[0:03] Good evening and welcome to the Tuesday,
[0:05] July 7th, 2026 Town Council meeting.
[0:09] Councilor Webb, all you have,
[0:10] you wanna lead us in the pledge?
[0:14] I pledge Allegiance to the flag
[0:16] of the United States of, of America.
[0:18] And to the for which stands?
[0:21] One Nation Individual Individual Justice.
[0:27] Thank you. You my inhaler.
[0:30] I rushed you out here. And then may just say the pledge.
[0:33] All right. Good evening everyone.
[0:36] Just a reminder to please silence your cell phones
[0:38] and exits are directly behind you
[0:41] and to the side in an emergency.
[0:44] Okay. We'll start with our roll call Counselor Mills.
[0:47] Good evening, counselor Healy. Good evening councilor. We
[0:51] Good Evening.
[0:52] Just catching you at every moment. Councilor Chase.
[0:54] Good evening, counselor Flood. Good evening, counselor Foot.
[0:56] Good evening. And good evening from the chair.
[1:00] Is there a Motion for Public
[1:02] Forums?
[1:03] So moved. Second.
[1:05] All right. Motion is second to open public forum.
[1:07] All those in favor? A. A opposed? Alright.
[1:11] Public forum is, open floor is yours.
[1:13] Please remember to state your
[1:14] name and address for the record.
[1:28] Good Evening everyone. Tom Cardin to Cunningham Drive.
[1:32] I wanna speak about the Bird Enterprise property down
[1:36] on Hampstead Road.
[1:39] I went by there last, last two of you about,
[1:43] it was about quarter after 10.
[1:44] And you know, they have their, you know, they have this
[1:49] topper cap on with lights going around.
[1:51] There's like 64 lights going around it.
[1:54] And I thought, you know, I mean,
[1:55] 'cause it's been such a big issue
[1:57] and especially the, the lighting has been a huge issue
[1:59] with everybody there.
[2:01] So the lights were on, I got the topper cap on
[2:04] and I was pretty sure that they, you know,
[2:06] that they weren't allowed to do that.
[2:07] So I did go, I did go home, I went through the, you know,
[2:12] through the meeting and I, I want to tell Owen that they,
[2:15] you have that set up really good so that you can,
[2:18] you can look at, you can look for your own hearing
[2:20] and you don't have to scroll through everything.
[2:22] So, nice job.
[2:24] So anyway, so I went through that
[2:26] and there was, you know, they wanted
[2:27] to split up into two motions.
[2:29] So one motion was, you know, for shorter signs,
[2:33] a little bit smaller sign
[2:34] and, you know, definitely turn it off at from dust to nine.
[2:38] And then they asked for, they asked to separate
[2:41] and I didn't quite get that.
[2:42] So the, you know, they, they separated it so
[2:46] that they could, so it would be no topper cap.
[2:50] And of course they talked about no light.
[2:51] So it's like, okay, so topper cap wasn't, you know,
[2:54] wasn't supposed to be up there.
[2:57] And you know, I didn't quite get why they separated
[3:00] that in the first place,
[3:01] but, you know, now I understand that and,
[3:03] and I don't know exactly what their, what their plan is,
[3:06] but you know, to me it was just a deliberate act of defiance
[3:09] to put that up, you know, given the fact that, you know,
[3:12] there's been so much controversy with that sign
[3:15] and, you know, I really wasn't even gonna say
[3:17] anything about it.
[3:20] And then I just thought of, you know, all the, all the,
[3:23] the medias that the zoning board has gone through
[3:26] and all the time and effort that they put in.
[3:28] And I thought about, you know, the, the people, you know,
[3:31] some of the, the meetings that I went to, people were there
[3:33] for a couple of hours, you know, waiting for their hearing
[3:35] and they, you know, they had to go back
[3:38] because these hearings
[3:40] for Bird Enterprise were going on for so long.
[3:43] There was one night that I was, I was standing back here,
[3:46] it was like, I got here at quarter seven, it was like,
[3:49] I don't know, five after
[3:50] five after 10 or something like that.
[3:51] And I was standing up and, you know, kind
[3:54] of not paying too much of attention
[3:55] and they were, they, they stopped, you know, they,
[3:58] they stopped taking testimony and so I had to get up there
[4:01] and sit and, you know, and they said, no, we gotta wait.
[4:04] So I'll, I'll be just a another, another minute or so.
[4:08] So, you know, I mean the problem is they,
[4:10] they've just shown, you know, so little regard for, for the,
[4:14] the neighbors of the area
[4:15] and they've, they've ignored, you know, town directions,
[4:18] town, town policy and you know, and,
[4:20] and obviously town rulings
[4:21] and, you know, court enforcement is have to chase them down
[4:24] to take the sign down.
[4:26] And I'm sure that it's gonna go to court.
[4:28] So, you know, it's gonna be, it's gonna be even longer.
[4:32] But, you know, one of the, one of the meetings, you know,
[4:35] the guy, the guy got up
[4:36] and he was complaining how everybody was saying stuff about
[4:39] him and, you know, he wasn't too happy.
[4:41] And I kind of felt bad for him.
[4:43] I don't feel bad for him anymore.
[4:45] But I did look at, you know, stop you for
[4:47] A minute Here at time.
[4:48] I'm not gonna read the stuff, but you know, there,
[4:50] there are Hold on second.
