City Council - Regular Meeting

Thank you. Thank you. you Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

so good evening uh the hour of seven o'clock having passed i will call to order this regular meeting of the keene city council this meeting is being broadcast live on the city of keene's youtube channel and spectrum channel 1302. the video is also streamed on the city's website and is posted by the end of the next business day barring any technical difficulties If you would like to receive an electronic city council packet to reference while viewing future broadcasts, please contact the city clerk's office during business hours or go to the city's website and subscribe to the city meetings email list. The agenda is also accessible from any mobile device. I'd like to ask the clerk, Heather Fitzsimons, to please call the roll.

Randy L. Filio. Here. Michelle A. Chalice. Here. Katherine I. Workman. Here. Brian J. Lake. Here. Jacob R. Fevelice. Here. Laura Eve Tobin. Here. Robert C. Williams. Here. Philip M. Jones. Present. Chris E. Roberts. Here. Bettina A. Chadbourne.

Here.

Edward J. Haas. Laura E. Ruttle-Miller. Here.

molly v ellis here thomas f powers here mitchell h greenwald here we are a quorum of 14 for the evening uh and i want to thank heather for covering the city clerks uh terry hood's uh seat for the evening uh i'd like to then recognize uh counselor rudall miller to lead us in the pledge this evening

Indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

I'd like to recognize Councilor Greenwald with a motion to adopt the minutes of our previous meeting.

Thank you, Your Honor. I move to adopt the minutes of the July 16, 2026 meeting as presented. Second.

Seconded by Councilor Powers. Any comments on the minutes... I'm seeing none at this point. Seeing none, all those in favor? Motion carries unanimously. We have some announcements, seeing as this is our last meeting in August, for some birthdays. I recognize Councilor Roberts, whose birthday is August 9th. Hold your applause until the end. Recognize Councillor Powers for his birthday on August 12th, and recognize Councillor Lake for his birthday on August 19th. Happy birthday, folks. All right. So for some dates of interest, don't forget that this Saturday is Jamfest. It will occur from noon until 8 p.m. in the Colonial Theater Commercial Street parking lot. That's coming back to the Keene area after several years in other communities. So welcome back, Jamfest. Thank you, Colonial Theater, for providing the host seat for this event. On August 9th, which is Sunday, the Sri Chinmoy Oneness Home Peace Run. It's an international torch relay that promotes peace and harmony, and it will pass through Keene in the mid-afternoon. I haven't gotten confirmation on a time. As soon as I do, I will offer it to you. I've suggested 1 o'clock at Central Square. This is an international rally and run and it celebrates goodwill and mutual respect while giving participants an opportunity to share their hopes for a more peaceful world. We have some events that happen out on Central Square, but I guess those are probably on Saturday. But anyway, if counselors have that opportunity to greet folks on Sunday afternoon, please take advantage of that. We may be meeting some people from foreign countries and maybe some from outside of our region as well, and yeah, good opportunity. On August 15th, Keene's first dedication on the Black Heritage Trail is going to take place. diversity equity inclusion and belonging organization is going to has received the nomination and earned the designation of a dr. Albert Johnson historic marker and that will be unveiled at 11 to 12 30 at 127 Washington Street in And following this presentation, which includes a tour of some artifacts that the family has left in Keene, there'll be a tour down to the Wall Dogs mural that will take place sometime between 1230 and 2. So this is a real proud moment for the city of Keene. This is our first stop on the Black Heritage Trail, which has designations throughout the state of New Hampshire. so a proud moment for us and a good family and person to recognize the family members will be present and they have been this is not their first time back in keene they really have a connection to the city on august 18th the city will be celebrating its community night touch a truck from four till seven that'll be at the public works building at 350 marlborough street and we encourage the public and all of our counselors to attend the event. It'll include family-friendly activities, a barbecue that's at no cost to the public, but an opportunity for residents to learn about our departments, city departments, the people and the services that are provided by the city to the public. So it's always a good opportunity. We get some people who haven't frequented it, and we get some repeat visitors, and that's okay, too. The kids know how to climb the truck, and it's a lot of fun. On August 29th, the Community Kitchen is sponsoring its Walk to Squash Hunger. And you've probably seen those signs around the city. That walk is beginning at 9 a.m. I assume it's happening from the Community Kitchen. If anyone's more familiar with the event, I don't have the start point, but I assume that that's the case. But August 29th, look for those posters, and let's make this a community-wide activity. I know many of us do our part to want to contribute to the community kitchen and its work. On September 5th, while we're still on break, the Keene Music Festival is permitted to, licensed to hold its event, annual event. It competes with Art in the Park, but what a day for it is in Keene. The music festival begins at 11 a.m. and concludes at 10 p.m. on September 5th. Art in the Park, I believe, opens at 10 a.m. usually. So that's over at Willett Park. So a lot going on in the city. You know what fall is like here. The City of Festivals loves to pack every weekend. Then one final announcement, and we'll hit this later in the meeting as well, but September 15th is an opportunity for the public to weigh in on Robin Hood Park, the design of the park, not the pool. We've taken up the pool motion this evening to get that bid underway. But the park and the remaining design of it, that input session for the public will be held at the Keene Recreation Center, not at Robin Hood Park, at the Keene Recreation Center, beginning at 5.30 on September 15th. So a few dates for us. Hope to see you. And then a reminder to the public. Michelle. Michelle.

Would it be possible to also remind the public that primary day is September 8th, the day immediately after the holiday weekend? Please check your voter registration and where you will be voting. We're looking forward to seeing you there.

Thank you. Thank you. Check. Those polls will open at 8 a.m. They close at 7 p.m., so make a plan, folks. And yeah, you can always go to the city's website and check the city clerk's webpage for any additional information that you might need relative to voter registration. And remember to bring a valid ID. Okay, other announcements. The council will be going on break. We start that after tonight's council meeting that extends through the Labor Day holiday, which is late this year, September 7th. We'll return from break with meetings of the Planning, Licenses, and Development Committee on September 9th and Finance, Operations, and Personnel on September 10th. And finally, let's see. I know I've got this someplace.

Okay.

One page with a lot of written notes. There, no, not that. Do I have to ad lib this? This is gonna be fun. Oh, I gave this to you. Okay, good. All right, so anyway, This is my first opportunity to recognize Mnadnok 250th and all the parties that contributed to that event. I think it was spectacular. It brought out more people than I've ever seen for a parade and festival in the city of Keene. Well, maybe barring a pumpkin fest a few years back. But the parade was wonderful. The organization was wonderful. And I want to give a special shout out to our chairperson and counselor, Molly Ellis, for her leadership. It takes a person at the lead to just hold all the thoughts that many people who contributed to the event were feeding to the one person that needed to ultimately vet those ideas and give the blessings that things could go forward or put them in line with other things that were happening that day. There were a whole bunch of other people, and Molly, you did a nice thing yesterday to host a thank you to the members of the committee. I want to do a shout out to those members to the public. Ben Hayes, a student at Keene High School who was our tech and website coordinator, developer which just was always answered the call and put together a nice script for the public easily to to get become engaged counselor Ed Haas who coordinated the bicycle ride with kids and and their families Janelle Santorio who coordinated the Four on the fourth event with Pathways for Keene and made sure that we weren't duplicating expenses across organizations. Jay House, who with Arts Alive did a lot of publicity work. Jenna Carroll from the Historical Society, which was our fiduciary agent. and handle all the bill paying as well as just participated in the day and the lead up to the day when the Historical Society of the Wyman Tavern could be open to the public and organize programs through the Historical Society. Justin Soma who was the voice of downtown Keene and merchants during the festival and the lead up Keith Marks at the Colonial Theater who opened up the theater for the Sandlot movie showing and a cooling spot for people who needed it that day. Kelsey Mildon who helped Kurt Blomqvist, Kurt was so important to his experience with parades and organizing closures of our streets for festivals was irreplaceable and Kelsey was an assistant for him with that. I also want to then thank Kristin Noonan who represented a donor major donor to the overall planning, but also brought additional Savings Bank of Walpole volunteers into the work. And yeah, she was just a real contributor throughout. Kevin Watterson and Keen Swamp Bats who were present for the parade and did a great fireworks show in advance and helped us with publicity coordination. Mark Rebillard for Keene Downtown Group, which was our sponsoring organization for the license. Mike Prince, another Keene High School student who helped organize the vendors for the day. Nancy Howard, who brought the Daughters of American Revolution into the festival and provided a voice for entertainment. Keith Tebow, who joined and also was participant in the organization of the parade. It was all hands on deck. I'm glad I could help with the publicity and fundraising for the event and want to recognize the outstanding efforts of the Public Works Department whose staff behind the scenes to prepare for the event was spectacular. A special shout out to Dan Mooney, the Public Works Highway Foreman. for his leadership and coordination every time Molly or I needed assistance like emergency now kind of help. Dan was the smiling face who never said no and just facilitated easy access to what we needed. And then it says final thank you to the Keene High School Youth Council, yes, for their enthusiasm and volunteer spirit contributing to the reading of the Declaration of Independence you know it takes a village and in this case it took a city and a county you know who I didn't mention was Terry Clark But Terry was our connection to the county and to other municipalities in the region who participated in this event and cleared the way for this state to not have too many conflicts with other towns. And then Sean Burke at the Keene Sentinel was just valuable in helping us with the design of our logo and placing ads in the sentinel newspaper yeah thank you all there is by the way and molly circulated this yesterday we've got a David Tubner. David Tubner. He's a videographer in the city of Keene. He has posted a YouTube video that I encourage you to go to YouTube and look up David Tubner. He's got a number of videos out there. But his 12-minute recap of the parade is a great thing, and I've written him now to hopefully get a copy of this for the city's archive and to place at the Historical Society. We want to commemorate this. It's a fitting tribute to our shared history in our community and our nation and an event that no doubt people in Keene will remember for years and hopefully 50 years for those who are around to try to replicate and surpass the efforts of 2026. So thank you all for your participation. Molly, a shout out and a hand. Thank you. All right, so to another event that is occurring this week, I'd like to ask Jimmy Caffa and Jimmy Tempesta to come forward.

