City Council - Regular Meeting

I'm going to call the uh call into order the Monday, December 8th, 2025 meeting of Conquered City Council. Uh I would just mention before we start that uh if uh anyone in the audience uh is hearing impaired. Uh we do have uh hearing devices that are available in the back of the room in the black cabinet with the handwaving uh which is the concrete TV cabinet. Uh Michael will be able to provide you with a hearing apparatus if you should need one. Now would you please stand and join me in the pledge of allegiance to the flag. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you. Madam city clerk, would you please call the role? Yes. Councelor Brown, here. Mayor, present. Councelor Feny, present. Councelor Flip, present. Councelor Grady Saxton, here. Councelor Horn, here. Councelor Kee, here. Councelor Kovik here. Councelor Curts present. Councelor Mclofflin here. Councelor McNamera here. Councelor Slasher here. Councelor Schultz here. Councelor Seiku. And councelor Todd here. Very good. Thank you. Uh I'll now entertain a motion to approve the meeting minutes of the November 10th and November 24th, 2025 meetings of the city council. Move approval. Second. Moved and seconded. Any discussion? All those in favor, please signify by saying I. I.

Post. No. Eyes have it. Minutes are approved. Um we now uh come to uh one of the one of the seasonal things that we do and one of the more pleasurable things we do which is to recognize uh the Capitol region food program. Uh I have a resolution to read if you want to come up.

Welcome. And I know who you are but please introduce yourselves. Good evening everyone. My name is Elena Aloy. I'm currently the vice chair of the board of trustees for the capital region food program and Jennifer Carlton the chair of the capital region food program. Excellent. Thank you. Well uh allow me to I'm going to stand and read this.

So this is a resolution that uh proclaims December 2025 as Capital Region Food Program Month. Whereas the Capital Region Food Program is an allv volunteer nonprofit organization established in 1974 because of the grave problem of hunger in the greater conquered area. And whereas the capital region food program marks its 52nd consecutive year in providing food for those experiencing food insecurity through its holiday project. And whereas refinements in this project are a continuous process improvement. Originally in 1974, the baskets provided enough food for the Christmas holidays alone and evolved into providing enough food for the holiday meal plus up to three weeks of additional meals. With the changing landscape, the Capital Region Food Program made another adjustment with launching its holiday voucher pilot project in 2022 and adopting this model in 2023, moving forward as the holiday project. Recipients are able to select the food items most appropriate for their family, being mindful of their needs, including but not limited to food sensitivities, gluten-free, low sodium, lowfat, vegetarian, vegan, and other dietary restrictions. hand. Whereas the program has expanded operations to include year-round distribution to area food pantries and soup kitchens supporting their great work, which is accomplished by purchasing and distributing at no cost to the participating agencies enough food to provide over 5,900 meals per month. hand. Whereas CO 19 caused the CRFP to re-engineer its holiday food basket project and its evolution into the holiday project model, the Capital Region Food Program has continuously adhered to and aligned with its values which include collaboration, cooperation, responsibility,

mindfulness, safety, and community consideration. In keeping with these values, the 2024 holiday project continues to take proactive steps to maximize safety. I think that's 2025 holiday project continues to take proactive steps to maximize safety and helping those in need while still accomplishing its mission of assisting individuals and families in need. It has realized consistent increases for the past two years with predictions of another 15% increase this year. hand. Whereas the impact of this all volunteer organization communitywide effort has resulted in over 3,700 tons of food having been distributed to the food insecure in conquered and surrounding 17 communities over the last 51 years with items purchased valued in excess of 3,890,000. In addition, CRFP has redistributed donated food items with a value estimated at $1,675,000. The combined value of purchased and donated food exceeds $5,565,000. And now, therefore, be it resolved that the month of December be designated capital region food program month in the city of conquered. hand. Be it further resolved that our community be encouraged to participate, contribute, and support the Capitol region food program now and throughout the year. Signed by me, Mayor Byron O Champlain. Thank you. WOULD you like to Would you like to say a few words?

Thank you.

It's nice to be the one to accept all the praise. I've not done nearly as much as um all of the people involved for the last 52 years. Uh but actually, it was earlier today with a core group of volunteers that we were putting together the vouchers that will be distributed uh this Saturday, the 13th. uh we saw about a 20 plus% increase in applications this year. We opened applications for uh holiday project at the end of October. So it was during the government shutdown. Um and we anticipated that we'd see an increase regardless, but obviously didn't know what was going to be happening with a lot of the changes in the federal aid programs and whatnot. So we have had a lot more of uh support need and and being relied on. And those vouchers that will be distributed will be around 2500 vouchers, which would be about 6,000 members of uh conquered and the surrounding 17 communities that we'll be supporting. um they're going to be able to use those vouchers through uh January 31st of next year. We found over the last couple years with all of the data that we've been collecting because we're a little bit of uh data nerds when we look at this information is that about half of the vouchers are used between the day they receive them in the 25th of December. About 10% are used between the 25th of December and the 1st of January and the remaining 40% is after January 1st. So we found that there has been a bit of a shift for us that a number of individuals do have support right around that um December holiday time but need more of it in January and that also aligns with the end of that v voucher use and the start of the new year of our year- round distribution project because we have been able to adjust our um approach throughout the year since our start in 74 through now to be a year round backbone of hunger support. So that um helps us to kick off the new year and ending those vouchers and then being able to help provide food to our partner agencies to continue their good work as well.

Great. Thank you. Any questions from the city council? Council Brown. Yes. If folks would like to donate, what is the best way to donate to your organization? The best way would be to go on to our website which is www.capreionfruitprogram.org board or excuse me. And we have a big banner right there talking about the holiday project with an easy donate button. Thank you.

All right. Thank you. Please come up and accept your resolution. And I have a small flat present for you. Thank you.

Thank you so much. Good to see you.

And uh we next have a presentation by friends of the beef. Would you like to come forward?

Wow. So, uh, Jim Silly, I'm the chairman of the Fredsreads of the Beef. Um, we figured since it's a golf related, uh, thing we should probably bring a big check for you to, uh, to receive, we, um, as you know, we committed, uh, $250,000 over 10 years. And since, uh, since July, which was our first event, uh, the middle of July, um, we've raised a considerable amount of money, and we wanted to give you $25,000 today uh, in few short months that we've we've been in existence. So, we're honoring the first part of our uh our commitment and we're looking forward to um much more next year. Thank you. Well, we'll take it.

Why don't you bring it up? A good photo with you. The check. You have a big pen for the endorsement. Yeah. Don't forget the little check. What do you mean the little the real one? Yes. Happy, Mr. Mayor. Put the check down just a little bit. We're trying not to take the sound system out. There you go. Perfect. Thank you. All right. Thank you. And thank you for the effort by friends. Ryan will take that. Thanks. Thank you so much. Thank you so much.

That brings us to the consent calendar. Uh items 19, 23, 25, and 27 have been uh pulled from the consent calendar and will be taken up at the end of tonight's meeting. Do I have a motion to approve the consent calendar? Approval second. Are there any recusals? Um sorry, I'm just quick check. I do not see anything. Okay, I think I'm good. I don't think pirate agrees. All set counselor think so. All right. All right. All those in favor, please signify five by saying I. I.

Opposed? No. Eyes have it. The consent calendar is adopted. This takes us to the public hearing phase of our meeting. Madam city clerk, item 34A. It's an ordinance amending the code of ordinances title 2, traffic code, chapter 18, parking, article 18-1, stopping, standing, and parking. Parking time limited in designated places to modify parking time limits on V Village village street north of Canal Street. Mr. City Manager,

your honor, members of the council, this item was discussed by the parking committee at the request of Brier Hydro at the October meeting at their October meeting. The two-hour time limit parking along the stretch of Village Street has been in place for a number of years. And the uh staff reviewed the request with the parking committee on October 27th. And the committee voted to direct staff to complete the attached ordinance which you all have and has been advertised uh which would formally establish the current 2hour time limit parking on the east side of Village Street Bridge uh over the Kokook River and modify the west side parking on the bridge to 10hour time limits. Glad to answer any questions.

Thank you. Any questions for the city manager? Right. Seeing none, I'll open the public hearing. Uh, is there anyone in the audience who would like to testify on item 34A? Seeing none, I'll close the public hearing. Madam clerk, item 34B. It is a resolution appropriating the sum of $48,540 in the golf course winter recreation improvements project to purchase one snow gun and accepting the sum of $24,270 in donations from Ski the Bee as well as the sum of $24,270 as a rebate through the New Hampshire saves program for this purpose.

Thank you, Mr. City Manager. And members of the council, in early October, the city received a request from Ski the Bee proposing the city of conquered buy a snow gun directly using funds donated by Ski the Bee and uh from a rebate from New Hampshire Saves. The main reason for this request is their fundraising fundraising efficiency. The Snow Gun cost $48,540. Snow Gun is eligible for a significant 50% rebate from New Hampshire Saves which is valued at $24,270. For Ski the Bee to purchase the unit, they would needs to raise all the money to buy the unit and then apply for the rebate. Ski the Bee would like would then need to return 24 $24,270 to the donors after this uh rebate is received. If the city bought the snow gun, ultimately there would be no cost to the city. Ski the Bee would donate half the cost and New Hampshire Saves would pay the other half. This would allow Ski the Bee to continue their fundraising while maximizing the efficiency of their donations. At the October 16, 2025 meeting, the the recreation and parks advisory committee review the ski request to have the city purchase the snow gun and unanimously agreed to have the funding request formally recommend city council review and approve this request. This report and funding resolution are to authorize the city to purchase the snow gun for $48,540, accept the $24,270 donation to help uh fund the purchase and apply for a rebate for $24,270 to cover the full cost of the purchase. I saw Sam here earlier uh so he's probably testify sell the hallway. Um so, um I'll leave it at that for now.

All right. Any questions for the city manager? Council. Yes, I noticed in the report it talks about uh connecting to a fire hydrant in the parking lot. Um who does that which you know is this something that uh firefighters who who is able to do that? We would we would work with well David David and you done that in the past David David Gilda Parks and Recreation he can access uh follow up follow um how much water um are we using for how much water was used for this demo

city Welcome, Mr. Gil. Good evening, Mayor, members, city council, city manager. Um, I can get you I don't have the exact gallons. Um, we did it for about five hours and it was $200 of water of city water. So, Ski the Bee has agreed to continue paying um any of the operating costs we have going forward. Followup.

Thank you. And I also noticed in the report it talked about I think it was on the second page um using underground power and water lines. Um how were you able to set up this fan gun um without those lines? Um it's similar to the test we did last year. I think it was in December. Um we have fire hoses that we use for um all the areas for um ice making. Um so we just run the fire hose and then we'll have they'll have to run a portable generator um and we'll just run the generator until the underground utilities are put in. Uh followup followup.

Uh this fan gun is portable so it could be used at other locations around the city. Uh I would it would be portable but it's going to be very hard to move it. you don't have the equipment to move it and I don't know it's rather large um but it's it definition is portable but it's not like you just put it behind a truck and tow around followup yes so I noticed in uh the lights of Keech Park um there was extensive discussion about rates who would pay how would we do this has that been explored um with this project

yeah this project um I think ski the be's been working with us now for four or five years and they will um I think they're on record several times. They will pay for all the water and the power um that we use for snow making. Um they helped us buy the groomer two years ago. Um they raised $45,000 for that and the city staff grooms the trails every day. We've been out there um every day this week. Okay. Thank you, Mr. One more question. One more. One more. Last one. Uh so you talked about the donations. When you receive those donations, where did they go? Um, this one goes to the the CIP account to purchase the equipment. Where is that?

Uh, I think it's CIP 515. That's winner out. Is this like a Is this a It's a capital improvement program. Is this reflected in the MS9 report or MS? Where is that reflected like the donations that were collected? How would is that reflected? because I noticed that the snow groomer 5,000 came out from the recreation reserve. So, I wasn't sure if the donations were going into the recreation reserve. Good evening, mayor, members of the city council. Good evening, Mr. Lebron.

This is the same as we do with all of the projects. When we city council approves a project, it gets into the capital program. You know, part of it is the expenditure side, part of it's the revenue side. On the revenue side, there'll be two revenue donation pieces for this. One of them is going to be a donation from ski the bee. The other one's going to be a donation from unitil which is basically a reimbursement for the project. So both of those will go into that revenue side of the account which offsets the expense and the expense side of the account. So if you think about think about the regular financial statements we have we have a revenue portion on on the operating budget. We have an expense portion. The revenues go into revenue. The expenses go come out of expenses. It's the same thing with the capital projects with this project and every other project that we do.

All right. I was just wondering how it's reflected donations. So we could, you know, the uh ski the bee folks could say, see, look, there's, you know, 50,000 that we donated. That's reflected in city accounts. You're seeing it in the resolution here. So when you have the resolution, the city council approves that. That's that's the place where you see it. When we actually get the check, and I responded to that in the email that I sent you earlier today. when we actually get the check, there's no additional reporting other than, you know, whatever comes through the ACFR at the end of the year. So, we don't give you another report on that that says here now you can see a picture of the check. We don't do that, but it's in the ACF. Okay. Thank you.

Buried in there. Yes. Thank you, Mr. Lebron. Thank you, Mr. Thank you much. I'll now open the public hearing. Is there anyone who would like to testify on uh item 34B? Welcome. Hi folks. Uh Sam Evans Brown. I'm chair of Ski the Bee. Um we have been fundraising to uh offset these costs uh since these the uh project was first included in the capital improvement plan last spring. Um and and currently are in a position where if the city were to vote to accept the proposal that we have in front of you, we could bring a similarly large oversized check to you tomorrow. Um didn't bring one tonight.

I won't be here tomorrow. I feel upstaged. Uh wishful thinking

and um you know just want to say city staff has been really great in working with us on this. Um obviously construction projects are complicated and so uh it is a bummer to hear that um that the the parking lot is not ready to be done this winter. Um but we're going to we're going to make do with what we can um and try to try to make snow regardless. and uh the snow gun, you know, I received a text message from HKD, the manufacturer, with a picture of it all wrapped in cell and they said, "You've got a present to unwrap." So, um we're very excited and and we have we have the funding in place. Very happy to see the partnership with Unil progressing. Um so, happy to take any questions. Um but but yeah, just very excited at where we are. Any questions? Mr. Evans Brown.

