by Alex Brooks
The Petersburgh Town Board held a Special Meeting on Monday, October 27, to discuss re-staffing the Highway Department, which has lost its two most senior members over the last two months. Deputy Superintendent Steven Harrison resigned in late summer, and Highway Superintendent Ray Harrison resigned last week.
[private]The Town has been advertising for highway workers for over a month, but the Highway Superintendent position has not yet been advertised anywhere other than the Town web site. The word seemed to have gotten out somehow, either by word of mouth or an Eastwick Press news story, because there was a sizable turnout of citizens at the meeting, and the Board had two applicants for the Highway Superintendent job. Both were present, and they each had something like a job interview, not just with the Board but with the entire room. Most of the questions for the two applicants came from citizens in the audience rather than from the Board members.
Town Board member Jack Barnhill had offered to resign his seat on the Town Board and take on the Highway Superintendent job. He said he had “some heavy equipment experience,” but he said the thing he would excel at is management. He indicated that he thought there are plenty of opportunities to improve performance and save money through better management.
Dave Miller asked him if he has a CDL License. Barnhill said no, but he would try to get one by summer. He noted that Harrison did not have one either, and he would plan to drive the same F350 plow truck that Harrison drove. He was asked if he has plowed before, and he said yes. Tim Church asked him if he is a mechanic, and he said he had not a lot of experience with heavy machinery but he had worked on his own and his neighbors vehicles quite a bit.
The other applicant was Rob Cottrell. He said he had extensive experience running and maintaining heavy equipment in the military. He said he would be very good at maintaining the equipment and extending its life through maintenance and repair. He said he has been in the reserves for 37 years and is currently in a unit that does training. He does a lot of safety training. He said he has lived here since he was ten years old and mentioned that he maintains all of the equipment on his farm. Cottrell said he did not have a CDL license either but he expected to get one within a few weeks.
Gene Kluck asked him if he was good at management and paperwork and working on computers. Cottrell said yes, he had done quite a bit of that kind of thing in the military.
The conversation then veered to a variety of topics, as members of the public spoke their minds. Dave Miller said neither this Board nor several previous ones had given Ray enough resources to do the job right. Several people spoke about what a thankless task the Highway Superintendent’s job is, pointing out that Harrison had been the target of a lot of negative commentary and they weren’t surprised that he had had enough of it.
Town Board Member Neil Geary said the negativity was coming from the public, not from the Board. He praised Harrison, saying that he had worked well with the Board’s highway liaison committee and was doing monthly reports and fuel logs and other things the committee had requested. Geary summed up his feelings by saying, “You will never find anyone for this job who works harder or cares more” than Harrison did.
Several in the audience said they thought Cottrell was more qualified for the job, and others said the skills of the two applicants were complementary and it would be good to bring them both in.
The Board went into an executive session and when they came out they said they wanted to appoint Barnhill as Highway Superintendent and Cottrell as Deputy Superintendent. But they then learned that while they were in executive session, Ray Harrison had phoned in to say that he wanted to appoint James Morgan as Deputy Superintendent.
Town Supervisor Siegfried Krahforst said that on Friday Cottrell had told him that he would accept a job as either a highway worker or as the Superintendent. But when he asked Cottrell if he would take the position as a highway worker, Cottrell’s wife Peggy jumped up and heatedly told the Board there was no way he would take that job. She accused the Board of favoritism and not choosing the more qualified applicant, and said, “Shame on every one of you,” and the two of them walked out the door. But they didn’t go far and were soon back in the room.
Peter Schaaphok and some others were very critical of the Board’s decision. Denise Church said the situation changed in two ways while the Board was deliberating. One was the appointment of Morgan as Deputy Superintendent, and the other was that they were told that Cottrell was willing to take a job as a highway worker, which apparently was not the case.
Cottrell Appointed
At this point Jack Barnhill said he didn’t want to divide the Town and if the Board thought it was for the best, he was willing to withdraw his application and leave the way clear for Cottrell. The Board accepted this gesture from Barnhill and appointed Cottrell as Highway Superintendent. Cottrell accepted, and said, “I look forward to working with all of you.” He will start November 1.
Thus the knotty problem of the evening was resolved, but the Highway Department remains down a man and is also looking to hire a seasonal worker to help with snow plowing. The normal complement of workers is three full time plus the Highway Superintendent, plus an extra part time seasonal worker for plowing season. At present they have two full time workers and a Highway Superintendent. The Town has had some applicants for highway worker positions, and these will be interviewed and evaluated by Cottrell, in consultation with the Board.
Other Matters
The Board also passed a procurement policy. It requires getting two verbal quotations for anything from $250 to $3,000, and it requires three written quotations for anything from $3,000 to $20,000. Anything larger than that requires formal competitive bidding, with some exceptions for emergency purchases, professional services (where the lowest bid may not be the best deal) and several others. The policy requires that all purchases over $3,000 be recorded in the Town Board minutes.
Jack Barnhill made a motion to raise the salaries of the Town highway workers immediately to the level they will be getting in 2015; in other words to give them their raise two months earlier than it would normally happen. This was approved unanimously.
The final matter up for consideration was an offer to give the Town a parcel of land, 1.7 acres in North Petersburgh bordering the Hoosic River and the Vermont State line. The parcel is landlocked, and the Town has no use for it. The Board would like to see it stay on the tax rolls so they declined to accept it and suggested that the owner give it to one of the neighboring landowners.[/private]