Board of Selectmen - Regular Meeting

[laughter] Thank English.

[clears throat]

almost [laughter] We have usual audio problems here best we can. Can anybody hear me? You guys hear me? Okay. Yeah, it's better than the microphone. All right. Um, let's open up the uh selections meeting tonight for Monday, January 12th. We have a single agenda item tonight, which is to to let our library trustees speak to their warrant article and um we'll take it from there. Open a public hearing. [clears throat]

Move to open public hearing for the library. I'll second. All those in favor? I public hearing.

Welcome to uh our discussion tonight. Um I'm fine, president of the social trustees. And sitting next to me is Susie Gilbert, director of the library. Then Ron Lamar, architect and Steve Wood, architect. We're meeting tonight to discuss the $1 million warrant article that we have asked the town to [clears throat] present to our March meeting to vote on the building. The addition that we want built has a cost of 5.5 million. The social trustees have raised almost $4.5 million about $1,500 less than $4.5 million. So, we need 1 million more to close the gap and we'll have our 5.5 million. I recognize that the warrant article is worded in such a way that it is very confusing. It starts off with a 5.5 million figure and you have to work your way tediously down to the bottom to understand that we're asking for 1 million. But that's the fault of the New Hampshire bond bank and its lawyers who have a rather convoluted way of presenting the warrants article. So I want to make that very clear that we're asking the $1 million. And I'd like to make uh a go back a

little bit in history to tell you how we got here which was around 2017. I would say we choose it. We became very concerned about space for children's room and children's programming just space for children period. And we were very concerned of accessibility up to the soya room where all our events take place. And we also were very concerned with our lack of ADA compliancy in our bathrooms. making it impossible for people with disabilities, especially wheelchairs, to use the facilities. So we decided the social trustees, the public trustees, and the library staff just head out into New Hampshire and look at all the small little uh historic agies that are peppered everywhere in this state and look at their additions. And after quite a bit of research, we decided that we definitely admired the additions of Ron Lamar and we contacted him. He agreed to do what an addition. Uh we hired him and we he made up architectural drawings. We've had a number of years to look over them. We're very pleased with what they will provide our library. And um what am I saying now? [laughter] So uh you know we uh we're ready to go and I think soon we can uh show you a

PowerPoint which is a little more specific about our games and uh I think I would turn it over to her. Thank you, Elaine. Can you all hear me? Yes. Okay. Um, well, as Elaine explained, I'm the director of the library. Um, and I just want to take you through a little PowerPoint presentation. Um, why we feel the library needs to fill out. Um, and I also want to thank everybody who showed up today because there's a million everybody informed about this project.

Okay. Um, I want to thank everybody for shouting out today. Can you hear any? Um, because it is very important to be informed. Um, if you have any questions after the presentation, feel free to ask. Um, if I can't answer them, hopefully Lane or the architects can. Um, if there's a question I shouldn't be able to answer, I will find out for you tomorrow. So, thank you very much and bear with me while we go through this presentation. So, there's our sweet little library. Um, we have a much more than we have anything to this library in 50 years. There have been no changes in 50 years. So, the first thing um Oops. One slide. Oh, yeah. Oh, you're sorry. Um, so Pensington Library is thriving. Um, if you were just some statistics from last year, it's probably easier to read on the handouts than on. We had 7,231 visits and we 14,867 items were kept downloaded. 63 museum passes that families were used and when we have that people are able to go into the museums for free or 50% off which is the greatest um service that we provide 20 events for adults and 50 for kids or adult [clears throat] we have groups for modular chest and dungeons and dragons that need the library. We have 62 Kensington groups and organizations that have used the library uh solar room for meetings and almost 1,000 books, DVDs and audio

books went through our state in our library loan system. And that system is great if we don't have a book or DVD or audio pages. So you can get it at least from another library. 60 new families signed up for library cards last year, right? And all in all, we have 1,290 residents plus 60 non-residents that have library cards. uh Elaine did that uh we mentioned that we did the survey quite a while ago and the results of the survey are on a new board or run a new handbook and you can see that some of the um things that people wanted were more home for kids activities routine area handicap accessibility space for seniors to gather which is something that we are really looking forward to doing as we get this addition is having a place of seniors in the town can come and play games, have coffee, meet with each other, uh public space for lectures. So those are some of the results from the survey that they did in that survey was actually distributed to every single person. So why we need more space? First of all, we need more space for good. We have after school activities and always have a long waiting list. The room only accommodates 10 people, 10 children, and we've all had at least double that if you signed up. Um, an extra room set up with a sink, room for supplies, etc. We re existing space for book browsing and reading. We leave a larger space for games, uh, STEM, steam tables, etc. STEM is not