[4:51] Hold on one moment. You're just outta time.
[4:53] So I just need to get a motion to extend,
[4:54] so there's a motion to extend second and a second.
[4:56] All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Thank.
[4:58] Sorry. Yeah, no, that's okay. I was trying to talk fast.
[5:01] So, but anyway, I mean, there, there are, you know, the,
[5:04] there are violations and penalties,
[5:07] but you know, again, you know, it's, they're gonna have
[5:10] to go to Superior court,
[5:11] I guess Code enforcement's gonna have to go
[5:13] to Superior Court and you know, again,
[5:15] just eating up more time and whatever.
[5:16] So anyway, it's just, you know,
[5:18] the whole thing is really unfortunate
[5:20] because it's a good fit for the area,
[5:22] but this sign thing has just gone on and on.
[5:25] It's just, it's outta control.
[5:26] But anyway, thank you for listening to
[5:28] Me.
[5:29] Thank you. Thank you Tom.
[5:35] Anyone online? Owen?
[5:38] Mad chair. Seeing none Rise online. Move
[5:40] To close.
[5:41] Second. A, a motion to close public forum and a second.
[5:44] All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Any opposed or abstentions?
[5:48] Okay. Moving on to the consent agenda.
[5:51] I think it's just two items on here.
[5:54] We have item 26 63 to,
[5:57] to approve the minutes from our June 30th goals workshop
[6:01] and item 26 64, ordinance 2026 dash 0 0 1
[6:06] to amend the zoning ordinance, chapter 1 65.
[6:09] And there will be a public hearing on that on August 4th.
[6:15] Our motion to accept a consent agenda. Make a
[6:17] Motion to accept a consent agenda. Second.
[6:20] All right, we have a motion by Council Webb, second
[6:23] by Councilor Flood on the motion.
[6:25] Council Mills? Yes. Councilor Healy. Yes. Councilor Webb?
[6:28] Yes. Councilor Chase? Yes. Councilor Flood? Yes.
[6:32] Councilor Foote? Yes. And Chair Votes? Yes. Motion passes.
[6:35] Seven zero. Excuse me
[6:39] for the chair's report.
[6:41] We have a couple of appointments this evening, so I'd like
[6:45] to make a motion to appoint Andrew Young
[6:48] as an alternate member of the planning board for a term
[6:50] to expire March 31st, 2029.
[6:54] Second that. All right. Motion.
[6:56] And a second by Councilor Mills on the Motion.
[6:58] Council Mills? Yes. Sorry.
[7:00] Is there any discussion on that before we Okay.
[7:03] Councilor Mills is, yes. Councilor Healey? Yes.
[7:05] Councilor Webb? Yes. Councilor Chase? Yes. Councilor Flood?
[7:09] Yes. Councilor Foot? Yes. And chair votes? Yes.
[7:11] Motion passes to seven zero
[7:14] and I move to appoint Dr.
[7:18] Catherine Arbor as an alternate member
[7:20] of the Conservation Commission for a term to expire.
[7:23] March 31st, 2029.
[7:25] Second that. Alright, motion Second by Councilor Mills.
[7:30] Any discussion? Councilor Mills? Yes. Councilor Healy? Yes.
[7:35] Councilor Webb? Yes. Councilor Chase? Yes. Councilor Ford?
[7:38] Yes. Councilor Foot? Yes. And chair votes? Yes.
[7:41] Motion passes. Seven zero.
[7:43] I did have one other thing I asked, I know I asked some
[7:45] of you, but I don't think I got to everybody.
[7:48] Just kind of a poll.
[7:50] We're trying to schedule the next joint meeting
[7:54] between the council and the school board.
[7:57] I had talked to Mr.
[7:59] Thiel about it and we were looking at the 22nd,
[8:02] which is a school board night doing it
[8:04] before their meeting since we did
[8:05] it before our meeting last time.
[8:06] But I wanted to ask if
[8:07] that was a night that worked for all of you.
[8:10] September 22nd. I dunno if I said the month.
[8:13] Oh, you mean the joint meeting in here? Not not the
[8:15] Legislative committee.
[8:16] Not the legislative committee. That kind of,
[8:17] when we had the two boards come together
[8:19] before the 22nd month of September.
[8:21] So if you don't have to necessarily answer right now,
[8:23] but if you can let me know if that date will work.
[8:27] He, he's worked checking with the school board,
[8:29] so I don't know if that will be the date or not,
[8:30] but I just wanna throw it
[8:32] Out there.
[8:33] I'm, I can do that. You can works That
[8:35] date won't work for Ava.
[8:36] If that's, if I'm the only one then that's, that's okay.
[8:39] Okay. Alright, well, we'll I'll, I'll check in with y'all
[8:43] that aren't sure and we'll go from there.
[8:46] And that was all I had.
[8:48] I'll turn it over to Mr. Parler. Alright,
[8:50] Good evening.
[8:51] I've got a number of items today
[8:53] and I've got a couple of presentations so bear with me.
[8:56] But there's a lot of items
[8:57] that I wanna pass, pass along this evening.
[9:00] First item in community information column,
[9:02] the Dairy Planning Department is pleased to announce
[9:05] that the Town of Dairy will be first to partner
[9:07] with Southern New Hampshire Planning Commission
[9:09] for the Southern New Hampshire Housing
[9:12] Implementation Project.