I've got a proclamation to offer to you two folks.

It's scary to go in the middle of chaos. Is this what they call a lion's den?

Thank you, guys. So we, these are the two organizers of the First Responder Appreciation Day that the organizers of the Keene First Responder Appreciation Day, something that these two folks have organized with the various emergency response departments throughout the county. It's a public event that they are offering, and so we're all invited on August 16th to the Keene alumni field. for this event and I offer this proclamation on behalf of the City of Keene. We are proud to support the Monadnock region's dedicated first responders, including police, firefighters, and emergency medical technicians who selflessly protect our communities. We also acknowledge the immense sacrifices they and their families make to ensure the safety and well-being of all residents. And whereas the First Responders Appreciation Day at Alumni Field honors our local heroes with a terrific lineup of activities, this event allows first responders and their families to share a day of fun and camaraderie. And each of you have a handout of all the various events that are taking place that day. Whereas this day highlights the spirit of cooperation that unites all first responders from different towns and departments, it shows the public that while you may wear different uniforms, you work as one team when called upon. And whereas this year's event is held in memory of Deputy Mark Chamberlain, whose distinguished career included serving as a K-9 handler and rising to the rank of lieutenant with the Swansea Police Department before continuing his service as a deputy sheriff with the Cheshire County Sheriff's Office, leaving a lasting legacy of leadership, integrity, and dedication to public service. And whereas this event would not be possible without the dedicated efforts of its organizers, Jimmy Coppa and Jimmy Tempesta, who have engaged the contributions of many local sponsors and vendors, which have helped bring our community together to honor its first responders. Now, therefore, I, as mayor of the city of Keene, do hereby proclaim today, no, hereby proclaim August 16th, 2026 as First Responder Appreciation Day in Keene, and encourage all residents to recognize and celebrate the dedication and service of the Vanadnock region's first responders to our communities. And folks, thank you so much. Please feel free to display this on August 16th. But thanks for your contributions, your leadership, and the appreciation that you show for our first responders. I'll offer you a word. I'd like to...

Thank you for getting me out of the kitchen tonight. My wife, I don't know if she's believing, but she's watching on TV. I said, honey, I got to go. I have to, you know. But anyways, this is a great honor. Thank you. It isn't about us. It's about what we're doing for the community and the people. And it just amazes me that these guys get up every day, they put their uniforms on, and they go out to protect us, to help us, to save us. They really need an attaboy. Everybody needs one of those, you know? And I think this is a way to give back to them. And we have an event at the restaurant also that I bring them all out for dinner with their family, their kids. I put it all on with Jimmy, and they come out for dinner. And it's really nice to see them all together because they are a family. They are a group of people. And it's just amazing that you guys recognize us for this, and I can't thank you guys enough. This means a lot. It'll make me even try harder that everybody's recognizing this. This is wonderful. Thank you very much. Thank you.

I'll make it real short. Thank you very much for having us here tonight. It means an awful lot. I remember the first day we sat there four years ago trying to pull this off, and it's gotten bigger and bigger. We do the event in March. Many years come. It's a blue carpet event. It's for law enforcement and their families. and it's a special event to them. This event has the firefighters and the police officers and the EMTs and the emergency service people, and they come, they have a time of their lives, and they get to see the public appreciate them. They hear it, they see it, and more importantly, the public gets to see them on a different level and a different note. We just have the time of our life. We're privileged to do this, and we couldn't do it without any of you guys. So we just want to say thank you, and thanks for having us here.

Thank you.

Thank you, guys.

Thank you all.

All right. We've got a presentation this evening also from Dan Langell, our city's assessor. Dan, if you would come forward.

So good evening Mayor, City Council, members of the public, Dandenong City Assessor. With me tonight I have Steve Whelan who works with Vision Government Solutions who's been our contractor for this project. So as most of you may know, and I'm sure have been anticipating, we've been hard at work doing a revaluation this past year. And we're getting to the point now where we're ready to really move on to an important step, and that is to kind of get the public involved and to provide them with what we're seeing in the market, what their updated values are. So before we do that, we wanted to come before you and give you an update on what's been done.

If I might fill in just for a second. Sure. Counselors, you should have something on your desk to reference. The public will have access to this after this presentation. All right.