steaming. I apologize for that. Uh families command to spend up to an hour with their kids and we need to be able to provide more space and we need more space for the children's books. They're running out of the room to physically hold them. Uh the second thing that's so important is we need we have our most of our events are going up room and there's uh [clears throat] obviously no elevator. There's 29 steps upstairs and down and we need um people who tend to you know need some way to get up um to be able to do that without going up and down the stairs all the time. We would love to have quiet study areas for patrons to study, work, and work remotely. A lot of people are working from their homes now to get away, have a study space that they can sit. We got great Wi-Fi and work from home library. We need a larger area. And we need more space for books for fiction and non-fiction. fundraising as the mention raised 1 million432,000 which was chared by and that's all private and so we as Ela mentioned we needed to 5.5 million we are continuing to range and we're applying for And lastly, this is our kitchen for the staff, our work space, etc. It's where I pay bills. Um, we need

we need a better space for this these um functions. Okay. So, here are the plans. And if I put my bigger ones in the back and put a light here and we're going to add um at the back of the children's room and we have a place and we have a place for kids to gather for activities back in school during something. We have a very vibrant summer reading program um with lots of activities that go on with summer first floor plan. Again, right on top of the addition of the children's room, the plan calls for um a roof that would be on top of that for the adult. One thing I know for all of you that are familiar with the library, the front of the Milwaukee is is a historic room. Um, I would like to turn that into a room where people can come and do research. Uh, we have a lot of people from town that come in during the summer effectively and want to do research on their family. They want to do research on people that are buried across the street. And it would be great to have a room where they could do that and just sit and study quietly or do um research on their families. Second floor is actually the sort room and you can see that here specific questions about the plan should be directed probably to the property checks. But um I did want to show you

these on this and they until they say they are back there and they formed. [clears throat] So we're asking for a million dollar to round out the 5.5 I believe 4.5. The impact on taxes. The added tax for a home that is valued at 716,000 which is the town's medium town investment to home inve $90 is that it's three books a year for people who use the library. That's the equivalent of three books. And I did want to note that and to um the library typically as all libraries um does not take up a lot of the town budget. Um this year I calculated that the regular library budget which is payroll, maintenance, all the things that take to run the library is 5.4% of the entire town budget. So, so um questions.

Yes. One one second, please. If you could come to the microphone public hearing, if you could come to the microphone, please, and just state your names for the record. Um the renovation um what will be the the difference uh in the projected budget? So in other words, it's x number of dollars now half of the renovation. What will that do to the projected budget going forward? Are you talking about maintenance? Yeah. Maintenance or payroll? The budget for the library. Yeah. That that includes everything,

right? I can speak to payroll because the way that the um addition was planned we would never we do not have to increase staff. Um Ron can speak to

sure other um so typically within that kind of budget you have a table library you have the books but then when it comes to operations and maintenance if you look at the plans that are on the on the door back there the earlier addition that was done to the historic building we're keeping that in place because we don't want to waste anything. Uh we're taking out as little as we can. We are wrapping that existing piece which is not very energy efficient at all. Um you can imagine uh there's a lot of air leakage and it's not very energy efficient because we're wrapping that and putting a new roof over it. Um it's going to be a lot more energy efficient. So the concept right now is that we're doubling the square footage but we're drastically increasing the energy efficiency of the building. um the historic piece of the department building. Um we don't want to mess with that from an historic point of view. Um so we're going to do the best we can from the inside to alleviate all the air infiltration and so forth. But that area within the building is also getting mechanical systems for a much more energy efficient building. Um the goal as we always try is to balance these things out. Um and that is that comes down to also how you operate the library just like at home thermostat. Um we will have programable thermostats in this building and so if it's operated the way that it's designed uh there should not be a major increase to any of that from a maintenance perspective. Right now you have to do a lot of maintenance on that building. Um and with this maintenance possible [clears throat]

question. Yeah. want to look at in the uh bid process for the contractor because I'm trying to figure out the numbers how you came up with 4.5 or $5 million. So, can you tell me how many competitive bids you put out for this? So, you have an idea uh how the cost structure is whereas competitive bids for other companies.

