Town Council - Regular Meeting

This is London Derry Town Council meeting for Monday, May 4th, 2026. Everyone, please rise for the pledge. Pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. First up, we have a proclamation for the 57th annual professional municipal clerk's week. Mr. Colmes,

thank you. I have from the state of New Hampshire by her excellency Kelly A. AOT governor. A proclamation in the year of our Lord 2026. Municipal clerks week May 3rd to May 9th of 2026. Whereas municipal clerks serve as the professional link between residents, local governing bodies, the government agencies at all levels. And whereas municipal clerks are entrusted with maintaining public records, administrating elections, and ensuring the transparency and integrity of local government. And whereas the work of municipal clerks demands accuracy, dedication, and a deep commitment to public service upon performed behind the scenes without widespread recognition. And whereas the citizens of New Hampshire rely on municipal clerks to safeguard the essential government

process and to uphold the democratic values that form the foundation of our communities. And whereas through their dedication, professionalism, and commitment to service, municipal clerks help strengthen our communities and play a vital role in making New Hampshire the best state in the country. And whereas this week serves to recognize the vital contributions of municipal clerks and to extend our sincere appreciation for their outstanding service to New Hampshire's cities and towns. Now therefore, I, Kelly Ayat, Governor of the State of New Hampshire, do hereby complain proclaim May 3rd to May 9th, 2026 as Municipal Clerks Week in the state of New Hampshire and encourage all citizens to join me in honoring the dedication and professionalism of our municipal clerks. Thank you.

Thank you very much to all our clerks that help us in service every day. Give a round of applause. Yeah, for sure. Thank you.

Um, up next, Chief Kim Bernard has some new hires to introduce to us tonight. Good evening, counselors. Bear with me as I try to get through this with my lousy voice. But, um, here we are again. uh bringing before you two more new hires for the police department. I stand up here for the last four years, probably introducing over 25 employees that we have hired. Our mission is not over yet. I know councelor Bouchard's asked me several times, where are we at, sir? We're three away from being fully staffed for the first time since 2010.

Nice.

So, we are getting there. Uh just for some intro again as I talk to you folks every time. Um we're constantly trying to recruit some of the best young officers that the state has to offer. Sometimes it doesn't work out for them. They're not able to pass our background. Somebody else hires them. But we've never lowered our standard. We've never wavered because the men and women of this police department that serve you, you guys deserve the best. These two standing before you are two more of the best available law enforcement officers that the state of New Hampshire had available. They chose us. They chose us to finish their careers. Samantha, I'll introduce you in a minute. She's got a long ways to go. She's going to do it here. And what I said to them this morning, carries weight. They are on the watch 24/7. Their actions on duty and off duty are a reflection of the Lener Police Department. this community. They will be judged. They will be criticized. They will be put in harm's way all the time. They will answer their call. And they will serve this community with dignity, with grace, and professionalism always. What I told them they're going to get from us. They're going to get strong leadership that supports them, that appreciates them, that builds them up, that doesn't tear them down, that gives them the best training available to them, that supports them. I told them both in the next two weeks in the hallway, they will pass me and they're going to say, "Chief." And I say, "They can call me Kim." Yeah. I said, "You're going to come to me. You're going to realize these last several years you've been out there performing your duties. You were doing it wrong. and we're going to fix that. We have the best trainers available to make them the best cops in this community. I take pride in introducing to you folks these next two hires. Samantha Lameé. Samantha joins us after working full-time with the Nodingham Police

Department. She brings leadership experience as a second lieutenant as a logistics officer in the Army National Guard. She holds a bachelor of science and homeland security and has built a strong foundation in law enforcement military service where she has developed skills in leadership, professionalism while performing effectively under pressure. Samantha resides in Raymond and is committed to serving this community with integrity, reliability, and dedication. We're confident that her experience, leadership, background, and character will make her another valuable addition to the police department to join this great team. Samantha Next we have Robert Acres. Robert comes to us with 15 years of combined law enforcement experience from a sheriff's department in Florida and here in Rockingham County. He too resides in Londereerry with his family who are in the audience today to support him. He holds a bachelor's in science and criminal justice. He's been developed as a well-rounded professional, including certifications and background investigations, line supervisors, physical agility test coordinators, a taser instructor, and was a former member of the emergency response team. As I said, he does live in town. So, you know, when you're an officer and you live in town, as you recall, Dan, the people in your neighborhood love it. They love having you uh in the neighborhood. So, your neighbors will soon see you and they'll know what you do for work. Uh we're confident that Robert's uh experience, professionalism, and character will make him a strong addition to the police department and to our culture as well. As I said to them this morning, one last tidbit, the reason why it works here is because we get the support from the community and we've always had the support from our town counselors. Every single year, you guys step up and support the men and women of the police department. It's an it's an easy job to do when we have the support from our community. So, we're happy to have them join our team and I'd like them to introduce themselves to you. So, if you guys don't mind, please go from right to left and don't forget the town manager at the end.