Thank you. How are the conditions right now that we have actual snow? Well, it's funny. Uh, I tore my ACL and so I'm not allowed to ski. I'm two months off of surgery. So, uh, if my surgeon is watching, I do not know the, uh, I I've seen pictures from the high school kids. High school kids are currently on captain's practices. They they get to start skiing on Monday. They've been out at Beaver Meadow already. Their their first day at captain's practices, they're out skiing. Um, and I It's funny, they had a shot that was just sort of up into the sky, but I could tell from the trees it was Meadow. Um, so, uh, I presume it's good enough to to get out. Um, from what I've seen on the Facebook page where Dennis has been grooming it, it looks, you know, scratchy thin, but good early season. I mean, for December 8th in New Hampshire, not bad.

Yes. So, you did mention the parking lot's not done or, you know, isn't on the docket. Um, so let's say you get that gift, then what?

Yeah. So, so we would we would be able to make snow the same way we did at the demo last year. We would rent a generator for the month of January. It's about 2500 bucks to do that. We would we would pay that cost. Um and then we could do hydrants from we do hoses from the hydrant to the side of the gun, which is a massive pain in the butt. Um you know, it was I think it was eight lengths of hose last year. And essentially what happens is it's you know, you want to make snow when it's really cold. Today would be a perfect perfect day to be making snow. Um and you need to drain those hoses as soon as they're as soon as you turn the gun off. And so it's single digits and you're rolling up wet hoses. So, uh, you want to minimize that as much as possible, but for, you know, making it work, cluing it together for the first year, we'd we'd be willing to make that happen.

Followup. Yes. So, um, is are ski is ski the bee committing to doing all of that work. So, it's not going to be staff.

So, so we haven't we haven't we've talked about creating anou with the city, but that's not finalized. Um, we have talked about, uh, would it be possible to do some of this with volunteer labor? Um, I'm I'm not a union guy, so I don't understand union rules, but my understanding is that there are rules that suggest that volunteers cannot do the work that staff would do um, as part of the union agreement, but that's all above my pay grade. So, there's nothing nothing on the books so far. Um, I will say that in the place, you know, there's several models of of this working similarly in other jurisdictions. Waterville, Maine has the Corey Road Trails up in up the town that Colby College is in. Um, you can imagine where the money came from to do that project. Um, all of that snowmaking is done by volunteers. Um, down at the Western Ski Track, it's it's paid labor that does it, but that's it's, you know, that's operated by the state. Um, so, so there's different models, there's different ways of doing it, and we're open to exploring all options.

Any any other questions for Mr. Evans Brown? All right. Thank you, Mr.

Thank you, Sam. Would anyone like would anyone sorry would anyone else like to testify? Mr. Schwiker, welcome. Good evening, mayors, members of city council, city managers, city clerk. I'm Roy Schwiker, and I think it's commendable that these people have managed to find so much money to do something that's dear to their hearts. I used to ski at uh Beaver Meadow back in the old days when uh Al was running the operation. I don't anymore because I don't like getting up all the snow as often as I might have to. But anyway, I've got a couple of questions which you can't give me the answers to, but you might want to bring up in your discussion. The first thing is, I mean, I find it very amazing that uh Unatil is paying half the price of this snow gun. I mean, if I buy a snow gun, are they going to pay half the price the cost of it? I mean, where does that thing come from? Where is this really for something else and we're putting it toward the snow gun? And my second question is UNIL is being very generous to us and providing this money, but my understanding is we have a agreement that we don't buy electricity from them. We buy it from somebody else through the community power. So I wonder maybe since unitail power is cheaper than community power and they're giving us this half the price of a snow gun maybe we should revise that agreement to where the default for everyone in the city is to buy power from unitail and not community power and like I say I don't expect you to have the answers to this but you might think about that in your discussion. Thank you.

Thank you. Any questions for Mr. Schwer? Thank you Mr. Schwer. Good to see you. Would anyone else like to testify on this item? Seeing none, I'll declare the public hearing closed. Madam City Clerk, item 34C, it is a resolution appropriating the sum of $71,271.91 as a transfer to the abatement reserve and accepting the sum of $71,271.91 in litigation settlement funds for this purpose. Thank you, Mr. City Manager. Council on September 4th, we received the uh the payment. I suggest you take take the check.

Any questions for the city manager? Is there anyone in the audience who would like to testify on this item? I will declare the public hearing closed. Madam City Clerk, item 34D. It is a resolution appropriating the sum of $80,100 for police department roadway safety outreach initiatives and C equipment and accepting the sum of $80,100 and grant funds from the New Hampshire Highway Safety Agency for this purpose. Thank you, Mr. City Manager.

The honor members of the council, New Hampshire Highway Safety Agency has provided grant funding the police department for many years in order to the department to conduct varied enforcement initiatives designed to improve safety these roadways. These grants include funding for the following initiatives. Speed enforcement, DUI enforcement, distracted driving enforcement, uh pedestrian bicycle enforcement, seat belt mobilization, impaired driving mobilization, distracted driving mobilization, and community outreach and betterment. This is this is a good program and we participate for many years. Suggest you approve it. Thank you. Any questions for the city manager? Councelor Schultz.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. What does C stand for? C. It says C equipment, but it doesn't say what that is. I looked in the I knew the answer to that this afternoon, counselor. Okay, Matt. But it's a good question because I looked for it, too. Reconstruction. That's right. There you go. Crash crash analysis and reconstruction. Thank you. Does that sufficiently answer your question? Oh, it sure does. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Well, glad you helped. We helped you get your steps in today, man. Any other questions for the city manager?

All right. Uh, is that there anyone in the audience who would like to testify on this item? Seeing none, I'll close the public hearing, Madam City Clerk. Item 34E. It is a resolution appropriating the sum of $80,000 designated for conducting illegal drugrelated investigations and accept accepting the sum of $80,000 in grant funding from the New Hampshire Department of Safety Law Enforcement Substance Abuse Reduction Initiative for this purpose. Thank you, Mr. City Manager.

Members of the council, the Conquer Police Department applied for this grant and has been awarded $80,000 in unmatched grant funds through this initiative. The grant provides law enforcement agencies funding for overtime costs associated with identifying, identifying, investigating, and apprehending individuals and organizations that are involved in the opio opioid fentinyl related drug use and trafficking. The department intends to utilize this grant funding to augment its current efforts in combating illegal drug usage in the city and surrounding communities. It is recommended conquer city council accept and appropriate these funds.

Thank you. Any questions for the city manager? Is there anyone who would like to testify on this? Seeing none, I'll close the public hearing. Madam, city clerk. Oops, sorry. Item 34 F.

It is a resolution appropriating the sum of 370,000 in the general fund as a transfer out to capital for the acquisition of approximately 153.09 09 acres of real estate from two Granite Place LLC authorizing the use of $370,000 from general fund unassigned fund balance for this purpose appropriating the sum of $370,000 in the property acquisition project and accepting the sum of $370,000 as a transfer in from the general fund for this purpose. Thank you, Mr. City Manager. You know, members of the council, there's a lot going on here, so I'll try to be concise even though it won't seem that way, but by the time I'm done. We appreciate it.

So, the former financial uh Lincoln Financial Jefferson Pilot campus is located, as you know, at Rumford and Penrook Street. The complex is currently uh comprised of four separate lots totaling approximately 180 acres. Three of the parcels totaling 175 acres are currently controlled by two Granite Place LLC, a limited liability corporation uh company controlled by Steven Dupri. The fourth lot was sold by two granite place to the state of New Hampshire. City council approved resolution 9705 which authorized me to accept the donation of 27.92 acre lot uh for the purpose of promoting future economic development and taxbased expansion. The donation was scheduled to be completed at the end of 2024 but was delayed due to issues associated with the conveyance of the 6.441 for one acre parcel to the state of New Hampshire. Uh so give you an update. Over the past 12 months, Mr. Dupre's vision for this property has evolved. Therefore, the scope, terms, and conditions of the proposed real estate conveyance to the city have changed. In October 2025, Mr. Dupri filed permitting applications with the community development department to resubdivide the remaining 175 acres of the campus in order to achieve the following. to create two residential building lots of 10.51 and 0.62 acres respectively. These lots will be accessed uh from Penuk Street and Little Pond Road. And if people are following at home, these maps are all on the city's uh web page associated with this item. A new 11.61 acre lot containing the north office building which will be sold to the state of New Hampshire and merged with 6.41 41 acres the state uh which the state purchased in 2024 and a new 153.09 acre lot which Mr. Dupri intends to

convey to the city of which approximately 134.89 acres will be subject to a conservation easement or similar deed restriction and approximately 18.2 acres will be available for future economic development and taxbased expansion. The key terms and conditions of this proposal price uh the sale price of the 153.09 acre lot will be 335,500. The price reflects the sale includes a partial donation of real estate by Mr. Dupri. Mr. Dupri reports that the appraised value of the development rights of this parcel are approximately $2.77 million. The closing date will be December 31, 2025. The property taxes and the current use penalties. The seller shall shall pay all the property taxes owed through March 31, 2026 in the current use charge penalties if any in the proposed transaction. The conservation easement or similar deed restriction uh shall be placed on 134.89 acres of the 153.09 acre property. This area of the property consists of wetlands, steep slopes, forest as well as a network of hiking trails. Mr. will retain the naming rights of the 134.89 acre portion of the property which we placed under the conservation easement or similar deed restriction will be subject to city consent shall not be unreasonably withheld. The remaining 18.2 acres of the 153.09 acre track shall be reserved for future taxable real estate development. The city shall use his best efforts to secure a buyer for the 18.2 2 acre development area within 5 years of the date of acquisition. Easements will include but not be limited to rights of access, utilize existing driveways and utilities on the state's property to support the future development of the city's 18.2 acre development parcel. Easements will also include access util

utility easements over the city's property which benefit the state. due diligence will include given the desired closing of December 31. It is unlikely the city will be able to complete the phase one environmental site uh assessment. Uh for the premises however funds have been carried for this purpose if time permits. More than likely scenario is that to the extent available the city plans to rely on the previous environmental assessments prepared for the property by two granite place LLC. Total budget for this transaction is $370,000 and you can see that total with all the title or due diligence costs in your report. Be glad to answer any questions.

Thank you, Mr. City Manager. Any questions for the city manager? Councelor Brown. Yes. Uh I'm just looking at the annual comprehensive financial report. Uh the section that talks about long-term debt authorizations that have not been issued or rescended. And there is a section or uh balance land acquisitions for $2.5 million. Okay. So is that are those is that land that we agreed to pay for and just haven't? Um and this would add to that amount. Um could I tell a little story?

Okay. So, the the story goes um many years ago when there was much development going on in the city uh residential development on the city, the city council decided to float a $5 million bond. It actually didn't float the bond. It authorized the floating of that bond uh but and when conservation commission brought projects forward to the city, city council would approve those acquisition of those properties. So give you examples, things like um the uh West Portman Street LLC property up by exit 16, Gold Star Farm, the city acquired uh Diamond Hill Farm. There's many, many pieces of property throughout the city over the last decade plus that we've done. And what you've done as you've acquired those properties, you've reduced that $5 million down slowly as over time. what's left of that authorized but not you haven't you haven't borrowed any of it because you you're waiting for any type of project to go forward is about two to two and a half million dollars worth of so it completely be up to the city council I would think you'd want to work with the conservation commission to determine whether or not you would want any of this to come out of that aotment but don't think of that aotment as um a a cache of money that you have just a vote that you took at one time saying we We would like to commit to the community that we will continue to buy conservation property as it's as it's as it is appropriate and and that it would come out of that allocation so to speak. So it's up to you whether or not you want to take it from that that checklist or you would want to just do it without that.

But that is you know that's that's not I'm sorry. Yes. Well, that's not money that's available. That's just saying we intend to bond up to this amount. Right. So you would if you decided to do this and you wanted to bond it, you would go and bond an additional amount for that and then you'd have to decide whether or not you want that to come off that allocation. It's just it's just a it's just a way to keep score. So okay, I have another not quite another question. Yes. Um does anyone else have a question? Okay, go ahead. I'm sorry I missed Ali.

Oh Ali, go ahead. Um thank you for 27.7 acres I know it's future development did he really shared anything that he's looking for economic development does he looking like housing or is he looking for anything the city want to do or it's only commercial use what that description of future economy tax base expansion but one of the one of the options you took a basically because the area that area of the neighborhood was housing but it could be because you have office buildings there it could also a mixed use or it could be office of some sort. It's really once the city gets control of it, it's up to you what you do with it. Thank you, Counc.

Yes, we um Thank you. The city council received a letter from Mr. Dupri uh stating that he has placed a condition that the city turn the property into tax base within five years.

So that's a condition for us accepting that we would have to do that within five years. in our discussion with him that may be in the in the in that was that we would make our how did how do we word it? Um if I can find it we would make our best attempt. I'll find the exact wording here second. the future of development tax base. Matt, do you see it? Best efforts. Best efforts. It's in

Mr. Mr. Walsh. Welcome. You're good evening. Page three or four of the report. It's about halfway down. It says development zone. It's the final sentence. It says the city shall use its best efforts to secure a buyer for the 18.2 acre development area within 5 years after the date of acquisition from two grand place LLC. and we've reviewed this with Mr. Dupri and he was acceptable of this. Thank you, Mr. W. You're welcome. Thank you, Councelor Foot.

Thank you, your honor. Um, tax bills came out um earlier this week and I had a couple of communications from residents who are very concerned about the continued spending uh and the effect that this purchase will have on their property taxes. And I know this is coming from the undesated fund balance, but could you just explain that this will have no impact on uh property taxes as a result of it coming out of this fund?

Correct. So this would this would come out of the fund the reserve fund that you have that would be that would be use would not raise additional tax revenue for this. The um if you ch which leads to the question if you choose not to do it u Mr. Mr. Dupri has told us he said the state of New Hampshire is interested in this. So the state of New Hampshire would buy it from him and then it would go off the tax roles permanently. So the whole idea his proposal to do this is to keep it on the city tax roles for that. But yeah, it would not increase it would not increase the tax rate today or tomorrow. Thank you. I think the public hear

Thank you. Um have we investigated whether portion, the 134 acres that's supposed to be under the conservation easement, whether any of that is developable.

Welcome back, Walsh. Evening. So, uh there are two acres. There's two parcels that that the seller is taking uh out of that area. is a 10 and a half acre parcel and a smaller 62 acre parcel. Um the rest of it is is very steep or wet. Um um there might be if the 10acre uh if the 10acre lot was con configured differently, there might have been a way to get a little more development out of that if somebody wanted to go back a little further. There's a bit of a ridge that somebody probably could have done something with. But uh given the way that this property was subdivided, which the the subdivision was approved by the planning board on November 19th, conditionally approved, um um there's not much development. There's not much there, but that's either steep or wet. Yeah.