Sure. So, the product has not been bid yet. So what you're looking at is a guaranteed maximum price. So what the trustees have done is they've hired a construction manager and that was competitively bid. Uh that went out to Milestone Engineering and construction that went out to Bonnage and Stone and that went out to Bingeration and the trustees reviewed all the proposals and then they met through contracting. Um or I should say the construction manager. how the prospective management process is vetted is all the general conditions for competitive rebate um as well as the percent that they mark up the sub traders. And now when the job users are ready after the vote and they go out to bid the construction management gets competitive bid for every part every piece of that library. So, you will be able to, if you're in the trades or you know anybody that's in the trades, uh, they will reach out to all of the local contractors, they will reach out to all of the contractors for the public bidding process. And those bids will come in and be vetted by the construction manager as well as the trustees to make sure you're getting the best price and the best value in that price. You want somebody who actually knows um, how to work on a library to work on your library. So with that construction manager in place, all the insurance, liability insurance, the builder's risk, they're responsible for all of that and then every nut and bolt as they say within the project is competitively.

Um I don't know if you can answer the question in regards to the bond in regards to that. That was what my next question is. If it if the building comes in less [clears throat] than 5 million or 4 million, whatever it's planned, and the the town puts up 1 million and uh a bond, and I'm sure there's a certain protections to that, I don't I couldn't find that, so I didn't know what the protections are for the bond. If it's under and you don't need the million dollars, uh what happens? Um and I'm assuming that the bond becomes active once there's an occupancy permit. and back usually should be something like that.

So where would we learn more about what happens to the town and the bond if it's under in this case even if it's over cost uh what happens I know we're limited to this to $1 million I think but I'm not sure

so I'm not attorney been doing this for 30 years. [clears throat] Um so for what it's worth how it works is the state of New Hampshire would say that you use the bond money first. Um and that is because if you look at their regulations, public libraries have to be funded um by the community. Um now that's true. They also picked up the RSA and you read it. That's what we said. Many libraries however do raise money. And whether they use that million dollars first or not, they have the opportunity when the project is done. Let's say it comes in under budget, there's monies left over, trustes can decide to put that money towards paying down that. Um, so just to give you an example, anybody be familiar with millions of New Hampshire. Um, they raised a portion of the project did I think they went out and got a 10-year bond. The project came in under budget. Following that as well, um, it came in under budget. when it came in under budget, they took the remaining money, the trustees, and gave it to the selectman to pay down the bond that paid down a certain percentage of the bond. And then the selectman turned around and used their general fund to pay the rest of it and save dollars. Um, so the municipal bonds allow you to pay it off early and if there's money's left over, trustees can put that money towards the

But the actual procedure is that we use the million dollars first and that's the way it's written. Okay. But I'm assuming if it's written that way, but I'm just trying to figure out where on the beginning. Yeah. Um, and then if something comes in under something comes in, it's not nothing happens to us. nothing happens to the bond at that point because we're already committed. Correct. But if it comes under um is there anything in the bond that says that the the the library trustees will make that effort to to pay us back first? Right.

Well, there's nothing in the actual bond. Like in other words, the bank Leonard doesn't care. It's just a matter of, you know, whether or not the library decides to do that and I'll be better. Well, I'll ask the library. How do you feel? How do you feel about having? [clears throat] Well, of course, the library can always use extra money for maintenance, but sure, we'd be willing to put it back to the town. Yes.

Thank you. I sort of see it as if you have a high credit card bill and your anti dies and leaves you $5,000. I would take that $5,000 to pay off the credit card bill. Assume that's saying it there. I just wanted to make sure that everyone understood who's on the book first how it works and thank you for helping out there. Appreciate it.

And the reason I say that's the way it's the trustees have already spent money, right? They've been working on this with quite a while. They've already spent some money, but the bond is not in place. So again, technically this is something that the trustees and the select can work out once the path ends the vote passes as to when do you actually go out and get the loan. Okay? And so the way the RSA is written is once that loan is taken, you got to use the money. Anybody familiar with arbitrage? Again, not an attorney, but I've been doing this in the law. Um, when you take out a bond, you not only take out the money, you take out the schedule of payments on the bond. And so, what the bank expects you to do to take out a million dollars, you have to spend 95 or 96 or some crazy percentage that's above 95%. Um, within a certain time. So, we may see some buildings that start construction and then they stop um for whatever reason. When that happens and there's a loan out on it, that's actually a problem for the owner. Um because the IRS when it comes to a municipal bond, you don't pay taxes. So, municipalities are not allowed to go and take money and borrow money and then just use that to make interest on money. So because of that, the IRS says, "Look, if you take that money out of the bank, you need to expend a certain amount of money within a certain amount of time so that we know you're not just piggy banking that money. You're trying to collect interest with the interest rates." Um, so for that reason, that's why it's a little bit of a you know, once the bond is is you got to got to stop spending that money. You can't respond to that spend up.