So just to provide us a quick background on what revaluation is, it's the process of assessing all the property to reflect the current market value as of a certain date. So in New Hampshire, we have to make that April 1st. So it will be April 1st, 2026. So that's kind of the benchmark that we're looking at. We do this by a process called mass appraisal, where we're evaluating groups of property using common data, standardized methods, and statistical testing. Most people are probably more familiar with a single property appraisal. That's when you buy a home or get a remortgage. Your house is compared to like three or four comparables. We do that on a much larger scale. We're doing that for the entire community. So we're looking at hundreds of sales and various data points that I'll get into, and then we're applying that equally amongst all the properties in the city. The last time this was done was 2021. And so when you see your tax bill now, that value, you probably will notice that it's much lower than what our house is selling for today. Again, because that reflects the market of 2021. So it's not really an adjustment over one year. It's really an adjustment over five years. So it can be a pretty significant increase over that time. And that's why there is such a large adjustment. So there are benefits of doing revaluation. We are required by the state to do one every five years, and we are required to assess property at its full market value. This obviously keeps our attorney very happy. But there's also other good reasons to do this. Because we're setting values as of a certain date, over time, the market continues to fluctuate. There's different economic factors. There's market forces at play. And so over time, the value of your property or value of certain properties may rise higher or lower than others. So our responsibility is to make them all at the same level. So we have to bring everybody at the same market level. When this exists, this is how we provide a equal and fair tax burden, at least equal and fair according to the state law. The other real benefit of doing a revaluation, and I think this is an important part, is the public process and there is transparency. We're going to get into that at the end about what exactly that is, but if you're getting a large tax bill once or twice a year, it's important to know how you came up with that value and where that money is going towards. So kind of one of the first steps that we're going to do is the data collection process. So this is something that's ongoing for the assessing department. We're always looking at building permits, properties that have sold. We also have a ongoing data verification process that we've started. So we're starting to look at every property, regardless of whether it's sold or whether it's a building permit, just so we make sure our data is up to date. It does look pretty good, but we want to make sure we stay on top of that. So we have started that. But for the reval specifically, we've been inspecting sales over a two-year period of time. There's hundreds of them. And then for commercial properties, we send out questionnaires looking for income and expense information. We're not really interested in what a business makes, but we're interested in the value of the real estate. So we look at what they get for rents, what their operating costs are, and what capitalization rates are. We did get some responses for that. We also look at other public sources that have multiple listing services, research vacancy rates, capitalization rates. So we're taking any source of data that we can from anywhere we can. And the next part, I mean, I'm going to summarize this, but this is really where most of the work happens. There are three approaches to value that we look at. We look at a sales approach. This is one most people are familiar with. We're looking at what properties are selling and making comparisons to other properties that are like it. We look at an income approach, and this is used more for commercial properties. This is where we're looking how much it takes to operate, upkeep, and get a return on investment on a commercial property. And then we use a cost approach, which isn't used as much, but we do take a look at replacement costs, depreciation, and then we add land to that at the end. That's more useful for newer homes. So as I mentioned, we do an in-depth study of the city sales for over two years. We break that out into many different strata. So we're looking at different styles, conditions, quality, location, neighborhoods. We look at it 100 different ways so we can start breaking that down into various tables and adjustments. And we do a similar kind of analysis for our income and expenses. From that, we start building our land values. We make different adjustments for our location. As anyone knows, location is a huge factor in where a property lands as far as value goes. And then we take a look at our building values, and we start building overall costs and then we make adjustments for again things like bedrooms, bathrooms, quality, its condition, stuff like that. And we're doing this, we're building computer models so we can then apply all these adjustments equally and uniformly across the entire city. This is how we get a similar house and a similar neighborhood valued as its neighbor. A lot of statistical testing, which I won't get into too much unless anyone wants a statistic lesson. And then we do review all the values in the fields, making sure that our values are reasonable, that the data is correct. Couple things I just want to point out before I get into the part I know what everyone's really wanting to hear. But especially we also hear that, you know, how did we come up with this value? You created this value. We're not doing that. We're simply analyzing the market. We're more of a historian where we're reflecting what the market is doing and using those adjustments to tell them what your property is worth. Different types of property are obviously changing in value at different rates. Supply, demand, economic forces, all this response that properties will increase or decrease at a different rate is another type of property. And last, I think it's important that you're going to see that we're going to have pretty significant increases. Keene's not alone. community that's doing a revaluation this year in the state of New Hampshire and probably even New England is in a very similar boat. We're all seeing large increases over when the last sentence was done. With that said, So for the residential side, single-family homes. This is the median. We're seeing a median increase of about 67%. Obviously, there's going to be some higher than that. There's going to be some lower than that. Multifamilies are at 68%. Condos are around 64%. And then manufactured homes are going up 140%. This is just a continuation of the low supply of housing, the low supply of affordable housing, and the demand that's out there. I also put the medium assessments on the right hand side just to kind of show where we were in 2021 to where we are now. I think it's interesting like manufactured homes like there were 37,000 five years ago and now the median value of that is 97,000. Again, there's going to be values on both sides of this. Commercial side, we're still seeing some pretty significant increases. Departments are 49%. Commercial in general, which is a very variable category, is 31%. Industrial is 29%. I didn't put the medians there because the ranges are so wide. You can have an apartment building worth $500,000 or up to $18 million. So the median doesn't really tell you a story there. But keep in mind, there are some building permits that are included in some of these rates. So for the manufactured home, we have been seeing a lot of older units pulled out of the park and newer units come in. So you're seeing a home that was maybe valued at $30,000 be replaced with a brand new model for $150,000, $200,000. So that's going to skew the ratio a little bit. The next question everyone's going to want to know is, how does this affect your property taxes? So the city does not take in any more or less as a result of this. We don't have some big windfall that we now determine what can we spend. Budgets are set. That's how much money that is raised. And again, we raise the budgets for the school. We collect money for the schools, the county, and the city. If you remember, probably a couple months ago, when you guys determined the budget for the city, at that time, we were predicting an increase in the overall taxes. Re-evaluation didn't erase that. That's still going to happen. So even regardless of this, when someone gets their property tax bill issued, they were going to see an increase. The re-evaluation is going to maybe add or take away, depending on the property tax bill on top of that. But the one thing we tell everyone is do not take your new value and multiply that by your new tax rate. You will come up with a very large number and it will be incorrect. Unfortunately, we don't know what the new rate will be. That's set by the Department of Revenue in the fall. There's still a number of variables out there, you know, final revenue sources for the year. We still have to find out the values. These are still preliminary at this point, and we still have to work on the utility values. Those aren't set yet. So all those things still have to come into impact. I believe the tax rate was estimated to be around $37 in budget time. I mean, we're seeing well over $1.2 billion in new taxable value, so it's not unreasonable to think the tax rate will be in the mid to low 20s. Again, I can't confirm what exactly that will come out to be. But this is also why we increased the exemptions and credits this past year. Remember, we did increase those by about 65%. That was trying to keep them in line with what I'm seeing for at least the residential side. So the next step, which we're not required to do, but I think is very important, is what we call an informal hearing. And I'm going to let Steve, because he's doing these now, talk about these a little bit.

So once you receive your letter in the mail with the new value, you can have multiple options to make an appointment if you don't agree with the value. There'll be a website included in the letter and you can log on to the website and either make a phone appointment or an in-person appointment through that website and that website is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. If you don't have a computer or want to do it that way, there'll be an 800 number, and the same will apply that you can call the call center, and there'll be people answering the phones, and then you can decide if it's more convenient to do a phone appointment or an in-person appointment. Once you have an appointment and you can come in and review how the process was worked or done and then even if you just want to review the information in your property record card, that's also available on the website so you can look at your information on your property or any other property in the city. Once we have the hearings, we will send everybody that had a hearing a new valuation letter, and that'll be in the mail once we finish that. And then that's pretty much the end of the hearings. If, for example, we find an issue with a condominium, using that for an example, and you didn't come in for a hearing within that condo, we'll adjust everybody in the condo also whether you came in or not if we find there's an issue. So you don't always have to come in, but there could be potential like that. So then once we send out the new letter, the new letter, the new valuation letter will also tell you how to appeal further if you want to. And that would be through the town.

I'm just going to add a couple of things here. Oftentimes, people wonder, do I need to attend? Is it required? It's not. Really, it's only if you feel it's necessary or if you're really interested more on what happened. We ask ourselves, let's take a look at that value and put the taxes aside for a minute and say, does this value reflect what I could sell it for or what my neighbors sold their house for recently? If the value looks correct and your information is correct, then you don't necessarily need an appointment. If you have concerns, then by all means, please, we want to hear from you or from the public. Some things you can do is you can review sales. Again, look at what's been selling out there. Look at what's been selling in your neighborhoods. You can use our website. There's ways to look up sales that way. Contact our office. I can help anybody through that. You can also review similar properties in your neighborhood and what their new assessments are. Make sure there's equity there. All that information is going to be available. And finally, like I tell everyone, it's always important to review your information. It's available online. If there's any discrepancies, give us a call. We'd be happy to come out, take a look at it, make any necessary changes. We want them to be accurate. Timeline, we expect the public hearings or the informal hearings to go several weeks until everyone has an ample opportunity to join one if they want to. But we're expecting to be able to finalize the values by mid-September, utility values by the end of September. New tax rate comes out in November, and these values will be used for the final tax bill of the year with a new tax rate. At this point, I thank you for your time and happy to answer any questions anyone may have.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. So the kind of 67% increase for a single-family home and, I mean, all of those numbers across the board seem fairly large to me. Can you talk a little bit about how that compares to past five-year cycles?

Sure. Yeah, I can talk a little bit more of the 2021 because it's a little more fresher in my mind. At that point, 2021, we were coming right at the very beginning of COVID and there was a lot of panic. So we saw a pretty good jump at that time. I believe the housing market at that time was an increase of about 30%. And there was a lot of unknowns with the commercial market. So I think the commercial probably at that point went up 10%. It's been a pretty steady pattern over the past, I mean, ever since I've been doing this, where the residential outpaces commercial, and you're constantly seeing a tax shift from your commercial base over to the residential side. It's just the market that we're in.

Yeah.

And Councillor Chalice, I just ask councillors to keep in mind it's easier for the public to see you and to hear you if you do rise and you're able to.

Thank you. These are complicated numbers for the public in general. By chance, will you be presenting or preparing, excuse me, an FAQ that we can have on hand when we get questions from our constituents and that the general public can log into the city, but an FAQ to help them navigate these initial questions and maybe calm some fears?

is that on its way or in process or yeah so we did that in 2021 i believe i still have those up now but i will be refreshing those on our department website frequently asked questions to provide some guidance and to explain that so yes we will take that in consideration council jones thank you mr mayor um and thank you for being here um

Five years ago, when we did the 2021, there was a big decline in commercial and industrial, which, as you explained earlier, that put more responsibility on the residential. But I'm seeing here now that commercial, at least they're going up. It's up 31%, and industrial is up 29%. That's still a lot better than it was five years ago. Is that correct? I don't remember what it was five years ago, but it went down back then, didn't it? Yeah.

So yeah, I think it was about a 10% increase if I remember right. Different categories are reacting a little bit different in this market. We're seeing small to mid-sized office spaces and industrial do fairly well. That's where we're seeing most of the increases. Anything with an apartment, obviously, is doing really well. You're seeing a little more difficulty in very large office buildings. The way our economy, the way our businesses work today, large office buildings aren't as valuable as they once were. Same with large industrial. I have a hard time attracting very large industrial buildings here.

It's a sign of the times. Thank you.

