Greenwood to draw up holiday pay waiver for firefighters

    After consulting with the town attorney, Greenwood selectmen decided at a recent meeting to draft an agreement asking their firefighters manning the station on holidays to waive their right to double time pay.
    The state mandates double time pay, which the town has been paying since a recent agreement with Woodstock to take turns providing two firefighters on duty each day at one of the two town stations.
    But Town Manager Kim Sparks said if the town has legitimate budget concerns in connection with making those payments, it may pursue a waiver agreement.
    She said the station is currently scheduled to be manned nine days in 2013.
Chairman Fred Henderson said, “It’s obvious we care very much for our taxpayers and we want to save them money, but also make sure we’re being fair to our firefighters. This has been a difficult decision and I’m happy that we took a little more time to look at the situation.”
    Sparks said that Woodstock firefighters get paid an on-call stipend on holidays, and selectmen asked her to look into that rate as another option.
    But in the meantime, the board asked Sparks to have the town attorney to begin drafting a waiver, in order to ensure there will be someone in town on standby in case of an emergency.
    At an earlier selectmen’s meeting Dec. 4, Chief Al Curtis said there has not been a need to man the station on Christmas or the Fourth of July because many firefighters are in town and available anyway.
    In other business, selectmen received three bids for their 1988 International fire truck, and agreed to accept a bid for $3,800 from Dan Gibbs.
    The next meeting will be Jan. 15 at 5 p.m.