[clears throat] So on your on your presentation you wrote that you have several um grant applications in the process. Where are what is how much of the grants and where are they in the process? We have not applied for them yet. They don't come due till they start. I think the first deadline is in March. And there are 13 grants we're looking at. Those come in here.

Okay. So, they're not they're not due for submitting the application until March, right? But we hope in March. We have we have a a deadline of $1.1 million. that you're asking for the taxpayers to to kind of fund it. But if you have if you have 13 grants available possibly available to you, what would be that monetary value? Do you have any idea what that could be?

No, you cannot have any idea what the grant if they will even give you the grant money. So would it would it make more sense that if you have 13 grants, possibly 13 grants in process to pass over this this voting season and wait one more year to see because you still have when we when we built the elementary school, we have that multi-purpose gym room that you could use for activities, different activities that you have no children signing up for. We don't even utilize that the school as we should, but that room that was the intention when we built that multi-purpose room was so that the community could use it for different things.

Mhm. So, just being a taxpayer, I would say that if you have the opportunity, I I I love that you were able to um get all of those donations, but if you have more opportunity to lessen the burden on the taxpayers because even $100, I I understand when you when you bring it down to a door or or going to a you know, using a pass or something, um that that does make sense, but it could have it's because everybody got killed with the with the new assessments. So although it might seem that it's only $100, it's more than $100 because of this new assessment that we got attacked. So that's all I'm I'm wondering is whether or not we should table this. I mean, it's already on the ballot, but that would just be my my two cents that maybe we should wait even just a little bit longer because right now the tax burden on on all of our people in town is just outrageous and it's pushing it's pushing all of us older people out of town because the tax rate is just astronomical and it shouldn't be. So, my feeling is that we now have $4.5 million and that is enough to start construction of the building and that construction of the building I believe will take at least a year. And during that year, because we're set up to to to apply for 13 grants, some other issu things that we have, [clears throat] we're hoping that any year we can make up the rest of the $1 million if it does not pass the town in the town vote. But we have waited a long time. Every year there's always an issue

with taxes. We just are not going to wait. I'm sorry. And last probably this, but um construction are going to roll off. Oh god. So yeah, the 5.5 million become a different figure.

There's no establishing that that if we if we ask the taxpayers to come up with that 1.1 million and and if the grants come in that at at 60,000, let's say, I have no idea. um when that when that yes I know you would like to spend that money on different things for the library to enhance the library in different ways but I think it would there has to be something written or I would think there should be something written um in there that says that if you do get x amount of money from from the bonds I mean from the from the grants that there should be something coming back that because we should have had that happens already in town that we got we as taxpayers got reimbursed you know because of surpluses but we don't ever seem to get any reimbursement for any surpluses that are in the system so that is just my thing so I appreciate your your feedback that was that was it thank you I'm Lauren Curtis. This is Lauren.

Can you hear me now? Okay. I'm Lauren Curtis and I think this is a question more for the selected. Um, should we get the grants, how would the grant money be handled? Would that be voted on at a selectance meeting going into the unanticipated funds balance? It would it would go into the unanticipated funds, but it would be it would be unanticipated money that would have a public hearing to be accepted by the board, right? The way that it's always done now. So, it wouldn't necessarily go,

it doesn't go automatically into the library. Depends on the grants. Okay. How are they how they're formulated? I'm not sure what grants they're going to be doing. Okay. And once the library gets the grants, the money goes into the unanticipated funds. What if the library wants to use some of that money to pay down the bond? I don't believe that you could use the grant funds to pay down the bond. The grant funds would be specified to this project. Okay. And then whatever grant funds you don't use would go back to to the grant.

So whatever you you apply for generating the rent, the expectations that generated with that money. [clears throat] Again, it's it's kind of one of those things. There is a paper trail. There is following of these things. Um all the grant organizations all the organizations provide grants they want to see okay we gave you the grant what did you buy how much was it um so a lot of these things are not different between a donation and a grand [clears throat] you know so but some people do donate they say I'm going to donate this ball clock you know and then you have to spend that money on the ball you want to donate you $25,000 for land and then you have to actually like spend that $25,000.

