Good evening and welcome to the
August 4th, 2026 Town Council meeting.
We'll start with the Pledge of Allegiance.
Councillor Foot, would you lead us, please? Yes,
I pledge Allegiance, flag in United States of America
and to the republic for which to stand.
One nation should undergo indivisible with liberty
and justice for all.
Thank you. Just a reminder, please silence phones
and in case of emergency exits out straight out the back
or the side here, down the stairs.
Roll call Councilor Mills.
Good evening, Councilor Healy.
Good evening, councilor Webb. Good evening, councilor Flood.
Good evening, councilor Foot. Good evening.
Councillor Chase is unable to join us this evening
and good evening from the chair.
Is there a motion to open public forum? So moved.
Second. Alright, we have a motion, a second
to open public forum.
All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Alright.
Public forum is now open. The floor is yours.
If you'd like to come up, please just state your name
and address for the record.
Steve Raffe, 13 North Shore Road, business owner in dairy,
property owner in dairy, a heavy taxpayer in dairy.
And gonna be a sad person come December when everybody's tax
bills get whacked for whatever they get whacked to.
But since I had to do some math for another reason,
I thought I'd bring it to you and let you know what's
happened, which I've been preaching
forever, but doesn't help.
But I'm just gonna give you some numbers.
And 2019, we had an assessed value along High Street,
Madden Road and Folsom Road of 4.5 million.
We were collecting about 115,000 in taxes.
I have actually pulled all the tax cards and did the math.
And you should know the loss of tax revenue up
to about 2026 is approximately 700,000.
The assessed value in 2 26 would be about 6 million.
Now, with the increases we've had and the,
and the reassessments and, and
and that revenue, it's about 170,000 a year.
Another 65 grand.
It would've been the, And I have,
like I said, I just did the math on this from the tax cards,
the properties that are kept now, the assessed value
of those properties, I own two and Stinson owns one
and the rest are all sucked up by the state.
There's no taxes coming in.
Total assessment today is about 700,000
and the taxes are now collecting are about 10,000.
That's $8,750 a year.
So that's welcome to exit four A.
It's not, we've tried to get the state to, you know,
agree with a whole bunch of,
so we could get things going early, go through planning, go
through zoning, get approved.
It takes two, two years
and by the time the highway come we could be building.
That won't happen. So basically when the highway's done,
because the state is unreasonable in every aspect
that they can possibly find, including what they did
to the rail trail, you know,
you won't have to wait for them to finish.
I know people have heard 2030 on the main part,
2032, that's probably not true.
I was told by the state it's 27, 28.
Still probably the town manager.
He knows enough to know that at least it's there.
The problem for the building part of it is until it's done
and we know what we have, we really can't go in for planning
and zoning, which is another year and a half.
And then from there we gotta build,
which is another year and a half or two.
So it's another 700,000. So we're gonna lose 1.5 million.
We're gonna collect about $8,700 a month for a while.
I mean a year. And that's what we got out of that.
So I just want everybody to know the numbers only
'cause I pulled every single tax card
and went through it and I thought it'd be good.
Good for you to know. Thank you.
Poll Anyone Madam Chair. Seeing none rise online.
Motion to close the public hearing.
Second We a motion and a second to close public forum.
All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Aye.
Any opposed or abstentions? Okay.
Moving on to consent agenda. We have quite a bit.
We have item 26 66
to approve the minutes from the July 7th, 2026 meeting.
We have item 26 67,
which is ordinance 2026 dash 0 0 2 to amend chapter 1 38
of the general code to adopt the dairy commercial industrial
property tax exemption program.
There will be a public hearing at our September 1st meeting.
26 73 is resolution 2026 dash four four To
accept unanticipated revenues in the FY 26 budget
to cover finance department expenses, there'll be a,
a public hearing on September 1st for that as well.
26 74 is resolution 2026 dash four five
to approve a supplemental appropriation
and budget transfer for the FY 26 fire budget.
There'll be a hearing on September 1st,
26 75 rev resolution 2026 dash 0 4 6
to approve a supplemental appropriation
and budget transfer for the FY 26 Emergency
Management Department budget.
Also a public hearing scheduled for September 1st on that,
is there a motion to accept move to
Accept. Second.
Alright. Motion by Councilor Foote.
Second by Council Mills to accept the
consent agenda on the motion.
Councilor Mills? Yes. Councilor Haley. Yes. Councilor Webb?
Yes. Councilor Foot? Yes. Councilor Flood. Yes.
And chair votes? Yes. Motion passes. Six zero.
Moving right along. All right.
I have a few things under Chair's report, I guess first
'cause Tina spilled the beans.
Happy Birthday Council Mills. Thank you.
I heard he didn't want us to say it, but I said anyway.
And happy pre birthday. Councilor Flood. Yay.
Yours is coming up too. All right. Mine's passed.
What was that? Mine name's passed. Oh, yours is passed.
Oh, I thought it was coming up. Oh, it's passed.
Well, happy belated birthday then also a couple
of other congratulations out there.
I don't know if we've mentioned it,
but I do want to congratulate Councilor Foote in particular
on getting House Bill 1469 was signed
by the governor in July, which was a lot of effort
and a lot of time
and hard work that you've put in along with others.
Just wanna congratulate you
and also congratulate the state for actually getting
that in, in statute at this point. So thank you. Team
Effort.
And Council Mills?
Yes. And Councilor Mills as well. Sponsor.
I, I'd just like to make a co a comment.
I just came back from a Chicago National conference
where one of the vendors there had s had saw my badge
that I was from New Hampshire and sought me out
and thanked me for, for SB 1469
as New Hampshire being one of the leading states in,
in pursuing this kind of human trafficking.
So it's well noticed, well beyond the bounds of dairy.
And thank you Counselor Foot.
Thank you. And last
but not least, I would like
to congratulate our town clerk, Tina Guilford.
I, I don't, I don't know what goes on in most towns,
but I know that she is very committed
to the role of being our town clerk.