Um I see it looks like there be two potential entry points off of Little Pond Road. If I'm looking at this map correctly, um, is our expectation that we would create some sort of access point off of Little Pond Road or is that not feasible?

Uh, it's something we could explore. Um, you know, there is a network of trails out there. I do not exactly have a map of that at this time, but I think it's at some point, uh, the city working with the conservation commission, the trail committee could look at how we might want to, um, foster the trail system through there and provide public access to it. Um, I think those are two locations. I think there might be also opportunity to to access to further to the east that would be closer to Rumford and Panakook Street. Thank you. Any other questions for the city manager or for Mr. Walsh?

Thank you, Mr. Walsh. Please come forward. Mark your calendars. This is a rare time, huh? Welcome. Okay. Uh, for those of you who don't know me, my name is Tony Chanella. I'm a conquered native and I've been a resident of the city for a very, very long time. Um, I'm speaking tonight as a private citizen and my comments do not reflect my work in the media or my employer. Uh my family has been an abuter to an abuter to this parcel for the last more than 45 years. Um as kids uh before understanding the definition of the word trespass uh we spent a lot of time on this property. Uh I will immediately open by saying I'm excited by part of this but this deal is just not good enough and you'll see why on the maps. Um, as a capitalist, I understand why you're under the gun to deal with this right now. Um, and there's nothing wrong with that, but I hope after hearing some of my comments, you'll table this or amend it directly tonight. Um, specifically, I'm asking you to do the following things. um amend the conservation easement from 135 acres to what appears to be about 105 acres and removing what I'm going to call basin area which is this uh for those of you in the audience who are here for this issue can see it's a very buildable portion of this lot off of Penuk Street. Now there are negatives and positives. Let me get to the positives and negatives and I'll try and do this within the 3 to five minutes a lot of time in case anybody else wants to talk. Uh, and I apologize to my neighbors. They don't like this idea, but we've been living on Li Little Pond Road for 46 years now, and we are also under the siege of the property tax

bills, which I'll get to in a minute. Um, I'd like you to pull this this area out of the easement. I'd like you to keep it RSR, which is residential, and offer an RFP for housing for this development, this area. I'd also like you to reject the 62 uh acre set aside that Steve is asking for and instead include it in the basin area which will allow for about 525 ft of frontage on Penuk Street to access this area. Uh quick show of hands to the counselors. I know I do this during forums, so bear with me though, but how many people know this property or have been at it other than Stacy? Thank you. I appreciate it. Um, so you'll know that some of the things if you've explored it are true and accurate in what I'm going to tell you. And I may be enlightening everybody else who is not familiar with the parcel. Uh, in city and press reports, there's been talk about steep slopes wetlands and the parcel being largely rocky and steep. And that's partially accurate, but it's false when considering this basin area here. uh with the right investment and development in this area and potentially in coordination with the 18 acres on the southeast, you might be able to make really dynamic uh u uh project here and also utilize maximum tax base expansion which Tom just said. I'll repeat those words again. Task tax base expansion. Remember those words. How many of you were in competitive races weeks ago? And I must have heard the words tax base expansion and including the new people who are in the audience today who are going to be up here uh dozens of times. Um you've heard from voters who are frankly freaked out and rightfully so by a almost quarter of a billion dollar list of capital projects that they're never going to be able to pay for on top of what they pay now. Um Stephen even wrote

this online during the campaign and said and I forget I wish he was is he here by the way? Oh, he's out.

All right. Um maybe maybe one of the maybe um Brian can answer the question, but there was a comment he made saying, "Hey, all of you people complaining about taxes," paraphrasing. um we need x million dollars a year in new growth in order to have a zero tax increase. I think it was a hundred million or some amount of money. I don't remember exactly. I should have saved it, but it was a great point. So, I'm going to ask you to start here. Okay. The printouts in front of you are primary uh potentially scenarios with primitive lowby designs by me. They're terrible. I'm terrible at PowerPoint, but I I'll get the point across. There are four examples of potential um property development that could be used for this for this site. Um each one of the maps shows like size to the property. So, in other words, when you look at, and again, I apologize to any of my neighbors who don't want this done, but if you look at this page here, two Isabella apartment buildings. Isabella is a gorgeous building with 48 units. Yes, it was a little funky on the on the financials, but if you've seen the inside of them, they're beautiful. Uh um it's a what $11 million assessment on the building, and it's on a 1acre lot. The 1acre lot right here is two city parcels that the city owns right now. That was part of the Langley Parkway expansion. So you can see you could easily plunk two Isabella apartments, have a boatload of of parking, not affect the wetlands on this flat line, and also build a driveway up to the thing. Now, this will require water and sewer to be brought up. There's not sewer in the area, but that could easily go. It's it'll probably be about$ 1.5 million to$2 million and could easily go to the other 18 acres in coordination of the two. The water line goes right up to Penook Street, so that's not an issue.

Um, second, real quick, Hollis Commons is 60 units of housing on five acres of land. Again, water and sewer hookup. You need the sewer. Uh, that project is um $8 million assessed right now. rents are 2,200 a month, which is uh pretty reasonable considering what is out there. Um and uh at $8 million I believe at the current tax rate, that's about a quarter of a million dollars in new revenue. So that's uh one half of 1% of the tax rate if we were to just plunk it down there tomorrow. So that's 8 million. Two Isabellas would be 20. So that's I think is all the money that Steve is losing from the Bootin Street building and and the Granite Place buildings being sold as well as more money on top of that. Okay, real quick. What if you don't get a developer who can spend the $2 million to run the sewer, right? The water, yeah, that's easy, but the sewer is going to be a little bit difficult. Say you take five years and you want mixed use uh off of Jennings Drive, Rumford Street in that area on the other 18 acres, right? Okay. Well, we have two developments in the last 20 40 years actually. Pawnplace Lane and Samuel Drive. Samuel Drive was started in 2006. Um, it was originally zoned for seven houses. Uh, he attached sewer from Auburn Street all the way over and got 16 houses there. $8 million currently assessed value at 16 houses um there. And Pawn Place Lane, which was started in 1985 and actually took much longer. They all have sewer uh they all have water and septic tanks. Um they're at 8.4 uh assessed value. So we're still talking about a quarter of a million dollars on this lot. Now staff will say that there is we just heard Matt. No offense Matt, you're great. I love you. Um we just heard Matt say that um you know there's a lot of steep hills. Yep, there absolutely is. If you go to this

um first map here, you'll see this this is really very cool cliff um between the between the granite place building here and uh in and the buildable area here. Um and this is a great cliff to climb. Um but uh as you will see this is about twice as long as Samuel Driveway and Pawn Place Lane which were have both were both easily approved. There was no problem. Cherry Hill Holmes put Samuel Drive in. It took him no time at all. Uh the grade is not the some will say that the grade is too steep. It's too dangerous. It's less than what Samuel Drive is by two feet from the top to the bottom. And it's less than 100 ft from the top of of Pawn Place Lane to the bottom of Pawn Place where M where Mr. Potter lives with two lots. Um and it's almost two and a half times as long to get from Penut Street to the basin. Um, as you can see in this picture here, there are pictures from Penuk Street. And if you squint really bad, you don't have color pictures. I'm sorry. It was $70 to do color. And I did it on the cheap and black and white. I'm sorry. I was thinking of you though, Jeff, with your with your color uh ink stuff. Um, so if you But if you squint, you can see that's a really flat area. So that's Penica Street right into this lot. And um, if you go over there and walk around, you'll see it actually is really flat. And if you take a walk around there and then you drive over to Samuel Drive, you'll see that the you see what I'm saying where the grade is similar, but it's way long on the on for the basin idea. Okay. Uh there's a picture of the grades which shows you kind of what the difference is between the two. Now then there's the sighteline issue because there's a really sharp turn around Penuk that comes right where that entrance would be. Okay. Pawn Place Lane was put in anyway and it's a worse sight line with a right-hand turn. Um, I know I've written stories about crashes in my

backyard, in my front yard, excuse me. My mailboxes have been knocked down four times in the last 23 years, but not a single accident has occurred in the 45 years we've been there with a vehicle pulling out of Pawn Place Lane or Samuel Drive and being hit on Little Pond Road. So, that tells you that there's a good chance that that won't happen. Well, let's say it does. It was not that long ago and most of some of you were not at this table when the city spent quite a m a bit of money creating the most crazy idea called Langley Parkway with these rotaries in the middle of the same area where a developer could easily put in a half a million dollar roundabout um to slow the traffic there. We could also put in even like we were going to do a rotary on Auburn Street. We could also put in a three-way stop sign and just slow all the traffic on Panakook Street at the entrance of that building if you were to maximize it. Um, okay, I've jumped ahead. I'm almost done now because I made all my points by just rambling. Um, what about the wetlands? Well, there is a there is an intermittent stream there. It's called Woodsbrook. It runs through the basin at the north end of the property. You will see that right here in blue. Um, if as you can see from the maps of the drawings that I put in, they're very primitive, but you can see where they could easily lay out any of these four scenarios, which will bring us anywhere between $250 and $750,000 in tax revenue. Um, you can see almost none of them are near that intermittent stream. if we they had to build over it. If you go over to Lamprey Lane, which is right off of Pawn Place, there's a double cover right there that uh that um oh I forget his name now. He no longer lives there, but he developed those three houses there. Um three-way stop potentially. Okay. And the roundabout. Okay. Please don't Nobody said this yet. This

is the best deal we could come up with. We hear that a lot. No offense to city staff. But and and but Steve tells you something here in this agreement. He says the quote unquote appro appraised developmental rights are around $2.8 million. If he sold it, let me tell you, private interests will be looking at this parcel and building at this parcel. And they will because that's the money maker on this one. Two Isabella apartments. And if you look at the if you look at the map, it could potentially be more. I think I'm cheating us by saying two. Okay. If any develop if I were worth $und00 million and wanted to be worth $200 million, I would spend the $2 million to run the sewer line all the way around the street and hook up everybody for free and put in as many Isabellas as I could fit in there and make a fortune. Okay. Why Steve isn't doing this, I don't know why, and he will not answer my emails to tell me why. Okay. Lastly, and most importantly, um these are the this is the most important thing. The difference is who controls it. As Tom already said, um with these tweaks, this trans transaction will still be one of the largest acquisitions of conservation land in the city, which is great. Steve will still have his new house. He'll still have his privacy. He'll still have the elimination of the tax liability. He'll still have the naming rights. He'll still have millions and millions of dollars from the state or us from the sale of Granite Place. He will still have that he earned from the risk of buying that property from Brady Sullivan. Again, I'm a capitalist. I get it. I'm happy for him. Although I wouldn't have torn down the historic bank. I think that was ridiculous for a parking lot. Um and he will get credit for working with the city to replenish the tax base, which is what he said. He's been saying that for a year. Um because he because he's selling to Granite State, he's

selling Granite Place and he's also selling the boot and street property for the police station. And let the most importantly for all of you, you will look like heroes. Not because you secondguess staff, not because you listen to me or their negotiations, but because you did what you said you were going to do, which was maximize every opportunity to expand the tax base in this city when it is easy and staring right in front of you. I'm not lying. Go look. It's there. We can do something simple like across the street Samuel Place Samuel Drive or we can do something dynamic which is Isabella or two Isabellas. And lastly, I'll say if you see what they're spending on town houses on Fischerville Road, don't tell me we can't have an Isabella building over there or two Isabella buildings with condos at $500,000 a piece with young professional hikers who want to go all the way around Steve's new hiking trails and everything else. This is a no-brainer. It's a lot of money. It's tens of millions of dollars. You've got to vote against this. Go back, tweak it, and do this. It'll work. Thank you.

Questions for Mr. Thank you very much for your testimony and for reminding us what we said. But my question to you, we just ask us to reject 0.6. I didn't understand the

Oh, sure. So, if you go to the the this map here, so the 6 acres is right here that Steve wants to build ideally because any neighbors are not going to want to see that there. And that is a sharp turn. Not as nearly as the sharp turn outside of my house, but um it is a sharp turn and 525 feet is more than enough frontage to get egress even if it's only a small development. So you say to Steve, "Hey, look, you know, you got the 10 million acres. We're going to do this other thing here." And we and the city already owns the city owns that lot, that lot, and that lot. 1.4 four, I think it is, um, for Len Parkway. So, you got that and then you got this entrance. Steve wants this little parcel here. And ideally, if it were me, I would say I know my neighbors. Everybody's worried about traffic. Um, they would want to have the widest frontage to get in and out of there as easily as possible. There have never there's never been an accident on Pawn Place Lane since 1985 of a car pulling out of Pawnplace Lane to go on Little Pond Road either west or east. There's been plenty of this driving off that turn, but no car has ever been hit that I've known of um in that time of pulling out of that street. But you just want to be safe. If you can have 525 feet of frontage to the entrance of the lot instead of having say 440 or I'm sorry 4 it would be 4 would be uh uh 110 fronted so it would be 420 instead of 4 410 instead of 525.

I'm just confused because if we reject this 0.62 six too. It's under his control and if it's under his control, he can do whatever he wants to do with it. Right. Right. So, I'm asking you to amend it or to send them back to renegotiate it and say, "Hey, we hey, I know you want this 1.6. We're we're we're working out a deal where we're going to pay you for your tax liability and everything. So, you know how but we really want to have a dynamic housing development there and it would be better to have the frontage." So, you either amend it and vote on it and then they'll go back and renegotiate or they should go back and renegotiate and get a better deal. Okay. So, the word reject shouldn't be there then. It's not rejecting.

Yeah, I would reject it. I would ask you to to to say we're not going to accept this part of the proposal and then you would renegotiate that. Um, in in in fair in fairness though, you don't need to 410 feet of frontage is way more than what you need for this. But I would just be I would be safe. He doesn't need the 6. Okay. He can sell it for $100,000. You know, it it's it's not really that that big of a deal, I don't think. Yes. Um, thank you um for your testimony. And who were the developers that did uh Samuel Drive, Pond Place, Lampry Lane? Was it all the same?