I just wanted some clarification. I know that in the past gone into the internet to survey threats.

Okay. Thank you. I'll do it. [laughter] [clears throat] I'm Skin Gil. You guys can hear me in the back. All right. Okay, good. Um, Sydney and I have lived in town for uh 45 years. [laughter] More than 48. [clears throat] I think you ladies [clears throat] in the trustees and the director have done a great job with what they have. It's a beautiful building. Um, and thanks because it's mostly volunteer work. You really don't get paid what you're worth. And I would like to see this followed through and voted on and passed so that Susie can see this to fru fruition.

Thanks for the architects. You guys are really smart and doing a great job. Um, thanks for uh providing information. Uh, I hope we get to you got the job. I hope you can follow through with it. I I hope the time passes it. Um, [clears throat] just an FYI. Um, if we get that far, I'm in the lighting business. [laughter] I've got a few lights in [clears throat] the library. I'm going to be [laughter]

lights and lights. Okay. I give you a good deal on them, too. [laughter]

So, uh, that's a positive things. Um, most of the people in town that have been here for a long time worry about paying their taxes. And it's there's nothing wrong with that. It's a fact. Um, and I'm in the same boat. We make a good living, but we're not rich. But $100 a year, uh, piece of cake. I I'll cut back on buying coffees. Um, we can afford 100 bucks. So, that's a great sales pitch right there. And, uh, hope you get some grants. and uh I hope the bond passes.

Thank you very much.

If you look at my back, [laughter] I'm going to be brief and yes, I'll make sure that you get a good deal on it, please. [laughter]

Um, I just want to point out, I want to break this down a little bit further and that it says the added impacts on taxes. And this is the town's median home assessment. That means one home, $990.82 a year. That breaks down to $1.79 a week. I think we can all do that. And so we're very much in favor of this addition and I'm the chairman of the friends of the library because so you know where my loyalties lie but I think this is something that we definitely need. Um, the library is built in a different era and this is an opportunity for us to continue to maintain the historical aspects of the library and move forward to a more modern facility which we definitely need adults and children. When you walk in to a library, people just think it's books. I'm going to walk in and see books. It's not It's books and people and this community needs this. So, um, we're definitely for it. And I hope that you could convince your neighbors in France to vote yes when the time comes. I'll probably get out the delivery session and say the same thing, but You have anything else to add? Good. If not, you can close this opportunity. That's it.

Any other questions from the public? We'll close your hearing. Yes.

You know, there won't be any changes in parking, right? No changes in parking. Yeah. [clears throat]

However, I will add apologize. Um, we are doing new drainage systems. We're doing a new septic system. So all of the underground um infrastructure will get redone as part of this. So his site will be a lot better for sustainability than it is now. Um there will also be a sprinkler system added to the building. Um, thank you for bringing that up. With the additional bathrooms and septic system and especially a sprinkler system, you're going to have I assume you're going to have a sister 30,000 gallons or so.

Yes.

Okay. Um the current well that's at the library is shared by the bridge across the street and fire department next door. So, I'm just asking is there another well? Are you going to try and dig this one deeper? It's not adequate uh for what we got right now. When we do the within that 5.5 million contingencies and some of those contingencies are we are going to do those kinds of tests after the bond after the voting in fact. Um so, we're going to see what is the flow, what is the rate. Um because you do have a well, you do have a system, you have emergency generator and you have a fire tank. So if the well is not good enough, what happens is the well trickles water into the system and then the pump takes it from there. Then I think your fire department has to drive all that. It's not that far. Um next door. Yeah. Um but there's a water problem right now. That's a firehouse. Okay. So speaking of um and we'll definitely be a living. Thanks. Okay. I probably I if I'm not mistaken that you said if this does not go through with the vote then we were going through with it anyway. Is that right?

Yes.

