Members Present: Carol Merrill, Mona McCready, Jennifer Morin, Robin McAfee, Gabby Daneault, Dan Howe, William Barnett, Thomas Gilligan, Larry Anderson, David Eaton, Tom Irzyk, Brian Duchesne and Peter Viar

Excused Absent: Robin Pelletier

Others Present: David Jodoin

Jennifer called the meeting to order 7:00 p.m.

Dave made a motion to accept the minutes of the December 9, 2004 meeting, Mona seconded. The motion passed with 2 abstaining votes.

Tom I. made a motion to accept the minutes of the December 16, 2004 meeting, Carol seconded. The motion passed unanimously.

Robin M. asked Tom I. why the school budget will not be broken down by departments as originally stated. Tom I. stated that the staff had attended the School Board Meeting and speak to us about concerns, there were also parents that also had voiced concerns about it also. When the Board looked at the whole aspect of this, and one of the biggest concern was the current 6^th grade, which is in four groups and because of the behavior problems that are in that class, it is also the largest class. It did not make sense to put that class back into three classrooms, it did not seem that there would be the space available. The Board them made the decision to stay with the current structure of the school and to continue to look into the possibility of changing it in the future. We will look at it again next year, but there is uncertainty on the administration, we don’t know if the current administration will be returning next year, no one has signed contracts yet and to implement a plan that the current administration would not be there to enact would be very difficult. We were originally down two positions, but now we are down only one position.

Tom I. handed out copies of the school warrants and new copies of the School Budget. He let everyone know that they cut another $35,000 from the budget, with the advice of the board, they again looked at the computer tech person that they wanted to hire. Although we still need this service, we looked into subcontracting out this service, the School Board came up with a plan with a computer company for $10,000 a year, they will maintain the existing network, 160 hours to be used at our discretion, additional site work billed at discounted rates, they are giving us preferred pricing on computer hardware, software and peripherals, if we want to buy new equipment from them. Twenty-four hour response time, and free phone support. We don’t know if the 160 hours will be enough, but it gives us a good starting point. If we have to increase the hours, then the cost goes up. The other plan that they had offered us was for $30,000 but it did a lot more.

This initiative was taken out of the budget and the $10,000 was added to the 1100-430-101 and 102 lines of the budget.

Tom G. asked what those lines were before? Tom I. stated that 1100-430-101 and 102 were $2,000 and $2,500, line 101 is AES and line 102 is ARD.

Tom G. asked what the difference was in the bottom line. Tom I. stated that the original initiative was for $48,000, so it is a gain of $38,000. If this works out and things work out as we planned, it will probably gain us more because the cost of the new computer equipment that we have in the budget will probably gain us more of a savings, and we agreed that if we gained any surplus in new equipment, that this money would be turned back to the Town. So if they save us $4,000 or $5,000 more dollars on equipment, currently we have purchase orders for six computers and a laptop for AES, a new server for the district, etc, if all these costs come in we could end up turning in another $10,000 to $15,000.

Tom G. asked who spearheaded this idea. Tom I. stated that it was Betsy, the ARD Principal. She did a lot of work and spent many hours negotiating a good plan.

Tom I. stated that the new School Board requested budget is now $8,138,708; the old number was $8,176,980. The default budget is now $8,028,507 and before it was $8,046,779. The difference was $130,201 now it is $110,201.

Jennifer noted that the employee contracted benefit increase obligation went from $41,252 to $22,980 due to this change. Yes.

School Warrant Article #1 – Shall the School District vote to raise and appropriate the sum of $3,535,985 for the construction and equipping of additions and renovations to the Allenstown Elementary School and renovations to the Armand R. Dupont School, and to authorize the issuance of not more than $3,485,731 of bonds or notes in accordance with the provisions of the Municipal Finance Act (RSA Ch. 33) with the remaining $52,255 offset by anticipated interest derived from the temporary investment of bond proceeds, and to authorize the School Board to issue and negotiate such bonds or notes and determine the rate of interest thereon; further to raise and appropriate the additional sum of $88,835 for the first bond payment and authorize the School Board to take any other action to carry out this vote.