Thank you both. Up next, I'll open public comment. Good evening, sir. How are you? Good evening. I'm well, thank you. Jonathan Kip, 9 ever Street. And I just wanted to uh in my role as moderator add my um gratitude to our town clerk and everybody in her office. Um we work very closely together on the elections and they do an outstanding job and when I talk to other moderators and other town clerks, we have the best and I just wanted to acknowledge that during this clerk's week. So thank you Sher and your staff. Yes. Thank you very much.

Good evening Dennis. How are you tonight? Hey everybody. Dennis Martin, 182 Pillsbury Road, London Dair, New Hampshire. First, before we get started, Kim asked me sometime cuz I'm a former cop. He asked me to if I would put a application in. I said, "Really? You going to have a 67 year old man out there running around after 18 g?" I said, "That ain't going to happen. No way." So, uh, anyways, you probably know why I'm all here. I'm here because of the tax credit that we didn't get last year and I want to know if we're going to get it this year and get reimbursed. Are we going to get reimbursed for last year which we should have gotten?

You will not be reimbursed but you will get it this year and Okay. Why didn't we get it last year? Um that was a legal decision that we had. Based on what? based on a legal review.

Sounds kind of to be honest with you, sounds like we got a little stonewall. There's 105 veterans that were on that disabled list that did not get it last year. Okay. Somebody had to stop it. Somebody had to stop it. So, was it the town manager or was it you guys? And if it is, give us the answer. Who stopped it? You know, so we're going to get this year, this June.

We're not going to get it this June, the uh July. You will get it this this year. So it'll it'll go in effect for the next tax. Okay. All righty. Thank you. Thank you, Dennis. Anybody else? Good evening, Richard. How are you? I'm okay.

Rich Bolinsky, 89 Hall Road. Haven't been in here for a while. So, I got a list of things. Back on uh5, 112, and 22 meetings. I asked a series of questions that still haven't got answers to. One was what Dennis just brought up. It was voted by this council that on August 1st of last year it was going to be um they were going to get their tax credit. You're saying there's a legal decision. If there's a legal decision that should be put for out for people to see to see what that decision is. I asked who made the decision not to follow the council vote. And I still want to know who made the decision. Who's the person that made the decision not to follow follow a vote of the council. All right. Second thing, $131,000 in raises, pay adjustments, or whatever you want to call them. I asked which line items these came from and how much came from which line item. Still haven't been given an answer. That's public record. I want the answers. Police detail cars. Kimber just did explain to me at one of the meetings how they rotated and put the older ones for the detail cards. That's f that's fine, but that doesn't answer the question. During the budget process, it was said one to four cars are kept for details. What's the cost of keeping those? I don't believe we own any of our police cars, so they must have lease payments on them, insurance, maintenance, so on and so forth. So we have one, we have four. Are we collecting enough to offset these cars? Is it costing the taxpayer money? Fourth one I asked and we got an answer that to me is insufficient was how the fire chief's pay scales got changed in the LEA

contract that was one day old had been in effect one day when it got changed. That's um you know that is got a budgetary number to it. It was voted on in a warrant. It got changed. So what I want to know I think there was five contracts on that uh on the warrant that year. I wanted just a yes or no answer. Are the other contracts now being looked at and we're going to have more sidebars or more renegotiations that people don't know about? You wonder why people don't bother to come out and vote. Here's a reason. Five contracts that were negotiated, agreed by all sides, voted on, all passed, and it gets changed on day two. So, I'd like the council to direct the town manager to have answers to these questions by a given date because it's been months and we have no answers. All right. Next, and you can tell me when my five's up. I'll do the rest at the end. the undesated fund balance. Where are we at the with the bond level? I asked that at deliberative session. We were pretty close to getting to the point where if we spent any more out of that, we were going to start it could start impacting our bond rating. So, I want to know where that what happened with where we are with that. Next one is it. And this is going to sound like it's against the clerk's office, but it's not. This is an IT problem. On March 19th, there were notices sent out to people having car registrations due in April that their registrations, their renewals will be sent out the first week of April. They were never sent out and we're in May. All right. So, you're putting in a new system. I understand that. There was no backup, no

way of backing this up when they didn't go out. So, people got their registrations and and knew they had to renew their cars. I've talked to people who forgot about it cuz they're used to getting them. I've been in town over 40 years. That's the way it's always been done. So, didn't we just hire somebody in it for all kinds of money and this is what happens? Yeah. When you put in a new system, you usually have some type of backup system or plan or something. So, those didn't go out. That's a problem. Um, South Fire Department. So, I guess we had a catastrophic problem down there. And from what I hear, it was a hot water heater. Is the hot water heater not in a containment pan? So, if it leaks, it goes into a drain or is it just sitting on the floor? So, if it drain, if that's what happened, because that's what I've heard. Why did we have a catastrophic leak down there? Why wasn't it contained? Where am I on my five minutes? 14 seconds.