No. So, Samuel Drive was um uh Cherry Hill Homes. He um uh they started in the fourth quarter of 2006, which was right at the start of the housing crisis. People really don't know that. We think the recession was 2008, but actually it was way before that, and then you saw the residual effects start later. So, he did it over a period of years, but those those houses sold for between $400 and $550,000. Steve lives at the bottom of the hill. So, I mean, he knows that there's no that there that there isn't a grade issue. Um, and again, you know, I haven't spoken to him about it except to say you should really build housing here, and that's been the extent of our conversations. But, um, so Cherry Hill Homes did that. The original developer for Pawnplace Lane started in 1985. He ran into problems with money at the time, and then I believe it took him 12 years to finish all of them. I'm not uh I think it was 1997. Yeah. So, it would have been 12 years by the time all of those were finished. And then um the um um the um the st the star granite people sold the parcel behind my house and um to the developer of Lamprey Lane who built those houses there. Um and um um I forget Sue's last name. It's been so long. But um they were they owned the the parcel out there behind um

Star Granite behind Star Granite and between Pawn Place. So um I want to say Mayo, Ernie Mayo. He was the developer for for Lamprey Lane and um he developed the three h uh four houses on that corner there. Okay. And he did that instantly. Um he built the huge house on the top of the hill that is 28 acres. He built that house for himself and then he basically paid for it with the other houses that he built. Okay. Thank you. Mhm. Any other questions? Second.

Thank you, your honor. Could you please help me understand when you were talking about you propose building housing on that lots and you heard me asking earlier the city manager the flexibility around this land that the city We have flexibility to do whatever we feel it's a need for the city. Why housing? Why did you propose housing in that?

Well, I mean, you can't really have office space, although you got it a few hundred feet away in the state building. Um, I have to tell you, um, and I won't get into personal stuff, but um, uh, I got a chance to take a look at the Isabella apartments, and I think they were too expensive for my budget, but they were beautiful. And as m as critical as I may have been privately about how that uh employment security building deal went down, I think it's a great asset for the city. Thought company did a great job. They're beautiful units. If I could have afforded $3,000 a month, I would have moved in instantly. In fact, I said to my wife and she was kicking me. I said, "I want to live here. I'm 60. This is the opport this is the proof. Can this be done? They keep talking about we want these people in their 60s to move downtown and not have cars and not have yards and and she was like, "You'll never be able to afford to go to O to get the drink because we're spending $3,000 a month." That being said, okay, legit, right? That's legit conversation we had. She's going to kill me when I get home, but it's true. But that doesn't make it wrong. The building is beautiful. I I truly believe that someone can come in and build $500,000 condos in a similar situation. Maybe they're a little bit bigger than the ones there. Um and they'll want to go outside and walk their dog on a hundred acres. And I think people will pay money for that. They're paying $429,000 for a townhouse on Fiserville Road. You can't tell me there aren't going to be people in this city who are going to want to spend half a million dollars or or whatever the price is to build a couple of to build condos there and and it would be at least 25 20 $25 million in assessed value at least. I think that one of the development uh when Isabella was built I think that was the final value of was 40,000 40 million excuse me but the assessed value was 11 or whatever. I mean, that's the equivalent.

We're talking about 80 of the value of $80 million worth of condos. We're not talking like a thousand. We're talking 80. I mean, it it's it's it's it just seems ridiculously easy. And and I don't understand why um there seems to be push back for it because it's already been built in the neighborhood uh on Samuel Drive. There have already been grades. There already been sighteline issues. You you you had concepts for a crazy roundabout dead ends on that street. There's plenty of ways to traffic calm moving people in and out and and and yeah, set aside 105 acres. Make Steve Dupri a hero for doing that, but let's get the maximum value. And it's it's right there. It's right there. It's a basin. It's 20 plus acres of flat land in the middle of this parcel that can be built. And you all promised you would expand the tax base. It's it's the staff can go back and cut a better deal for all of us and I know they can. I have faith in them.

Uh you've alluded to a couple times that your neighbors or folks in the neighborhood might not like this for various reasons. Is your reason that you're so passionate just for the case of raising the tax base?

Yeah. Yeah. because um cuz I I am close to being the back of the envelope math and I know I'll say it again. I've said it before and I don't care if people don't want to hear it. My family's been here 120 years and I'm not going to be able to retire here. Now, I chose to be a journalist by craft. We don't make a lot of money. I'm going to hope for the best. My wife is younger than me. She will work a little bit longer, but that's not the point. If I'm feeling that, everyone else is. Everyone else is. And we want the police to have a a better police station. I don't golf and I Well, I have I've golfed four times now, but I spend more time at the clubhouse drinking with friends. I want a decent clubhouse. If you've gone to Pen Brook Pines and then you go to our golf golf club and you go, wait, that's Pemrook, right? Like it's beautiful. It's gorgeous. I understand he built all that housing around it. But, you know, we deserve a clubhouse. We deserve a community center. Let's do it. expand tax base and Steve wants to give it to you. Great. Go back, renegotiate, take the 6 back, give him a $50,000 more for it, take the land from him and get somebody to do it. In fact, I would say, "Hey, Flatly, we have an RFP. It would be really great if you would come back and build two more Isabellas on this really cool lot and spend $2 million to run sewer and have all those guys work for mill for $2 million to install sewer. have us all have sewer and water billing for 90 apartments and or condos in that area which is going long term. You you have plans for water you know that's what I do.

I hope you will consider that. Thank you. Thank you before you go. Yes sir. So do you believe that it is worth the risk of losing the 18 acre 18 developable acres in the front by going back and trying to renegotiate this and and draft a new deal before December 31st in three basically.

So I've known Steve Dri for over a quarter of a century and even before that I didn't know him before that when he was building stuff around here in the 1980s. He's not stupid. He cares about the community. Look at the fight we went through in this community over saving that house and now we have rooftop social. Oh my goodness. We deserve that years ago. I think I truly believe when he says, "I'm trying to do the best thing for the community to come up with ways to expand the tax base." I tr I believe that. I don't think that that's just a shtick or something. So that's a yes.

Yeah. Um a roundabout way. Yeah. Uh, is it worth the risk? Well, here's the other part. He already told you it's worth $2.8 million to somebody to sell it to a private interest, right? Okay. So, he's going to give up $2.8 million to sell it to private interests. Um, and he's he's not going to do that to benefit the city with with properties that could be worth anywhere between 8 and $22 million and replenish all the money. That's going to almost replenish all the money. Tom, is that almost going to replenish all the money? Put you on the spot. If it's if it's two Isabellas and it's $22 million in assessed value,

about half. So Steve's going to be a hero by letting us do what we think is best for the maximum amount of opportunity with the property. He's going to replenish half the money. And he wants to he wants to he feels terrible about it. I'm sure that he's made a good deal on these properties and wants to come up with ways to to replenish that tax base. This is this is one other way that's not being considered that will. And if you don't believe me, you can go Trump's in the snow. I'm not lying to you. The maps don't lie. It's legit. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you.

Is there anyone else who would like to testify? Mr. Welcome. Welcome back.

Good evening. I'm still Roy Schweer and I will answer your question first. I think that it is well worth the risk of not getting that 18 acres to get a better project out of this. This December 31st deadline is Steve Dupree and not ours. We can get a much better project if we take longer. Even if that means he keeps the land and find his own developers because I have a feeling he could probably better at that than our city staff is. The first thing I mean I have I have two things about this. Number one, I don't think we should pay him. And number two, I don't think we should take the land for free. I object to the answer that Mr. Foot got from his question. It seems like the these reverse these reserve funds are very strange. If there's something important like uh paying the increased uh labor negotiation, you cannot touch these reserve funds. You've got to leave them to preserve our credit. So, we've got to raise our taxes to pay the increased uh labor contract. On the other hand, if it's something that uh you might not do if it cost you like a golf clubhouse or this project, oh, it won't cost you a cent. We'll take it out of the reserve funds. You know, why is it suddenly okay to use reserve funds for frivolous stuff but not use them for stuff you need like the, you know, labor contract? And you, the city manager is correct. If you spend money out of this, it will not increase that tax bill I already have in my desk. But if you didn't spend the reserve funds on this, you could use reduce the taxes next year. And that's what the reserve funds could be used for reduced taxes if you didn't spend them on frivolous items. So, and I mean what essentially the deal Mr. Dupri is offering you is instead of 27 acres, I'll give you 18, but I won't give them to you. You have to pay for them. and you've got to agree to this before December 31st. Does that sound like a good deal to you? And it sounds like a terrible deal to me. And as far

as where the money comes from, he says, "Well, I need this because I didn't close on the property soon enough." Well, you may recall that when you had that deal with the uh other insurance buildings, you had to pay Mr. to dupri half a million dollars over his cost because of you know delaying the thing. If he wants to be reimbursed for the you know closing being delayed he should get it from the state. He shouldn't get it from the city. It's not our fault he didn't get the closing done sooner. And not only that because he owned the property longer he collected more rent from the state so he can use his rent to pay the real estate taxes. I mean he just he just wants the money and that's an excuse and it's a crummy excuse. We shouldn't go for it. We we should say no to the money. And the next thing is I don't have the great knowledge of this area the family does. I have been hiking up there which I can admit now because the statute of limitations is over. And uh in fact the summit of Rattlesnake Hill if you may or may not know this is one of the original triangulation points from 1870 when they did the triangulation of the state of New Hampshire. But the thing is that that parcel of land, some of it is very unsuitable for anything but recreation. And you might even say it's unsuitable for recreation. It's got quaries. It's got steep cliffs. It's kind of like a liability nightmare. So, you know, if you take on the ownership of that, you're probably going to have to, you know, spend a lot of time dealing with issues like that. Are you going to I mean if you post it no trespassing which a private owner can do then if somebody drowns in the quarry you can say he was trespassing but if it's a city and it's our land are you going to tell people you can't go there? No. And then he drowns and he sues you. So managing that land is going to be a big expense and the city already has a problem managing conservation land.

They can't keep people from camping there. then they spend five figures to go clean it up. So I think that uh if Mr. Dupri doesn't want to give us the conservation land and he gives it to a land trust that would be all to the benefit of us. We'd much better off if we didn't have to manage that land. And as far as what happens with the rest of it, there are two things that I don't like. The first is he's kind of threatening like I could sell this to the state. Well, the state has got its own budget problems. They're not going to go spend $2 million on a piece of land they don't have immediate use for probably. Let's say they do. The state is going to build in this city when they want to, where they want to, we might as well let them have an office park there. If that's the deal, if they want to buy that land, then they'll put their next state building there instead of buying partial somewhere else. So, I don't feel like having the state own it is going to be a cost. The second thing is the city might find that a very advantageous thing. That might be where our new fire station goes. I mean, putting a fire station next to an office building instead of in a neighborhood when you have these guys running sirens all night. It's probably much better to have it, you know, there than to have it where it is now, for instance, where there's some houses around. And I would even say the police station would be better there. If you put the police station there, you could build a design from the groundup police station that's more efficient than the smafrodite you're presently approved. You could put the radio tower there. When they decide to move the radio tower and try and put it at the uh president plan, the neighbors are going to scream bloody murder. They were in here when that hearing came up. They didn't want that radio tower. Oh, we won't put it there. Well, sooner or later, the police are going to decide we want our radio tower next to the police station. We don't want to worry about communication links. We don't want to worry about it not being hardened. So I think that you know his condition that

this has to be back on the tax base is unacceptable because we might find a good use for that land ourselves. And you say well we want taxable money. Well, if we have to buy land somewhere else to put the fire station on, then that's going to come off the tax rolls. So, I don't see why it's any worse to have some of the land here off the tax rolls than it is to uh, you know, get a piece of land somewhere else for a fire station and take it off the tax roles. And the last thing, I agree with Tony. I don't think we should have that giant conservation easement because if you look at an entirely different sort of housing what he's looking at, I think you could put tiny homes up there. A tiny house does not have the same footprint as the giant apartment buildings she's talking about. You could put them all over. You could put them in an area of steep slopes because you don't have to put them on the slopes. You put them on, you know, scattered flat areas. I think there are people in the city who don't want to live in big apartment buildings, who would love to have a tiny home so they had a little bit of space of their own. And if you don't want to talk to someone who thinks having a bit of space around his home is nice, there's some guy who's got a 10acre lot out that's going to build a house out there. Ask him if he doesn't think it's nice having space around instead of living jammed up next to however many other people in that apartment building. So, I think this is a rotten deal. It's it's a worse deal than you already have. So, why are you going to jump to do it? You shouldn't be paying money for it. You shouldn't be using reserve funds when they could be used to reduce taxes instead. You shouldn't let Steve Dupri put that giant conservation on if he's going to give it to you. If he gives it to a land trust, he can put as much as he wants in a conservation ement. But, you know, that's that's for let them manage it. Let's not us have us get the expense. And as far as, you know, saying that the rest of it's got to be taxable, that

means we're, you know, foreclosing our option of using that for a a good place to have a fire station in an office park and not in a, you know, neighborhood where people are trying to sleep at night. So tell them, "No, this we're tired of having you give us last minute deals. We're not going to accept this. If you want to come back and take some of the conditions off it, say, "Okay, you don't have to guarantee to put stuff on that stuff. You don't have to have as big conservation easement then and you don't have I don't want any money." Then that maybe you can do it by the 31st, but he's the one that's a deadline and not you. You got all the time in the world. you know, if he sells it to somebody else, it could still come back to the city eventually. If he if he's the one that's got the pressure, make him cave in. Don't you cave in. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Mr. Schweiter. Any questions for Mr. Schweiter? Thank you, sir. Thank you. Is there anyone else who would like to testify on this item? Seeing none, I'll close the public hearing and we'll now move to the public hearing action phase. Madam city clerk, item 35. It's an ordinance amending the code of ordinances title 2 traffic code chapter 18 parking time limited in designated places modifying parking time limits on village street north of canal street. Approval second. Moved and seconded. Any discussion?

All in favor please uh of the motion as presented please signify by saying I. I opposed. No eyes have it. The motion is adopted. Madam city clerk, item 36. It is a resolution appropriating the sum of $48,540 in the golf course winter recreation improvements project to purchase one snow gun and accepting the sum of $24,270 in donations from Ski the Bee as well as the sum of $24,270 as a rebate through the New Hampshire Saves program for this purpose. Move approval. Second. Moved and seconded. Any discussion? Council Brown.

Yes. Um, I believe that the city manager needed an alteration of terrain permit for the parking lot. Is that correct? For the parking lot plan that that would require that this uh project requires not part of this. So the parking lot. So this could be done. Yes, this could be done without doing the parking lot. accepting accepting the money to buy the gun. Yes. Okay.