[9:13] The information that's gathered from this project will be
[9:16] incorporated into the region's comprehensive plan.
[9:19] Your feedback is going to be valuable
[9:21] and will help guide future planning efforts.
[9:24] The survey may be accessed at Southern New Hampshire
[9:27] Planning Commission on their website
[9:30] and there's also, I believe a signboard downstairs
[9:33] with some additional information on the first floor.
[9:35] That survey will remain open until July 10th.
[9:39] Another good piece of news for the town.
[9:42] The solar project had passed its witness test on June 25th.
[9:46] The project is going to be flipped on officially July 9th,
[9:51] so we should see electrons flowing
[9:54] and at a later date we are going to,
[9:56] or I'd like the council to do a ribbon cutting.
[9:58] So I'll send some information out, coordinate
[10:01] with our contractor on that, that
[10:03] that's very exciting once we start
[10:04] to get some data in on some of the costs
[10:06] that have been averted by taking that in.
[10:09] I'll pass that along, but really exciting
[10:11] and it took a long time to get here and,
[10:13] and thanks to everybody that had a part in, in doing so.
[10:17] Also, just real quickly on the energy efficiency front,
[10:20] we just cleaned up some reporting to the Department
[10:24] of Energy for the two Equinox electric vehicles that we use
[10:29] for the code enforcement department.
[10:31] The usage thus far has been very, very positive.
[10:35] It's only been costing us between 120
[10:38] and $180 per month for both
[10:40] of those vehicles total to be utilized.
[10:43] So that's been very positive.
[10:46] You know, the mileage on them is,
[10:48] hasn't been a lot they've used, you know, just in town,
[10:51] but it's been very, very positive from a
[10:53] cost aversion standpoint.
[10:54] So we're really happy to see that, that project,
[10:56] and again, all the cost of those vehicles were funded by
[11:00] the EEC E-E-C-B-G grant
[11:02] and a tax credit that we are still in the process
[11:04] of chasing down from the federal government.
[11:08] Another note on electricity costs.
[11:10] So just to let the residents of dairy know most of our
[11:14] grid is on the Eversource default
[11:17] and that rate effective August 1st is gonna be
[11:20] 14.01 cents per kilowatt hour.
[11:23] That's up from 11.30 cents.
[11:26] So unfortunately that is gonna be something
[11:29] that the residents are gonna have to, to deal with.
[11:32] We are looking for some vendors on community power.
[11:36] If you recall back in 2023 we had worked to try
[11:39] to identify somebody.
[11:41] We're gonna reignite that
[11:42] and hopefully we'll have some competitive pricing
[11:45] to provide to the residents.
[11:46] The town buildings, just to, just to clarify, are going
[11:50] to be on the net metering agreement
[11:52] that comes out of, of the solar project.
[11:53] So we are gonna be buffered from those cost increases
[11:56] and we've always been on a third party supply, so
[11:58] that's at least been positive on the towns front.
[12:02] Some other governmental information tax collector's office
[12:06] and town clerk changed their hours effective Monday,
[12:09] July 6th.
[12:10] The hours are now Monday through Friday, seven to 4:00 PM
[12:13] and there's an extra hour on Wednesday
[12:15] until 5:00 PM So that's in effect now.
[12:18] Also wanted to note, the town council is advised
[12:20] of a new calculation of a police detail rate
[12:23] that's effective July 1st, 2026 per council resolution.
[12:27] There's an automatic provision which makes the changes
[12:29] effective to mirror changes in the employee pay rates at the
[12:33] beginning of that fiscal year.
[12:35] And then finally on personnel, I just want
[12:38] to congratulate DPW Highway Crew Chief Billy Buxton.
[12:42] He's announced his retirement at the end of July
[12:44] after 42 years with the community.
[12:46] It's pretty wild. You know, he started with the community
[12:51] June 18th, 1984.
[12:53] So to put that in perspective,
[12:55] gasoline was a dollar 20 back then, there was no such thing
[12:57] as the internet and we still had stores in town like Ames
[13:01] and Radio Shack, so that takes you back a long, long time.
[13:03] But I, I had the pleasure working side by side
[13:07] with Billy, you know, for everything.
[13:09] You know, snow storms, floods, things of that nature.
[13:12] He was often the first to respond at the onset of the storm,
[13:15] usually the last to leave
[13:16] and he was committed to the town first.
[13:18] And you know, I,
[13:20] I just wish Billy the best in his retirement.
[13:22] He should be proud of what he's accomplished
[13:24] and you know, he'll find it probably an adjustment
[13:27] to be able to sleep through his first winter storms.
[13:29] But congratulations from, from my seat
[13:32] and I will obviously stop by and see Billy
[13:34] before he officially steps aside.
[13:36] So just wanted to pass that along.
[13:38] So that's all I have on the town administrator's comments.
[13:42] Mike, before you move on, share other stuff.
[13:44] Are there any questions on that? I think yep,
[13:47] I just had two questions.
[13:48] One is on Billy Buxton.
[13:50] Do you know if they're having any sort of luncheon form
[13:54] or anything like that on his last day?
[13:56] I, I'll have to check with Clint.
[13:58] I'm not aware of anything that's a large,
[14:00] they may be doing something at the Public works garage.
[14:03] Right. But if I find out I'll pass it along to the council.