Okay. So in this day and age because I am a very concerned taxpayer ours has tripled in 10 years and it's crippling to a lot of people in this family. So everybody is pulling back on um everything. So if we don't have money we don't put it on the credit card. So this bond to me is a credit card you use that analogy. So I'm wondering why are we going through with this and within bond now this year if you do have the ability to go through with this whole process even if it doesn't go through. So why are you borrowing a million.1 from us the taxpayers even if it is $90 but that's $90 over 25 years that's a lot of money regard it's so if you have that ability why are you coming and asking for the 1.1 million from us if you have the ability to go through with it regardless And why can't you just wait another year and wait for the grants to come in and do more fundraising until you have the thing mapped? But that's what we would do. We would go on holiday if we didn't have the money to do it or build an extension if we didn't have the ability and the money to do it. We can never count on grants coming our way. We apply, but we cannot count on it. I agree. I mean, I've applied for the brains in myself and I understand

the process.

So, um, we have waited quite a long time to do this project. It's been years and I think that it is possible if we just have to keep fundraising a certain way that we'll come up with a million. But I don't really feel that we need to wait. So this is a want. Is that what I'm hearing? You don't want to have to do it that way. But it's in a sense. I'm just saying to the taxpayer over even if it is only $90, our tax our taxes in this city in this in this town are astronomical and need to be addressed. Obviously not. It's it's it's stupid. What what's happened? proceed. This is a late talk the filming is going to go up. We know that as everybody we all understand that it would have been cheaper to do it in 2019 when you started, but that's just unfortunately not the way the world works right now. So it is the fundraising. I just I'm just one of those people like if you don't have enough money, you don't do it. So you have another year of fundraising to get the money that's on Wednesday or a really unpopular thing which is a million ways of this goal and put it towards the web because I think it's a fabulous idea what you guys are doing. I'm not against it. I'm against the bot.

So you bring up um the why and every project goes through this by the way. you're not the first person, you know, to ask that that kind of questioning and what we've seen happen in projects and um Steve and I worked on a project where they started construction without all the money. And when they went out to get that bond a year later, they paid more in interest than if they would have gotten the bond early and I'm saying, right? So then there's the question, what if you just start construction and you don't have enough money to finish it or you modify? Why couldn't Sorry,

right to interject here. Why can't you if you have if you're $1.1 million short, why can't you modify this to bring it down? Exactly. 1.1 million so that you are running them and you're not asking the taxpayers to to get too hard into their pockets. Right. elevator to go to the third floor. Then addition out the backition out the back side use the first floor entrance building. It's just not just like a massive expansion for a little

and every department has a lot and our taxes are outrageous. These these are good questions

and these are the questions these are the questions that the trustees have been wrestling with obviously since 2019 uh when I first started working with them. The big question was how did you do it and how big is it and what should we do? And so we went through a very meticulous studying process that took a look at what if we did this, what if we did that and if you look at the building now years ago, 50 years ago, right? You did an addition did an addition to that library. Now it's easy for us to sit here and say, "Hey, you know what? 50 years ago, the cost [clears throat] of construction was a lot less than it is now. The borrowing rates were a lot less than they are now. The processes were a lot better than they are now. So why didn't you just build out the whole site? So when we sat down initially, we started to come up with two questions. What does the library need? And everything that you see here in these plans are actually what the library needs. There were other things that the library wanted that are not in this plan. And they're not in the plan for two reasons. The first reason is uh we have to put some of the items underground on the site such as the septic system. So that's restricting how much we can go out with the building. And the second thing as to why it's not in this is they were trying to get I mean we were trying to get this done. Um and as we went along and we put this together, the needs list was cut down to this is the absolute need of what we need. So when it comes to handicap accessibility, the US justice system and which is in the code in the the American Disabilities Act, [clears throat] that is something that you have to do.

So is what's that? On new construction. Yes. No. No. No. No. Yeah. No, I'm I'm pretty Yeah,

you know, I I trust that you all have your information well thought through and we have ours. Uh the 2010 American Disabilities Act basically says that if you renovate a building first to ADA compliance and that's for all sorts of different reasons. It doesn't matter. Um, one of those reasons are people used to renovate a building and say, "Oh, it's too costly to put in that ramp or it's too costly to put in that elevator." And in 2010, because remember the ADA came into fruition in the 1990s, bringing back 1990. Um, in 2010, they said, "We had enough of that." Like, we're done with the games, people. Um, if you renovate a building, you bring it up to code. So for all those reasons and there are new energy codes now, there are new building codes, there are new seismic codes. So for all these reasons, the price tag I think the trustees have done a fantastic job. Um, can you imagine if they were asking for 525? And so the idea and I just told him I congratulated him today and asked him the balloon board because in 30 years of doing this, this is the first project that has raised more than $4 million and I've worked on projects that cost 20 $30 million per library and those um library trustees have come up with 3 and 1/2, 3.8, 3.9. Um, so I think what the church need done is fantastic. Um, and quite frankly, you know, if if they said that if the project comes in on a budget or they do get the grants or something happens that they're going to pay that falling down the best they can, um, that's, you know, I think there's no project that we ever get involved with that the first thing on our minds is number one, will it be supported by the community? because everybody's taxes. I live in I know how these things go. I have a detention fund

