestion made by O'Rourke by way of compromise, proposing that the five-day week apply to June and July, but the four-day be kept in August. The board unanimously endorsed her motion.

"That's fine for this year," Morgan said. "The bottom-line is that you want your crews out there safe, in the best working conditions you can have."