[14:06] And the other question I had, it just happened to trigger,
[14:09] or I would've asked you earlier is when you were talking
[14:12] about community power.
[14:13] I remember we had a community power presentation
[14:16] by the net zero task force.
[14:17] Yep. About two years ago.
[14:18] We looking for an agreement that is
[14:21] significantly different from the one, no,
[14:24] No.
[14:25] What had happened with we, we had gone
[14:27] through using our vendor to create the,
[14:30] the community power plan.
[14:32] You have to get the New Hampshire POC to approve it.
[14:34] And that's what the exercise was two years ago.
[14:36] Yeah, we priced it a couple of times over the last 24 months
[14:41] and we just, they nobody could beat the default rates
[14:44] and that has been kind of a factor in the last couple
[14:47] of pricing cycles.
[14:48] But what we're seeing now is the default rates are
[14:50] starting to increase.
[14:52] We think there's a nice window going into the
[14:54] beginning of 2027.
[14:55] So we'll identify a new CP provider, not the utility
[14:59] but the consultant
[15:01] and then that will put them in motion to do pricing
[15:04] for the community, announce those rates
[15:06] and then people will have the opportunity to either opt out
[15:09] of the community power or they can, you know, go on
[15:12] to default or they can utilize the community power rates.
[15:15] Alright, thank you. I had one quick question too,
[15:18] just on the Southern New Hampshire Housing Implementation
[15:22] project, do we have a link from our website
[15:24] to get over there for that survey?
[15:26] Yes, if you on the planning site it has a link. Okay,
[15:29] Thank you.
[15:30] Just wanted to put that out there too.
[15:32] All right, any other questions?
[15:33] All right, carry on. Alright,
[15:36] so I also put in the council's packet tonight just an update
[15:40] of some project status.
[15:42] We talked a lot about goals in the last month
[15:44] and I'm gonna move over to the dais here momentarily
[15:47] to just go through some
[15:49] of the council goals and and whatnot.
[15:50] But director carrier had put together
[15:55] an extensive report for the council
[15:57] to highlight over the last year
[15:59] and where we are on specific projects.
[16:01] But you know, I won't go
[16:02] through each one of those individually.
[16:03] But I did want to point out
[16:04] that the Rand Shepherd Hill project, Barland Acres,
[16:08] the water interconnection project, which was sorely needed
[16:11] for those neighborhoods that has been deemed
[16:14] substantially complete.
[16:16] We're gonna be working to finalize the scope
[16:18] of the final pavement in in some of those areas.
[16:20] But that project moved along really
[16:22] efficiently, really well.
[16:23] Works through some tough areas, a lot of ledge.
[16:26] So that is a, a huge benefit to those neighbors in terms
[16:30] of being able to connect to municipal water
[16:34] Exit four A also you can see is still moving along.
[16:37] There was some significant work on the North High Street end
[16:40] over the last couple of weeks.
[16:42] There's been some paving and some grading in that area.
[16:44] So I think they're still trying to find places
[16:47] that they can work while the final determination
[16:50] of the tunnel is being situated.
[16:53] So that is also going on
[16:55] and there's been a little bit of work in the intersection at
[16:57] Ross's Corner to put up the temporary signal.
[16:59] So project will continue along that.
[17:02] Beyond that, if you have any other questions on some
[17:04] of these construction reports, please reach out.
[17:07] But essentially just goes through all the statuses of those
[17:10] and I think it was just informative for the council to have
[17:13] as part of goal setting.
[17:14] So with that, I then can move over to the dais
[17:19] and, and I just wanna go over the town council goals
[17:22] and also look at one other item relative to
[17:26] unassigned fund balance.
[17:42] Okay. So just wanted
[17:46] for the public's information to go
[17:49] through the process of goal setting.
[17:51] It's been done a little bit different,
[17:52] each council, each administrator.
[17:54] But basically it's an opportunity for the town council
[17:57] to furnish the town administrator with goals
[18:00] for implementation through the staff that we have.
[18:02] And each counselor was
[18:04] provided with an update of what we had
[18:06] for goals in fiscal 26.
[18:08] And then looking forward, all the counselors were asked
[18:11] to provide their goals for
[18:14] the upcoming fiscal 27 cycle.
[18:17] Council met for a workshop on June 30th, 2026
[18:22] and then the council, there was a list that was compiled
[18:25] and sent out to the counselors individually, asking them
[18:28] to then rank the goals one through five individually.
[18:31] And what we'll do is we'll compile those goals
[18:33] and then at the August 4th meeting, put those out
[18:37] and publish those as the official goals moving forward.
[18:40] So we came up with,
[18:42] I believe there were 29 different goals.
[18:46] And again, these are not ranked in any order,
[18:48] this is just a random order.
[18:51] But go right through those you know, new police facility,
[18:55] revisit the veteran's credits and exemptions, review
[18:58] or revise the animal control policies,
[19:01] review health insurance via an employee town committee,
[19:06] develop recruitment, hiring
[19:07] and marketing plans, part-time social worker
[19:11] through opioid funds.
[19:12] Continue the downtown development momentum Route 28 south,
[19:17] infrastructure improvements.
[19:20] Review of potential charter amendments,
[19:23] evaluate housing needs and plan to meet the needs.
