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10/29/2018 SB Minutes

Bethlehem Board of Selectmen
Meeting Minutes
October 29, 2018

Present:  Chairman Moritz, Selectman Moore, Selectman Boisseau, Selectman Ubaldo, Selectman Glavac.

Chairman Moritz opened the meeting at 6:00pm.

Elaine French came before the Board and introduced herself and said she is running for State Representative for Grafton County District 14.  She said she is interested in equality of money for students, advocate for veterans, opposed to Northern Pass, said there is a need to address having broadband and cell service for everyone, wants to keep young families in state and is in favor of paid family leave.

BUDGETS
HIGHWAY
Brett Jackson came before the Board to go over the proposed highway budget and said he increased salaries by 3%.  He said the trucks are a big expense to maintain and pointed out they have spent over $19,000 to maintain the 09 Sterling this year.  He said he will have a warrant article this year for $80,000 to go with the $80,000 in the capital reserve for a new truck.  He said it cost approximately $160,000 for a new outfitted truck.  Chairman Moritz said she would like to see the highway block grant moved to highway dept. instead of it being counted as revenue in the general fund.  She said it could be used for large expenditures.  Mr. Jackson said he should be purchasing a new truck every 2 years and said the loader is now 13 years old.  Mr. Jackson told the Board the engineering study showed that black brook project should be done and said they could get 95% grant money to do it.  He said he used the extra highway grant money for asphalt, sweepers, and engineering studies.  He said he still has money left and would like to replace the pick-up with it.  Mr. Jackson also said he may need a security system, but he didn’t put that in the budget.  The Board told him to add it in and to get the system.  He explained the case mower line he had to increase because it is expensive to maintain but said it is also expensive to replace.  He said the cutting edges for the plows have gone up 25% because of the tariffs.
GENERAL GOVERNMENTAL BUILDINGS (GGB)/CEMETERY
Clare Brown explained the cemetery needs and said the cemetery is in rough shape.  She said there are holes from animals and they need to be addressed.  Mr. Jackson said he increased the salary line for cemetery to allow for someone to address those needs at the cemetery. Mrs. Brown told the Board that she is getting cemetery signs, but they will come out of this year’s budget and are $100.00 for both.  Mrs. Brown told the board they updated the brochure and would like to get public input about the rules etc. at a meeting on 11/13/18.  It was pointed out there were a couple of other events that night in town.  Mrs. Brown will reschedule the meeting.  Mrs. Brown also asked about the revenue going back to the cemetery.  She said she isn’t going to do anything this coming year but wanted to mention it as an idea.
POLICE
Chief Ho-Sing-Loy explained his proposed budget to the Board.  His budget is increasing approximately $30,000 due to salary and benefits.  The chief said the fuel is also going up due to the increase in the price of fuel.  The Chief explained the SRO training and how they are working closely with the schools.  He said they are working with Profile and Bethlehem Elementary and trying to get into White Mountain School also. He said vaping has been a big issue at high school this year.  Chris McGrath asked the Board if they will have a warrant article to continue 24-hour police coverage.  Selectman Glavac said he would not support that and said every year the Board does a good job of explaining the value of the police department.  Chairman Moritz said she wouldn’t support that either.
COUNTRY CLUB
It was explained a warrant article needed to be done to change the funding of the country club (revolving fund instead of a special revenue fund).
Matt Courchaine said it has been a good year but rough with the equipment and carts.  He said the building needs work.  Mr. Courchaine said membership is up to 141 members.
He explained the equipment is aging and the carts have needed work on them throughout the season.  It was noted the revenue from the sale of the land bought from funds from the country club needed to be moved to the country club.  Mr. Courchaine said some electrical work still needs to be completed.  Chairman Moritz said his revenues to expenditures have been managed well.  Selectman Glavac asked what is budgeted for equipment next year.  Mr. Courchaine said he needs a new bucket for the john deere, carts because of safety issues, handicap ramp needs to be addressed etc.  He said he will get new figures for carts.
TOWN CLERK
Mary Jackson came before the Board to discuss the Town Clerk budget.  This budget is down due to 1 election versus 4 but she did say she always builds in 1 special election just in case.  She said she estimated the cost for programming of the counting machine.
TAX COLLECTOR
Mary Jackson said the postage is down in this budget because the lien and deeding noticing is down.
LIBRARY
Len Grubs reviewed the budget and explained the cleaning and maintenance line went up due to a service contract due to an issue with the A/C they had.  He said the majority of their increase is payroll and explained they did a survey to show what other towns paid their directors and it showed Bethlehem at the bottom.  He also explained the increase they are asking from the town is offset by the library fees because they are going to use that revenue to offset the increase.  Mike Culver said we came close to losing all the books in the library, so it is money well spent for the service contract.  He said we get into trouble because we want all these things, but we don’t want to maintain them.
PLANNING/ZONING
Chris McGrath and Mike Culver reviewed the budget with the Board.
DEBT SERVICE/TAN
Debt service is lower.  TAN remains the same
INSURANCE
Minimal increase.  Some of the increase from the unemployment will be moved to the country club.

TAX RATE SETTING
Chairman Moritz said the tax rate is $26.73 with the new valuation and with last years valuation would have been $30.08 so would have been down 64 cents.  She said she would propose not using any fund balance because next year we will need to use money from the fund.  Selectman Moore thinks it is important to keep the tax rate flat.  Chairman Moritz went over some revenue projections she did.  She estimates that we will need between 400 – 500 thousand next year from the fund balance to keep the tax rate stable.  Peter Roy thanked the Board for the new flag pole.  He asked if Arlington has paid taxes and was told they have paid some.  Chris Jensen asked if everyone’s value went up 14% and was told no.  Selectman Glavac said always try to keep it consistent and want to add to unassigned fund balance.  He suggested adding $200,000 to use to offset which would make the tax rate $25.97.  Selectman Ubaldo agrees with Selectman Glavac and said the 13.51 % retained in the fund is the highest we have been.  Julie Seely said she went over numbers with Selectman Glavac and Kevin Roy and $163,000/year in host community was given but said the remaining capacity is being used much more quickly.  She said keeping the money for when the landfill is winding down makes sense for taxpayers.  Chairman Moritz said they won’t see the benefit from the projects until the future years, so it would be appropriate and safe to project the revenues, but they will not be for a few years.  She said they can’t keep keeping the budget flat.  Mrs. Jensen would like to see it stay flat.  Selectman Glavac said we have 1.3 million.  Mr. Jensen asked if they didn’t take or add would people see flat on average and was told it depends on valuation.  Selectman Ubaldo said he wants his money back and said he had to pay mortgage back due to escrow.  It was pointed out that was from last year’s tax rate.  Chairman Moritz said she would agree to using $100,000.  Selectman Ubaldo said he would like to see decrease because some people got hit last year with an increase then value goes up.  He said he wants to give people relief.  Selectman Glavac said he wants to wait a week because a piece is missing from revenue projections.  The Board agreed to wait a week to set the tax rate.

PUBLIC INPUT
Mr. McGrath asked if any information was found out if there was a 91A violation.  Chairman Moritz said the information was available with the minutes in the office so there was not a violation.

The Board reviewed the minutes from 10/15/18.  Selectman Moore moved to approve the minutes.  Selectman Boisseau seconded.  Carried 4-0.  Selectman Glavac abstained.

The Board reviewed the assessing contract and cyclical quote.  The Board agreed to the contract and quote.

At 8:47 Selectman Ubaldo moved to adjourn.  Selectman Glavac seconded.  Carried 5-0.

Respectfully submitted,
April Hibberd
Administrative Assistant