So much so that she has spent the last three years in a
program from the New England Municipal Clerks Institute
and Academy and just graduated in July from
that, that three year program.
And I just wanna say a thank you for, for your engagement
with the role and also for continuing to, to grow
and help us be the best we can be.
Thank you.
All right. That is all I have tonight, so I'll turn it over
to town Administrator Mike Fowler.
Alright, good evening.
So I have a couple of general items
and then Owen's going to put up a presentation.
We'll talk about goals
and some economic development items
that are on the town administrators report for tonight.
So let me start off with some community information.
So Towns staff participated in a meeting on July 21st
regarding an upcoming deadline for the determination
of census tracks to be selected for opportunity zone 2.0.
So DER has two eligible census tracks located within the
core urban sector of the community.
To qualify the track has to meet a couple of
dynamics in terms of medium family income and
or the track has a poverty rate of 20% or higher.
So we have two that do qualify
and those will provide tax incentives.
So basically investors are able to shield earnings
that they have and they can defer capital gains
and then reinvest in that.
So basically the applications are due by August 28th.
Bev is working on some of the application elements to it
and we'll get that into the governor's office.
And then the governor is expected to make final selections
by the end of September.
She will select 25 out
of the 53 qualifying census tracks across New Hampshire.
And if a census track is selected,
the designation is a federal tax incentive program.
So we're looking forward to that.
We'll keep the council updated on that. Personnel.
One of the things that I wanted to announce tonight is
that we have currently 22 vacancies within our roles.
We've had some recent retirements that I've talked about
also just as a FYI,
the executive secretary Sheila Boden Raider is going
to be retiring on October 1st.
So I'll go into that a little bit more at our next meeting.
But that is going to be a large hole that we're gonna have
to fill within, not only for the council,
but also for me personally in terms of keeping all the stuff
that you see here behind the scenes.
It all gets done by, you know, by her.
So we have a lot of work to do.
Human resources is actively seeking candidates
for all the positions.
But I did wanna highlight two of them that were kind
of most important in our front view.
The assistant fire chief position has a closing,
closing date of July 31st.
As of last week we had 14 external candidates
and one internal candidate.
We've had some nationwide
interest in it, which is a good thing.
So the process going forward will be as of next week,
we're gonna be reviewing applicants between the HR director
and a representative of MRI and the fire chief.
Then there'll be some initial interviews scheduled
for probably the week of August 21st.
Hopefully we'll have the assessment process done
by first week of September, hopefully final interviews
and a conditional offer by mid-September.
And then we anticipate
that vacancy will be filled by November 1st.
So that's an ongoing process.
And then also building inspector position.
It was a closing date
or as of 7 22 we had one internal candidate,
13 external candidates there.
We are trying to actively recruit
through New Hampshire Municipal Association,
New Hampshire Building officials.
We have some interviews scheduled for this week with some
of the candidates, but it's an ongoing
and open application process.
Again, our hopes is to fill that vacancy in the next 45 days
or thereabouts as you can.
As we're gonna talk about, there's a lot
of economic development going on, a lot of permit needs
that are being put forward.
So that is something that we're targeting hopefully
by we get to the end of the month of September.
And with that I'd like
to go into some discussion about the FY 27 town council
goals and economic development.
Okay, Thank you Owen.
Okay. At the July 7th town council meeting, we had put up
the general list of town council goals
that were combined from a goals session
that was conducted in late June.
Since that meeting, councilors were given an opportunity
to then rank all of those goals one to five.
So what we're gonna do coming out
of tonight's meeting is this is the ranking in frequency.
So I'll just go through those.
The, the list is the same based on order of priority
and also the frequency that the number
of town counselors had placed a priority on.
So number one is revisit review veterans
and elderly tax credits and exemptions.
The Route 28 South infrastructure improvements
review health insurance via employee and the town committee.
That's on everybody's mind relative to the cost continued
downtown redevelopment.
And then number five was a new police facility
with construction hopefully to begin by fiscal 31.
So you can see that there was a lot of common themes
that were put forward in the top five.
If you move forward to the ordinal priority where each one
of you waited one to five,
basically it's the same five goals,
but you can see that the police facility moved up the list
slightly and kind of moved everything else down below that.
But the same five goals are shared.
And so coming out of this, the
town administrator will take these goals.
I have a staff meeting with senior staff tomorrow
and we're gonna start to implement those now many
of these goals have already been in place.
We already started to talk about the
veterans credits internally.
So that's something that we'll be bringing forth within the
next probably 60 days
for some discussions with town council.
The police facility that's an active item.
Health insurance we've talked a lot about.
I've been in contact with Catherine St.
Ledger, our HR director in talking about
what the next steps are on that.
The route 28 south infrastructure. We have design underway.
We have an EPA grant.
We were just notified last week that the SRF funding
process through the state, we were ranked number one
for the rest of that, which would be a low interest loan.
So we'll be working our way through that
and reporting to council shortly on that.
And then finally continue the downtown redevelopment.
Tonight there'll be some activity
with some ordinance changes through the planning board
that Liz and and staff will present on that.
But obviously that's an ongoing effort
through Bev and and whatnot.
So we also wanna make sure that we remind residents,
we remind the town council
that we're actively working on a number of efforts that are,
may not be listed as goals,
but they're equally as important.
So there's a number of of an endeavors
that didn't make the top five lists,
but we are gonna continue to push
and make sure that we continue.
There's a lot of infrastructure that's going on,
there's a lot of economic development going on.
There's a lot of building projects to monitor.
So I think I'm very optimistic with the year
that we just had and I'm looking forward to, you know,
implementing these goals in FY 27.
And so with that, those are the goals and,
and I don't, you don't necessarily have to make any
action on those, but if there's any commentary
or anything of that nature, happy to to take that or
otherwise we can move on to the next
about economic development.
I just have a quick question.
So some of the goals that you know, aren't the top five,
are we still kind of gonna be working
on those throughout the year?