Okay. Well, thank you for the presentation. I was wanting to ask what the total valuation is for the city. I know we've been at $2.2 billion since 21. Obviously, it's going to go up, but you explained you don't have utility valuations in here yet. So I'll save that question for your fact sheet.

Okay. Sounds good. Thank you.

Thank you. Okay, thank you, Dan. Okay. We are passed and we will now go to nominations. And we're gonna move item F5 forward. I'd like to ask Councilor Greenwald for a motion accepting a resignation.

Thank you. I move to accept the resignation of Dottie Morris with gratitude and express thanks for her service. Second.

Second by Councilor Powers. We'll take up this item further in the meeting, but thank you for the motion. If there are no questions at this point, they're just accepting the resignation so that we can go forward with the nomination. Okay. All those in favor? Any opposed? Thank you. We accepted the resignation. I'd like to read into the record a nomination.

This evening we have one nomination for Julie Odato to serve on the Human Rights Committee moving from alternate to regular member serving in slot five with the term December 31st, 2028.

Thank you. And we'll hold on that nomination until our next meeting. Okay. Communications. Clerk, please read our communications into the record.

Sure. We have a communication from Paul Allen Weber requesting the City Council consider removing dog restrictions from the Pumpkin Festival from the City Code.

We'll refer Mr. Weber's letter to the Planning Licenses and Development Committee's meeting on September 9th.

11.

Next.

This is a communication from Kenneth Cost, who is requesting a comprehensive planning study of the 1.9-acre Gilbo Avenue site before finalizing the layout of the solar pavilion.

And I refer this letter to the September 23rd meeting of Municipal Services, Societies, and Infrastructure Committee when they'll take up an item that's on more time later in the agenda related to the solar pavilion. C3.

We have a communication from Warren Steinberg requesting temporary free parking within active downtown construction zones during the downtown infrastructure project.

And because of the fiscal implications of this, I refer this to the September 10th Finance Organization and Personnel Committee meeting.

And the communication C4 is, Councilor Jones is submitting a request for consideration of an ordinance establishing a temporary moratorium on data centers and cryptocurrency mining facilities.

And I'd refer this one to the September 9th Planning Licenses and Development Committee meeting.

And the last communication we have is from Councilor Tobin is submitting a request for a roadway safety action plan update.

And this communication was reviewed at our last meeting and referred to the September 23rd meeting of Municipal Services, Societies, and Infrastructure Committee. Okay. And that paper is through the communications. Okay. Let's move on to reports from city council committees. And item D1.

is a Municipal Services Facilities Infrastructure Committee report relative to the Robin Hood Park renovation. On a vote of five to zero, the MSFI committee recommends the city council approve the final design of the project and authorize the city manager to do all things necessary to bid and construct that design as recommended by city staff and city's consultant engineer, CHA.

Recognize Councilor Greenwald for a motion.

Thank you, Your Honor. Move to carry out the intent of the committee report. Second.

Second by Councilor Workman. Councilor Greenwald.

Thank you. As the clerk said, we heard a presentation about the Robin Hood Park renovation plan. Finally, it's happening. Talking about a pool, parking, playground. No splash pad, sorry. And it was very informative. There will be a lot more public information and input coming, but this is first step. So we voted unanimously to go forward.

Thank you. Any comments, questions on this one? And we've already mentioned further public input on the remaining designs. It takes place September 15th at the Recreation Center. Okay. Seeing no further comment, all those in favor? Motion carries unanimously. Thank you. Item D2.

a municipal services facilities and infrastructure committee report relative to a request from eversource energy for temporary access and use of old gilson road for eversource transmission structure replacement project on a vote of five to zero the msfi committee recommends that the city manager do manager be authorized to negotiate and execute agreements with Eversource Energy for the removal of a portion of the stone wall marking the boundary between parcel number 218-006 and number 212-030, and for the access agreement to allow construction of a temporary gravel road on Old Gilson Road.

Recognize Councillor Greenewald for the motion.

Move to carry out the intent of the committee report. Second.

Second by Councillor Workman. Councillor Greenewald.

This really was more of an informational report than anything. Eversource needs to do some transmission work. Of concern is removing the stone wall I want to make sure it goes back again when they're done, and also to be certain that there won't be washouts or whatnot as they're doing the work. But Eversource is very, very good at these things, and our Public Works Department will be watching. So we urge affirmative vote.

Questions, comments? As I recall, this is being accessed from Timberline Drive. Timberline.

Mm-hmm.

Gilson Road.

That's what it's called. For public information. OK. Seeing no further questions, all those in favor of this motion, motion carries unanimously. Item D3.

SHALL WE TAKE ALL THREE, D3, D4?

YES, ALL THE INFORMATIONAL ITEMS. YES, PLEASE DO. OKAY.

WE HAVE THREE INFORMATIONAL REPORTS FROM MUNICIPAL SERVICES FACILITIES AND INFRASTRUCTURE COMMITTEE THIS EVENING. THE FIRST REPORT IS RELATIVE TO A NEW HAMPSHIRE DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION PRESENTATION ON PROPOSED RUMBLE STRIPS ON ROUTE 12 AND ROUTE 9. THE SECOND REPORT IS RELATIVE TO A NEW HAMPSHIRE DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION ROADWAY SAFETY AUDIT FOR the intersection of Route 9 and Wickhams Mill Road. And the last report is relative to restricting vehicle access to wastewater treatment plant driveway.

Okay. Councilor Greenwood.

Yes, I know it's informational. We did have a three-hour MSFI meeting. It was really intense. We got into a lot of things. I would like to point out with the D5 wastewater treatment plant driveway, There still will be access for people that want to walk it day or night, drive it during business open hours. So if you want to take pictures of birds or something, you're probably going to be there during the day when it's open anyway. But this will preclude drag racing and other things that were concerning to the Swansea Police.

The photos provided to the committee for I think aptly described what you just said. A picture tells a story. Midnight birds. Okay, seeing no questions on these, these will be filed as informational. Okay. Item D6.

We have a Municipal Services Facilities Infrastructure Committee report relative to airport terminal renovations. On a vote of 5-0, the MSFI committee recommends a city manager be authorized to execute an authorization to submit a pre-application for the fall funding cycle of the northern borders regional Commission's timber for transit grant program for the Dylan Hopkins Airport Terminal Building.

And I'd like to ask Officer Greenwald for the motion.

Moved, Gary. The intent of the committee report.

Second.

Seconded by Councillor Workman. Thank you.

The airport director came up with some very, very interesting plans. There's a lot going on at the airport and there's a lot more future that is going on. So these plans show a lot of improvements and some very creative construction to move. you know, basically 1970s bland cement block building into something that has timber frame and all kinds of interesting things that will encourage more use of the airport terminal building and the whole airport. You may have heard that there's other big things going on at the airport, I believe. is looking at the airport as a landing site or basing site. Things are happening. So the airport director came in with this plan. We liked it and urge approval.

This is a big plan. Big plan. Yeah. And a great renovation. Any questions from counselors? Just to point out, the size of this grant is in our committee report, but it's greater than $4.5 million, and the city's portion is just a fraction of that.

Federal money.

Federal. It's quite an upgrade to the facility, which is, I think we'd all agree, can really help. Okay. All those in favor of the motion? Motion carries unanimously. 57 we have another informational report from Municipal Services facilities and Infrastructure Committee relative to the downtown infrastructure project update and we'll file that report as informational I Guess we could remind people of the next coffee and construction update I knew when it was the ninth, right

There was meeting 94. 12?

Don's saying it's the 12th.

Thank you, Don. Yeah, 9th would be Sunday. That's a bad day. August 12th. 9 o'clock on Gilbert Avenue.

To be determined.

To be TBD. Okay. We'll file that report as informational. Thank you. And D8.

We have a finance organization and personal committee report relative to 79E112 Washington Street, waiving city's claim against proceeds from casualty and flood insurance. On a vote of 4-0, the FOP committee recommends that the city council forego the right to include a lien against proceeds from casualty and flood insurance in a covenant to be recorded for the 79E community revitalization tax relief previously granted to 112 Washington, LLC.

Recognize Councilor Powers for the motion.

Thank you, Your Honor. To get this started, I'm going to move to carry out the intent of the committee report. Second.

Seconded by Councillor Workman. Councillor Powers?

I also need to disclose that the owner of this property is a family member, distant family member. I have no part in this particular building. I might like to own it, but in prior discussions we've had either here or in committee, nobody seemed to think it was a conflict, but it's up to you.

Okay. So you are not seeking recusal on this? I am not. Anybody in the council wishing to question Councillor Powers further? Seeing none, Councillor Powers, please. Thank you.