All we're doing here is is deciding whether or not to do a deal, accept the dollars and the grant. Follow up. Nothing to follow up on. Uh where would this snow gun be stored? Is this something that you know is there's a it requires a shed or it's at the driving range. It doesn't need to be it doesn't need it. No proposal to put a shed here. Okay. So the follow up. Yes. So ski the bee is taking ownership and responsibility of the snow gun

that would be purchased by snowun. the city is buying it and then the city would be responsible for it. Is that correct? So the city followup Yeah. So the city would have to build I mean I I I don't know the size of it. The city would have to protect it somehow until or for when it's being used. Let me let me ask the city manager a question. Mr. City Manager, are you confident that if we approve the purchase of this piece of equipment, it will be adequately and safely stored? Yes. All right. Very well. Any other questions or any other discussion? Council Jenny.

Thank you. Uh I just want to thank uh Ski the Beef um for raising this money and all of their efforts. I know they've come to the recreation and parks advisory committee many many times over the last couple years uh with a when they first started uh was somewhat of an ambitious plan. I don't know how many of us thought that they'd be able to come through on it. uh but the enthusiasm that they've shown their ability to uh galvanize members of the community and actually get money uh to uh do this I think has been fantastic. I know they've got uh you know other other things they would like to do to improve uh skiing uh crosscountry skiing at Beaver Meadow. Uh but I think this is a great first step. Uh thank you to David Gil Parks and Recreation who did the um the proof of concept last winter to show that this actually would work that it would be a a an amenity uh that would increase usage of Beaver Meadow uh in the winter and so I think this is a no-brainer to uh to do this and uh I hope you'll support it.

Thank you. Any other discussion? Councelor Kredic.

Thank you, your honor. I'll also be supporting this um for a long time when there was uh winter crosscountry skiing in the 1980s out of Beaver Meadow and then that ended. It was very sad for the community to lose such a great asset. I'm so proud of Ski the Bee and their efforts over the last several years to first of all help and partner with the city for a groomer and now to bring the snow making. We all know that our winters can be up or down when it comes to what snow is out there. We're in a fortunate moment right now, which uh Mr. Evans Brown um talked about. The conditions that are here there today are amazing. And with the cold weather, this is exactly the type of weather they want to be blowing the snow with a a little amount of water to create that snow, which is the same as what ski areas are doing all around us. um up in the White Mountains, Guntock, um uh Pats Peak, they're all blowing snow. We need to be blowing snow, too, for our cross-country ski community so that more of our community can be partaking in the beautiful land that we have out at Beaver Meadow. So again, I'll be supporting this and I hope you will join me. Thank you.

Other discussion, Council Su.

Thank you, your honor. I just want to second what Feness said as well as councelor uh Cro because I met with Sam and Sam was just describing how they have to drive the bus all the way nor the New Hampshire and how it's taking time for the student and the driver and everything. I think thank you guys for making this happen and for raising the funds needed to keep this key family here in town and I appreciate it. I know the minute that you started this conversation when we met you'll meet the needs. I was not doubting that because I can see the passion behind it. So thank you guys.

Thank you. Further discussion council Brown.

Yes, I will be opposing this. I think there is just a lot of unknowns um that there is noou. Uh this is a difficult piece of equipment to set up. Eight lines of hose. It has to be connected to a fire hydrant. Um we don't know what the staff time would be. Um so and the parking lot is not being done. It it's it has not been bonded. So this is something this is a piece of equipment that will just be sitting on city property unless you know the f the ski the bee um goes through this process to set it up. So I just I think it's not the right time. I think we need um more clarification on who's responsible for this equipment, setting it up, working it, running it. We don't know uh when the parking lot's going to be done. Um so I don't think we should jump into this before that.

Thank you. Any further discussion? Camera. Thank you, honor. I totally will support this project because I know firsthand the powerhouse that Nordic skiing and conquered has between their students, their racers, their parents. It's a passion. It's a hobby. It's a way to get outside and exercise. So, I have no doubt whatsoever and I've seen firsthand what um our starting as the Nordic skiing in this town that it's not a problem. It's not going to sit there idle. It'll get used and and taken care of.

Thank you. Any other comment or any other discussion?

I'll just close by saying I am going to be voting in favor of this. Uh I remember uh this motion. Uh I remember uh when my uh girl our girls were little and we took them cross-country skiing over at Beaver Meadow. It was a great opportunity uh see all the other families uh to get our kids out in the fresh air to get ourselves out in the fresh air. And I sorry to say I haven't been cross country skiing in probably a couple of decades. Uh but I think this is a great asset to echo what other people have said. a great asset to the city and an opportunity to again convert this piece of property uh into more of a of a 12 month a year uh facility, a year-round facility that can not only be enjoyed by uh members of the Concrete community, but also draw other people uh to discover what Concrete has to offer uh and what a great community we are uh what a broad range of uh uh physical outdoor activities we offer. So, I will be voting in favor We're ready for the vote. All those in favor of the motion as presented, please signify by saying I.

I. Opposed. No. Eyes have it. And the motion passes by the required two-thirds majority. Madam city clerk, item number 37. It is a resolution appropriating the sum of $71,271.91 as a transfer to reserves and accepting the sum of $71,271.91 in litigation settlement funds for the service. Move approval. Second. Moved and seconded. Any discussion? All right. All those in favor of the motion presented, please signify by saying I. I. Oppos? No. Eyes have it. Madam City Clerk, item number 38.

It's a resolution appropriating the sum of $80,100 for police department roadway safety outreach initiatives and C equipment and accepting the sum of $80,100 and grant funds from the New Hampshire Highway Safety Agency for this purpose. Move approval. moved. Moved and seconded. Uh let me uh just back up a second and indicate that uh item 37 did pass by the required twothirds majority. Uh any discussion on item 38. Council Brown. Yes. I will be recusing myself from this and the uh next item number 39 as my husband is a police officer. Great. Thank you very much. Any discussion? I just have your honor. Yeah.

A question. When we say of course we are accepting the money but when it said roadway safety outreach initiative what that outreach looks like like the police department come forward. Yes. Thank you. the initiative itself like what is the plan? Welcome Deputy Chief Ky. Mr. Mayor, thank you members of the council. Um, so the uh grant this year has become less restrictive than in years past.

Previously there were uh strict parameters in terms of how the money can be used or allocated. And now uh what they have permitted is for us to provide opportunities to educate members of the community whether that be elderly, new drivers, u new Americans, um any um segment of our population that may desire such courses. Thank you very much. Terrific. Thank you. Thank you. Sorry. Any other questions for Deputy Chief Casey? No. Thank you. Thank you. Yes. Any other discussion? All right. All those in favor of the motion as presented, please signify by saying I.

Opposed? No. Eyes have it. The motion passes by the required two/3s majority. Madam city clerk, item number 39. It is a resolution appropriating the sum of $80,000 designated for conducting illegal drugrelated investigations and accepting the sum of $8,000 in grant funding from the New Hampshire Department of Safety Law Enforcement Substance Abuse Reduction Initiative for this purpose. moved. Move approval. Second. Moved and seconded. Uh any discussion? All right. All those in favor of the motion as presented, please signify by saying I. I. Oppos? No. Eyes have it. And the motion passes by the required two-thirds majority. Uh Madam City Clerk, item 40.

It is a resolution appropriating the sum of $370,000 in the general fund as a transfer out to capital for the acquisition of approximately 153.09 9 acres of real estate from two granite place authorizing the use of $370,000 from general fund unassigned fund balance for this purpose appropriating the sum of $370,000 in the property acquisition project and accepting the sum of $370,000 as a transfer in from the general fund for this purpose. Thank you. Move approval. Second. Moved and seconded. Discussion. Council Kredc.

Thank you, your honor. I I'm going to start by saying when I first moved to New Hampshire, I lived on Fischerville Road. It's an excellent area of the city. Um when I moved into the apartment and then eventually moved into another apartment and saved money and eventually bought a home, I stayed in this area of city. Words one, two, and three are very grateful for this main road that we have that runs through uh this city. And we have fantastic schools that live in that area as well. and anyone would be proud to have a $429,000 um townhouse in our area. Not that I want to have that be our discussion. Um you know, one of the things about this and I want to say that both uh Mr. Chanella and Mr. um Schweiker brought up really good points, but in the world of finance 1231 is a very specific date. It is the end of the fiscal year and it's the singular day of the year where there is no tomorrow when it comes to taxes. This has something to do with Mr. uh Dupri's tax portfolio and I'm sure that that's why that date exists. I think their points were very well taken, but I do think also the opportunity for us to control this piece of land that could be potential housing. There was legislation that passed this past year that was specific to um public employee housing if it's owned by the municipality. meaning we could work with the developers specifically to have housing for our municipal employees, for our firefighters, our police department, our school teachers, our um residents that work for the state of New Hampshire. It is specific to housing for public workers. It's a great opportunity and I believe and councelor Schultz may be

able to help me with this, but the set aside was $12 million to help a municipality grow this housing in our community. I think that that is the win for this property. So, that's why I'm in favor of this. Not that any of their suggestions were um not to be heard, but I think we can go back to the table and negotiate on a 62 acre with Mr. dupri before the end of March which is what the second deadline was in this report. Thank you. Thank you council.

I I think you touch what I wanted to say. Thank you your honor. I just wanted to know and if the city can explain this to me if we rejected as suggested the 6.2 acres what is the consequences of that or if there is any benefits of it?

I don't understand the question. So my question is earlier testimony said to reject this to not take the 0.6 acres uh 0 0.2 two, what would what consequences that would have on this deal if we reject it? Or even if we take it, what consequences that would have? I I think I think you need to step I think I think I need it's this is his proposal. Yes.

This is not a negotiated deal that we sat down and talked to him about and said, "How about you do this and you do that?" He came forward with this proposal. This is what it is. There's no taking pieces out and putting other pieces in. Now, you could go back later on after something like this is done and always take it redo something later on or attempt to redo something, but this isn't this and it was talked about like this was a negotiated deal of of how this isn't. The only thing the only thing that changed from his original proposal was we asked we said three years given the economy may not be enough time for the city to find a to determine what the best project could be. Find an appropriate developer for that. Get the financing in place to make that happen. Would you be willing to go to five years? And he agreed to go to five years. That's it. Nothing about what pieces are going to the state, what's going to the city, 18 acres versus 25 acres. that was never on the table. He never put that on the table and he made it clear that's not not none of that is on the table. So the the 10.51 acres the 628 acres that's all ironclad that he has right now. So you you can't pick and pick and choose uh as far as I know. He he told us pretty straightforward take it or leave it. This this is it.

Thank you. Perhaps you could answer a follow-up question, Mr. City Manager. From our understanding, who's the next buyer in line for this property?

He the the property um that he's he's talked about that we've discussed is the property that would be acquired by the city uh which would be the purple shaded area. Well, you probably don't know the 18 point well the uh 18.2 acres of what it be. He's the state of New Hampshire would be interested in acquiring that property. This is what he all I can tell you is what he's told us. They would be interested in acquiring that property. Um he would then he plans to keep the other the 10.51 acres and the 0.628 acres and the conservation property you could work with a conservation easement organization and donate to them that I mean that's that's Schulz.

Thank you Mr. Mayor. Um to follow up on what um councelor Siku asked, that doesn't mean we I mean we could open this up the way because we've had two people testify on this item and both opposed it. Couldn't we have that conversation even if we voted again before the end of the year? You know, maybe we like these every every two week meetings, but um would it be worth having a conversation to see if it could be used for housing. It's a city manager. You can do anything you want.

That's the the sub subdivision. Matt, just from the audience, subdivision has been approved. It's been approved. It's been approved. So, this is done. This is what he's already proposed. This has already gone through the planning board. Could he go back and do another plan and do something else? Of course. But this is what's this is what's done right now. Follow up, Council. Well, yeah, I was just going to say um you know, if we had the chance to do this for housing, isn't it worth having the conversation? Um and then I forget the other half of my question. Council Fency,

thank you. Um just to follow up on that last comment. So, what we're looking at is actually a subdivision plan that's been approved. If we were to go back and try to negotiate, I'm assuming that the planning board would be able to take up a subdivision application between now and 12:31. Thank you, Councelor Schultz.

Okay, different followup. Um, I mean, under similar uh points, are we sure the state would even be able to negotiate a deal that quickly either? I mean, what would be the harm in that sense? to putting it off because I would assume that would be even harder at the state level. I mean, that's my question. Is it right to assume? How's that? Does that make it a question? That makes it a question. I mean, it's more of a statement, but that really was a question. Council.

Yes. Um, I think Steve Dri is great. Um, he's my constituent, but I will be opposing this. I, um, I don't like that we get this immediate, this deadline that we have to act. I don't like that we have to spend this money. Um, let a developer take it. Let Cherry Hill Homes take it. Let them develop it. Um, I don't think that the city needs to be the one to take it, then to negotiate it, then to set up the roads. And I think that we have enough on our plate. I think it is desirable piece of property. Um, we don't need to be the go-between between uh Steve and another developer. Um, I'm sure that he will do an amazing job. He will find somebody else. In his letter, the last line he says, "If a decision is made not to move forward, I will either pay taxes on the property and sell it to a housing developer or donate it to the state." So he's not it's not automatically going to go to the state. It's something that he's he could sell it to a developer, but I don't think it's something that we need to add onto our plate. So for those reasons and for um uh Mr. Chanela's and Mr. Schwiker's points, um I will be opposing this motion.

Thank you. Any other discussion? Councelor Todd.

Thank you, Honor. I just want to thank the people who gave testimony tonight. Uh Mr. Schwer, Mr. especially Mr. Chanel. He obviously put a lot of time and thought into this and I really do appreciate it. Um I think that uh my concern is that uh we are at risk of losing the potential to develop the acreage that I think would go to the state ultimately probably um or even another developer over which we would then have little control over what actually happens to that. And I know that a lot of times there's criticism on from the city, for example, the employment security project, but this is exactly the reason that we took control of that property so that we could be the ones that could determine what would go there, what would be developed, that it would be insured to be a uh tax generating revenue source that would go in there. And here we don't have that control, folks. This is owned by a private person who has a proposal that he's given to us and I think that we don't really have a lot of wiggle room. We either kind of that's the way I look at it. We either accept it or we don't. I think that um I would have appreciated as the representative of the planning board if Mr. Chanela had had the time to have brought forth his plan at the planning board because I think that would have been a really great opportunity with Mr. do be present at the planning board and giving testimony to have discussed that other option in full. Um this this puts us in a position where we really are u at the last minute here unfortunately. Um so I'm I'm going to be uh in support of this uh because I think that if we had some other thoughts or concepts that we wanted to put forth and continue discussions with Mr. Dupri that doesn't preclude us from doing that. But if we reject this tonight I think that we are precluded from probably doing much anything else with this. Thank you. Thank you. Any further discussion? Councelor Curts.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I just want to echo um Councelor Todd's um appreciation of the public testimony um and the very um interesting proposal um that I wish I had perhaps seen with more time to reflect on it um and and ask questions about it. And then um in response to your question, Mr. mayor that you posed to Mr. Chanella. Um I do not believe it is worth the risk of delaying this in any way. So I will be supporting um this proposal. Um I think capturing whatever of this land that we can from potentially being taken off our tax roles is absolutely essential for the city of conquer at this time.