'cause we all had some, some other goals that, you know,
they're not as maybe as as high ranking as these,
but there's still some things that I, you know, one of one
of my goals as a compensation study for the non-represented
and I don't wanna see that just go away.
So is there a process to, for some of the other small,
smaller goals to bring those up?
Yeah, so I think this process is kind of a way
for the town council to clearly define to the staff
and to the public that these are its priorities.
But beyond that, anytime it's a discussion with me,
it's a discussion with town council chair
to bring certain items.
So you all have that opportunity to kind
of talk through those items.
It can be agendized
or it can be put forward as a budgetary item.
But I think with each one of you,
I've had conversations about certain priorities
that you'd like to see you, for example,
talking about animal control that didn't make the top five,
but certainly that is gonna be a high priority goal within
staff and then it may require some ordinance
changes and things of that nature.
So all those goals are taken into account
and I certainly pay attention to them.
There's no question about that
because I recognize if we just focused on five goals
and only accomplish those five,
we'd leave a lot of things out, right?
So I think the process to come back around to it,
for example, if you're talking about a compensation study,
would be to have a conversation with, you know, with me
and with the chair about how do we fund that?
How would we want to kick that off?
Is it something that would be timed
with the budgetary process?
I think that might be an appropriate way to look at that.
But the door's always open for those sorts of discussions
and there's things that we maybe not even had looked at
that are contemporary because they just happened this month
or just happened, you know, a few days ago.
And those may rise to a high priority just
because, so this isn't a static list that can't be amended
and, and obviously we're not just rigid
within those five goals.
Okay, thank you
Council, We thank you for putting this together.
Thank you chairperson Spencer for the new process.
I thought being very open about it was very helpful.
The only concern I have is again, my own soapbox,
which is in health insurance is I,
I think it's a complex problem.
I don't think we necessarily have the expertise within this
building and that may be something
that we may have to look at financially in the future.
But you know, even if we spend money on a consultant
that saves us a thousand dollars a month
or a thousand dollars a year,
that's a $200,000 savings across the town.
So I think it's something that as you work with staff,
we should consider is to make certain that we have somebody
that's an expert on both in facilitating these discussions
and knowledgeable of the problem
because it is a pretty vast problem.
Thank you. Thank you.
Anyone else? Alright, thank you for up. Okay,
So as we start the new fiscal year,
we're already one month into fiscal 27.
I think it's, it's important to look at
where we're trending on on the economic development front.
So I'd asked Bev to compile some information relative
to some of the initiatives and,
and where we stand on some of the things.
So, you know, looking,
just generally our efforts have been multi-pronged.
There's been infrastructure expansion, zoning updates
and attraction of new businesses and new projects.
So looking at some of the infrastructure,
as everybody's aware, the DPW
had successfully completed the,
the Rand Shepherd interconnection project
to connect three community water systems to municipal water.
So this was primarily a project for
in residential districts,
but it also has some ancillary effects on quality of life
and and attracting people to our community.
Obviously well known the exit four A improvements are still
underway along Folsom Road,
Southern New Hampshire Regional Water projects.
We have some work going on at the Chin Road storage tank
and improvements in London dairy,
which were started in FY 26.
There'll be more information to come.
We do have some upcoming meetings with the state
DES looking at fully funding that phase two B,
which will be something that we'll bring in front
of the council should that be mature to do.
So. The landfill solar project was completed
and that went online last month.
I will come back to the council with a brief report as to
how we're doing, but thus far the
production has been pretty good.
Other than a couple of rainy days,
obviously our fire headquarters were completed
and opened January of 2026.
And then obviously last year at this time we sold the bond
and, and we have construction underway on our
Abbott court parking garage.
So zoning obviously planning staff and planning board.
Were heavily involved in defining the gateway
zoning district in the exit.
Four a quarter town council will be presented
with some minor changes in the central business
district at tonight's meeting.
So that's also listening to some of the, the trends
that we needed to look at.
And Liz and and staff will be able
to walk through that tonight.
So some highlights of some things that have occurred.
We have 74 Rockingham Road,
the residence at Sky Crystal Ave.
You saw the Common man in Bangor Savings Bank Open recently,
71 Bir Street, dairy, plumbing and Heating.
And there's several minor subdivisions, 33 East Dairy Roads,
84 Island Pond Road, Daniel Road and Cemetery Road.
So there's been some new residential development
and then looking at some approved
projects with a future build.
So ironically both 12 a street,
which is Epsy conditionally improved there,
there have been ground broken on that project this week.
And then also 43
and a half Crystal Lab, the Grindhouse, you do see some
construction equipment on that site as well.
So there's, I believe there was an announcement by
the proprietor that that project is starting up.
So those are both exciting.
41 Ashley Drive, which could potentially be a warehouse
that easement was approved through Conservation Committee
and town council and that was a major hurdle
to future development of that parcel.
1, 2, 3, and four Humphrey Road.
It's a mixed use site plan that was conditionally approved.
We're keeping an eye on, on the, the process through that.
We'll be in front of the council on September 4th,
I'm sorry, September 1st to approve easements related
to the realignment of Humphrey Road, Abbott Court
and LMG Phase two residential is not too far behind us here.
So that is a process that's ongoing.
And then 18 Crystal Lab reuse of the Rite Aid
with multiple tenants.
That is something that is going
to likely be coming forward in the next six to 12 months.
Some growth statistics tax year 2025 our,
our assessments increased by $55 million.
But I also wanted to look as to what just happened.
The fiscal 26 building permit stats 1,375 permits,
$88 million worth of construction costs.
Now some of those are relatively minor additions.
They might be electrical permits,
but there were some large permits within there as well.
33 new residential single family permits
and 353 residential additions or renovations.
So as we look forward to the fiscal 28,
when we set the tax rate in looking to the FY 28 budget,
we're anticipating a similar increase year over year
of about $55 million.
And again, that helps broaden the tax base.
So you're starting to see where we used to figure 15
or $20 million worth of new assessed value,
we're seeing multi-year trends of $55 million
or more, which is very, very favorable.