All right. Well, I'll leave those. I I'll hit the rest at the end. I want some answers to these. You people have to as a board have to start putting dates on when these answers are due to the public. I shouldn't have to come back here since January asking for answers that should have been given back in January. All right. Thank you, Richard. Good evening, sir.

Hi, I'm John Frell for Hancock Drive. So, over the last several years, I've had the privilege of attending a number of different events and parties after people graduate from the police academy. I also have some Manchester police officers that live in the neighborhood and very well connected through the entire police community. So listening to the chief earlier tonight, this compelled me to come up and talk a little bit about what, you know, I've been told. You you go to these events after people graduate from the police academy and they find out you're from London there and they go, you know, I really wish I could have got there and you know, you talk to the guys from Manchester and the gals from Manchester and they sit there and they go, we can't even get anybody to apply. We're turning people away, you know, and we're, you know, this is the premier department in the state. You know, it all started with Joe Ryan coming in and changing things, changing things from Chief Banyan and then, you know, then Chief Hart taking it from there and now Chief Bernard taking it to the next level with that great presentation we just saw recently about Kalia. You know, there's five basic things to get right in town. Have a great police department that responds. Have a great fire department that responds with the best equipment and the best trained thing to save people in an aging community. Have a great public works department. Can you find a pothole here after the winter? They're few and far between. They go out there. They do that. They plow the roads. But what they do is the the mission of the 5,000 people across the street and up and down, you know, in North and South School, those employees and those children, they make sure they're safe. All of our first responders work in that way and everything and then you just got to take out the trash and do the recycling and plow the roads. Those are the core competencies of the community. Seems like we do a lot of other things around I don't know policies, plans,

everything else, but I don't ever hear us talk about the core policies of the community except when they come in here and talk about it. something you guys ought to talk about and ought to be damn proud of our police chief and what he and his organization has built. People come here to spend their careers and work here because of them, not because of us, because of them. And we ought to be damn proud of them. Thank you. Thank you. Anybody else in public comment?

Good evening, Sherry. How are you? Good evening everyone and um thank you so much for recognizing our department. Alice and I are very proud of our team. They're amazing and it means a lot to you know to be here tonight in the proclamation. And uh we have a couple lunches coming which we're very grateful for too. So makes it very special for us. Um just a couple things. So on this Saturday, the day before Mother's Day, we'll be having our fifth annual rabies clinic. April is the final month to register your dogs in the state of New Hampshire. But May is a grace period, so there's no extra fines if people get in by the end of May to register their dogs. So um thanks to a lot of great people, Dr. Mna, her staff, our staff, our police department. Um complete support. Uh we'll be holding it this Saturday nine o'clock the doors will be open if anyone needs to register their dog still maybe they don't need the rabies cl the rabies vaccination at 10:00 a.m. we'll start actually giving out the vaccinations and then you can still register your dog between 10 and 1:00. So um we've opened it up to other communities too so that we can help out as many people as possible. But if you you all can help us spread the word that would be great. and Sheren, thank you uh for our very colorful happy flyer. We appreciate it again five years in a row. So, thank you so much. And then the last thing is elections are just around the corner. They're big this year. They're always big. We have the state primary, the state general. Um if you can help us to spread the word, and this is a notice that came down from our secretary of state's office. June 2nd is a very important day up between now and June 2nd. People can still change their party affiliation. You're a Republican. You want to become a Democrat or an undeclared. You're a Democrat, undeclared a Republican. After June 2nd,

no matter how much we think the world is someone, no matter how many times you voted, you cannot change your party and you will have to be the party that you were registered as as of June 2nd. And it's it's a very difficult thing because the primary is not until September 8th and you've got the summer in between and people were will forget in every election, right, Jonathan? I mean, we can't stress it enough. People will be in tears because we'll say, "Oh, you have to take this ballot or that ballot. Only undeclared voters get to pick." So, if you can help us to stress that, our Secretary of State's office is doing it throughout the state. We're trying to scream it from the mountains. I know it's been in the paper. So, um, we need everyone's help on this because it's a real it's just such an unfortunate thing when that happens. Um, so that's it. But again, thank you so much. We we really appreciate all of you and what you support our office. So, thank you very much.