So what we're doing here in this property and the next property is we're kind of cleaning up an anomaly of this process. The lien has been put because it's allowed under statute and it kind of makes business sense on a lot of these particular projects. And we have some assurance that this thing the job will be finished And one of the ways to do that is to put a lien on it That's the only way they're going to get their money back however that creates a bit of a problem when you're financing or refinancing you're working through this and it causes a lot of consternation on the part of banks and the owners so We've looked at other properties in the past and from now on That will not be in there. So what we're asking for is the council to lift that on this property and the next one. And it was unanimous on the part of the FOP. Thank you.

Questions on this one? Seeing none, all in favor? Motion carries unanimously.

D9.

We have a Finance Organization Personal Committee report relative to 79E34 Court LLC waiving City's claim against proceeds from casualty and flood insurance. On a vote of 4-0, the FOP Committee recommends that the City Council forego the right to include a lien against proceeds from casualty and flood insurance in the covenant to be recorded for the 79E community. revitalization tax relief previously granted to 34 court LLC council powers for the motion thank your honor move to carry out the intent of the committee report second by council Chad born council powers

Thank you, Your Honor. This is for 112 Washington Street, the former church.

No, this is the 34th.

34 Court Street, I'm sorry. The former church, which is proceeding on very nicely in this latest project, and we want to do the same thing as lift that restriction. And it also was unanimous by the FOP. Thank you.

Seeing questions, none. All in favor? Motion carries unanimously. Okay. We have a request for a carry forward motion. And on D10. Okay. There we go.

We have a finance organization personal committee report relative to request to carry forward fiscal year 2026 personnel funds for the city clerk's office renovations. On a vote of four to zero, the FOP committee recommends that the city council authorize the city clerk to carry forward $22,000 in unexpended fiscal year 2026 personnel appropriations and repurpose those funds to augment the city hall structural repairs capital improvement project for city clerk's office renovations that address accessibility, customer service, operational efficiency, and security concerns.

and recognize Councilor Powers.

Thank you, Your Honor. Move to carry out the intent of the committee report.

Second.

Seconded by Councilor Workman. Councilor Powers.

Councilor Chadbourne. The second.

Councilor Workman.

Councilor Chadbourne did the second. Did I say Workman? Yeah.

That was funny. Sorry, Councilor Chadbourne. Okay, out of roll.

We'll get there. This project is... associated with the building repairs we've talked about this for quite some time because this is well it doesn't sound like much of a deal it's a fairly significant project because the back of the building is falling we've got a plan going together but now it affects the city clerk's office because they're going to have to move out for a period of time while this construction is going so while they're moved out there's an opportunity for some corrections to make be made to that section And I don't want to spend a lot of time, but you really need to know that part of the building. It's where the two buildings connect. It's where the jail cells used to be. It's where the dispatch center was. And the clerk had a little... little portion of it for the longest time and with the moving around they got some more space to serve the public but it's not conducive my opinion it's not conducive to public entries and public work coming in there to get it done so here's an opportunity to get it corrected however there's not a lot of funding available through through that particular part of the project there are some other funds available coming from facilities But here's an opportunity to put $22,000 towards this project because it's available, excess funds and salaries because of retirements and people moving on to different positions. So it's a grand opportunity. It's not new money, and it's going to make this project right. Finance Committee said unanimously, I hope you do the same. Thanks.

And Councilor Jones.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Can I just ask where the clerks, they said the clerks will be temporarily removed for three to four months. Good question. Do we have a location for that?

Secret.

I don't think it's been finalized yet. There are a couple of different locations that we're looking at, one in very close proximity to City Hall.

Okay, thank you.

Any further questions? Seeing none, all in favor? Motion carries unanimously. So that takes us through committee reports. Recognize the city manager for her report.

Thank you. So you have likely seen recent media reports concerning cyber attacks targeting water and sewer water and wastewater infrastructure in several states. Um, the city has also been receiving alerts from the New Hampshire department of environmental services regarding these threats and some recommended measures to strengthen our security system. We are very fortunate that we have a highly capable IT director and team. This evening, I have asked our IT director, Andrew Mueller, to come forward and provide a brief overview of what's happening with these recent attacks and just a general update on the measures the city takes to protect our systems.

Mr. Madison, please give your name for the record.

Andrew Mueller, IT Director. Thank you for that introduction. Yeah, so here to talk about the sort of the state of affairs for our water and wastewater, what we're doing to protect that. from a cybersecurity standpoint and also how that relates to what's happening that you guys see in the news, the Iranian cyber attacks. I'll talk a little bit about that. It's important to know that this is not necessarily something new. Anybody that's kind of been watching cybersecurity for the last bunch of years, The professionals have been screaming from the rooftops that these wastewater and water plants are the vector of attacks where the bad guys are aiming their stuff. Most of the time it's been China that has really been kind of taking up all that bandwidth. Iran's been in the shadows, but they've been doing this as well. Obviously, with the war now, Iran, I feel like they've doubled their efforts. They've had some successful breaches that have made the news, so they're definitely stealing some of that spotlight right now. But this is, again, this is something that we've been dealing with for a while. So the protection that we have put forth, we didn't do yesterday. These are years of stuff, of buildup. This is obviously a public meeting. It's going on YouTube, so I'm not going to really go in depth about the defenses we use. But what I will tell you briefly is sort of what Iran's doing to other facilities, how they're doing it, and I'll tell you some of the stuff that, from a broad standpoint, we are doing and other facilities are doing to help mitigate and protect that. The first thing you kind of need to know is something called a programmable logic controller, PLC. These are little devices that are spread throughout the wastewater plant and the water plant. They control things like, you know, valves and pumps and motors and they do all that. What Iran does is they find one of those that is accessible from the internet and they start manipulating it. As far as what I've researched, there hasn't been any sort of water contamination or at least a credible report of water contamination yet, but that's not really what they're trying to do. They're looking for disruption, and that's what you're seeing in Minnesota and stuff like that. They will... They'll get onto a PLC that's controlling a motor, and they'll recycle that motor 1,000 times in two minutes with the hopes that it dies. They'll get on multiple PLCs. They'll do that for multiple motors. They may even get into different plants. They'll do it at those plants as well. And so now they're creating sort of a supply and demand, right? All these motors are dying at the same time. and organizations are scrambling to try to get those parts, find the implementers, who there aren't a lot of, to put those motors in so you have this real disruption of water delivery. So that's kind of their goal, and they've certainly made the news doing that in a couple of locations. Why these organizations need PLCs on the internet, unfortunately, is unless you're lucky enough to staff your plant 24-7, which certainly plants our size can't do, and a lot of them don't. You need a way for when that plant alarms, when there's a problem at 4 in the morning, that plant needs to page out to the operator on call. That person then gets that call. They get up, hopefully get their laptop out. They remote in to see what's going on. Is this a really serious issue? Do I need to go in? Do I need to contact people? Is it just something I can silence? Unfortunately, everything I just described there, the majority of that goes over the internet. So that's why we're in this problem that we have. Our goal is to make sure that between the PLCs that control everything and the internet, we put a lot of different types of hurdles and security measures for our guys to go through and, of course, the bad guys to go through as well. We do the easy stuff, make sure that they have hard passwords to crack, dual authentication that's happening when that guy wakes up and gets on his laptop. all the way down to getting into our network. Again, dual authentication, lots of hoops to jump through. It's not a one-step process. Eventually they get to what they need to get to. And that also harkens to Don, but Aaron Costa and Ben over at Water, their guys have done an amazing job learning all these new processes. As security goes up, convenience goes down. If it was up to me, I would secure it so much that they wouldn't be able to do their jobs. So there's definitely this pushback where they say, you know, that's great, but, you know, we need this. And so there's a big give and take. And these guys have been working with us for the past, you know, three, four years to really help secure the infrastructure. And kudos to them. The processes have changed on them sometimes very swiftly, and they've kept up with it. And, you know, this partnership that we have with them is really great and very proud of that. So we have these security, we have these hoops. What we need to make sure is that these things actually work the way we want them to. So that involves testing, something called penetration testing or pen testing. We do that internally. We hire, uh, we hire organizations externally. Uh, the department of Homeland security has a department that goes, uh, falls underneath them called CISA. That's an acronym that you may be hearing out in the news, uh, cybersecurity and infrastructure security agency. They provide free services for municipalities. So they'll come to our plants and they'll do audits, both internal and external. They'll do penetration testing, internal, external. They do both the city side as well as the plant side. It's a it's a really great resource that they give us It gives a really long to-do list. Usually we try to do as much as we can some it's realistic some isn't That's Unfortunately system kind of has gotten their budget and their people slashed in this in this current environment so One of my silver linings of all this being in the news is hopefully that there's more attention that this is a real threat to our infrastructure, and hopefully some of that money will come back because resources that we have relied on in the past are going away, and that's not great. So a whole bunch of pen testing, and then in the end, you know, we try to make things more secure, and it's an ongoing process. There is no finish line, unfortunately. I wish there was. I wish there was a time where I could say, that's it. We're secure. I'm out. That's not a thing. As we evolve, so do the bad guys. And it's just this sort of cat and mouse that keeps going on. We're in a no IT person would want to say on, you know, YouTube that we're completely secure. That's not the case, but we are, you know, we're better than most, I would say, and that's the key. So, sorry that couple minutes there, but happy to answer any questions if you guys have any. We've got a couple of questions. Councilor Williams.