So, you know, I think the, the
trajectory continues to point up.
I think the town does a really good job at
looking at sustainable projects, projects
that don't tax our infrastructure so much
that we can't handle the items that are there.
So with that, I think that's the, the
essence of the report.
And then looking at future opportunities,
1 0 9 Rockingham Road could be a mixed use site plan.
We also have reuse of a couple of other drug stores,
the old Walgreens and the Rite Aid at 52 Rockingham Road
seven Manchester Road, the old Sanmina property,
57 Crystal Ave, bank of America.
You obviously have the opportunities in front
of you from the west running Brook zone,
downtown Central Business District,
and the Gateway District.
So these are all future opportunities.
You know, Bev is in contact with a number
of different stakeholders on those individual properties
and also in a general sense to try
to attract good development to the community.
She's in the audience tonight if you have any questions
relative to to that, but I know Bev is also instrumental in
bringing some of the key players into dairy to try to talk
through various questions that they may have.
Try to guide them to the right people,
whether it's on a local basis or,
or a state level basis to help them maybe with financing
with some of the questions they have for development
and of, of our staff.
So that's a quick rundown as to where we stand,
but again, overall it's very, very positive.
Thank you. Are there any questions,
comments, officer Haley?
Yeah, I have one on the,
the New residential in the Reno renovations.
How quickly do those get recorded with assessing in,
you know, the tax card kind of updated
to when the project is complete is,
It's my understanding and,
and I believe there's a, what they call kind of a pickup as
of April 1st of that year.
So April 1st, 2026, there's a process that
you are assessed for the 26 tax year at the status you are.
So say there's a building project that's ongoing
and it worked over the winter time, they will assess it at
that point and it may be 70% done.
So it's assessed at that level.
And then the following year when it has its occupancy
certificate and, and it's built, they would get another,
you know, the final 30% is assessed at that time,
but I believe the date is April 1st of each year.
Yeah, I can see Liz shaking her head. Yeah.
And so we're notified, you know, as the project's completed
to, for the, for the assessor or whatever to go out
and for everything to be completed at that point.
Yeah, and and I, the process works where it goes from the
building inspector's office to the assessing office for them
to go out and perform those physical inspections
and make those determinations of assessment as of April 1st.
Thank you. Other questions? Comments?
Okay. All right. Thank you. Thank
You.
All right. We
have one public hearing this evening.
Agenda item 26 64,
which is ordinance 2026 dash 0 0 1
to amend the zoning ordinance chapter 1 65,
planning director Elizabeth Du presenting.
Good evening Counsel. Before I get into the meat of this,
I did wanna take this opportunity to introduce Abigail Burl,
who is our planning intern this year.
You will see the results of all
of her very hard work on some more zoning changes
that we'll be bringing forward as a result
of the legislative session this year.
We'll be presenting that to the planning board tomorrow
night and then working over the rest of the summer
to bring that forward to you.
Abby's also been very, it's been great between Caroline
and and Abby, we've been able to keep track of
the increasing number of applications
that are coming through our office.
So I'm thankful to have her. So welcome.
Thank you. All right.
So for this evening,
the planning board's been reviewing proposed changes
to the central business district in various definitions.
Since January of this year, the board held five workshops
and conducted one onsite walk to review the district.
We actually walked almost the entire CBD
this early in the spring.
The changes include redefining parking lot
and adding a definition for a multi-level parking facility
to differentiate between ground level parking
and a parking structure.
And the definition for front Lot Line has been amended
to clarify which lot line is actually the front when
a lot has frontage on more than one street.
We were running into issues where if it's a corner lot like
that, trying to make the dimensions work
and we had to keep sending people to the zoning board
and that just wasn't an efficient use of,
of anybody's time and effort.
So we've worked on that.
There's been an ongoing goal to maximize growth
and economic development opportunities in
the core of our downtown.
The proposed changes recognize the changing landscape
of Southern New Hampshire, where increased housing density,
the height of buildings in commercial market trends require
some form of adaptation to create opportunities
for economic growth and development while still maintaining
the historical character of our central business district.
The proposed changes recognized
that the smaller lot sizes in land use patterns
that have emerged in the district need to continue
and pursuant to RA 6 75 7 as we're not changing
as a district boundary
or there's more than a hundred lots, we didn't have
to individually notice every member
or every lot that was affected by this in the district.
So the notification requirements were met per the RSA.
So rather than going through each of the changes line
by line, I'll just provide a summary for you.
The proposed changes include an amendment to the purpose
of requirements in the district, increases the density
for multi-unit mixed use residential from 12 units an acre
to 24 units decreases the minimum unit size from 800
square feet to 400.
It removes the number of
the limit number on bedrooms required.
It removes the restriction on
where commercial space shall be located in mixed use
buildings while defining the percentage of commercial space
that will be required in the building.
For that one, currently we say no residential
below the second floor.
We've taken that away so that there can be some
creative adaptive reuse of some buildings so
that the commercial can be a percentage anywhere in the
building as opposed to on the first floor.
We added medical office as a permitted use in the district
and removed the prior term parking facilities, replacing it
with multi-level parking.
And we also added a requirement to connect
to municipal sewer conversions
and new developments, changes to enhance and protect.
The street scape included amending the maximum front yard
depth to vary in terms of the lot width.
So you're set back as opposed, you know,
based on how wide you are.
For lots that are 75 feet
or less wide, the front yard depth would be eight feet
or the average for a hundred feet in every direction.
And for lots that are over 76 feet,
maximum yard depth would be 25 or the average for 2200 feet.
Structure height was increased up to 425 feet
above sea level and the prohibited use section was amended
to delete the list of prohibited uses
as we're permissive zoning ordinance.
So we don't need to list what we don't allow.
If it's not there, it's not permitted off.
Street parking was clarified to ensure that parking is not
situated in a manner that requires a vehicle
to back out into the town roadway
and to also prohibit parking
or storage of vehicles in the front setback.