[19:26] Water wastewater expansion to support future growth,
[19:29] evaluate town needs facility, town hall, space study,
[19:33] non-representative employee compensation study, appointment
[19:36] of town counselor policies,
[19:40] I just lost my spot here.
[19:42] Move forward with 19 ELM Street development.
[19:44] Increase availability of one in two bedroom housing units.
[19:48] A traffic management plan related to post exit four A,
[19:52] implement the hood park revitalization, replenish
[19:55] and grow the CBA trust by FY 28.
[19:59] Improve ZBA customer service
[20:01] and training of members dairy cable funded.
[20:05] Maintain a high level of service, coordinate the CIP
[20:08] between Pinkerton
[20:09] and Dairy School district, continue coordination
[20:12] between SAU 10 and the town safe development
[20:16] and expansion of the bike.
[20:17] Pedestrian paths. Study feasibility
[20:19] of a senior center attached to the police department.
[20:22] Ensure control of economic development, land use,
[20:26] housing planning, zoning all the boards, combining together
[20:31] enforcement education, eliminate human trafficking
[20:34] and illegal spas.
[20:36] Increase fund balance by to 15% by fiscal 29.
[20:40] And then continue employee,
[20:42] customer service and public access.
[20:44] So those are the goals
[20:46] we will move forward in ranking those
[20:48] goals and publishing those.
[20:50] So does any of the counselors have any questions
[20:51] before we move forward on this item?
[20:56] Okay, I would just ask that if you haven't gotten your top
[20:59] five ranking to Mike, if you could do that
[21:02] sooner rather than later so that he has time to compile
[21:04] that final list.
[21:06] Okay. For our next meeting. Thank you.
[21:09] Alright, so one other item that I think is going
[21:13] to drive a lot of the decisions
[21:15] because a lot of the goals
[21:16] that are out there have a monetary tag
[21:19] to them in some regards.
[21:20] So I think one of the things that,
[21:22] besides the budget we have
[21:24] to look at is the unassigned fund balance.
[21:27] So I just wanted to go through this.
[21:28] So not expecting any action tonight,
[21:31] this is more just a primer
[21:32] for a discussion probably in October,
[21:35] but at least it gets everybody thinking about
[21:38] where we might want to be.
[21:39] If there's questions that come out of that, I'd be happy
[21:41] to answer those with the help of Mark.
[21:44] So there's some work to do on this,
[21:46] but I at least want to start the, the process
[21:48] of thinking about what you may
[21:49] or may not want to do to either A, help fund some
[21:52] of your goals or B,
[21:54] look at ways we wanna look at the future with this fund.
[21:59] All right, so just talking about how we get here.
[22:02] So the town collects revenues from various sources
[22:05] and disperses them through payments throughout the year
[22:08] to support town services.
[22:09] When we get to the end of the fiscal year,
[22:11] which just happened last week, June 30th,
[22:13] we reconcile the budget mark's finance team goes
[22:17] through finalizes, closes out all purchase orders
[22:21] and comes to what we basically believe
[22:23] is the end of the fiscal year.
[22:24] And that starts the process with the auditor. Okay?
[22:27] So each year you're, you usually will have some form
[22:31] of fund balance, either from unspent expenditures
[22:35] or revenues that came in higher than than what you,
[22:38] and we've had some pretty good years
[22:40] because we've had a difficult time
[22:42] filling all our vacancies.
[22:43] And we've also had some positive numbers
[22:45] with interest motor vehicle revenues and some grants.
[22:48] So things have been going well from
[22:51] the financial perspective.
[22:53] But to talk about just generally
[22:55] how our fund balance policy, the town councils
[22:58] of the past have established multiple policies about
[23:01] how the fund balance itself is managed
[23:04] and it supports several capital funds,
[23:06] including fire police, DPW, the IT capital reserve,
[23:10] and then the buildings and grounds
[23:12] expendable maintenance trusts.
[23:13] So each year when we come to town council
[23:16] to talk about the annual budget, some of those funds to,
[23:20] to support those particular capital reserves,
[23:22] which support those purchases come
[23:25] and trickle down from from fund balances.
[23:28] So besides that, you also have a retained percentage.
[23:32] So looking at this, the policy
[23:35] as we currently sit is 9.5%
[23:38] of the total tax levy the town should have
[23:41] as a recommended number in its retained fund balance.
[23:46] So what is the total tax levy?
[23:48] So it includes the town school dairy share, the county tax,
[23:52] and the state education tax.
[23:53] So when you put that together for 2025,
[23:57] the total tax levy is just over $137 million.
[24:00] Now that number will go up somewhat significantly next year.
[24:05] We'll have some ideas on what that is, but
[24:08] because of the school budget in terms of the way that
[24:11] that went up, I think we'll be over $150 million in the
[24:15] total tax levy between those four elements.
[24:17] So if you lose use the formula for this year, you can see
[24:21] that it dictates
[24:23] or mandates that we should have just over $13 million
[24:27] in our retained fund balance as a good practice.
[24:31] So each, at the end of each fiscal year, our auditors and
[24:36] and finance department come up
[24:38] with the unassigned fund balance figure.
[24:40] So as of last fiscal year,
[24:44] it was $18,787,000.
[24:47] So if you subtract out what our retained requirement is,
[24:52] you have about $5.7 million that is available
[24:55] above the policy recommendation.
[24:57] But again, I just wanna stress that when you raise
[25:00] that number for the the levy, that's also going
[25:03] to raise the amount that you have to retain.