All right. Anyone else in public comment? Seeing none, I will close up a comment. Up next, we have boards and appointments and reappoints. Richard's questions. Was it? Sure. I mean, do you do we want to request answers for them or Yeah, he actually um Richard um the town manager did say he would give you a call or email you those answers those questions. Yep. Thank you for that. Um I will accept a motion to for Megan Thomas who's resigning from the Heritage Commission. So moved.

A motion from Sean. Second. Second from Ted. All those in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Chair wants the affirmative. 5-0. Megan, thank you for your service. We appreciate it.

And if anybody wants to be on the Heritage Commission, please let us know cuz now we have an opening. Up next is new business. Um, we're going to get a presentation from the Arts Council. All the good things you guys do. Good evening everybody. Uh I'm Stephen Lee Tendero way. I'm here with my wife Julie and Larry Casey and Steph Ma members of the uh London council and they work on the concerts on the common. Uh so just to give you an update of where we're at for this this coming summer. At the heart of everything we do is our mission and that's community, great music and summer evenings. That's really what these concerts are about. Bringing people together. This will be our 24th season which is uh really kind of amazing to think about. Two and a half decades of neighbors gathering on the commons common kids running around in the bubbles, families sharing dinner and folks reconnecting with each other. It is really become a um community tradition and uh but we really don't do it alone. Uh we're supported by a whole network of community partners. The town, the school district, police, fire, DPW, the alert team, local churches, our vendors and exhibitors, and of course, we have a wonderful group of volunteers. It really takes the whole community to make these uh the concerts happen. One thing that we're especially proud of is the accessibility of the concerts. These concerts give individuals and families, including those who might have not have the means to attend commercial venues, the chance to enjoy exceptional live music in a beautiful setting. As long as we're not in the cafeteria.

Yeah.

We estimate that the uh comparable show that a comparable show at the Tupelo or the Palace is uh on average, doing some research, it's about $40 a ticket. So over a 12 concert season, that's roughly $1,700 of value for a family of four. and it's here. It's free and that's a community investment. That's uh the truest sense of that. We continue to grow our online community as well. Our website is concerts ontheunderthecommon.org, but uh most of our engagement happens uh on Facebook and Instagram, and we use the account uh at concerts on the common. We're now over 3600 followers, and it's still climbing. Uh, we also added a new page to the website with historical concert schedules and links to photos from almost every past concert. Um, it's a great way to see how the series has evolved and also how the community has grown with it. If you go to some of the early ones, you'll see uh we had 25 people there. We were lucky. Um, this summer we have a fantastic lineup. Uh we're kicking off the things big in on June 3rd with the uh LHS jazz ensemble. Jazz ensembles and orchestra like we always do. This is the last uh concert of the um for the seniors. So it's special for them and special for us. Uh the following week we host the Seven Wonders, which is a really talented and popular Fleetwood Mac uh tribute band. They'll be new for us this year. Um, and it kind of all evolves around some of the voices which are very unique to uh, Fleetwood Mac. And I think that they they do a really good job with that. Uh, the next week we have Martin and Kelly. It's kind of our country uh, night. They've been with us for many years. These guys are just fantastic, incredible players. And um, then we go to the Brian Mace band. Brian's again

has paid played for us for many, many years. his wife just has an incredible voice and as does he and his uh band is just wonderful. They do a lot of uh classic rock this year. They're going to do a special set of The Who. Uh the following week we have a new band for us called Bywater Call and these guys are going to be just phenomenal. Uh we've seen a bunch of live uh YouTube videos which is kind of how we can vet uh people nowadays uh looking at them playing live and um every performer just they solo and they're just awesome. They're really good. out of Toronto. And they're out of Toronto. Yeah.

Uh the next one we um can't announce just yet because of uh they're they'll be playing in the area uh in the near future and so once they play in the area at a ticketed venue. Uh we'll be able to announce them, but it's going to be awesome. Julie and I checked them out live. Uh Saturday, July 11th, we have um the uh collaboration with Leech Library again. uh concerts on the common for kids. This year we have Matt Heaton and uh playing with the outside toys and that should be a lot of fun. We This will be our third year and u it's been a big hit the last two years. Uh something on a Saturday in the afternoon when the kids kids are uh not so sleepy and running around. Uh the following week we have Cool Cool Cool. They played for us for the first time last year and they're just awesome. Um really good band. um a very very hip uh kind of house stuff. A lot of fun. The following week we have East Coast Soul, which is um R&B uh soul uh music and um it's a 10piece band, full horn section, three lead singers, and um really great. The following week, we have Bruce Marshall. He's back. Um I don't know, this is his 13 or 14th year. Um really good. that he used to play with Toy Cowwell of the uh um

