Recently in Sensible Spending -Local Category
Last November, Town Administrator Carter Terenzini presented the Route 25 corridor study results to the Board of Selectmen. This was at the same meeting that Stewart Lamprey made his presentation about Fox Hollow. Mr. Lamprey stated that Fox Hollow had been identified by the DOT and the Lakes Region Planning Board as the most dangerous intersection, with 27 accidents and 2 fatalities within 1000 feet of the intersection.
Karel Crawford made the statement, ‘I don’t feel the commissioner should dedicate to one part of the road (Rt 25). We have to represent the town of Moultonboro, and we have to represent the entire town, and others on the other intersection. I feel that because politically, because someone knew someone, though he has every right to do so, it feels wrong for the DOT to pick one road because Mr. Lamprey lives on
It was decided after much discussions over several weeks, that Fox Hollow would be moved to the top of the list of intersections to address. There have been several engineering firms out at the site of Fox Hollow and Route 25 studying the area and planning how to “fix” the intersection. The town is in the process of hiring a Town Planner to work with the recently hired engineering firm of KV Partners, LLC.
The planning was going along rather smoothly until late in the afternoon of Tuesday June 2, 2009 when there was a serious accident on Route 25 by the intersection of
It would seem that the corridor study was spot on. One only has to travel on Route 25 west on an icy, snowy day to understand why
We hope that the Board of Selectmen will be successful in their efforts to convince the DOT that Sheridan Road is in fact a higher priority than Fox Hollow and should be addressed sooner than later. …And no one stands to gain financially from improving
The Meredith News February 12, 2009
To the Editor: It’s hard for me to believe that once again there is a small group of people that are coming through the back door to propose a plan to build new ball fields at the site of the Moultonboro Lions Club. This is only a back-door tactic to once again to try to build a recreation center after it was voted down at last year’s Town Meeting. This group of individuals must have not listened to the voters last year, who are made up of mostly retires on fixed incomes, that voted this whole issue down. Smarten up! Last year there was talk about a recession, when the recreation center/gym/pool/ ballfields were talked about and with the town once again becoming a donor town. Well, listen up! We are in a recession and in uncharted waters and we are going to become a donor town again. This group of people, looking to spend tax money at the expense of taxpayers at this time - get out of the bubble and quit watching
spending! I would also like to point out that there was a article a few days back that indicated that the youth population is declining in Moultonboro and there is going to be a study done to the cause of this. Question? Who are we building these new ball/soccer fields for? The retirees who make up the majority of the town? It can not be for the increase in our youth population. Message to the selectmen - please check with the Meredith selectmen to see if you can learn something from them, since their proposed budget is a decrease of 1.94 percent instead of an increase of 0.21 percent in ours!
Joe Quaresima
Moultonboro
The budget process is over. Both the town and the school district have presented budgets for 2009-10.
The Town Budget that will be voted on at Town Meeting represents a decrease of approximately $159,261 or -1.5%.
The
The Library Budget shows and increase of $19,420 or +4.59%. The increase was reported by the ABC to be entirely due to salaries and benefits.
Click here for the Final ABC recommendations and budget numbers.
Our Selectmen met 12/10/2008 in a” budget workshop”. In a continuing effort to not just provide the information, but also bringing to the forefront issues and concerns we present the following from this meeting:
- Possibly eliminate the public pay phone ( saving $750) and the bottled water ( $3,000) per year.
- Fee structure/application fee ( for out of town users not residents or property owners) for boat launches.
- Recreation department made a request to convert the cell phones to a reimbursement policy similar to the Police department. Study group to be formed to look at this across all town offices. We would like to know the cost difference and the Police policy.
- Recreation questioned whether some programs that are not utilized would be cancelled. Some may and some may not. ( Which ones we don’t know) . It was suggested that they may need to continue to run losses on the senior trips until it becomes better subscribed. How much?