Thank you councelor councelor Schultz. Additional question. So, if I understand the key terms and conditions on page two of the report, it's saying that that wouldn't a vote in favor of the way the motion is lock it in as a conservative as a conservation easement, right? So, there wouldn't be a chance to it would be an agreed upon part of the deal if we accept it as as motioned and written. It would be locked in as a as a conservation easement. Correct. I really don't know the answer to that. I have no agenda either way. I don't understand. You want to address that?

Which which part of the property are we talking about? Well, it says on page two of the report on the acquisition of the property. So, I assume the motion to approve it as written would would be to accept every all the terms in the report. So, on page two of the report and again I just I don't have an agenda. I just am curious because I don't understand. Sure. And it does feel kind of rushed, but um on the bottom of page two of that report, it says conservation easement. And then it basically describes what that would be.

And so that would be locking it in as conservation land if we receive it that way. Right. If I could. So the 134.89 89 acres would be considered conservation for conservation purposes. Yes. And we follow up. So again, just to make sure I totally understand what we're and so therefore we couldn't change it to something else, right? Isn't when we that that's the idea is that it would permanently stay as cont. I just wanted to make sure that I understand. Yeah. Oh, I get that part. Okay. Council foot like to call a vote. You'd say

uh you got to move the question that requires a twothirds vote. I think we're close. I think we're close to voting on this. Uh rather than go through a twothirds vote to move the question if if if you'll bear with me. Is there any other council brown briefly please?

Yes. I actually have a question for the city solicitor because as Mr. Chanela correctly summised, I did go through that area and there are established um homeless encampments uh in that location. So my question to the city solicitor is if we take on this property and we are responsible and something happens out there, you know, it's on us. Is that correct?

Mr. Thank you. Um so if we take ownership uh of uh that area we we have not negotiated the deed out yet. So um typically um we would it would be our responsibility if we have the fee ownership but um we haven't negotiated out the final uh u uh language on this. So in terms of whether there's any um any other management responsibilities or anything like that we have not addressed that yet. I just follow up. I just want to point out that when I went through that area, there are some very established, hardened uh homeless encampments in that area that I was unaware of until I went tromping through. But it is uh it's not just a tent, it's hardened sites.

Thank you. Thank you.

All right. I will just say uh I will be voting in favor of this motion. I appreciate as others as others have mentioned uh the work that Mr. Chanel put into his proposal. I appreciate Mr. Schwiker's comments as well. Um you know there's an old adage uh a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. My concern is that we have a bird in the hand right now. Uh we may not get the birds in the bush if we uh delay on this and we reopen it. Uh so I will be be voting in favor of this so that we know that we have uh at le uh developable land that will remain on the city tax roles. Um I have little doubt that if we don't acquire those 18 acres, they will go to the state of New Hampshire and they will be off the tax roles. And for those reasons, I'll be voting in favor. All right. All those in favor of the motion as presented, please signify by saying I

I oppose. No. No. Eyes have it. And the motion passes by the required twothirds majority. Uh I'm going to declare a two-minute recess. Two minutes, please.

That's my general advice. Right, we'll reconvene uh the meeting and the next item on the agenda is reports and we have a presentation on our transition to automated collection trash collection and recycling. Oh yeah, Mr. Hodley, welcome. Good evening, Mr. Mayor, city councilors. My name is Jeff Hodley and I'm here with Adam Clark from general services and Aaron Beer uh Aaron Banfield the director of municipal services for Cassella.

I have to here to give a briefformational presentation on the present status of the city's transition to automated curbside trash and recycling collection. General service staff, the seller representatives, and the solid waste advisory committee have been working hard over the past year preparing for the transition. While there is still much work to do before the first phase kicks off in 2026, we're proud of our progress thus far. In our presentation tonight, we hope to provide the committee with five things. First of all, as a reminder, what to expect in terms of trash collection over the next few years. Number two, provide details on what residents can expect in terms of communication from the department about the coming changes. Number three, review cart sizes and cart placement information. Number four, provide information on alternative cart sizes and how residents should communicate their preference with us. And lastly, share resources that the community can access to learn more about information. I'm going to have Adam take over.

All right. Uh so just as a reminder, the city is transitioning to automated collection in two phases. that uh begins with a pilot phase starting the week of June 29th, 2026 and a citywide transition that'll occur in 2028. For better understanding, each day there are three to four trucks servicing the city. In the pilot phase of the transition, one of those truck routes on each day will be designated a pilot route in transition to automated collection. As a part of that, a set of carts, one for trash and one for recycling, will be provided to each home. The standard trash collection uh excuse me container size will be 65 gallons and the standard recycling container will be 95 gallons. There will be no charge to residents for these carts. All residents, including those both on pilot the pilot routes and those remaining on a manual collection route will still need to use pay as throwbacks. No one's collection days are expected to be changed at this time. However, times may change for people. So residents should have their trash and recycling at the curb at 7 a.m. which is the present rule, but people tend to get used to the time that the guys show up at their house. Also, as we will review shortly, carts should be placed at the curb facing out with clearance on all sides.

Just to remind council on why the city is transitioning to automated collection. In 2023, the city issued an RFP for solid waste collection services and it was very clear in the limited responses that the city received that the industry is moving away from manual collection and that securing that type of service for any length of time would be impossible. Automated collection is also more efficient than manual collection and results in cost savings. There is data that using cart for recycling collection results in higher recycling volumes and diversion from traditional disposal. Another benefit we can anticipate is that there will be less windblown litter on the streets which is common occurrence with our current 18gallon open top recycling bins. Lastly, because carts are wheeled and make contact with the ground, they are far they are found to be safe for residents and collection workers as they limit lifting. So, here on the screen, uh this is what our pilot uh collection routes will be. I recognize that it's small and difficult to see in this format. Uh but we do have it blown up on a map that I can uh hang up here. I was just eyeballing those tacks over there. Um, and after this meeting tonight, we're going to have a searchable and navigable um, map on posted on the web. It's actually already posted on the website uh, for people to check out if they'd like to take a peek and see if they're on the pilot routes. Essentially, what this map shows here is all of our collection routes uh, by day. the pilot route is on there and it's identified if you can see the yellow around a section of each of uh the day's collection routes. Uh we also have these maps by day as well if anybody really wants to zoom zoom in and see uh what we're looking at.

Uh so what can residents expect in terms of uh communication uh following this meeting? Um and I think tomorrow it's going to go to the printer. We're going to be sending a postcard s out citywide uh to all residents on the curbside collection routes kind of explaining what our plan is, kind of going over what we're going over tonight. Have a a copy of that postcard in front of you. Um this is going to help residents understand what they're looking at when they see cards being delivered in parts of the city and being used. Um the mailing will also indicate that those residents that will be on a pilot route will receive a subsequent mailing in January identifying them as such. So basically we have a citywide mailing that goes out in the next week or so and then in January those on the pilot route will be getting another postcard. And that's what this slide says. And basically that second postcard that's in January is going to say, "Hey, you're on the pilot collection route. Please reach out to us if you'd like some alternative uh cart size sizes." Right? So those alternative cart sizes are going to be available uh for residents that may require it. Uh, for example, residents that are senior citizens or those that require an ADA or other accommodation may request smaller carts. And on the other hand, uh, residents that, um, have a household with five or more residents in it could get a larger cart. And Aaron's now going to speak to those sizes.

Um, all households, as Adam mentioned earlier, are going to receive a trash cart with a black lid and a recycling cart with a blue lid. The trash cart's going to be 65 gallons. Um, as Adam laid out very nicely, a couple of um just depictions of capacity. So, four plus bags of the 15 gallon size bag and then two plus of the the three gallon bag would fit in your standard 65gallon cart. Um, and then on the recycling side, the 95gallon cart will hold more than five times the standard 18gallon recycling cart. that's used utilized on the curb today.

And if I could just interject, I would also note that that's large because all of the cardboard we all have these days, right? So all the materials have to go inside of the cart. And so that's why you see such a large volume.

Um, as Adam mentioned, there will be two alternative trash cart sizes. One larger for those uh households that need additional capacity. Um, and then a smaller cart that's easier to maneuver. Typically, we see that um older demographic for single household using a 35 gallon cart. And then as Adam just alluded to, the smallest alternative recycling cart uh would be a 65gallon just because of your nature of your recycling loose. The cardboard's not typically going to come out of this 35gallon cart very easily.

Very good. Thank you, Erin. Uh so our cart order is due to the cart manufacturer in April of 2026. Uh we will now begin accepting um size uh alternative size requests uh after this meeting. Uh to do that we have created an online form that uh is available on the general services web page um that residents can access. Alternatively, uh residents can call us and we can enter their information electronically for them. Timing is important on this though as we will only have the alternative size ordering window open from now until March 31st in order to meet our deadline. Uh and again, as of now, this is only for those folks that will be on the pilot routes. I should mention that this form can also be used to opt out of cart delivery and thus curbside collection if residents may have an alternative means of disposal. If they have a they have a business in town and they have a dump at their business, they can opt out of the the program here. Um so again because our car order has a hard deadline uh requests that are received after March 31st will be placed on on a waiting list and those requests will be satisfied based on availability and funding

cart place. Um, so Adam also mentioned this briefly earlier. Uh, you will place your carts with your handles facing your house or your dwelling. Um, there's a grab bar on the front of the cart. Our trucks will utilize the front of the cart to pick up. Um, carts, dump them in the hopper or the truck. Uh, your lid will be facing the truck, so when it gets dumped, the lid flaps open. Um, we ask that you place them about 3 ft apart from each other, from parked cars, from mailboxes. Uh, we will send out visual, if not this, very similar to this with the cart delivery so people get that right at home. Uh, it'll be accessible online as well. And then throughout the year and the seasons, we'll send out some cart tips and updates. Um, don't place them in a snowbank. Don't place them behind a snowbank. don't place them behind a car. Um, our drivers over time and as we roll out the program, we'll be out. We'll have crews out just making sure placements um, appropriately done and we might leave a sticker that says, "Hey, you did it wrong this time. That's okay. We fixed it, but please adjust for the next."

I you brought up snow and and one thing that always jumps out at me is Mike who's in the back said, "Treat it as if it's like your mailbox, right? So your your trash cart, you know, when it comes to snow, that's a helpful thing. Think of think of it as your shovel. I like that. Okay, a couple quick notes relative to program planning. As it currently stands, uh the pilot root carts are expected to be delivered sometime in June 2026. Uh residents can use those carts as soon as they receive them. Uh the program itself is scheduled to commence the week of 20 uh June 29th, 2026 at which the time the carts are the only ones that will be collected again on the pilot route only at this point. Uh carts when they are delivered will be left uh by the delivery vendor in the relative location of service. That means not at the not up the drive. That's basically at the curb where we would recommend you uh place it. Residents will have options for disposing of old bins in sequence with the new bins being delivered and more information will follow on that front. And in the meantime, uh, city staff and Cassella staff will be reaching out to locations that may require additional guidance uh, this winter and spring. It actually starts this Thursday. We have our first meeting with the property owner. Continuing with some planning notes here. Uh, one thing we're presently working on, uh, is with regard to commercial entities. Concrete's curbside collection program is and how has always been a residential program. With that being said, if any commercial users have been buying and using pay as you throw bags over the years, we wouldn't necessarily know it because it looks like a bag and our guys grab it. Uh, however, they would not be receiving a cart under this program. Folks are not

fear. Fear may be strong. Folks should not fear. However, uh as we do have options available for uh people if they find themselves in that situation, they shouldn't hesitate to reach out to us. Also, it should be noted uh that once the city transitions to automated collections, the bins must be the official conquered Cassella bins that they will receive. You're not able to use your own bin. Um further, the bins stay the property or stay with the property that they have been issued to. Each bin is emlazed with a serial uh serial number that's assigned to a particular address. To that end, if people want to label their bin, uh they should refrain from using markers or paint and use something like stickers. And lastly, uh but importantly, parcels that are on the curbside collection route that may have more than one dwelling unit should know that they will receive one set of cards for each unit up to a maximum of four sets of cards. So with that uh here is our links for our information. Um I will note that Zulkick keeps our website quite well updated. Um so this is most likely or definitely the the most abundant source of information that we have right now. So she does a great job keeping us on track and uh and capturing what we're we're planning. There's also Cassella's website. They do a great job providing broader information, a lot of information on recycling, uh, including how it is processed if folks are curious about that. Uh, there's also the phone. I love talking with residents. I will gladly talk this through with anybody when I get the chance to. Uh, and, uh, so folks should feel free to call us at the department at this number.

Finally, before we go, inside your packet, you'll find a document that we're calling the resource guide. Uh realize that this document is a living document that we may evolve as we proceed through the pilot. But for now, it's very robust, comprehensive guide packed with all kinds of information that we think is very is in a very digestible format. I'd like to thank Angelina and our staff for her help on this. Uh before we go, we'd like to thank um Councelor McNamera for her time on SWAC. uh we know this is her last meeting. So, thank you very much for your input and hopefully you'll be able to stay on in another capacity. That's it for now. Uh thank you for your time and we sincerely look forward to speaking with any resident that have questions. Thank you.

Any questions? Oh, thank you. I really like that the focus is all about communication to the resident and the road map is clear for anybody. This is what I think and thank you guys for this great presentation. Council Fancy,

thank you. Uh I just had a question because I'm looking at these nice pictures and uh you know, you got these nice roads that maybe don't have a sidewalk, so it's very clear where you're going to put it. And then you've got uh some of these roads that have this nice green part between the sidewalk and the curb. But I know that in many parts of the city, we have sidewalks right up against the street. And so what's the expectation going to be? We need to get those carts into the street. Should they be on the sidewalk? Should we just keep them in the driveway? What's kind of the thinking on that? Do you have the best?