And we also remove the special exception uses
as they were no longer relevant to the zone.
So I do wanna say the board spent a considerable amount
of time on reviewing
and analyzing the front setback in the implications
of any changes to the zoning district.
Based on those changes for fiscal impact,
the town would see reinvestment in the downtown hopefully,
which will generate new and additional revenues
and higher assessed values.
And it's recommended that you would approve the amendments
to the zoning district.
And Happy to pause for any questions
before we have questions.
Does, is there a motion to open the public hearing?
I make the motion to open the
Public hearing. Second that.
Alright. On the motion. Council mills? Yes.
Councilor Healy? Yes. Council Webb? Yes. Council Flood? Yes.
Council Foot? Yes. And chair votes? Yes. Motion passes.
Six zero. So the public hearing is now open.
If anyone would like to come up to speak on this topic.
I do have someone coming up one of you
To steal one of your chairs.
Absolutely.
Hello, David Provin, 26 Milton Moore Road.
I've been a dairy resident for most of my life.
Most of that's been at my current address,
but I did spend a year on Railroad Ave,
which is right in the middle of downtown.
And I just wanted to say,
this all sounds absolutely wonderful and I fully support it
and I think anything to get more people into our downtown,
more life in there would be an
improvement for the town overall.
Thank you. Thank you
Steve Raffe.
Just two questions. Number one, I've only watched one
of those meetings, I know you've had a few,
so I didn't get a chance to sit in on those.
But where the traditional business is an overlay
of the central business to those
properties, they're not affected.
They're not affected. And then the only other comment I
would say that could be an issue,
'cause I have some properties that are like that, especially
where the small back side streets along the back of Broadway
and certain things where people can't, there is no other way
but to back out into an alley, even though it's considered a
street and really there may not be no traffic.
That happens quite a bit. I know know mostly every street
and every, every building in Derry.
So is there a provision for that
or does that just mean what do they do if they can't,
if they pull in and then they have to back out
and not, a lot of times it's not a main street, it's just a,
something may not even use that much.
Well our hope is that people aren't backing out into
Birch Street or Broadway.
Right.
But that, does that provision mean
they're stuck with it everywhere?
It it doesn't mean that you can't,
the way the way we have it written is if you're redeveloping
the lot that we are asking people to take
that into consideration Right.
When they're planning redevelopment.
So if a building is raised
and you're putting up a new structure to plan your parking
so that you're, that is no longer applicable.
Okay. So that's prob that's
for new construction, not existing. Correct.
We can't say that, you know, we,
we can't in the zoning police, the streets.
Okay. Only thing I'm, the only reason why I mention
that is 'cause when they, okay, this maybe
that should be part of, maybe
that should be clarified for that reason.
I don't have that property in the central business that has
that, but I do have some in
traditional business that have that.
And there's just a lot of buildings.
And I bet you I can think of 30 where they have
to back out into something that's hardly ever used.
But it is considered a street. It
Yeah.
We, we understand that there's
some existing conditions that,
Okay.
Just thought I'd bring it up. You can. Yeah.
Thank you. Thank you Owen.
Is there anyone online?
Madam Chair, we're seeing none Rise online.
Madam Chair, move for close to public hearing. Second.
Right. Motion by Council Mill second by Council AB
to close the public hearing on the motion.
Councilor Mills? Yes. Councilor Healy. Yes. Councilor Webb?
Yes. Councilor Flood? Yes. Councilor Foot? Yes.
And chair votes? Yes. Motion passes.
Six zero Public hearing is now closed.
Counselors, do you have any questions? Council Webb,
I think you answered this already,
but it just went by a little too fast on prohibitive uses,
I noticed that you, the section two,
the activities included like sexually oriented businesses.
Can you please go over again why that was deleted?
Oh, let me, let me take a peek at that for you
Because I think you said it's already prohibited.
Another section. Yeah, I just wanna confirm that.
So What Oh, okay.
You were asking about the prohibited the prohibited things.
Yeah. Yeah. So in the, in the list
of permitted uses,
sexually oriented businesses are not listed
as a permitted use.
We permit that in other districts it had,
what we, what we did was re we removed the, we removed them,
those three specific things
because if they're not permitted, if they're not written in
that first list, if
They're not, that's what I thought you said.
I just wanted to make clear. So if it's not listed
as a permitted use, it is in essence prohibited.
Correct. Okay. Yes. Alright.
Councilor Haley, someone else had their hand up. Yeah.
Just related to the, the parking facility going
to a parking lot and then the multi-level parking facility
with the multi-level parking facility, would it be wise
to add registered vehicles?
That's in the parking lot,
but it's not in the parking facility.
The, the parking garage, it just says house vehicles.
But with the parking lot, we're excluding any vehicles
that aren't registered.
So I don't know if that's something we want to add.
If you, if you think that's worth adding
or if there was a reason why it wasn't in there.
I seem to recall a discussion relating to if,
if there is a, someone might have a,
a permit in a parking garage to be able
to house a vehicle there and it may be a seasonal vehicle
or, or something.
And I think we didn't want to have to police that.
Obviously in the, you know, you for some parking garages,
you're gonna need permits
and that will, that will be all part of a further something.
But I don't, I know that the board did talk about that.
I think that we weren't, many
of the multi-level parking facilities are, are likely going
to be related to multi-family use.
In any event, I don't know
that the town will be taking on another parking garage like
Abbott Court anytime soon.
So if someone is living in a building and,
and has an unregistered vehicle, they,
they essentially own that spot.
So I would almost look at that as,
as if I was parked at a single family home.
And if I'm allowed to have one unregistered vehicle, the,
I think the management company would need
to police that more than us.
Okay. If that makes sense. Yeah.
Okay. Thank you. Any other
questions from council?
Alright, thank you. Someone else?
Would you like to read that for us? Council Mills?
I am sorry. Would you like to, you, you, you tend
to read our motions.
Would you like to read our motion for this one?