[25:05] So we won't know the number for probably
[25:10] another three months.
[25:11] So that's why I'm talking about
[25:13] or suggesting that we, we push this discussion out into
[25:16] October, but it just gets everybody thinking about
[25:19] where we will be and what those numbers will look like.
[25:22] So one of the questions that'll be put forth
[25:25] to the council is
[25:27] how do we wanna look at the accounting guidelines?
[25:29] And there's no single rule book that mandates
[25:31] that you must do X or Y.
[25:33] They're general recommendations or best practices.
[25:37] So the New Hampshire GFOA recommends eight to 17%
[25:40] of operating expenditures
[25:42] or five to 15% of operating appropriations.
[25:45] National GFOA recommends two months
[25:47] of operating expenditures
[25:49] and New Hampshire DRA recommends five to 17%
[25:52] of total appropriations.
[25:53] So it's, it's within a range,
[25:56] but by no means is the town in its future decision making
[26:01] going to be bound within a really tight range.
[26:03] So it's really a policy decision from
[26:05] the council's standpoint.
[26:06] But I wanted to make sure that you all had this information
[26:09] for, you know, just for good, good practice
[26:13] and see where we, where we would land on that.
[26:15] So just again, want to throw out some ideas based on some
[26:19] of the goals that had been put out preliminarily.
[26:21] But if you increase using $150 million
[26:26] as your total tax levy in the future year,
[26:28] if we increase the retained amount,
[26:31] each 1% is 1,000,005 that you're going to have to take from
[26:36] the excess fund balance and put it into the retain column.
[26:40] So that's just something to think about as a starter.
[26:43] So if there's a goal, a 15%
[26:45] or some other number, just keep in mind that each percent
[26:48] that you increase from nine
[26:49] and a half up is going to cost 1,000,005 from that bank.
[26:54] We also talked about restoring the CBA trust,
[26:56] we utilized about $1.2 million.
[26:58] It is a goal of mine as well to get that into some,
[27:03] you know, a more stable situation
[27:04] after utilizing a lot of that this year in fiscal 27,
[27:11] allocate some funds to support the compensated absence fund
[27:14] that had been, that has been done regularly in the past.
[27:16] And again, it's a good practice about making sure we have
[27:19] those funds to pay out
[27:21] paid time off when employees leave and and whatnot.
[27:25] Increased veterans credits and exemptions.
[27:27] Again, I I heard that goal many times at our workshop.
[27:31] That is a, an opportunity there potentially
[27:34] that you either are going to look to
[27:36] subsidize other items within your budget,
[27:39] allowing you some capacity to look at these credits
[27:42] or you may want to make a a, a one time, you know, boost
[27:45] to make sure that we can allocate some funds for that.
[27:47] So that's, that's an opportunity to look at
[27:51] the fire facility is looking, gonna look
[27:52] to need about $200,000 to complete that.
[27:55] The building itself, if you recall
[27:57] that the training facility is going to be funded
[28:01] through a benevolent grant,
[28:04] the cost came in at right about the value
[28:06] of what the grant that we have.
[28:07] So we're gonna be looking perhaps
[28:08] for a supplemental appropriation in that $200,000 range.
[28:12] And then finally you may decide
[28:14] to look at al increasing the allocation
[28:16] of the capital reserve funds.
[28:18] Like anything else, everything that we have are purchasing,
[28:21] you know, has now multiplied by two
[28:25] probably from 10 years ago just because of the cost.
[28:27] It's a firetruck, a dump truck, things of that nature.
[28:29] So that number
[28:31] that has been allocated towards the capital reserve funds
[28:34] has not really been amended over the last seven years.
[28:38] So I think that's another area to take a look at.
[28:41] So, you know, I think this was just a tidbit of
[28:44] where we will be going in the future,
[28:46] but I think it just gives us an opportunity to kind
[28:48] of have us some talking points
[28:50] and give you some, you know, guidelines
[28:52] of, of where we're at.
[28:54] So just action moving forward. No vote tonight.
[28:57] This is just to propose we'll look at an item,
[29:00] an agenda item for October.
[29:02] The preliminary FY 26 audit is not completed
[29:05] until at least September.
[29:07] We should finalize town council goals
[29:09] that will help us prioritize where we want to be monetarily
[29:12] and support those goals.
[29:14] And then in October we're gonna have a more precise vision
[29:17] of the political landscape relative
[29:19] to town absorption of the school district.
[29:21] That also may or may not play a role in this,
[29:23] but I figured it should be something
[29:25] that we should at least articulate
[29:27] and we'll have some better ideas as to where
[29:29] that may or may not be heading.
[29:30] So that, with that, that's all I have relative
[29:33] to the UFB discussion.
[29:35] But again, open to any questions
[29:37] or if you have other questions you can certainly
[29:39] email me and I'll get back
[29:40] To you, you over the next couple of days.
[29:43] Thank you. Questions?
[29:46] No, thank you for the detail assessment of it.
[29:50] You know, I just believe that really healthy,
[29:52] well-funded fund balances essential, particularly
[29:55] as we're looking at potentially funding a police station in
[29:58] the future because any construction project is gonna have
[30:01] overruns no matter what we budget for
[30:04] and that's what the fund balance is for, is to
[30:07] absorb the shock of those overruns so we don't have
[30:09] to pass 'em on to our taxpayers.