- It was discussed by the Town Administrator to save money by reducing the advertising budget by 1/3 by not publishing items not required by law to publish. ( Granted there is a web site that will provide much information, but we continually find it difficult to get basic information from our elected officials. )
- A proposal was made by the Town Administrator to create an Office of Development & Inspectional Services (ODIS. This would bundle together CEO, Planner, and Land Use accounts. Per the minutes “…the CEO felt strongly he should only report directly to the BoS”.
- Town Clerk is proposing and increase in her office from 53 hours per week to 70. Does this mean we will have a full time Town Clerk?
Minutes follow……
OFFICE OF SELECTMEN
Selectmen’s Workshop December 10, 2008
MINUTES
Present: Karel A. Crawford, Edward S. Charest, James F. Gray, Joel R. Mudgett, Betsey L. Patten;
Carter Terenzini, Town Administrator.
Also Present: Advisory Budget Committee: Jean Beadle, Gary Haracz, Ed Marudzinski
The Chair called the meeting to order at 9:00 a.m....
Note from the MCA: At the 11/13/2008 Selectmen meeting, Ed Charest reported on a session he attended at the recent NH Local Government Center annual conference about the economy and how it impacts NH. Mr. Charest indicated that NH overall was one of four states that probably will weather the recession far better than the other 46 states. Hmmm... We respectfully disagree. There are many indicators in this state that point to very serious problems, such as 17% of NH single family homes having negative equity. As Betsey Patten state in the article "We all have to do some belt-tightening and take a deep breath." Read on below....
By DAN TUOHY
Thursday, Nov. 13, 2008
Brian J. Gottlob, of the Dover-based PolEcon Research, said towns and cities may see greater property tax delinquencies and a choke-hold on many smaller revenue sources, such as new car registrations. Towns and cities can better cope with the downturn than state government, but Gottlob said local leaders may not think so come budget season and its prickly political decisions.
"You'll probably suffer more of the angst," he said at the
Gottlob discussed the housing market,
The conference, "Local Government: Challenging Times, Creative Solutions," continues today and tomorrow at the Radisson Hotel Manchester. More than 650 municipal, school and county officials from around the state are attending. Topics include finance, land use, pension reform, and healthy, safe and secure school environments.
Local government officials are keenly aware of the challenges, said state Rep. Betsey Patten, R-Moultonborough, after listening to Gottlob's presentation. She sits on the House Municipal and County Government Committee and serves on her town's board of selectmen.
One of the first priorities, she said, is working to ensure the state does not shift any financial burdens to counties.
"We all have to do some belt-tightening and take a deep breath," Patten said.
While Gottlob says local government should not expect any help from the state, he anticipates the state looking to the federal government for financial assistance. Such a stimulus package for the states, now under discussion on Capitol Hill, could give
Gottlob expects six more months of declining state revenues, with a turnaround starting possibly in late spring of 2009.
Though he expressed an optimism about
Business access to bank credit has been hampered in
New unemployment claims are approaching levels of the last two recessions, and there appears to be no slowing in terms of home mortgage foreclosures in
He said 17 percent of
Compared to other states, there is not an especially high concentration of high-risk loans in
On the bright side, Gottlob said
"We're really on a precipice now," he said.
The Citizen Ocotber 29, 2008
By GAIL OBER
gober@citizen.com
As the national economy worsens, area economists and statisticians are keeping an eye on residential sales as an indicator of the overall health on
Countywide, recently released third quarter statistics show residential real estate sales in
According to information provided by the New Hampshire Association of Realtors indicated the number of sales dropped from 225 in the third quarter of 2007 to 177 in the third quarter for this year. On a positive note, the values of those third quarter
"There is some seasonality or certain sales that are associated with lakefront property in September," said New Hampshire Housing Finance Authority Housing Research Director Dan Smith who said the summer buying season generally ends in September, and he was not surprised that the overall values for Belknap County were higher than the rest of the state.
As to the number of sales, local economist Russ Thibeault of Applied Economic Research said he thinks many people are giving second thoughts to second-home purchases and he is not surprised to see the number of sales lower than last year even though value appears to be holding it own.
What concerns both Smith and Thibeault is the rising number of foreclosures.