Marshall Tucker

Marshall Tucker band. Thank you. Um incredible musicianship. Uh the following week we have Delta Generators. Brian Templeton who is the uh frontman forum. He was uh in the very first concerts on the common. That was Brian Templeton. If you go to that website on our that web page on our website, you'll see photos of him from uh 2003. Uh but again, phenomenal players. The last week we have uh Studio 2, which is a Beatles tribute band. They played for us for um se for the they always closed the season for us um for the past several years. And they're really good. They uh play only Beatles songs that the Beatles actually played live. They don't do um any Sergeant Pepper stuff, anything like that. And you can see from the photo, they uh they dress up and and everything. They're they're very very good. Okay, so my turn. Um, as Stephen said, the constitution of the common is really about building community. Uh, one of our goals every year is to create moments where people can participate but not just watch. So, uh, we're bringing back the free line dancing lessons before Martin and Kelly and they're on June 17th. So, um you we have a designated time and we've done this the last um two years and it's been a huge hit. So, we're doing that again this year. And, um but uh the other thing I wanted to mention, as many of you know, we lost a very u most beloved community member last September, Joe Curo. Uh Joe and his son Vinnie were fix our fixtures basically on the common every Wednesday. Um Joe would uh uh um I mean Vinnie would tell us how Joe whenever the the snow melted on the common he would say to Vinnie it's almost time for concerts

and he looked forward to it every week. Um he'll be sorely missed but in honor of uh Joe the arts council has decided to dedicate this entire season to Joe's memory. Um, so our volunteers also a huge huge part of our uh of the community spirit and uh thanks to great greater New Hampshire restaurants, they've donated gift cards enough so that uh for anyone who volunteers for four concerts throughout the season, you get a $25 gift card that you can use at Cactus Jack T-Bones. Um so we really appreciate their support on that. Uh we also greatly appreciate the volunteers from Alert. Their involvement helps ensure safety for all when crossing the streets before and after concerts. They've made such a huge difference. And just having lights uh at toward the end of the season, having lights on those crosswalks, huge help food wise, foods and treats, they're always um a big part of the concerts. We've had a change this year. Uh, One Happy Clam has retired and we really appreciate Rick and Sue and we wish them the best in their retirement. They've been wonderful partners. But we we're excited to welcome a new food truck, Wicked Tasty. And uh, also Timeless Treats is returning with ice cream for the kids and Hunter and Damian are back with kernels for college popcorn and lemonade stand. Again, community supporting community. Uh, and one last thing, weekly raffles. That's always another huge uh draw to uh concerts in the common. So, our free uh weekly raffle, they'll continue. Many of our prizes come from uh concert attendees. We're so so thankful for folks that bring us gift cards to give away. Also grateful to Stony Stonyfield uh organic yogurt and SD Country Store

is also donating a gift card for every um concert. So, 12 concerts alto together. again, we we couldn't do this without them and we really appreciate, you know, all of the support that the community gives us. Okay, so down to the numbers. Uh budget overview on the financial side, our budget this year is about $38,500. That's slightly less than last year. Um we continue to fund and we continue to fund the old home day concert band, uh which we took on in 2019. for funding sources. About 22% of our funding comes from the town and 78% from local businesses and family sponsors. That sponsor support is true is a true reflection of the community pride in these concerts. As you know, the state council on the arts has essential was essentially shut down. So, we didn't receive um the arts uh for community engagement grant this year as we'd had the past several years. The town generously stepped up uh to cover that gap though and we sincerely appreciate that. Um but I'm very happy to report that thanks to Larry's guidance who is an incredible uh fundraiser guide uh and strong community support we raised nearly uh really we got two more sponsors today. So we're over $30,000 and that's about $10,000 more than last year. And we did so because we were able to do this. We do not need the additional town funds, but we hope to use them next year for our 25th where maybe we'll try to do some uh extra special concerts. Um so far, so so far, again, I had to change this number. I had to scratch it out and update it. We have 47 sponsors this year, up from 44 last year. And uh we're we're looking for a few more. Uh it's wonderful to see that level of uh community involvement and in our printed

program we're highlighting how long each sponsor has supported the concerts. Uh it's because of their commitment that uh it's a big part of why the series continues to thrive. So you can see some of the um the diamond level sponsors on the screen there. Um and that's a new level for us this year. diamond uh level, it's um $600 more than our previous top level, which was platinum. So, these folks have really stepped up. Yeah, we really appreciate that. And then, uh the next slide is the uh platinum sponsors, and we have a lot of those again this year, and we really appreciate that. So, um I know any questions.