Just for people who don't know the term, can you explain what pen testing is?

Sure, it's penetration testing, so it's what you do is you hire a company and they basically try to hack into your organization. They'll use readily available tools, you don't generally give them any credentials, you don't give them any hints, and they just go at it. They're called ethical hackers, and then they come up with a whole list Sometimes they can't get in, and then you kind of let them in so that they can see how far they can get. There's a whole process to that. And they give you a nice big report at the end and say, this is what we did. You've got to watch out for this person. They gave us their password. This person was great, you know, or whatever.

Councilor Jones.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Just changing the subject a little bit. A lot of municipalities around the country have been victims of ransomware.

Yeah.

And CISL was helping with preventive measures there. Is that still – we don't need to know what you're doing. We just need to know is that still out there.

Yeah, it's still out there. Again, you know, their workforce has been – halved in some departments, so it's been tough. But yeah, CISA, Department of Homeland Security, if there is a ransomware incident, and there has been in New Hampshire, I'm sure some people have heard about the different ones, CISA certainly can be a resource for that, yeah.

Councillor Tobin.

Thank you. this might be more of a question for the city manager but I'm wondering because the public likely will be concerned about some of these things if there were a potential risk how would the public be notified and how could they sign up for those

Yeah. So, I mean, we would treat this if, depending upon what the situation was, if it's just a direct disruption, we'd handle that probably a little differently. Um, but still, like I go back to the water incident we had and the tools that we use to communicate with the public that was social media, that was, um, text messaging. We're now set up on the States, um, text messaging system. And so we would use all of those same tools. thank you thank you it's a timely update Thank You manager Thank You Andrew so just a few more updates for you this evening there's a community conversation about to happen and that is on August 22nd at 10 a.m. till noon in Heberton Hall and everyone is invited all the residents in the communities they are all invited and It's hosted by Keene Family YMCA and the Keene Public Library and is an opportunity to share ideas, meet with your neighbors, explore new ways to strengthen connections in the community. You don't have to register for this, but if you're interested in child care, you do need to register for that. And so those registrations must be in by August 17th. Free child care will be available, and you can contact Amy Kramer at the library. And Kramer's with a K. Also, the city is starting our compensation study, so I wanted to briefly update you on that. You recently got an email from me about this project. The city has selected PayPoint HR to review our job classifications. our internal equity, and our competitiveness with other comparable employers. And so the process begins with briefings for leadership and employees, and so that's going to be happening over the next few weeks, followed by an employee questionnaire focused on their position responsibilities. So basically taking a look at their current job description and whether or not that job description is still accurate. I have provided a copy of that questionnaire on your desk this evening. And the sample letter that will be going out to the employees in the next week or two now at the conclusion of the study there will be recommendations and Depending upon what recommendations come out. We are planning to have this timeline aligned with our budgeting process because if there's a need for any sort of Adjustments to our pay as our pay scale. That'll be something that will need to be presented to City Council and Also, tomorrow, there's a message that just went out this afternoon. Our software, MUNIS software, is going down tomorrow at 3 p.m. What that means to the public is we won't be able to register or do any of the activities in the revenue office. And so the revenue office needs to close at 2 p.m. so that they can reconcile in the system by 3 p.m. and then be out of the system. So I did see a message go out. Thank you, Rebecca. This evening, I'm trying to let people know to get the word out so that people know if they need to come, register their car, pay a bill to do it before 2 p.m. The mayor mentioned the peace run, and we did get an email this evening confirming the 1 p.m. time at Central Square if anyone is interested in meeting those that are running. And that's on August 9th, which is Sunday. Also, tonight's PowerPoint from assessing will be available tomorrow or Monday within the next few days on the assessing website for anyone wishing to follow along. And that's it for me.

Thank you, Manager. Okay, we are moving on to additional items for our agenda from city departments relative to collective bargaining agreements. At this point, I'd like to recognize Councilor Powers for a motion.

Thank you, Your Honor. I move to recommend that the City Manager be authorized to do all things necessary to execute the negotiated contract with Keene Police Department Supervisors Teamsters Local 603 to be effective July 1st, 2026 through June 30th, 2030. And further, that the City Manager be authorized to do all things necessary to execute the negotiated contract with the professional firefighters of Keene, New Hampshire to be effective July 1st, 2026 through June 30, 2027. Second.

Nope. Okay, very good. Seconded by Councilor Chadbourne. Okay. Sorry. It was. It's good. Good. All right. Darcy Newport is our human resource director, is present. Darcy, would you please introduce yourself?

Yes. Darcy Newport, Human Resources Director. Can you turn on your microphone, please? I'm sorry about that. Darcy Newport, Human Resources Director. I have tentative agreements with two bargaining units to go over with you this evening. The first is with the Keene Police Department Supervisors, which is a four-year contract covering July 1, 26 to June 30, 2030. The following revisions have been agreed upon between the city and its members. Independence Day has been added as a holiday that will receive compensation at two times the hourly rate. The minimum hours for court appearances and special duty pay will be increased from three to four hours. Vacation accrual has been adjusted to 10 hours per month. The percentage of city contributions towards health insurance premiums for option one anthem medical coverage will decrease by 1% the first three years and 2% the fourth year. And we will be eliminating a copay HRA benefit. The city will provide for deferred comp plan 457B contributions for special duty pay for those hired after July 1, 2011. And the wage schedule has been adjusted from a nine step schedule to a five step schedule. And those increases vary by member, but roughly 5.15% average. The second tentative agreement are with the firefighters. The tentative agreement is for a one-year contract beginning July 1, 2026 through June 30, 2027. The following revisions have been agreed upon between the city and the members. Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day have been added as holidays that will receive compensation at two times the hourly rate. The percentage of city medical coverage will decrease by 2%, and we will be eliminating the copay HRA benefit. The opt-out payment for insurance coverage, for waiving insurance coverage, will increase from $5,000 to $7,000 per year. Eyewear reimbursements will increase $100 per year for qualified members. Clothing allowance will increase $50 per year for each member. And the wage schedule will be adjusted by 3.5%. Thank you.

Thank you. Any further comments?

I just want to recognize Darcy. This was her first experience with negotiations and she has done a great job. And one of the things I really appreciate about her approach is that she does a great job explaining why we can or cannot do something, which I think has helped the conversation at the negotiating table.

Thank you.

Thank you very much, Darcy, for bringing these to this point. Thank you. This has been a process, as is a negotiated agreement, so thank you very much. Any questions at this point from our counselors? Seeing none, we have both of these agreements in a single motion as presented. All those in favor, please show your hand. Motion carries unanimously. Darcy, thank you very much. Okay, we move on now to one more report from the committee. relative to opportunity zones. Sorry, thank you. Yes, please.

Tonight we have a memorandum from the Finance Director Treasurer regarding acceptance of donations.

Council Powers.

Thank you, Your Honor. Move to accept the donations with gratitude and that the city manager be authorized to use those funds in the manner specified by each donor.

Second.

Second by Councilor Chadwick.

There is a list in your package or on the website. It's the revenue from the provision in the statute from Revenue Casino, $23,686.70. $2,000 bench donation from Mickey Stiefen for the purpose of purchasing and installing a bench in Robin Hood Park. $500 from CNS Wholesale Grocers to offset food expenses for our annual community night. $1,000 from the Savings Bank of Walpole for the 2026 Keene International Festival. And $10 from Mike Govnor for the Branch Out for Parks Park Forestry Program. Thank you.

Thank you, Your Honor. Not so much a question, but can the city manager for the council and the people at home just remind folks what the revenue from the Revo Casino will be used for or where it will go? Sure.

So the the use of the revenue the last time so the council voted to apply the revenue to a capital project in the police department to offset a portion of that project. This that was just a one time motion. So after you accept the funds this evening, we would come back to FOP with another recommendation as to how to expand these funds.

Okay. More later. At this point, motions on the table to accept the donations. All those in favor? Motion carries unanimously. Now we can move to opportunity zones. Read the motion, please.