behind my house that I pay tax for because it's a water view. [laughter] No deal. Um and so, you know, it's just the way of life and you know, the fact that if we wait that bond in another year, you may actually pay more then and then the question will be why didn't you do it last year? Just like you just said, why didn't you? Um, if I could ask a question. Um, what's the square footage of the building now? I'm sorry, I don't think you

something roughly. And And what do you how how many more square? How about 2,000? So, we're doubling in size, right? show on it without super here's the good news.

Well, here's the question I have. I just did a little math and sometimes I'm wrong occasionally. Um the libraries open 5 days uh at 52 weeks it's 260 days available. You said there was and I have the statistics here 7,300 visits in 2024 according to the library association in uh in [clears throat] uh conne. So if you divide that, that's 28 people per day. So you have a visitation of 28 people per day and a 2,000 square foot building. You're going to double the square footage. Do you think that you're going to double from 28 to 58 or 68 because we're not gaining any more people in Kensington. Our population is not gaining. Is there something and the trend nationally is down? Do you see something in this process that you think will attract more people to the Bible?

First of all, yes, I think we will. I think we'd have more kids coming to our after school programs because we have more space. We have more adults coming to our events if it's handicapped accessible. And I think that if we have we right now we have a mom group, we can start having other groups that come in. Um so I think we would that way. I mean, libraries are not just about books anymore. They're about events and outreach. Um, I think I know for a fact that there are a lot of people in town that work from home that have to go to the exterior library because we don't have a private space for them to work. I think we get more people in that way. Um, I have a meeting with the record department in the next couple days and trying to coordinate with them to see what kind of events we could do together. Um I think we have more people coming in but but well it's this is the problem. It's like we're doubling space and you know if you go to 28 even I'm sure the you know if you do math it's just hard to think about you know 48 50 and 68 people a day just that our current population and our school population be dropping it's not going to top. So yeah,

so I I just was curious if you had a method to bring more people in to kind of sustain this. Well, I think I just the things I just mentioned, I think I'm hoping would bring more people into right. [clears throat]

Well, yes, I thank you. looking at my butt looking at my shoulders. Um, I support the article and I will be making a significant donation on behalf of the library here in Harvard. Um, I'm also extremely sympathetic of people's concern about property taxes since I experienced an enormous increase of property taxes and I distinguish between what people can afford on an individual basis versus what um a farmer like ours can afford. Um because if we're looking at um ongoing increases in the cost of the elementary school, which I understand it's very complicated issue that is outside of the town's control. even this individual schools control plus the prospect of new public safety building new police and fire facilities. The the really dire scenario from the standpoint of property taxes would be um that um there not a lot of additional grant monies coming. So the million dollar needs to happen plus you know 7 to10 million public safety building um and no school consolidation and you know seeing tax your tax property your property tax go up by I don't know 20 25% would be um you know very very difficult uh for [clears throat] people. So, um, seeing as I can, you know, understand from all perspectives, I do think that this library is an asset to the town and to all the members of the town, unlike, um, some of the other projects that we might um, think about prioritizing. Um, I'm very persuaded by um, Susie Gilbert's

comment that nothing has been done in 50 years. Um and so um some of these issues I think um the improve improvement in the operating uh efficiency of the building you know are very worth considering and I am I am unbelievably impressed by how much money we've raised so far. Uh and uh and I think it's likely that we will continue to raise more money and probably will get quite a bit of grant money. So with with the thought of a potential um compromise or way forward, I wonder if it would be possible to add to the wording of the Warren article that in the event that um you receive additional grant money or the um donations coming continue to come through that there would be a written commitment to prioritize paying down the bond um and and or not having any surplus or coming in on the budget over toward the unassigned uh bounds because um I think it it sounds based on the reputation of the architects and the amount of due diligence that has gone into this project that there is a decent chance that it could come in under budget. So, I don't know if other people would agree with this, but my thought is that that might be a way of reassuring people that um this bond will be um advertised as quickly as possible so that it's not an escalating cost, you know, on our taxes. And I also think that, you know, the three issues I mentioned, the school consolidation conversation, the need for public safety, and the library, it's difficult for members of this town to weigh, you know, cuz I'm sure everybody has different priorities when they're coming, you know, some this year, some next year, some, you know, down the line. Um, in an ideal scenario, we would have enough information about the