Any questions? I I just want to I just want to say thank you. And I remember 23 years ago sitting on the library steps and saying to Brian Farmer, "Oh, I wish we had these concerts." And he had just gotten on the council. And um he then talked to Elaine Farmer who was big into the art council back then. And I remember that whole thing. And I remember pushing to get people to get there. And it was a struggle, but look where you guys have come. Yeah.

I mean, it was just a conversation on the front steps of the library, the Leech Library, that turned into um what it is today. And it it's it's truly amazing. You've done a great job. Well, thank you. But it's a community effort. Yeah. Oh, and Elaine's back, so that's kind That's right. Any other questions? Just want to say looking forward to another great season for you guys. Yeah. Hope uh the weather gods hold out again for you as they did last year except for the end of the year. Yeah. Yeah. Uh last made it all the way through the last concert. Yeah. Don't remind us please. Yeah. That was nasty nightmares.

I just want to thank you both for what you do and thank Larry for what you guys do. It's really appreciated by this town. We really really really appreciate everything you do. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you guys for Definitely. Thank you. Up next, we have a special presentation from the library director. Donna is here. Yep.

Good evening. Hey,

good evening. Thank you for having me at the last moment here. Um, I'm here to give you a brief update on the library, but also to review a document that I sent over to you all this afternoon. Um, that is a estimate for um additional funding that is required to to finish out the remediation work at the library, mold remediation. Um and as in addition to that, the exterior envelope consultants found um two leaks in the roof when they did testing um that do need to be repaired. So these are um we kind of brought forward or town manager Mholland and I agreed that these were the the really significant items we needed to um take care of right away in order to obviously get the library back open. Um, I do want to share that the timeline for reopening has changed a little bit where we had a little bit of a delay with the contract. Um, the contract is signed now. Um, but there was some delay in the going back and forth with legal counsel. Um, so we do the estimate right now is that we are likely going to be closed through the summer. Um, however, the library is still planning to do its full summer reading. Um, and tomorrow we are putting out a press release that will share all the information regarding what's still happening over the summer. Um, so we're still excited to present all of that to the community as per usual. Um, the document, I know you didn't have a lot of time to look it over um because we just got it this afternoon. Um, but the the amount that we're talking for this evening is $94,518. And I can go over that in more detail if you'd like as well. Yeah,

if you would please. Just that just came out just I didn't get to see it.

Yeah. So, the main there's really four scope items that are covered in that. Um the major one is the remediation work that we did know was coming. This is based off of the more extensive mold testing report. These are all the recommendations that were made by the vendor that did the testing for us, um indoor doctor. So they do correlate specifically to those recommendations and that work um just for the remediation is $45,92. Um one of the items that was recommended by indoor doctor was to complete the flooring or replacing the flooring in the the staff break room which is on the lower level of the building. Um the reason why this room was picked out is because it's the only room in the lower level that is carpeted. um and they flagged it as a potential reason for the carpeting to hold on to moisture where the lower level is the the area that's concerned for humidity. Um so that just to get that flooring taken care of, it will be it will be changed over to a vinyl tile flooring that's much easier for maintenance as well. Um that total estimate is $3,631. And then the other two scope items are related to the two leaks that were found during the roof testing. Um just to explain what testing happened, the envelope consultant was on site with REIC. Um they actually put water on the roof like about couple two to three inches of water on the roof to try to find leaks. And we're actually trying to find the entryway leak that has been a hassle for many years now. Um, that testing did not unfortunately find the the cause of the entryway leak, but it did find these other two leaks that we did not know about. Um, they were both in the vicinity of the front entryway. Um, and I do in the in

the if you'd like to see I think I forwarded you the envelope report already, but on that report you can actually see photos of the areas that they're talking about. Um, so those two leaks, one of them it has a cost estimate of $21,630 and the other one is $23,355. And the majority of the work there is related to the roofing um being like the flashing being redone. Um, I believe when we spoke to Rearch earlier today, they described it as literally being able to see the sky when you look through the those spots, which is not a good thing, obviously. So, um, that's why I'm here presenting those to you tonight.

Any questions for Donna? No, thank you for your presentation. I do have a question for either of you. Where does it put us now with we got a better insurance settlement, but now we have more expenses. Are we are we still near the figure where we wanted to be or are we where are we at right now with the overall number? So, we're at 272 is what has been authorized by the council. And then you've got $323,000 in insurance reimbursements, but they're not exactly apples to apples. She can explain that. Don can explain that to you. Um, so that's what your present balance sheet is. And now you've got these items

and there's obviously the phase two work that needs to occur and there's more envelope work that needs to occur. We had a meeting on that today and those numbers he we've asked him to go back and reook at some of those numbers and they've got to be we we can reduce some of the general conditions time because some of those things will be done at the same time. Um so we're waiting for that report to come back. But you're looking at around a million dollars worth of HVAC replacement. Yep. As I told you that was going to be expensive. Uh, and then you're also looking at um probably about another $500,000 in envelope work, building envelope work if those three reports that you've seen. So, it's an expensive uh proposition to deal with these issues. Wow.