Oh, I didn't know we needed a We do an ordinance motion
Ordinance number 26 20 26 0 0 1.
Is that what we're talking about? Yes.
Amend zoning changes to Chapter 1 65,
whereas Section 5.1
of the town charter designates the town council
as a governing and legislative body of the town.
And pursuant to Section 6.1,
the council shall legislate by ordinance.
And whereas the planning board adopted modifications
to various land use definitions applicable to all zones.
And whereas the planning board adopted several dimensional
and density changes to the CBD Central Business District
and now therefore the town of Dairy Ordains,
that the dairy zoning ordinance is hereby
amended as follows.
To amend the town of dairy zoning ordinance, article two
word uses and definitions section 1 65 dash five
definitions to amend the definitions of front lot line
and parking facility.
And to add a definition for multi-level parking facilities
to amend the town of dairy zoning ordinance Article six,
district provisions section 1 65 dash 33 Central
Business District to amend subsection A purpose.
Subsection B permitted uses subsection C
one through six area
and dimensional requirements
to include minimum lot area front yard depth
and building height to amend subsection F prohibited uses
subsection G parking to delete the town
of dairy zoning ordinance.
Article six, district provisions sections 1 65 dash 33
Central Business District subsection H,
special exception uses
this ordinance shall take effect 30 days after its adoption.
Second. Alright, we have a motion by Councilor Mills,
second by Councilor Foote on the motion.
Councillor Mills. Yes. Councilor Healy. Yes. Councilor Webb.
Just want to thank Liz
and Chairman Nelson, the rest of volunteers. So yes.
Councilor Flood? Yes. Councilor Foot? Yes.
And chair votes? Yes. Motion passes. Six zero.
Thank you both. Thank you Council.
Moving on to our new business.
Item number 26 68 is resolution 2026 dash
0 3 9 to withdraw funds from the Capital Reserve Fund
for mold remediation at the Dairy Public Library.
And our library director Kathleen presenting
You just can't catch a break.
Can't
Tell me something.
Good evening. So back in March the staff noticed
that there was some staining on the ceiling in a couple
of different areas of the building.
There was also some mold appearing on the walls
of our air handler room in the lower level.
So I contacted a company called Indoor Doctor
to request mold testing where they found levels
of mold in the various areas to be either above normal
or very high slash severe.
So I contacted three different companies
to provide estimates for mold remediation work.
The companies were in Viro Vantage, A BS, environmental
and Household Environmental.
I presented these quotes to the library's board of trustees
during their meeting on June 22nd of this year.
And after some discussion they decided to go
with the estimate from Household Environmental.
Their quote was for $13,850.
They also recommended post clearance testing
just to make sure that the, the work had
been thoroughly completed.
So with the estimate of their work plus that testing,
I am requesting $15,350 from our
Capital Reserve Fund.
Thank you. Any questions counsel? Nope.
Straightforward. Alright,
Madam Chair, I move resolution number 26 0 3 9
to withdraw funds from the DPL Capital Reserve Fund
for mold remediation at the Dairy Public Library
where Section 5.1
of the Town Charter designates the Town Council
as the governing and legislative body of the town.
And whereas we have identified some areas of concern
requiring mold remediation
and whereas a Capital Reserve fund was established in 2004
for the maintenance of the dairy public library.
And whereas the library board
of trustees has requested authorization to utilize a portion
of the fund for this purpose and now
therefore be it resolved in council as agents to expend
that the sum of $15,350 shall be
appropriated from the Dairy Public Library Capital Reserve
Fund to finance the mold remediation.
This resolution shall take effect
immediately upon its passage.
Second. Alright, we have a motion by Council Mills
and a second by Councillor Healy on the motion.
Councilor Mills?
Absolutely. Yes. Councillor Healy. Yes. Councilor Webb?
Yes. Councilor Flood? Yes. Councilor Flood? Yes.
And chair votes? Yes. Motion passes. Six zero. Thank you.
Thank you very much. Next up
item agenda item 26 6 9 is resolution 2026 dash
0 4 0
to fund expenses from the compensated absences Capital
reserve fund, town administrator Michael Pollo presenting.
Alright, so the next three items under new business are
all end of fiscal 26 housekeeping matters.
So CFO Mark Fleischer had prepared the staff reports
and basically the first of the three is relative
to the compensated absence capital reserve fund.
So essentially within the
OMO other municipal obligations budget,
it was included $354,254
for earned time payouts.
And sometimes when you go through that process,
we've had years where we've hit the mark
and there have been other years where there have been some
unanticipated retirements or payouts
because an individual leaves us and,
and we weren't aware of that, try
to project it the best we can.
But the mechanism to deal
with those variations has been money
that's been set aside in the capital reserve fund.
So we have a really healthy balance on that.
It's up upwards of $1.6 million.
So tonight, because the expenses in FY 26 were
$704,000, we're gonna be requesting a transfer
of $350,495 to cover these payments.
And essentially when this is completed,
we will still have $1.6 million in that fund.
One of the things that we will talk about
as we take a look at the capital funds
that we have available to us, the unassigned fund balance,
you may choose to send some money in the direction
of this compensated absence fund, but Mark
and I both believe that we're in a really healthy spot
and we're able to continue to care cover these sorts
of expenses as we move forward.
I would say one of the trends that
as we keep talking about some of our more senior employees
retiring, I think the reliance on
the funds in these large buyouts I, I think are going
to continue to diminish
because we just don't have as many employees
who have large accrued earn time balances that would be due
to them upon retirement or separation from the community.
So with that, you have a recommendation to move forward
with this and a resolution 2026 dash 40.
Thank you. Any questions or comments?
Madam Chair saying no questions or comments?
I move resolution number 2026 dash 0 4 0
to fund expenses from the compensated Absences Capital
Reserve Fund where the Town Council created a compensated
absences capital reserve fund in 1997.
And whereas the purpose of the fund is to pay
for the town's obligation to its employees
for vested accumulated leave upon separation
and for any earn time pay payouts in excess of budget.
