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Keene committee recommends acceptance of multiple grants, approves engineering contract and ordinance updates
Summary
The Keene Finance, Organization and Personnel Committee unanimously recommended the city manager accept two Homeland Security grants, a Recreation Trails grant, authorize a City Hall structural-design contract, reallocate CIP funds for downtown and bridge work, and recommend adoption of an ordinance updating job classifications.
The Keene Finance, Organization and Personnel Committee met and unanimously recommended a series of grant acceptances, capital funding adjustments and personnel-ordinance changes that the city council must now consider.
The committee recommended that the city manager accept two New Hampshire Homeland Security Grant Program awards brought by Fire Chief Jason Martin: $57,118 for critical-care EMS equipment intended to expand paramedic capabilities (including ultrasound and whole-blood use) and $23,128 for hazardous-materials equipment and training. Both motions were moved and seconded and carried unanimously.
The committee also recommended acceptance of a $100,000 Recreation Trails Program grant to fund engineering and construction for rehabilitation of the Ashuelot River rail-trail bridge; the grant requires a 20% city match that staff said would likely be split between Keene State College and the city. That motion passed unanimously.
On capital projects, the committee recommended the city manager execute an agreement with the sole responding firm named in the motion for City Hall structural repairs for an amount not to exceed $130,000; the city engineer told the committee only one firm responded to the RFP and staff negotiated the fee down from about $158,000. The committee also approved reallocating FY26 traffic-signal CIP funds to the downtown infrastructure improvements project and recommended using $150,000 in unspent road-rehabilitation funds to cover a portion of the George Street Bridge replacement; both motions were unanimous.
Finally, Assistant City Manager Beth Fox presented two updates to the city's class-allocation ordinance intended to add several water-related job titles and to replace and regrade two existing positions (creating an S-22 assistant city engineer that requires a professional engineer credential and regrading the assistant city attorney position to S-24 as deputy city attorney). Fox said the total annualized cost for those changes is approximately $39,000; the committee voted unanimously to recommend adoption of ordinance 2025-32.
All committee recommendations were unanimous and now move to the full city council or, where applicable, to external approval steps outlined by state agencies (for the Homeland Security grants, staff said the awards proceed to the Department of Safety and Governor and Executive Council as required).