[30:11] It's a savings account.
[30:13] Yep. Thank you. Alright.
[30:17] All right. Thank you. Thank you very
[30:18] Much.
[30:20] Okay, we're up to our new business for the evening.
[30:24] We just have one item 26 65,
[30:27] which is resolution 2026 dash 0 3 8
[30:30] to authorize expenditures from the police revolving fund
[30:32] police, police Chief George Foli presenting
[30:36] Good evening counselors.
[30:39] We seek tonight permission to
[30:41] utilize funds from the police detail revolving fund a
[30:44] revenue fund to purchase a new Farrow Laser scanner
[30:48] for our crime scene processing efforts.
[30:51] We have one now, but it is no longer covered under warranty
[30:56] and the item is not gonna be supported
[30:58] by the company we we purchased it from.
[31:00] So we seek to replace that old equipment.
[31:04] The cost of this new device, which includes the scanner,
[31:08] a camera, a tripod,
[31:11] and all the software associated is $51,181.
[31:16] And we have in our presently, at the time of writing
[31:20] of the staff report,
[31:21] $354,466 available in
[31:26] the detailed revolving fund.
[31:27] That revenue fund that we do maintain.
[31:28] Important to note that all of those funds are raised by
[31:32] private contractors billing and invoicing.
[31:36] Those for the special details when they,
[31:38] when they hire police officers,
[31:40] there's no tax dollars involved in this request.
[31:44] So I seek authorization to move forward
[31:46] with purchasing the laser scanner
[31:47] and associated software and equipment.
[31:50] Happy to answer any questions
[31:52] You have Questions?
[31:54] No? No. Alright.
[31:58] So you know questions Madam Chair,
[32:00] I move resolution number 26 0 3 8
[32:03] to authorize expenditures from the police revolving fund.
[32:06] Whereas Section 5.1
[32:09] of the town charter designates the town council
[32:11] as the governing and legislative body of the town.
[32:14] And as such, it is empowered to adjust, to adopt resolutions
[32:19] and ordinances, including the appropriation of funds.
[32:22] And whereas the Dairy Police Department provides special
[32:25] details services for businesses, groups,
[32:28] and individuals requiring specialized traffic control,
[32:32] crowd control and other security.
[32:34] And wheres the town council Under resolution?
[32:36] 2017 dash 0 2 0 authorized the creation
[32:41] of a police detail revolving fund pursuant
[32:44] to RSA 31 95 APO
[32:50] H to separately account for
[32:52] and expend the funds for this purpose.
[32:54] And whereas sufficient excess revenues now exist in this
[32:58] fund and the police department is in need
[33:00] of additional funding to purchase a laser scanner
[33:03] to replace obsolete equipment and now
[33:06] therefore be it resolved in council
[33:08] that the Town Council hereby authorizes the withdrawal
[33:11] of $51,181 from the police detail
[33:16] revolving fund to assist with the purchase
[33:19] of a laser scanner.
[33:20] This resolution shall take effect
[33:22] immediately upon its passage.
[33:24] Second motion by Council Mills second by Councilor Foote.
[33:28] Any further discussion? Right on the motion. Council mills?
[33:32] Yes. Councilor Healy. Yes. Councilor Webb? Yes.
[33:35] Councilor Chase? Yes. Councilor Flood? Yes. Councilor Foot?
[33:38] Yes. And Chair votes? Yes. Motion passes. Seven zero. Thank
[33:41] You very much, council.
[33:42] Thank you. All right, Councillor comments. Council Webb,
[33:49] This may take about five minutes,
[33:50] but where we just had July 4th, I just wanna read something.
[33:54] My father wrote this as an editor, newspaper editor back in
[33:59] 1976 and was selected
[34:01] by the International Society Weekly newspaper editors as one
[34:05] of their 12 best editorials written in 1976.
[34:10] And I happened to reread it the other day
[34:11] and thought it was particularly appropriate on our 250th.
[34:14] So tomorrow with a celebration of Independence Day,
[34:19] the United States enters the 200th year
[34:22] of its existence as a nation.
[34:24] There are those who suggest
[34:25] that the country is in the early stages of a decline,
[34:28] that its best days are behind it.
[34:31] These warriors are unduly pessimistic.
[34:35] They overlooked the fact
[34:36] that the United States is unique in all the world
[34:39] because it is unique, its problems are unique.
[34:42] Since Americans live daily with these problems,
[34:45] their magnitude is more impressive to us
[34:47] than are the difficulties experience internally in countries
[34:50] less familiar to us.
[34:52] Let's look at our country for a few minutes.
[34:55] Our geographic area is vast in comparison with most
[34:58] of the world's nations.
[35:00] Our populations more widely diverse and racial, religious
[35:03] and national background than that of any other country.
[35:06] Most important as it applies to the varied background
[35:09] of American citizens is that the people
[35:11] of the United States are citizens of this country
[35:13] through their own free will.
[35:15] They were not absorbed into citizenship through conquest.
[35:18] Many Americans have ancestral roots in countries which no
[35:21] longer exist as individual nations
[35:24] because the expansions of neighbors.
[35:28] Although we are realizing that there are limitations
[35:30] to natural resources, our supply is great in comparison to
[35:33] that of the majority of the world's countries.