We have a memorandum from the deputy city manager requesting city council endorsement of the city's opportunity zone 2.0 nomination.

I recognize Councillor Greenwald.

Thank you, Your Honor. Move to suspend Section 26 of the Rules of Order to act on this item on a first reading. Second.

Seconded by Councillor Powers. So this will take a roll call, and then we'll proceed with the motion. Please call the roll.

Councillor Filio. Yes. Councillor Talas. Yes. Councillor Berkman. Yes. Councillor Leight. Yes. Councillor Fabulis. Yes. Councillor Tobin. Yes. Councillor Williams. Yes. Councillor Jones. Yes. Councillor Roberts. Yes. Councillor Chadbourne. Yes.

council redald miller yes council ellis yes council powers yes council greenwald yes motion carries unanimously uh we can put this motion on the floor recognize council greenwald for the motion thank you your honor move to direct the mayor to send a letter of support of keene's opportunity zone 2.0 nomination endorsement second by council workman

the I got an education on this earlier from the city manager there are like 34 and 30 there are 35 slots that are about to be authorized by the governor and put forward by her for approval there are 50 organizations that previously were designated in the opportunity zone Go ahead. I thought they had this down.

It was close. It was close. But I'm going to let Rebecca do most of the talking. So we have a current opportunity zone. And now, I think every 10 years, they reauthorize the zones. And this is what we're attempting to do. There are, I think, about 50 zones. And so they are identified as census tracts. across the state of New Hampshire and everywhere, but we're just worried about the state of New Hampshire right now. And of those 50, only 35 approximately can move forward. So there's a competition to be selected and included as an opportunity zone for the next 10 years. Right now, what we're doing is we're preparing an application for that, and Rebecca has been doing the majority of this work, and she's been working with MEDC to help support us to put together a strong application. So with that, I would love to turn it over to Rebecca.

Thanks, Rebecca.

Thank you. Valiant attempt. Rebecca Landry, deputy city manager. So the Opportunity Zone 2.0 program is quite extensive, and it takes some time to really learn about and understand what it is and how it's different from the Opportunity Zone or OZ 1.0. So I've got a few notes that I'll share with you. I'm sure there will be questions, and we can run through some examples if you are interested in learning more. We're asking the council tonight to suspend its rules to act on the recommendation to direct the mayor to send a letter of support with the nomination to designate two eligible census tracts as opportunity zones in the OZ 2.0 program. So it's not an organization that's eligible. It's not a municipality that's eligible. It is a census tract that becomes eligible for nomination. This is necessary tonight because the council will not meet again before the August 28th deadline to submit nominations. In 2018, the southernmost census tract in Keene was nominated for and received an Opportunity Zone designation, so it runs across the southern border of Keene. The state's now accepting nominations for OSE 2.0, and the existing OSE census tract as well as one other in Keene are both eligible. That doesn't mean they will both receive the nomination. I think it's really important and a lot of us think it's really important that we try. Let's see, OZ 2.0 has substantial changes from 1.0. It makes rural development more appealing to investors looking to get federal tax breaks on capital gains. 1.0 was more, you saw a lot of those capital gains investments going to Boston and New York, not necessarily to rural communities like Keene. I would point out that Cody Morrison of MEDC is here tonight. MEDC is instrumental in helping provide essential supporting information for the nomination regarding potential development projects in the pipeline as well as potentially interested investors. So they will be instrumental in helping us with this nomination. What is an Opportunity Zone? Why do we need it? It's a federal program. It's not state. It's not local. It encourages private investors to put their capital gains into long-term community projects. which defers for five years and reduces by 30% their federal tax burden on those capital gains. So it is quite an incentive. And it eliminates the federal tax burden on profit and the increase in value of that property after 10 years. So if they are a patient investor and they stick around for 10 years, it's also a good motivator. uh... the designation is limited to census tracts this is important that meet federal low-income criteria specifically where the median family income is no more than seventy percent of the state average or poverty is twenty percent or higher uh... it draws private money into areas that might otherwise get Keene has two eligible census tracts, the current one that spans the southern border of Keene and the one that is directly above that, which we can provide more information on if you need it. So why is this good for Keene? It brings patient capital. um so the investors are required by law to keep their money in the property for at least five years in order to get that tax tax break this it attracts long-term investors it also expands our tax base without local tax breaks so unlike a program like 79e which will delay or abate a portion of the city taxes opportunity zones use federal tax discounts The developer pays their full property taxes to the city of Keene from day one, which will help grow our tax base and helps relieve pressure on the residential property taxpayers, which we learned earlier is incredibly important. Under the new OZ 2.0 rules for rural communities, there are way too many R's in that sentence. I'm struggling. Federal incentives give investors a 30% tax discount on invested capital gains and cut required building renovation costs from 100% of the initial value to 50%. So on a million-dollar valued property, the improvement needs to be valued at $500,000 or more. In a previous program, they would have to double the value of the building. so that's that's a broad brush I'm happy to answer questions but I can't support enough the need for us to submit a nomination to make sure we have at least that one opportunity zone and ideally two going forward Any questions from folks?

Thank you Mr. Mayor you mentioned some possible examples that you could share with the council and the public do we Do you have any of those readily available?

Sure. I have math examples. I don't have a building example. So I would like to say that the Kingsbury property is in census tract, for example, but it is not. It is on the wrong side of Marlborough Street. The other side of Marlborough Street is in the census tract for the current Opportunity Zone. Is that the kind of example you're looking for? So there might be properties in the Opportunity Zone. MBDC is going to be helping us pull together a list of some of those potential projects and investors. We're working on that right now.

So you mentioned a very important example for our community in terms of the Kingsbury property. Do we have any possibilities of petitioning that opportunity zone to its boundaries to be adjusted based on financial issues?

No, we've asked and asked and asked, and we would like the answer to be yes, but the answer is no. It's limited to the census tracts.

Thank you. And each census tract needs to meet the qualifications that are set forth relative to income and valuations.

That is correct. And anyone can invest in those tracts. They don't have to come through the city or MEDC. We may not even know if someone makes an investment in a property improvement. That's all done separate from the city.

Councillor Tobin thank you you may have said this and I just kind of missed it but in terms of the tight I know it's the area certain census tracts but is it any type of development or is it specifically to support say low in lower income

I think you mentioned a couple of median income that was just the median income but that was just defining the region is this also contributing to the type of development I don't know I think the answer to your question is no so the poverty level or the income levels contribute to what makes a census tract eligible but the development can be it can be commercial development it can be market rate housing it can be low-income housing

Okay, we have a motion on the floor Seeing no further questions This just takes a show of hands all those in favor of submitting a letter Motion carries unanimously. No, thank you, Rebecca Recognize concert green wall for a motion. I

want to do the intro you want to read that okay mr. resignation we have a memorandum from the senior planner regarding the resignation of Alexander von Klinsky from the Conservation Commission mr. von Klinsky has served on this board since 2017

Thank you. I move to accept the resignation with gratitude for service. Second.

Second by Councillor Towers. Further questions? Seeing none, all in favor? Motion carries unanimously. And now we move on to more time reports.

We have two more time reports coming from the Municipal Services Facilities and Infrastructure Committee. The first is relative to Eric Murphy's petition, safety improvements at the South Lincoln Street and Roxbury Street intersection. And the second one is relative to Gilbo Abt Solar Pavilion conceptual design.

And more time is granted to both of these. They will be taken up at the September 23rd meeting of municipal services. So thank you. Notice Mr. Murphy is here. And so that takes care of that. Thank you for being here. Ordinances for the first reading.

A memorandum from the Community Development Director accompanying Ordinance O202614, an ordinance relating to an amendment to Article 7, Food Service Establishments.

And that item is being referred to the Planning Licenses and Development Committee in its meeting on September 9th.

A memorandum from the Public Works Director accompanying Ordinance O-2026-16, an ordinance relating to the installation of two stop signs on Roxbury Street.

And as previously noted, this will be taken up at the September 23rd meeting of municipal services. Your Honor. Yes, Counselor Greenwald.

Thank you. Just for the point of clarification, there was not an endorsement of a four-way stop at Roxbury Street and Lincoln Street. The committee was recommending write the ordinance and we'll talk about it. So it's really not a first reading, but thank you for preparing the ordinance.

It is something that we've done in the past. It's a fairly simple, straightforward ordinance anyway. So it was a little... Anyway, we'll take it up in the future. Okay, we have a couple resolutions for this evening. Moving on to K-1.

We have a Finance Organization Personal Committee report relating to fiscal policies resolution R202634A. On a vote of four to zero, the Finance Organization Personal Committee recommends the adoption of resolution R202634A, and we have resolution R202634A, a resolution relating to fiscal policies.