And whereas several,
several long tenured employees retired in FY 26
and whereas transfer
of funds from compensated absences Capital Reserve fund will
stabilize the impact of end
of service payments on the town's general fund.
And now therefore be it resolved in council
that the Town Council as agents to expend
hereby authorizes the withdrawal
of $355,495
from the compensated Absences Capital Reserve fund
to fund accumulated leave obligations.
This resolution shall take effect immediately
upon its passage.
Second motion by Council Mills second
by Councilor Healy on the motion.
Councilor Flood? Yes. Changing it up. Councilor Foot? Yes.
Councilor Webb? Yes. Councillor Healy? Yes.
Councillor Mills? Yes. And Chair votes? Yes. Motion passes.
Six zero. Next up
Agenda item 26 70.
Resolution 2026 dash 0 4 1 Transfer funds from the Transfer
Station Solar Project back to you.
Alright, so seven years ago the town
purchased 10 solar trackers that you see on the hill
adjacent to the transfer station.
So this was our first foray into solar production
and that roughly generates about 150,000
kilowatt hours annually
that is distributed within the transfer station campus.
The funding mechanism at the time was
to use the Public Works Capital reserve fund as, as opposed
to taking it to a bond or any other funding mechanism.
And the idea was that the savings in each
of the individual departments,
because the solar is offsetting the needs
to come from the grid,
those savings would be transferred back
to the Capital Reserve fund over the course
of a 10 year period.
So we've reached the seventh year on that
for fiscal 26.
The amount reimbursed back to the general fund is going
to be $26,522 and 23 cents.
It's broken up into three
segments mostly from the wastewater treatment plant.
That's the largest amount at $17,289.
But also the transfer station building itself
and then also a very little bit from the
vehicle maintenance budget.
So we have three more years on this,
but this has been an ongoing process,
a very successful project
and obviously once we get beyond year 10,
there'll be no other need to do any transfers
of, of this nature.
So with that you have
resolution 20 26 0 41 for your consideration.
Thank you. Any questions, comments?
Madam Chair, seeing no questions
or concerns, I move resolution number 2026 dash 0 4 0 1
transfer funds for the transfer station Solar project,
whereas Section 9.7
of the Town Charter empowers the town council
to transfer any unencumbered appropriation balance
and whereas the Town Council approve the use
of Public Works capital reserve funds to fund a construction
of the solar array at the transfer station
and whereas a year end transfer is required
for the annual reimbursement to the capital fund.
Now therefore be it resolved in council
that the town administrator is authorized to transfer to sum
of $26,522
and 23 cents from the transfer station budget.
$8,519
and 38 cents from the vehicle maintenance budget,
$713 and 5 cents.
And from the Wastewater Fund $17,289
and 80 cents to the PW Capital Reserve funds.
This resolution shall take effect
immediately upon its passage.
Second. Second. Motion by Council Mills second
by Councilor Healy on the Motion.
Council Mills,
Assuming that the math is right, I didn't check it.
Yes.
Councilor Haley? Yes. Council Lead? Yes. Councillor Flood?
Yes. Councillor Foote? Yes. And Chair votes? Yes.
Motion passes. Six zero.
Next up is item 26 71.
Resolution 20 26 0 4 2 to transfer funds
to the Dairy Economic Development Expendable Trust Fund Town
Administrator Mike Fowler. I present again.
Alright, so the last of the three
items on the financial agenda tonight is relative
to the economic development expendable trust funds.
So when the Phase one water project
connecting Manchester through dairy down to Salem,
the town takes in what we call a wheeling charge.
And so that wheeling charge is a basically a toll
for the water to pass through dairy's borders
and eventually whatever the meter reads, we collect a dollar
for every 100 cubic feet of of water
that's transferred down to Point South.
So essentially there was legislation that was put into place
that the funds that came from that particular instance
can be shared with the general fund.
So this is the water fund being a separate enterprise fund
from the general fund.
So over the past, I think it's five years, we have gone
through and done an end of year budget transfer of 50%
of those proceeds.
So for fiscal 26 we would be looking
for the total wheeling revenue was $277,591
and 50% of that would be transferred
to the Dairy Economic Development Expendable Trust
$138,795 in 50 cents.
So with that you have resolution
20 26 0 4 2 to adopt
and then that will be taken care of internally
as a finance mechanism.
That fund as of the transfer, would be at a balance
of $667,834,
which reflects the prior year balances
and revenues that have come in
as a result of the wheeling charge.
Thank you. Any questions or comments?
Madam Chair, seeing no questions
or concerns, I move resolution number 2026 dash 0 4 2
to transfer funds
to the Dairy Economic Development expendable Trust fund.
Whereas Section 9.7
of the Town Charter empowers the town council
to transfer any unencumbered appropriation balance.
And whereas the Town Council previously authorized
participation in the Southern New Hampshire Regional Water
Interconnection Project
and whereas participation included receiving wheeling
charges from users of the dairy system within the project.
And whereas the town advocated to the legislature
to amend the statute to allow to allow a portion
of the revenues to be utilized
for economic development purposes.
Now therefore be it resolved in council
that the Town Administrator is authorized
to transfer the sum of $138,795
and 50 cents from the Water Division wheeling revenue
account to the Dairy Economic Development
Expendable Trust Fund.
This resolution shall take effect
immediately upon its passage.
I second. Alright, motion by Council Mills second
by Council Webb on the motion.
Council Mills?
Yes. Councilor Healy? Yes. Councilor Webb? Yes.
Councilor Flood? Yes. Councilor Foot? Yes. And chair votes?
Yes. Motion passes. Six zero.
Last item for the evening agenda item 26 72 is resolution
2026 dash 0 4 3 To authorize the town administrator
to accept and expend a grant from the US Alliance
for Election Excellence.
Our town Clerk, Tina Guilford is presenting.
Good evening counselors.
Good evening.
So I'm in front of you to
try to move forward with a grant.
So this grant is from the US Alliance
for Election Excellence.