[35:36] We are not a one resource country, as may be said of some
[35:40] of the oil producers, for example.
[35:42] We're less dependent upon imports
[35:44] than are the great majority of the world's nations.
[35:47] Our technological skills are the envy
[35:49] of the world in themselves
[35:51] and in their continued development.
[35:52] They are the resource to which winds unmatched strength
[35:55] to our ability to cope with natural resources
[35:57] and environmental problems in a manner possessed
[36:00] by no other society.
[36:02] Imperfect. Though we construe it to be at times our system
[36:05] of government is demen demonstrably strong
[36:08] and amazingly resilient.
[36:09] The interesing of various political subdivisions into
[36:12] federal whole in which all are relatively compatible is a
[36:16] true governmental wonder that we find fault
[36:19] with government is a virtue rather than an impediment.
[36:23] Impatience is an American characteristic
[36:25] and is our frequently demonstrated in our criticisms
[36:29] of the process of government.
[36:31] We are not a passive people easily subject
[36:34] to dictatorial control.
[36:36] Our freedom of thought and our ability to look at ourselves
[36:39] and our institutions introspectively,
[36:41] has been demonstrated over and over again.
[36:44] Is it possible to imagine that the governments of Russia
[36:46] or China are major world rivals when now
[36:51] or in the foreseeable future, view themselves
[36:53] as sufficiently secure to allow their public examination
[36:57] of their intelligence apparatus
[36:58] to which we are subjecting to CIA?
[37:01] We are pragmatic enough to realize the importance
[37:04] of intelligence gathering as an internal safeguard,
[37:07] but dedicated to the idea
[37:08] that our government may not spy on us
[37:11] or seek to utilize an intelligence force as a means
[37:14] of imposing its wills upon us.
[37:16] This a sign for all the world to see of our inner strength
[37:19] that we can act in this fashion with all its weaknesses.
[37:23] Our economic system provides greater opportunities
[37:26] for Americans than it exists
[37:28] for individuals anywhere else in the world.
[37:31] Even the huge size of some
[37:33] of our corporate structures reflect a form
[37:35] of ownership unrivaled, except in the statism of
[37:39] industry in the frankly socialistic countries.
[37:41] When Karl Marx wrote that the ownership of the tools
[37:44] of production belong in the hands of workers
[37:46] he couldn't have imagined, his theory would be
[37:48] so solidly exemplified in a capitalistic structure
[37:52] as it is in the American free enterprise system,
[37:54] through their ownership of the common stock
[37:57] of these industrial
[37:58] and commercial giants, either as individuals
[38:01] or subscribers to mutual funds, as contributed pension funds
[38:05] or an investor's insurance policies.
[38:07] Americans and American workers do in fact own the tools
[38:10] of production directly or indirectly.
[38:12] The majority of American families are shareholders in the
[38:15] industries which serve them.
[38:17] The fault finders. The viewers
[38:19] with alarm are too narrow in their viewpoint.
[38:21] This is a great and strong
[38:23] and vibrant country which can celebrate its anniversary in
[38:27] pride and with confidence in the future.
[38:30] This was written 50 years ago
[38:32] and I still think it's true today.
[38:35] Thank you. I'm just realizing,
[38:37] so this past weekend wasn't about me turning 50,
[38:40] it was something else.
[38:42] No, unless you are 250.
[38:45] Oh, oh, sorry, I missed that.
[38:46] I thought those were fireworks for me.
[38:48] Just kidding. Yes. Council,
[38:49] Madam Chair, I, I'd like to make sure that we include
[38:52] that entire article word for word in our minutes
[38:55] of this meeting for future.
[38:57] Sure.
[38:58] Sounds good. Good council,
[39:01] Fun.
[39:04] Since this is the last meeting
[39:05] before on August 1st, we'll be having our,
[39:08] my organization's town
[39:11] community event be held at Pinkerton Academy
[39:14] up by the football field.
[39:16] The whole town's invited, it's free to attend.
[39:19] It's, there'll be approximately 30 community
[39:23] organizations there.
[39:25] If you're feeling for kids who feel left out alone,
[39:30] parents who need information for their kids,
[39:32] if they're struggling and there'll be events there
[39:36] for little kids, from pre-teens to teenagers
[39:40] and elementary school kids to grandparents,
[39:43] there'll be something for everyone.
[39:44] So reach out to me if you want information on it,
[39:48] and hopefully we'll see you there on August 1st.
[39:54] Alright. I also wanted to just kind of, I, I,
[39:58] I did know it was really the 4th of July,
[40:00] but I wanted to, I just wanted to thank everyone that worked
[40:03] through the holiday to make sure
[40:05] that we had a successful weekend from our first responders
[40:08] keeping us safe to everybody that worked to pull,
[40:10] pull off our fireworks.
[40:12] I, they sounded nice from my house.
[40:14] I have a very worried dog, so I was not there.
[40:18] But it, it just, having been somebody who,
[40:21] and I know several others here worked,
[40:23] probably worked several holidays.
[40:25] Thank you for those that were here
[40:26] through the holiday weekend, working to keep our town safe
[40:31] and keep our town happy.
[40:33] So thank you everyone. That's it.
[40:35] Move to adjourn second.
[40:37] All right. We have a motion, a second to adjourn.
[40:39] All those in favor? Aye. A Aye. All right.
[40:42] Have a good night everyone.