I'm gonna defer to Mike. How do you want those? So they wouldn't go on the sidewalking side of the sidewalk. between that white line.

And I think that that's one of the reasons the pilot's so important. We're going to learn an awful lot of information during the pilot. So, we can probably better answer that question once we've had a chance to go through and I think within the first six months, these types of questions will come up. We'll get with our vendor uh and we'll be able to come up with a solution.

I'm going to jump I was going to make a comment at the end as I usually do, but I'll jump on this because my my comment was similar to council penny. First of all, congratulations on this very thorough communications campaign. I think that's key. Um, I will say that I think that in some of our of our denser downtown neighborhoods, this is going to be a challenge. Uh, I mentioned this when we saw the demonstration video and it was a very nice, you know, suburban street, broad, you know, and uh, and it was in summer. Uh, you know, I go outside my house right now, I have a burm along the sidewalk. The only place I can put the these these bins is at the end of my driveway. I have a very old garage. It does not hold a contemporary sized car, right? Uh it was built to hold a Model T. That's the only place where we can put the bins. We have a very narrow driveway. When there's snow, it's even narrower. We have two cars. If a car is parked in the driveway, it's going to be a challenge getting one of these from the garage out to the street. Um, and then again, they're going to be end up at the end of our driveway. Uh, which means that we're gonna have to move them if we need to get out and then move them back. So, I'm hoping that you're be very very uh collaborative with people and understand that, you know, uh, you know, my next door neighbor is probably in the same situation. Um, and she's a mom with a with a kid. Uh, so please be very sensitive to people and their individual situations. uh not every not every household lives in the ideal uh you know circumstances for these bins although I thoroughly understand the need for them and the requirement for moving forward on them but again please be sensitive to people

absolutely councel yes I have a comment and a question so uh when I typed in um the website that you had it says it's automated and then there's a dash collection and it said there's no such website but when I removed the dash brought me to the website. So maybe just in your presentation remove that dash because people may include it and what but my um question is because I have a lot of uh constituents who are going to be part of this pilot route um when they have issues should they use cclick fix? Absolutely. Okay. Thanks.

I just had one quick comment um to address one of the things the mayor said. Uh, I play basketball on Tuesday mornings in Bow and Friday mornings. Tuesday morning, I believe on the route that I go to Bo High School, it's trash day and they do have automated and it works out great. Um, even in winter, they somehow figure out how to do it. So, I have no doubt that we will figure it out, but um I agree that uh we have streets that aren't exactly the width of some of the streets in Bow. So there might be some uh growing pains as we get adjusted to it, but I have no doubt that it'll be good.

So I I appreciate the pile on what I was going to say is there's no oneizefits-all. Um as the reason I deferred Mike, it might be on the curb. It might be just in front of the curb. It might be off the curb. It might be at the end of your driveway off to the side on some grass. Um I have carts. I've had carts all my life. I've been fortunate to live in subscription areas in Vermont and areas in Maine. They're very easy to maneuver if you haven't had one or tried to use one. I know Adam's got a couple down at his office and go play around with them. Um, I have no problem wheeling mine through the snow because I also have a very tight driveway, two cars and I can't get my cart through the two parked vehicles. Um, you will all adapt. All residents will adapt to how best to use them as we're as our drivers. They'll figure out your driveway's tight, so your carts might be o over to the side and on a random Thursday if they're not there, they're going to know there might be a mistake and and they'll do what can to make sure you get serviced. So, we'll go out of our way to make sure service is met at the curb. One thing I was gonna note to uh to your question, it's one thing we talked about at SWAC is at the onset of the program, they're gonna Cazella is going to have staff ahead of the truck kind of putting putting the cart in a better spot if it's not in a great spot and leaving a sticker temporarily on it to say, "Hey, next week this is a good spot to to try to have this."

Great. Council Kurts. Yeah, thank you. Thank you so much for this presentation. Um just two quick thoughts. one, I'm on a pilot route. So, conquer folks, I'll let you know how it goes every month. I'm very excited. The map is already up on the website. All of the stuff you presented is there. And I also just want to let the community know that Cassella um is has been really involved, not just showing up tonight for this public presentation, but has been they've been at the table at every SWAC meeting that we've had on this and been answering questions and very very involved. So I have high confidence that the pilot will provide us with the information we need and that we have an active partner in troubleshooting as we will because it's a pilot. That's all.

Okay. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you.

All right. This brings us to the consideration of items pulled from the consent agenda. The first is item 19. Madam city clerk, yes, it was pulled from consent by councelor Brown. It's the fisc year 2025 annual comprehensive financial report from the assistant finance director. All right, councelor Brown, do you want to speak to this?

Yes, I do. Thank you. Uh, and I just want to note that this um report is comprehensive. Um it's very thorough and it has received awards in the past I think what is it 30 years um and we've received this award because of the transparency um of this report. So it's it's an important report. It has everything. And for that reason, um, your honor, I would like to request that there is training provided to city councilors on this report so that we can read it because it is it is like another language. Um, and I think it would be really helpful for us to understand uh the language, the layout. I know um Mr. Lebron loves answering my questions. Um but it would be great if there was training um because there is we can go back through, you know, decades of these reports on the city website and it's it's fun uh to actually kind of go back through and see um what we've done and why and uh so I would like going forward next year when we have our new counselors that we um provide for training on this uh report for us. That's my first point. I have two others.

Brown, you'll be very pleased to know that I've asked the city clerk to arrange for budget training for our incoming uh city councilors, and I would encourage other members of the council, whether you've been on for one term or five, uh to sit in on that. You'll be receiving the dates.

Thank you. Thank you. I'm excited about that. Uh the second um point was the auditor um contributed to this uh at the fiscal policy advisory committee contributed to this report. Um and he is uh the same auditor, the same person that we have had uh for 15 years. And you know during that fiscal policy advisory committee he said hey you know you've got some internal controls issue regarding um inventory during golf tournaments. And he said I'm in I'm in verbal communication with staff. Now, that comment is not reflected in the fiscal policy advisory committee minutes. And you know, I don't know if it's just he knows how to like if he talks to Mr. Lebron or or um or staff at Beaver Meadow, that's the best way because he's been our auditor for so long. So, I um asked follow-up information about that. But also, I think we should look at switching out the auditor. I think it's just uh good practice to change out um the person. We the name has changed, but it's been Scott McIntyre for at least 15 years. Um and then my third point is if we go to page nine um of the report, actually if you're looking online, it's page 16. Um, there was language that I thought was interesting and I wanted to highlight. Hold on. I will pull it up. Okay. It's under major initiatives, uh, page nine of the physical report or 16 if you're online. And it says uh specific investments include renovations of the combined operations maintenance

facility, fire apparatus replacement, general services, and so forth. Um so that's an investment, fire apparatus. Now we have a capital reserve account uh called fire apparatus replacement that we have not been using. And just in March or actually February, we bonded a firetruck for a million dollars and the interest on that is $400,000. So if we had been putting money in instead of into the recreation reserve, we've put three and a half million. If we had put it into the fire apparatus replacement reserve fund, we could have paid for that truck outright and not had to pay interest. So, I just thought that caught my attention because the reserve account is called fire apparatus replacement and it's in here as an initiative because we bonded for a million uh 29,000. So, and also um I'd like to go to page 70 or if you're online it is page 77. I thought this was very interesting. um bond authorizations, long-term debt authorizations, which have not been issued or rescended as of June 30th, 2025. And I had asked um Deputy City Manager um Lebron about this. These are all um projects that we approved that have not been bonded. And this is from 2025. This is not even the 14.3 million that we approved in June and it's not including the 41 million for the police station. So I would just like folks to

really uh be cognizant of that that our tax bill is not including the 27.4 million or the 14.3 million or the new police station. So, this is it's a lot of projects that we've approved and I think we need to start saying no to um to projects because as the city manager pointed out to me once we approve it uh it can happen at any time. So, uh we bonded 28 million in in March. Uh a lot of that was water sewer. Um but that means when we're paying for that, when we bond that, it's coming out in user fees. So we are increasing um increasing debt. And I went back and looked at the older um ACFRS and last year the projects that we did not bond it was 12 million and then the year before that it was 7 million. So we are increasing we've doubled the amount of projects that we've approved uh to be bonded and some of the projects we approved that the some of the projects that were bonded were from earlier years. So this is I feel like we need to be very cognizant of what we've approved um and what it's going to do to our debt service. So yes, and my last item is on page 127. And this is a question uh for um Mr. Lebron and it's just talking about um annually budgeted non-government uh funds. It

lists the golf fund has investment income of 40,3 67. And I'm just wondering what investments. I didn't see a list of in actual investments. I'm wondering where that investment income came from. Does Mr. Blo come forward? What page are you on?

Uh, it's the physical page 119. If you're online, it's um 12. No, I'm sorry. 120 physically or uh 127 if you're online investment income $40,000. So the city has the the golf has a fund balance of it's right around a million dollars or so. So, if we're collecting 4% interest on it, that'd be about $40,000. That's where it's coming from. It's coming from the golf fund. Is that I'm sorry. Followup.

Followup. Uh what is that uh reflected in the MS9? Why would it be in the I don't know. Just investment income. It just seems like it would be the trustees of the trust funds do all the investing. So is that

I'm not gonna I'm not going to get into the trustees of the trust funds and the investments or the cash city has the city has an amount of cash in its operations that fluctuate from uh month to month, week to week, quarter to quarter based on the dollars that are coming in. Um the city takes an allocation every month when we get our interest income from our operations which is basically our operating cash. The trust trustees deal with the trust funds and the capital reserves. So that's separate than the operating cash. In the operating cash, you'll see this investment income in uh each one of the funds that have cash balances available. You see in the water fund, the sewer fund, the general fund, obviously it's a major revenue source in the general fund. In the golf fund here, we have about a million dollars in in fund balance. So about $40,000, you know, makes sense on about 4% interest.

Council, thank you. Thank your honor. Would you entertain a motion to accept the report? I will second. Seconded. All those in favor, please signify by saying I. I. Oppos? No. Eyes have it. Uh, madam city clerk, item 23. This was pulled from consent by councelor Brown. It's the revised MS9 report for fiscal year 2025 from the city treasurer. Brown.

Yes. So, we received the MS9 in September and I attended the trustees of trust funds meeting in October and that same report was presented to them as a draft. So, I'm wondering why did council get that report before the trustees did when the report is generated by the trustees? the treasure taxes.

Mr. Mayor, members of the council, this is Chelsea Mckowski. She's our treasurer.

Um the the report is not generated by the trustees the trust funds. The report is generated by Citizens Bank actually. So they're the ones that actually all of the information together that uh develops into the MS9 and MS10 reports. Um when you look at the report that was given to the um truck to the city council in September, um we believe that was the final report. Uh there was a $10,500 um item that went in and out of the Durgen Trust Reserve that the uh calculation or the the the dollars actually flowed through just didn't make its way to the report and we didn't notice it. So we had that revised. That's why you have a revised report here. When you look at the report that was provided to the trustees of the trust funds, it says draft and it said draft because it was part of the draft report for the submission to uh the DRRA. So it was a draft going to the DRRA or before it was submitted to the TRA which would have been final. It was final for here because we believe that to be the final report. Mr.

Le divid Department of Revenue Administration. Department of Revenue Administration. My apologies. No, no problem. Thank you. Anything else to add? Um, I would just add that council Brown asked why city council got it in September and the trustees didn't get it until October. Trustees only meet quarterly and the next quarterly meeting was middle of October. Thank you. Is this normal procedure for a city? Pretty normal. Well, I mean, the report's due in September, but you know, it's one of those things where, um, you know, the the the remedy for not having it in in September, there's, you know, you know, as long as we get it into the to the department, you know, they're pretty happy. Um, but is, you know, more important that we get it right. And, uh, obviously had to be revised and approved. It's not of the ordinary. It's not.

Thank you. Thank you so much. Nice to meet you. Your honor, I have two more questions. Move to approve the item. I have two more. Motion to approve. Do I have a second? Moved and seconded. All in favor, please. Your honor, I have two more questions about this item. All right, your honor, I had two more question item 25. Thank you, councelor. I was not done, your honor. I had two more questions about this. We've approved it, counselor. Your honor, I was in the middle of asking a question about this. A 100,000 came out of the recreation reserve between July 1st and October 31st. I would like to know where that went. We're moving on, counselor. Thank you. Those are taxpayer dollars,

madam city clerk. Item 25. Item 25 was pulled from the consent agenda by councilors Kredovvic and Brown. It's a report from the rules committee recommending proposed changes to the rules of the city council. Council, your honor, I'll be brief. Members of the council, I I hope that you'll accept this report. Um I would make a motion to such that we accept it. Second move and seconded. Thank you. As we discussed last month, this is an ongoing change with some of the rules of council. to add some clarity. Our committee was delayed last week from uh the snowstorm. We are meeting again. We expect more changes to come forward and I would appreciate your support. Thank you, Brown.

Yes, thank you. So, I pulled this because uh I think it's quite strange that this there are two reports um when there was only one meeting. So the meeting happened October 6th and we did not have the report the October 20th report until uh November. There was no meeting and now suddenly we have a second report. The committee hasn't met between October 6th and this second report. So I just think it's a it's a lot of overreach especially considering that the chair does not recuse herself from her own conflicts. So if we are to understand uh the situation then we should be able to have the minutes within 5 days. If you go on the website right now, February 3rd are the only minutes available. When we had our meeting in November, the October uh 20th meeting was not available. Those minutes were not available. So now we have another report and there hasn't been a meeting. Why are we getting two reports when there hasn't been another meeting? The ne the meeting is tomorrow. So, I feel like this report is unnecessary because the public hasn't even had an opportunity to speak, which they will do at tomorrow's meeting. So, why would we approve a report now? I say we table this table this report. I make an amendment that we table this report until after the public has an opportunity to comment on it, to comment.

There's a motion on the table. A motion to table takes precedent. Yes. All right. We have a motion to table. Do we have a second? Motion to table fails for lack of a second. Councelor Predict. Thank you, your honor. We had some statutory questions that we needed Mr. Caporti to look up for us and in doing so he sent the responses back to me to which I approved the report for moving forward. That's the answer. Okay. Thank you. Are we ready for the vote? All in favor, please signify by saying I. I. Oppos? No. No. Eyes have it. M clerk. Item number 27.