That's what happens when you don't maintain your buildings properly. Any other questions? All right. All right. So, what you need from us tonight is just uh authorization to spend the 90 the 93 94,000 518. Is is this on a timeline where we need to do it tonight? I just don't know if we have time to look it over. That's part of just getting it today. That's why I I'm not sure. Is it on a timeline? You got holes in the roof. Oh, gotcha. So, this this takes care of the holes aspect of it. Yeah. I wouldn't wait too long on that if I were you. Okay. probably going to rain again. Yeah. Wednesday.

Yeah. Um I can speak a little to that too that um Rearch did share that they're working still with Envir Advantage as the mold remediation vendor and they were able to fit us in within the next two to three weeks if we're able to move forward tonight. Okay. Any questions? Anybody feel anything? No, I'm good. All right. Needs to be done. I need a motion. What was the exact amount of money just for the record? Um 94,518. So I'll make a motion to approve $94,518. Have a motion from Sean.

Second. A second from Ted. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor say I. I. I. Oh, sorry. Oh. Oh. and then after the vote. Okay. Um, all those in favor say I. I. I. Any opposed? Gent affirmative. 5-0. Thank you. Did you want to say something, Nancy? Yeah. Before the vote or after? No, I didn't want to interrupt. Sorry.

And and and thank you for hearing me. So, we know that this is a big ticket item. We get that. And this is an ongoing project and we get that, too. None of us ever thought that we would be here. Um, we know that this building has been a challenge for quite some time. It's shocking that this is where we are. It's it's saddening. We're we're we're just, you know, beside ourselves that we're not even going to be in our building for summer program, but there's not one of us on the board that is not grateful for your support and your help in in terms of getting this project done. So, I know these numbers are shocking and high and and you know, you gasp when you look at them. Donna told me this afternoon, I went, "What?" you know, but but here we are and and thank you for your continued support.

That was all I wanted to say. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Up next, we have a presentation on a special water assessment district.

Yes. Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. So we wanted to come before you with this with the plan for creating the water special assessment district that was approved by the voters. The funding for which was approved by the voters in the March election before we came forward with the whole petition to give you a chance to figure out what questions you want to ask if there was any additional information you wanted to know and just keep you updated on the timeline of the process. So very quickly just to get everybody on the same page I want to cover the definition of what a special assessment district is. the process for formation, the geography of this first one, and the timeline that we're looking at. So, a special assessment district is the authorities granted under state law. And it says that without reading this directly, it basically says that a group can petition the council in order to form a group um to ask for a public improvement to be made. And portable water falls firmly within that public improvement. And the town in that case has the ability to borrow, expend money, issue bonds, notes, and other obligations of indebtedness to do this. Improvements must peculiar I hate saying this word, peculiarly and specially benefit the district. So it can't be something that's townwide. You can't form a special assessment district that's all of London.

And then the assessment Yeah. Go ahead. Um, so when we form a special assessment district, is it specified to a special assessment water district or is it just a general special assessment district that anything can That is a great question. It does have to be linked to a improvement plan um the draft of which is um almost ready to go to our legal council to look over. So it does have to be for a very specifically defined purpose. Um to give you an idea, that document is currently 16 pages. So you know it is very narrowly defined and so you can't go back and do other improvements in it. Um this will be for water specifically

for water specifically and for the specific addresses and the specific geography to which it was outlined and you have to follow the improvement plan. So it's very very narrowly defined. Um and then they have to be any benefit has to be leveraged proportionately to the benefit received. So you can you should be charged based on your benefit. So that is why for these, if you take advantage of the special assessment program and request funding to connect your home, you are then responsible for 100% of those costs. If you do not connect your home, if you do not use this funding, you will not be charged anything. You will not be assessed anything. The assessments will only go to the people who choose to connect the curb stop to their home. And so this is kind of an overview of it. The special assessment district funding will cover the construction costs to connect a home to a curb stop, also called a service, after the resident applies for any other available funding. So, if they're eligible for the state rebate, they must apply for that first.

Question, Deb. Yeah, because it's the money thing. Um, so say five years from now, um, the contaminated spectrum moves a little bit further. Will at any time we be able to expand to other addresses that are under this contamination? Yes. Okay. Yep. And that's what I was trying to figure out. Okay. To keep this focused around the people who are recently getting these new water lines who are now having their first opportunity to connect in some of the most contaminated areas. We're creating the district around those new water lines first. Right.