Tom I. stated that the $52,255 is what the School Board is projecting to earn on interest from the money. This money will be used to make some kitchen renovations and security upgrades at ARD.

Dave stated that the State will give us 60% toward the construction, when do we get that and how does that come in? Tom I. stated that as the Town makes yearly payments to the bank, they pay us the 60% each year and we pay 40%. We have to borrow all the money up front. Is the State going to pay 60% of the initial $88,835? Tom I. stated yes.

Tom G. asked when that would happen? Tom I. stated that sometimes we get the money at the end of the year, sometimes at other times. Tom G. asked Peter if this money goes back into the general fund of the Town? David stated that it goes in as revenue to the general fund of the School. Carol asked if they would use this money for the next payment, Tom I. stated that it goes to offset taxes.

Tom I. stated that they still have not reached an agreement with the non-certified staff. Negotiations are going well and we hope to have this settled by our meeting on January 5.

Dave asked what was the last date for the warrant article, are the negotiations going to be finished before that date? Tom I. stated that it has to be done, and all parties know this.

David asked if the School had the default calculations from the State? Tom I. stated yes, we have not filled out the State forms yes, if the budget is voted on and approved, then we will fill out the State forms that need to be signed.

David stated that there is a separate Stated default calculation form for the Town and that default calculation form has to be posted along with the budget. Tom I. will check on this.

Carol asked if the School had paid off the old bond? Tom I. stated yes, it was paid off last year.

Tom I. stated that the reason they have to make up such a huge difference in the tax rate is because we had less than the default budget so, the jump looks bigger than it usually does. We are usually at a 2.5 to 3% increase each year and this year it is larger because of that gap.

Larry made a motion to accept School Warrant Article #1, Brian seconded. The motion passed unanimously.

Tom I. made a motion to approve School Warrant Article #3 – the operating budget, Dan seconded. The motion passed with one no vote.

Dan asked about warrant article #2 and #4, Jennifer stated that the Committee does not vote on warrant article #2 because there is no dollar amount attached to it and #4 is not ready for a vote yet. This warrant article will be voted on when an agreement is reached.

Peter informed the Committee that the Board of Selectmen did not approve the Excursion. The warrant is for a pickup. There was a lot of discussion at the Selectmen’s meeting about replacing or repairing the rescue vehicle, buying an altogether different kind of rescue vehicle. We are also in the running for a grant for the rescue/pumper. The decision was made that they could not support the purchase of a $445,000 rescue vehicle. Peter felt they should support the Excursion, but the other two selectmen voted against it. The Fire Chief asked if we could consider a pickup with plow, so they will allow the warrant article to be there without Selectmen recommendations.

Peter stated that there is another warrant article to put $15,000 into the Fire Department Equipment Capital Reserve account, there is approximately $17,000 right now. The Board made a decision to put an additional $15,000 into that account to give us enough money to repair the rescue truck. The Fire Chief is really not in favor of repairing this truck.

Peter stated that if the Town is approved for the grant, we would need to raise this amount to $22,000. David stated that he has an e-mail into DRA to see if we could expand the 10% match from this account.

We are still in the running for the grant and we may get the grant for a $400,000 vehicle, but in order for us to accept the grant, we have to provide a 10% match. The only place the match could come from is this Capital Reserve account.

Tom I. asked if the Town could have a special hearing on this if the grant was awarded after the vote was done. Peter stated that you have to prove an emergency situation to have a special meeting. David stated that you could also petition DRA to remove the money from surplus. Peter stated that he would not have a problem to change this amount from $15,000 to $22,000, but if we don’t get the grant and they ended up fixing the rescue vehicle, they would have to manage their budget not to overspend the original $30,000. Peter stated that they may want to wait until the Selectmen meet again on Monday to raise this amount from $15,000 to $22,000.

Dan asked why they wanted to buy the Excursion. Peter stated that the Excursion does not eliminate the need to still take the rescue vehicle out. The rescue vehicle has a cascade system in it, so if there is a significant building fire, you can take the Excursion and have it there as a command vehicle and have all the rescue equipment on it short of the cascade system. The system will not fit in the Excursion. The Chief felt the rescue vehicle would still go out two or three times a month. The Selectmen were not comfortable with the rescue going out at all because of its condition.