I recognize Councilor Powers for the motion.

Thank you, Your Honor. I move to adopt Resolution 202634-A. Second.

Seconded by Trustee Chandler. Council Powers for the committee.

Thank you, Your Honor. This discussion began in our workshop for fiscal policies, which we try to do annually. And we're on target to be pretty much on schedule this year. We had substantial discussion on a couple areas. And it went back to FOP, where we all agreed came to an agreement we understood our language and made some few changes as I said annually we do this the biggest discussion was around the funding for our land use change tax funding that comes to us maybe comes to us depends on how many of these happen from year to year there may be no money but there may be a substantial value to piece of property in any particular year And essentially what we've done is ensured that the language didn't reduce the amount that's going to be in that fund from now on and how much the city will ante up to keep the thing going if the value of the tax property change is less than that amount. That was the largest portion of our discussion. The other changes were minor edits to make it consistent with what annually we do, makes our title and our actions PRETTY CONSISTENT. IT'S A LITTLE BIT BETTER THAN IT USED TO BE. AND WE TOOK OUT OF IT A COUPLE AREAS THAT WE JUST DON'T DO ANYMORE BECAUSE THAT'S NOT PART OF OUR BUSINESS PACKAGE AS IT GOES. WE RENAMED OUR OUTSIDE AGENCIES TOPIC TO SOCIAL SERVICE AGENCIES. TOOK OUT THE PARTICIPATION IN THAT COMMITTEE OF THE COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT DEPARTMENT. a defined region that we look at, look at the cost of living analysis, now called Northeast Region Consumer Price Index, the CPI. And I believe that covers everything we did.

there was quite a bit of discussion so i won't belabor it thank you very much yeah this has gone through a couple of iterations with the council so are there any further questions counselor jones

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. The fifth whereas down, whereas the city manager is hereby granted the authority to appoint a designee, temporarily perform the duties and responsibilities of the city manager in his or her absence. Is that a fiscal policy or should that be more in a personnel? I have no problem with it. I'm just wondering why it's in fiscal and not personnel. Mr. Manager?

That was added a few years ago because sometimes if I'm not here and one of the deputy city managers is replacing me they will need to sign documents that are financial in nature. So purchase orders, contracts and things of that nature. Now it came up because we were bonding at the time so that was why we had the conversation and at the time the city attorney

suggested that we place the language here and so it's been in there since then and we've referenced it yeah any further questions seeing none still take a show of hands all those in favor motion carries unanimously thank you moving on to k2

We have a finance organization personnel committee report relating to the appropriation of wastewater treatment plant capital reserve funds to the wastewater treatment plant HVAC replacement project resolution R2026-36. On a vote of four to zero, the FOP committee recommends the adoption of resolution R2026-36. And we have before us a resolution, R202636, a resolution relating to the appropriations of wastewater treatment plant capital reserve funds to the wastewater treatment plant HVAC replacement project.

Recognize Councilor Powers for the motion.

Thank you, Your Honor. And we move for the adoption of Resolution 2026-36. Second.

I call Sir Chad Burns, House of Powers, for the motion. Thank you, Your Honor. For the committee.

Essentially, this is not new dollars. This is all money that's already appropriated. It's in the capital reserve for wastewater projects. that needs additional funding. They began a project to deal with the wastewater treatment plant HVAC replacements and the contractor found some other issues that need to be addressed and it's an appropriate time to do that while he's there. He has an understanding of what needs to be done. And they will make some other changes in how they do business based on his recommendations. So they're going to replace 10 valves that they did not anticipate in the regular project. But that $32,000 is available in the capital reserve to do such. And that was unanimously recommended by the FOP. Thank you.

Thank you. Questions from the council? Seeing none. As an appropriation, this will take a roll call.

Councilor Filio?

Yes.

Councilor Chalice? Yes. Councilor Berkman? Yes. Councilor Lake? Yes. Councilor Fevelis? Yes. Councilor Tobin? Yes. Councilor Williams?

Yes.

Councilor Jones? Yes. Councilor Roberts? Yes. Councilor Chadbourne? Yes. Councilor Riddle-Miller? Yes. Councilor Ellis? Yes. Councilor Powers? Yes. And Councilor Greenwald? Yes.

Motion carries unanimously. Taking up item K-3.

All right, a memorandum from the Public Works Director accompanying Resolution R-2026-37, a resolution relating to the alteration of Thompson Road. The memorandum requests that the mayor schedule a site visit and a public hearing on the matter in the Resolution R-2026-37 be referred to the Municipal Services, Facilities, and Infrastructure Committee and the Planning Board.

So we will do exactly that, refer this to the MSFI committee and the planning board. A site visit for both of those groups will be scheduled for September 17th at 5.30. So that's just ahead of our next council meeting. The public hearing will be held on September 17th at 7 p.m. in our regularly scheduled meeting Thompson Road is narrow relative to the curbing and parking areas. So if you can take the city's transportation over there, that's going to be provided ahead of 5.30. And following the conclusion ahead of the 7 o'clock meeting, there'll be a light refreshment for the council ahead of that site visit. So hopefully we get a quorum at the site visit. Okay. Thank you. So that referendum, we have referred it, and the hearing will be set by the clerk's office. We'll move on to item K-4.

All right. Councilor Jones has submitted a resolution acknowledging Dr. Dottie Morris for her years of service to Keene State College, the City of Keene Human Rights Committee, and the community.

I'd like to recognize Councilor Jones for a motion.

Thank you, Mr. Mr. Mayor. Um, if I may make one slight change, uh, we have before us resolution are 2026 dash 39, uh, which is a resolution, uh, honoring Dr. Dottie Mars. Uh, since writing this resolution, we did find out that, uh, although Dr. Morris has moved out of state, she is going to be able to come visit with us at a council meeting at a later date. So, uh, I'm changing the wording to, uh, adoption of a proclamation which is not a codified so with that saying i would move for the uh... proclamation which includes the wording in the resolution former resolution

So can we get a second for that motion? Second. Seconded by Councilor Workman. Councilor Jones, anything further? I think you explained the motion.

Yeah, I think it's very clear we're just not a codified resolution. We're just going to honor her with a proclamation. She's done so much for the city. She was the voice of BEI for the city. She was instrumental in bringing Ruby Sells to Keene. If anyone remembers who that is, that was the person that Jonathan Daniels stepped in front of to save their life. She's done a lot. When we did our 2021 Declaration of Inclusion, she was the one that kind of was the backbone to that to get that working. When we did, it was signed by all the members of the city council. At the time, she was the one who recommended that it go out to different businesses around the town. I took her recommendation from that, and we did it. We got 34 framed copies hanging around the city. Because of that, and I paid for the frame, so it didn't come out of city money. It'll be great to have her coming at a later date, and we can honor her with the proclamation.

And I'm pleased to be able to do that. I've worked with Dottie for all my years at Keene State. Well, maybe not all, all but a few. And yeah, she's an amazing person, a great part of our community. We'll hear about her future plans. And she's agreed to be present on September 17th. So our adoption tonight will allow me to produce that proclamation, put it in an appropriate format, and present it to her with the council's presence on the 17th. We have that motion before us. All those in favor of the drafting of that proclamation? It's carried unanimously. Thank you very much. And we take up item K-5, our last item on our schedule agenda.

We have a memorandum from the City Engineer along with Resolution R-2026-40 relating to the appropriations of funds for Marble Street and Cheshire Rail Trail Improvements Project.

I recognize, oh no, this one is a referral, first reading. And so we'll refer this on to the September 10th FOP meeting. And that concludes our agenda for the evening. There is a need for a non-public session immediately following. Councilor Chandler.

I just wanted to recognize Heather Fitzsimmons for filling in for the first time. She did a phenomenal job in the absence of our city clerk.

Yes. Well, thank you. Thank you. Okay. Recognize Councilor Greenwald for a motion.

Do we have a proclamation for her? Okay. Move to go into non-public session to discuss legal matters pursuant to RSA 91A32L, land matters pursuant to RSA 91A32D, and litigation matters pursuant to RSA 91A32E. Second.

Seconded by Councillor Powers. Let's take a roll call vote.

Councilor Filio?

Yes.

Councilor Chalice? Yes. Councilor Workman? Yes. Councilor Lake? Yes. Councilor Feblees? Yes. Councilor Tobin? Yes. Councilor Williams?

Yes.

Councilor Jones?

Yes.

Councilor Roberts? Yes. Councilor Chadbourne? Yes. Councilor Redding-Miller? Yes. Councilor Ellis? Yes. Councilor Powers? Yes. And Councilor Greenwald?

Yes.

Motion carries. We'll take a five-minute recess and reconvene in non-public session.

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