combined costs of of these scenarios to for people to put their votes, you know, in a way that they can feel confident because some people might prefer public safety building. I I personally uh would prefer to see the library, but I can understand that there would be a lot of different opinions on that. So to the extent that it's possible in our discussion on Wednesday and in future discussions leading up to the vote on March 10th um to help you understand the dimensions of these costs and potential opportunities for savings. I think that would help um certainly put my mind on ease.

Hi there Jacqueline Benson. I'm one of our local authors, so I tend to have a special love for libraries cuz my books are in my loop. Um, [clears throat] I'm also a parent and wanted to talk about what it's like going into the library after school on weekday. Uh, you will have children falling off of the shelves at you. They are CNS kids crammed into the adult stacks. There's a whole of the younger grade kids downstairs doing arts and crafts. And I've got 12 kids rolling dice and playing D and D in the attic over there. um they're making it work barely with the space they've got, but I know there is so much need, especially for a younger population for that space. And it's really amazing as a parent in town to see that the kids and and all of us have this place where we can all come together and you're going to run into your neighbors and you're going to run into your friends. It's a huge part of the part of Kensington 10. And what did that math work out to you? It's like above 75 a week. Yeah, I would owe that in fines for all that looks like it still have [laughter] and you don't charge those. I feel like $4.5 million has been raised for this project. It is like a gift that is being given to our community. I'm so impressed by the work you guys have done and um if I am able to as a member of this town contribute to show how much we're going to value what we're creating here, I'm very happy to do that. I think the biggest problem with the warrant article from what I'm hearing is

and from what I'm seeing on Francis and Mass is that people think that you're asking for $5.5 million. Mhm. I don't know how to get everybody to know that it's a million dollar one. Um, if anybody has any ideas, I think it would be great to let me and and or do anybody, sorry, and Susie know because yeah, the boarding is pretty difficult to figure out on political stuff. That's all I can think of that might help me ask. You want me to pick that one?

Yeah. That's right. [laughter]

Uh the bond, we have a bond uh lawyer that has helped us with the process and kept us on our timeline for everything that needed to be done to have all the public hearings and everything. They helped us with the wording and for New Hampshire you have to appropriate the entire cost of the project and then stipulate within the article where the money is going to come from. So burn you have to raise and appropriate the entire sum. Say where your donations how much you're having in donations and where it's going. Then it would be the $1 million bond. And then at the bottom of the warrant article is the first years of payment for the bond. So all of that has to be voted on and accepted by the town before it can go forward. So it has to be worded as such legally.

Yeah. They don't have to stand. I think that's the problem is a lawyer. [laughter] I think something you bring on the board and we'll talk with trustees about handing out everybody's on a flyer that gives all the information so that it clearly spells out because you know when we do read ADA things and code things and legal bond things I mean you know you got to look at all the bonds period and figure out who's saying what. Um, so maybe that's something, you know, that we can do is make sure that prior to the vote, everybody, everybody's loan, gets anformational app brochure, and then maybe even things, you know, like on a presentation board that you see over here now. Um, we can have something that just explains, yes, it's 5:25 donation be accepted, you know, and then one month.

Can we use those temporary savings? out in front of the library.

It says world number. Let me just say the way I understand this is that this really legally has to be written that way. Is that correct? That is correct. So, not everybody, but perhaps some people will look at this and they're not going to get past 55 and a half million. They're going to see see if the town will vote to raise 5.5 million. That's it. That's all that's all they're going to read. I I know there's so much sentiment in town now, as everybody in this knows about taxes. But again, I don't know if you can't reward it. Is there any law that says you can't mail it in bold letters? I like asking for a bold letter.

You could at least do that. Anything to actually uh accent what we're they're really asking for. Okay, that would be my suggestion. Okay, you can't you can't make those suggestions. You can't read those cuz then you're then you're trying to vote but you don't want to be voting that you need to understand

and if you don't get past those first two lines we won't understand it. All right. Anybody have any other comments, questions? Hello instruction. screen. Sorry. You know, you're