Tom I. stated that he felt all the Excursion did was add another truck to the fleet that has to be maintained. If you can’t get full use of the vehicle to get rid of one that has a problem, why would you just create another addition? Tom I. asked what type of repairs the rescue needed. Peter stated that the body is rusted and some of the compartments are rusted through. It passes inspection, can we run it, yes. Peter stated that the $28,000 estimate for the repair is from a year and a half ago, but they said that the price would still be around that amount. It basically is to replace the box.

Dan asked what the reason was for the pickup with plow, is it to keep the Fire Department open? Peter stated that they have a plow truck right now, it passes inspection and it runs. It would be nice to replace it, but we don’t have the money.

Larry made a motion to accept this warrant article, Tom I. seconded. The motion failed unanimously.

David stated that this warrant article will be removed from the ballot. Peter stated that since it is not recommended by either board it is being removed.

Jennifer stated we will wait on the other warrant article that stated $15,000 until the Board of Selectmen have discussed it again.

To see if the Town will vote to deposit 100% of the revenues, up to maximum of Ten Thousand Dollars ($10,000) per year, collected pursuant to RSA 79-A (Land Use Change Tax) into the Conservation Commission fund in accordance with RSA 36-A:5, III, as authorized by RSA 7-A:25, II.

Tom I. asked what this was. Peter stated that last year there was a warrant to take all the money from properties that were changed from current use to be developed, they pay a penalty. If you own land that is in current use and you take it out of current use, you pay a penalty to take it out. Last year the voters earmarked that money to go toward conservation. Due to the sizes of some of the projects that have come forward, it was brought to the attention of the Board of Selectmen from some residence that they were uncomfortable with the potential number of dollars that could go into that account, i.e. if McNamara’s Landing went forward, that could have potentially have generated $225,000 from going out of current use into regular use that could have gone to the Conservation Commission. So the recommendation was that we put a cap on the amount of money that the Conservation Commission would receive annually based upon this change. This would allow the Conservation Commission to put in boat ramps in public parks, etc. We do have an aggressive Conservation Commission, but they also understand that they cannot have general free reign.

They also can’t just go and spend money. In order for them to spend money they have to bring their request to the Board of Selectmen and a public hearing.

Larry asked what would happen if you do get $250,000, Peter stated it goes to the general fund.

Tom I. made a motion to approve this warrant article, Larry seconded. The motion passed with two no votes.

Peter stated that there will probably be an article next year for a total cap.

Tom G. made a motion to accept this warrant article, Larry seconded. The motion passed unanimously.

Tom I. made a motion to accept this warrant article, Dave seconded.

Tom G. asked what service connected total disability was. Peter stated that it is a 100% disabled vet. It falls into the category of identified wars.

The motion passed unanimously.

David explained the default calculations and that the default budget would be $3,124,646.

Jennifer asked what goes into the $528,965 difference between the default budget and proposed budget. David stated that it is the sewer and some other things that are in there. All the budgets revert back to what they were last year.

January 13 will be the Budget Committee’s public hearing of the School budget, January 15 will be the Budget Committee’s public hearing of the Town budget.

The January 13 meeting will be at 7 p.m. at AES, January 15 meeting will be at 10 a.m. at AES.

February 5 at 10 a.m. will be the Town budget Deliberative Session at AES and on February 10 at 7 p.m. will be the School budget Deliberative Session at AES.

David stated that the notice should state when the meeting date is and what the snow date is.

The snow date for the Town will be January 18. Tom G. stated that January 18 is the date for the second public hearing, if needed, by the Planning Board for the zoning changes. This can be cancelled if it is not needed.

January 18 at 6 p.m. will be the snow date for both the Town and the School. The snow date for the deliberative session will be February 12 at 10 a.m.

The committee will meet again on Thursday, January 6 at 7 p.m. to finish up the warrant articles.

Dan made a motion to recess, Carol seconded. The motion passes unanimously.