This uh report was pulled from the consent agenda by councelor Kredik. It is a report from the director of human resources and labor relations recommending the adoption of the paypoint HR classification and compensation report. Thank you. Do I have a motion? I'm sorry, Council. Yes. I'm going to start with a motion to table this item until January. Moved and seconded. Okay. Speak to your motion, please.

Thank you. Um, I think that there is some clarity that's needed around the word adopting and accepting a report. Most of the time when we have something that comes to us on the agenda um in the consent agenda, it is about um accepting a report. And when we do so, it's kind of um it's it's a pass through. adopting though we usually use this language when we're talking about resolutions and um ordinance changes or ordinances that we're adopting and that word alone has created um a little bit of concern among the counselors among more so our unions and our union representatives when we adopt this report what we're saying is that we're going going to adopt the contents of that report and I think what we really wanted to hear was the word accepting. Now that aside, there are moments on the council when there are items that come before us that have a very definitive start and a very definitive end to when the funding is going to be for a specific project, program, etc. The capital improvement program is always a really good example, especially when we're bonding something. It's going to be 20 years. It's going to be 30 years. It's over. And then you get something like this. The compensation study and the repercussions of what would happen for changes in the compensation structure to our unions and our non-contractual employees is perpetual. Perpetual changes like this come every 20, 40 years. it makes sense that we take a moment of pause and not move forward right now so we all have an

opportunity to really digest what's in this study and at the very least when we come to the table for negotiations we come in good faith. Our unions took a good faith effort in us, waiting years for this study to be complete. And we should in return honor their request to take pause on this moment and not adopt this report or accept this report at this point in time, but to wait until it's an appropriate when we're all ready to sit at the table in good faith. And that is why I made this request and I would appreciate your support. Thank you. Thank you. Discussion, councelor Brown.

Yes. Uh, while we're taking a pause, I I think that's a great idea. I believe that we should also look at our code of ordinances, particularly article 30-2-2. We need to make sure that our structure aligns with our ordinances. Thank you, councelor. Council,

I'm agreeing with councelor Kredc. I just wanted to be slightly more specific in the employees that I've heard from um especially in the line in adopting this um that they want to be assured that the study was done and utilizing valid and reliable methodology I think are where some of the questions are. So that's something that I feel like the employees want to look back at and I support them from that.

Thank you counselor. Other comments? I too will be supporting uh the motion to table. Uh I agree. I've also heard from employees uh who want to receive more information uh and want to have a little more time to look at this very very lengthy report. Uh so I will be in fact voting to table uh this item. Are we ready for the vote? All in favor of the motion as presented, please signify by saying I. I opposed. No. Eyes have it. The motion passes. this measure is tabled. This brings us to comments uh by the city council. I'll go from ward one around to ward 10. Councelor Todd.

Uh thank you, Honor. Three brief items. One is uh just a reminder that uh tomorrow evening, which is December 9th, uh the Penoke Village Association will be hosting uh members of the Marramac Valley School District and their finance officer at 6:30 p.m. at the Penoke Elementary School cafeteria. And this is going to be for a discussion uh presentation regarding next year's proposed Marramac Valley School District budget uh and warrant articles. And so it's an opportunity to provide some feedback and input and get your questions asked of the representatives. Two uh just want to wish everybody really happy holidays and hope everybody has wonderful safe holiday season. And three, uh, and I'm not probably not gonna be the only person to do this, but I just want to, uh, signify that, uh, this is the last council meeting for councilors McNamera and Mclofflin, and I've had the pleasure not only to serve with them on council, but also on several committees such as parking committee, which is I know your favorite, and then solid waste and some others. and they've always uh provided really diligent and careful and thoughtful uh comments and expertise on those committees as well. So they will certainly be missed but at the same time I welcome our new uh counselors elect which we will get to meet and work with next month.

Uh I would also like to wish everybody happy holidays for whatever you might be celebrating the next few weeks. Um, a reminder if you if those holidays include shopping for gifts to try to shop local, spend money in our local businesses that really affects our economy. If you're not spending at Amazon and the likes of that also would like to give my appreciation to councelor Gofflin, cons counselor McNamera has been a pleasure working with you and learning from you over the last couple of years and you'll be missed. I ditto my sidekick over here and my dear friend across the table. Um you will truly be missed and the only other item I would add is uh the bee the weather conditions are great and the simulator leagues are starting in January. Um I just want to share that if you have time 15 minutes 30 minutes an hour um there's great opportunities with community action program on two industrial park drive Monday through Friday 9:00 a.m. to 300 p.m. Um Matt and Dave are there every day and they will set you up. Um so it's it's fun. Um so if you have the time they do this 12 months a year it's not just during the holiday time. So they are carting truckloads of boxes. Each person who needs a subsidy will get two boxes of basic products to make meals in their home. So if you want to get involved community action program, they service Bell Mar County and it's at two industrial park drive.

And I just want to say that um I have thoroughly enjoyed my time on city council. I wouldn't give it up. I would not go back and not do it because I so enjoyed it. Um there are nights that we don't enjoy it. But that's because we are who we are and we can't expect to change that. Um there are egos at this table. Everyone at this table is passionate about certain things and um some of us stop and take time to think about things longer than others. Some jump to the jump the gun. But you know what? That's what makes this and just being a spoke in this wheel. Um, I've appreciated. Um, so and I really appreciate our city clerk. You make this so easy and you make it um a wonderful opportunity. Our city clerk, we are blessed to have you along with along with the staff. You know, our staff um I'm no expert. I'm still not an expert in everything, but when I stepped into this, there were so many things I didn't know, but the staff is so gracious. You go to the staff and they will explain things. If they have to explain them to you several times, they will. So, I just want to give a big kudos to the conquered staff and the city manager. Um, our community doesn't see all that goes on and they're quick to judge. and the two or 4% on social media sites. I wish they could see all that really does happen. Um because it's really important and it's what what's what makes this a great place to live and to volunteer and to work. So, thank you.

Thank you. Thank you, councelor Councelor Brown.

That was that was beautiful and you will be missed. Um, so I just want to shout out uh the Women's Club of Conquered had a gingerbread housing champion uh competition. Uh they were fundraising to put in to make the 18 the house that was built in 1886 accessible. um and uh they met their goal and at the same time our two newest counselors submitted an entry and they won the community crunch award for best multi-unit design promoting shared resources. So um I and councelor Horn also submitted gingerbread houses we didn't win. So, I just this is any indication of what's coming our way. Innovation, collaboration, I'm really excited um for you to come on board. And I'd also like to draw attention to folks on the agenda. Item number 13 uh is about all the capital reserves. So, please, there will be a public hearing in January. You can see the MS9 that reflects the 100,000 that came out from the recreation reserve in that. So, please read those and come prepared in January with your questions.

I just want to wish everyone safe and happy holidays. Clear your sidewalks. Help out a neighbor. Reach out to people who might be cold and alone in their homes. Um, and then finally, just want drive carefully. That's my other PSA. Drive carefully when the roads are bad. Um, and I just want to also echo thanks to our two outgoing counselors. This is I'm not even through my first term and I still rely heavily on the kindness of my colleagues. I'm deeply grateful to um you for sitting down with me as soon as I was elected and still taking my calls when I uh curious about things. So, I will try to carry that forward. Thank you.

Thank you, Council. Thank you so much. Um, I've been in a little bit of denial about um the loss of counselors McNamera and Mclofflin. You two are incredible public servants and I'm going to miss you deeply. You're also class X and um

it's going to be it's going to be hard to look over and not see you. I am also very grateful to uh the two new counselors who have stepped up or counselors elect and um I hope they will also reach out to both of you because you have so many deep connections in W four and six. So thank you for all you've done. Um also thank you to councelor Horn for bringing up the issue of shopping locally. Um midnight Marramment is one of my favorite events of the year and it was I'm so proud of our little community. Every time I see those sidewalks just completely packed. I went into Bonafide Goods and I couldn't even move in there. And that is the goal. That is absolutely goal. So, that was very cool to see and I hope people will continue to support our local downtown shops um as well as our shops all throughout the uh community. Um I want to quickly also thank um our firefighters. There was a horrific fire, I know you all know, back in in Boswin last week. Um, it was heartbreaking. It's been, I think, the fourth fatal fire in our region in 18 months and the fifth fire in Pinnacook area in the last month and a half. It's taken a tremendous toll, I know, on the community, our firefighters. I just want to thank you. So, it's very hard to come up with the right words to say, you know, how grateful we are um and how grateful we are to your families who um support you and um and provide uh the encouragement and support needed for you to continue to do this work. So, thank you for all you do.

Councelor Ke, thank you. Um just wishing everyone a happy holiday. Uh, and again to the Eminem that are retiring, I just have always appreciated your really thoughtful and deliberate way you went about business and I think u the more we can emulate some of that behavior um the more productive we'll be. So you're good role models for us all. So you'll be missed.

I just want to point out uh item 18 on our consent agenda was the appointment of John Conorti as our new city solicitor. has the um the the burden of having to now sit at all of these uh meetings. And so you're welcome. Uh much like everybody else, I want to thank uh councelor McNamera, councelor Mclofflin, my seatmate here, councelor Mclofflin, who I will miss dearly. um and councelor McNamera who um you know we've served quite a while together. Um and uh I will miss in particular when I get in my car and I'm going down and seeing you walking to your house. So just remember you're not that far away and you know after a year passes feel free to come and see us.

That's right. Closer. I want to thank everybody. It's been a good how many years? One, two, three. four years. Um, I just want to thank everybody. I don't I'm sorry I can't always get all the words out anymore, but just thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah.

So, I just like to appreciate councelor Mclofflin and McNamera for your public service and and modeling that for us. So, thank you for your service and we will miss you. I'll just make one brief announcement. Tomorrow at 7:30 in the West Street warehouse, there'll be a W 7 resident meeting that others are invited to. And we've got a special guest. Deputy Chief Molton will be uh and a couple of his officers will be joining us to discuss the increase in fraud in the community, help our community understand that that issue. And we'll be discussing some other things, too. But that'll be our guest speaker tomorrow night at 7:30 in the West Street Warehouse. I've seen the presentation. It's a good one.

Good. A second. Thank you honor and I want to second what every counelor said about our outgoing counselors. I remember our many phone calls talking about what's coming and where we should work together. So thank you both Eminem. It's easier that way for me. So um for your service um and best wishes. I know this you and I were talking about how do you feel? It seemed like very exciting. You have a plan. Congratulation on your retirement. Um, I also want to welcome our new elect counselors. I'm looking forward to work with you all. Happy holidays. Councelor Schulz.

Um, echoing the gratitude for Karen Paul. Thank you so much for all you've done. Um, I also want to say that there are two other things. um through the 17th this month at the state house and with any of your state reps, of which I happen to be one of 13, we are collecting hats, scarves, uh socks, and um winter items that if you have, you know, you're like, why do I have three pairs of gloves? You want to donate two of them, we'll take them. So, either bring them to the state house or contact one of your 13 conquered based state reps. we would be happy to come collect them for from you. And then just as a a reminder about the Starbucks Workers Union, we have some wonderful locallyowned coffee places. Uh please uh patronize those folks and uh so long as there's no contract. Please don't drink any or buy anything from Starbucks. Thank you.

Thank you, Councel Foot. Thank you, your honor. I just want to echo some of the the words I heard go around the the horseshoe here as far as council's back mlofflin. Um thank you. Um I you know I heard kindness, thoughtfulness um certainly rings true and I think for the my biggest takeaway from both of you is the respect you always garner for other people and other counselors. So I appreciate that leadership from both of you. Thank you very much. And then lastly, I just want to wish everybody a very merry Christmas, a blessed Christmas, and a happy Hanukkah. Thank you. Thank you. And don't forget Quanza Quanza if you celebrate it. And um

yeah. So there there's uh there's so much um first of all, I'll just mention that tomorrow night at 5:30, uh the Greater Concrete Chamber of Commerce is having its uh end of the year holiday uh business after hours. Uh and the admission is a contribution to the capital region food program. So by virtue of your contributions to Capital Region Food Program if you're not going to be at Ward 7, you can go to Penone Center or Penoke

or or Penacook. Sorry, that's right. Or Penacook. Uh you can drop by uh the Graponi Center for the Chambers Business After Hours. Um uh also want to uh mention uh that uh uh on Friday uh a significant thing occurred and that was the cold weather protocols, emergency pro cold weather protocols that councelor Schllasser and uh Roseanne Hagerty, the chairman of the steering committee on homelessness and the steering committee uh put together hammered out with our social service providers uh the uh directors of the concrete coalition to end homelessness and the friendly kitchen uh convened as is part of the protocol which by the way you approved tonight but we made sure that it went into effect if it was needed in advance. Um and uh a warm place was provided during the day uh between the coalition uh uh resource center and the friendly kitchen. So my kudos to councelor Schlloer this was a great passion of his and uh Roseanne Hagerty and the rest of the steering committee for putting that in place. was important and that is in place now during this extremely cold weather. Um I also want to echo echo uh councelor great ston's uh acknowledgement of the work of our firefighters uh in the Bosuin fire. Um that was a fire which sadly uh included a fatality. Um, and I can't think of anything more difficult for our firefighters than to recover the body of someone who has died in a fire. Uh, we frankly uh can't compensate them enough or thank them enough for that aspect of their job. And so I think we all should acknowledge that. Uh, and uh, I'm glad that councelor Grady Stton brought it

up. Uh finally um I do want to wish everyone a happy holiday uh and a safe holiday. Uh this is one of the most wonderful times of the year for me and my family and I hope for you and yours. Uh and actually finally I also want to acknowledge the service of councelor McNamera and councel Mclofflin. We're losing a great deal of Celtic savvy with you two with you two leaving the council. Um and uh everything that has been said is absolutely true. You've both been attentive. You've both been uh uh you know collaborative. Uh you've both been deliberate in your decision- making. uh you've been great assets to this council and I think great examples of uh of how to be a positive counselor uh and how to be an effective counselor for your wards and your constituents. So, thank you. I join everyone else in saying I will sorely miss you. I am pleased to welcome the two new counselors from Ward 4 and Ward Six to the city council. Uh, and I've seen many other people come and go on this council in my now 12 years, but every one of you are precious. Every one of you are valuable, and thank you so much for the service that you've given to your wards and to this city.

So with that, so with that, I'll entertain a motion to adjurnn. So moved. Second. Moved and seconded. All in favor signify by saying I. Opposed? No. Nice having happy holidays.