GREENWOOD — In just under five minutes, with four voters present, the Town of Greenwood held a Special Town Meeting.

Richard Diaz explained the difficulty of finding a vehicle, “Our truck currently needs a decent amount of work. I think we can nurse it along through winter but come Spring we’ll have to do major body work. So I thought this was an opportunity to try to get something at a better price,” said Richard Diaz, highway foreman.

The select board, Amy Chapman, Arnold Jordan and Norman Milliard had called a special town meeting held on January 24 at 6PM at town office, 593 Gore Road, to appropriate up to $ 48,090.00 from the Highway Department Equipment Reserve Account to purchase a 2022 Chevrolet 2500HD. The Truck Reserve Balance is: $ 150,058.35.

Town Manager, Kim Sparks was chosen to moderate.

In response to the Special Town Meeting announcement which was made on the town’s Facebook page, Marie Curtis wrote, “that could wait for town meeting.”

Kenneth Roberts commented, “Special town meetings should be held if an emergency situation comes up not for buying real estate, or pickup trucks.”

Neither was in attendance for the meeting.

The three selectmen, and Fred Henderson, former selectman,  who was in the audience, voted to approve the purchase.

Selectmen meeting

Before Town Meeting at 5 p.m., Greenwood selectmen held their regular meeting. Sparks reported payment of back taxes totaling $4,500 from the estate of William Brown.  The property had been completely foreclosed on so they didn’t have to file a lien again. It was in probate for seven years, from when he had passed away. Taxes were also paid on a 7.3 acre property on Howe Hill Road, $8,500 with the fees and interest.

“$13,000 we didn’t expect to have necessarily,” said Chapman

“Progress,” said Sparks

“Let’s buy a truck,” said Chapman.

The stage inside the Greenwood Town Hall at 270 Main Street. The building was discussed at the Select Board meeting this week. Rose Lincoln/Bethel Citizen

Following an energy audit of the former Greenwood Town Hall,  270 Main Street, (Route 26, Locke Mills) Sparks met with a representative from Efficiency Maine who said they would prefer to see non-combustion heat pumps and/or a VRF Variable Refrigerant Flow (three-phase power). Auditor, Joe Griffin, asked for two weeks to revamp the proposal in which he originally asked for furnaces.

“Not even pellets?” asked Chapman.

“No,” said Sparks.

Sparks said the payback is too long for replacement windows and that they Efficiency Maine would prefer to see the roof insulated, too.

Sparks said,  they’d need to fix the wet basement, remove some mold, add a heating system, and insulation. “the state said in order to rent it out, we’d have to have a sprinkler system. A lot of big ticket items. That doesn’t count a new bathroom which we really should have over there. A lot more expenses ahead of us then just what’s on this energy audit … A Belvedere grant will help with the water and mold remediation … They helped us with half of the roof and paid for this audit.”

“Can’t just let it sit there I guess and have it go downhill,” said Chapman.

“Some ballpark figures on what things are going to cost. So stay tuned on that,” said Sparks.

On Jan. 31, the town will have installed two heat pumps at the Locke Mills Fire Station with money from the resiliency grant. They’ll install two heat pumps at town office on Gore Road on Feb. 2.

“It’s all covered? Over 50,000 in rebates. And then about $30,000 kicked in from the state?” asked Amy Chapman

“Yes, very good news for little Greenwood,” said Kim Sparks.

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