Smith said the number foreclosures in the state could reach 3,500 — a 70 percent increase over last year. In
"Remember," said Smith. "There is a negative effect of foreclosure on property taxes."
He said when a property goes into foreclosure, somebody still owns it, so property taxes will be paid and are often recoverable from the next purchaser, but revenue streams can slow.
As to declining values, an overall declining value means a higher tax rate to maintain constant spending — as in the 9 cent jump in
Smith said he does not expect
The state, he said, has a much larger issue.
"When sales are off by 20 percent, as they have been the past three years, it represents a significant hit to the state for its revenue," said Smith.
WMUR recently reported the state's projected revenue for fiscal year 2009 could be as much as $250 million short. Gov. John Lynch has already trimmed $90 million from the state budget, but legislators may be forced to eliminate an additional $160 million in spending before June 2009.
".......we hope that selectmen, school board members, county commissioners, city councilors and members of County Conventions will take a hard-nosed approach when it comes to proposals for so-called 'big-ticket projects' such as new buildings or proposals to add employees."
Article Date: Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Gov. John Lynch is calling for two kinds of budgets when a new Legislature convenes — tight and tighter.Republicans have been trying to weaken Lynch's big advantage in the polls by trying to identify him with the huge revenue shortfalls of the current biennium. So far it hasn't stuck. Voters seem prepared to identify the shortfalls with the weak national economy. Lynch met with department heads Friday and told them it's not going to be easy. He wants innovation and efficient use of limited resources. He also wants two proposals — one holding programs at current levels and one cutting spending by three percent in 2009 and 2010, going back to current levels in 2011.By assuming this posture of fiscal discipline, Lynch certainly set the tone for the fall campaign.But his approach should reach beyond the political debate of the coming weeks. It should also frame the discussion for the work of preparing budgets in the various cities and towns, school districts and counties across the state.
John Andrews, director of the
Given the current economic climate, they can be assured that the majority of taxpayers will support them in this effort. To this end we hope that selectmen, school board members, county commissioners, city councilors and members of County Conventions will take a hard-nosed approach when it comes to proposals for so-called 'big-ticket projects' such as new buildings or proposals to add employees.Even at times as difficult as the ones we are facing there will be some cases where major capital improvements or adding staff is absolutely imperative. But for the most part these requests, though they may produce certain benefits, fall short of being absolutely needed right here, right now.
Just as importantly, those officials — whether elected or appointed — who have a role in determining pay and benefits for public employees need to demonstrate they understand the burden under which so many taxpayers are finding themselves. To advocate pay raises on the grounds that there have been pay raises in previous years is simply untenable. Public employee unions also need to acknowledge the present economic realities when they sit down to negotiate new contracts. To push for substantial pay raises or to be unwilling to accept proposals for members to pick up a bigger share of health-care benefits will only hurt their credibility with taxpayers with private-sector jobs who fear being laid off. In the last several years, local communities and school districts have been more or less successful in funding the higher cost of government by capitalizing on the volume of residential and commercial construction, which has produced a tremendous expansion of the tax base in many area communities. But the tax base is no longer expanding at the same rate, so any increase in the cost of government is going to fall harder on current taxpayers. Those leaders in government who recognize that they are the stewards of the resources that come from the people understand that this coming budget season presents challenges far different from any other year in recent memory. It requires taking tough stands and standing by those decisions. And it also requires a sensitivity that
the taxpayer's ability to pay is not as great as in past years.
The Meredith News June 19th, 2008
SARAH SCHMIDT
MOULTONBORO — TheBoard of Selectmen requested a meeting with town counsel after a report that counsel advised them against several actions to help create an alternaten route to Fox Hollow Road. Town Administrator Carter Terenzini reported to the selectmen that town counsel had advised against using exaction fees to construct the alternate route and warned against liability
issues if the town allowed the public to use a private right-of-way.
While Terenzini said this was not to imply that the safety issues at
the intersection of Fox Hollow Road and Route 25 were not serious, but that the town could become legally vulnerable....