They found something else that we can do
for election offices.
We can get our offices certified in election excellence.
So there are currently 26 standards.
They've opened up application for 11 of them so far.
Four of them I've already completed
and submitted the application for that.
We obviously are already doing
this is for a grant for one
of the biggest things we have in an election.
So that's our poll workers.
So this is for software, well it's not really software,
it's web-based application
and it's for making it accessible
to our poll workers for training, video training,
in-person training, tracking, scheduling of shifts.
I don't know if people realize we hired 154 people
for the November, 2024 election.
That means that 154 people
were juggled on a spreadsheet by two people.
It is extremely difficult.
And then you get last minute emails,
people suddenly can't work a shift.
Now you gotta try to find people to fill a shift
and it's also exhausting.
So this program would allow us
to be able to send out shifts to people
who are not already scheduled to work.
If they want to pick it up, it will allow us
to make training available.
Secretary of State's office is gonna be putting out various
videos that will be able
to make available to our poll workers.
Now we've sent it to them in the past,
but we have no way of knowing if they actually watch
them this way.
We can actually incorporate a quiz, have them watch them,
they would click through, answer the questions,
we know whether or not they passed.
They understood. It's a way of knowing if people
have actually taken the time to train
because they come in person and it's great.
And in-person training is great, but sometimes
after a September election
and a November election, asking people
to come in again in March is a little exhausting.
So this would be a tool that we could use
to track that and keep people engaged
and know that they've taken the refresher.
Also, they wouldn't be able to sign up
for shifts in jobs they have not trained for.
If all you've done is be a ballot clerk,
you can't really be an assistant moderator without going
through assistant moderator training.
And right now, again, we're keeping track of
that on spreadsheets for over 200 poll workers
that we currently have on the roster.
So it's, it's a long and exhaustive process.
And obviously we've been pre-approved
for a $9,000 grant.
It's all tied to our voter role and our citizen population.
So what I've done is I've done some deep work.
There's not a lot of companies in this space
and this company delivers probably
the best, I don't know, bang for the buck shall we say.
They have automatic notifications, they have
the online training, they have the portal
that each poll worker is going to go in and set up.
And the only information they really need
to give is their name, address,
and email address in order to sign up.
Well, their name and address is
already on the public checklist.
So there's not, you know, they don't have
to put their phone numbers on it
unless they wanna get alerts by text rather than email.
There are automatic shift reminders, automatic reminders
for when we're gonna have training.
There's a, even a check-in checkout system.
I know some of you have been there at the end of the night
and everybody's scrambling to find the
sign in, sign out sheet at, you know, 1130 at night
that somebody already put in a box.
So it would prevent a lot of that.
And it has just all the things that we need
and probably some stuff that we don't.
However, there will be, there was legislation
that was passed this year
and towards the end of the year, the Secretary
of State will be putting out some information
and as a council you'll need to decide,
are we gonna stay with one polling place?
Are we gonna go to multiple polling places?
And this has venue management
because there are requirements when you have multiple
polling places about who can work in
what polling place based on where they live.
So those are all things we would need to keep track of.
And those are all things that we can do with this software.
And yes, we're, we're doing it with a spreadsheet
and then there are times that somebody's double scheduled
and there are times that nobody's scheduled
and we're shorthanded
and the idea is to try to prevent that.
So did you have any questions? Council
Mills?
I have a question. So if I understood you correctly,
you're telling me that you, you're, and,
and first of all, congratulations to everybody
that comes out to volunteer these, these poll workers.
But as you're saying, they come out
and they vote, they work during the primary, then they work
during the general election and then
they come back in March.
They have to be requalified each
and every time they come back for this.
So, or is theirs qualification good
for six months, eight months?
So September and November tend to be,
you know, once they're trained in September,
they work in November and everything's copacetic.
The issue we have is that the legislators up in Concord like
to pass legislation
that suddenly takes effect on January one surprise,
and then all of a sudden we need to change a process
for the March election
and now everybody's back in in training.
Okay. So, you know, we pride ourselves on when the Secretary
of State and the Attorney General's office comes in,
that they don't find any issues
and they don't find any problems
and we're doing things the right way by statute.
The only way you can do that is
to make sure everybody's taken the training
in some way, shape, or
Form, and everybody's qualified then at that point.
Yep. Thank you. That's all I had.
Council Webb, When I first saw this on the agenda,
I sent a, through my follow to Tina
questions on data security and data of privacy.
I just wanna thank you for answering those
and alleviated my concerns that this was a product that pro,
that protected privacy, had good data security
and retained ownership of data to the town of dairy.
Correct. So thank you for answering those questions and
That's one of the number one reasons
why I went with this company.
Yeah.
Madam Chair, seeing no other questions
or concerns, I move resolution number 2026 dash 0 4 3
to accept grant funding from the US Alliance
for Election Excellence.
Whereas section nine point 15
of the Town Charter authorizes the town council to apply
for, accept and expend funds received from outside agencies.
And whereas the town clerk has identified an opportunity
to enhance election efficiency through acquisition
of poll worker software.
And whereas the town clerk sees seeks to access these funds
through purchase the software to support upcoming elections.
Now therefore be it resolved in council
that the town administrator is hereby authorized
to sign a grant agreement with the US Alliance
for Election Excellence in the amount of $9,000
and expend such funds,
this resolution shall take effect
immediately upon its passage.
Second, Great motion by Council Mills second
by Councilor Webb on the motion. Councilor Mills,
I checked, I think I am qualified.
I vote yes. Councilor
Healy?
Yes. Councilor Webb? Yes. Councilor Flood? Yes.
Councilor Foot? Yes. And chair votes? Yes. Motion passes.
Six zero. Thank you very much. Okay.
We are two counselor comments. Anyone? Anyone have anything?
See? Alright.
Wow. No counselor comments.
Seeing no counselor comments.
Madam Chair, I make my favorite motion. I move to adjourn.
I'll second. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. All right.
Have a good night everybody. Thank you.