In the future, you could form additional districts or amend the district. You can amend it. Okay. Yes. The district must be revisited by the council every 3 years by statute anyway. So you can amend the size at that time or you can amend it lawfully at a different time by following the same procedure as formation. Right. So I I I So it's not done. It's No. No. And you can create other ones too. Um. Right. But I'm just talking about this specific one. Again, thank you very much for the clarification.

You're welcome. And so they have to apply for any other available funding. And the way it's written is that they have to apply for the dees rebate if they're eligible for that and any other state or federal funding that might become available in the future for them before they apply for the money from this fund. They need a written estimate from a contractor. They will pay an administrative fee based on the length of the assessment. And we're currently proposing the assessment of two. They be able to choose from a term of two to 15 years. There is no interest. They pay the administrative fee upfront and that's to cover the cost of administering this program. The cost of the connection is paid back via property taxes over that fixed assessment period of time. So it be build by annually with property taxes and it will carry the same con failure to pay carries the same consequences as failure to pay your property taxes including late fees and leans. It will not cover the cost of water company charges, fees for inspection, permitting, connection. It's only covers the cost of the construction, getting those pipes in the ground and related construction costs. And so this is how the assessment district is formed. So it needs to be initiated by a petition to a governing body. So we are working going to work with the residents to form this district to encourage formation. So the when you get the petition in front of you, you need to have a map, an improvement plan, the one I mentioned before, which again it's going to be uh it has an executive summary, don't worry. And then it needs to also have that a budget and fee structure in there, which clearly indicates in this case that if you take an assessment out against your house, you're responsible for 100% of that assessment. If you do not choose to take advantage of this program, you are responsible for $0. You do not have an assessment. I cannot stress that enough.

And just so everyone knows, it stays with the property if you sell it. Yes. Stays with the property, not with the homeowner. Yeah. And that's between the buyer and the seller. The buyer and the seller can negotiate paying it off. And there's no prepayment penalty, right? Nothing like that. But yes, it can stay as a condition of sale. You can make a condition of sale that it stays with the property. This petition when we go out to get signatures is going to need to be signed by at least half of the lots representing 65% of the valuation. And I'm going to Tomorrow's utilities committee meeting we're going to speak to them about helping with that face toface showing up to public to information sessions basically informal conversations where people can come ask questions. Kirsten, yep.

How does this work with the vote that we had in the spring then we had established this at the you established that the voters establish designated funding for a special assessment district. So there's two parts to making it. You make it and you fund it. Oh. So this has created the funding available, but there needs to be a petition to outline the actual boundaries and borders of the district. Gotcha.

So when that petition comes in front of the council, the council has the opportunity to shrink the district if you want, but you can't make it bigger without going out to petition. Again, um this is more significant in special assessment districts where the value is aortioned and people don't have an exact say in how much money they take out, but the legal requirement is still the same for us. So, you'll receive the petition. We have to mail a notice of hearing to all properties in the district. The town council will hold a hearing on the improvement plan and then hopefully you approve the district based on that. So the initial geography of this district and there has been one change since this went in the agenda packet. So we are going to approach all the homes with a new waterline extension and curb stop that we anticipate will be operational by the end of the 2026 construction season. So these are lines that will be charged, finished, ready to go at the end of this year. These are this is the first time these people will have had an opportunity to connect to municipal water and that's why we're starting with these homes. So, High Range Road, as you can see on here, all the homes on the east side that have the new water line by them, and the ones on the west side that aren't going to be given a water line by S. Ooane, Parmentor Road, Old Nasher Road from the intersection of Parmentor East to 102. That's going to be completed this summer as well. and South Road from South School to about 32 South Road where the line goes into Old Country Village um through the woods. We originally had Old Dairy Road on this because we thought that would be finished this construction season, but it will not. It will be finished um that line will be operational after the construction of the pump station at the Auburn Road um landfill. And so that's

not going to be available to connect to till 2027. So that's something we'll look at next year. And residents can sign the petition and not take advantage of it. Correct. Exactly. Yeah. Just so they know. So Yep. And we have a FAQ. Denise Manila from the public works department. She is one of the people's going to be predominantly administering this and she's worked hard on coming up with an application and FAQs. And so um they'll go out with the initial letter when we are talking to people about it. and it clearly states that there's actually one on there that says, "Well, if I'm not going to take advantage of it, why would I sign the petition?" And the reason is it won't cost you anything, but it will help your neighbors. It really is a community- based thing. And we're asking the community to kind of step up for their neighbors cuz

we all know there are some houses that are 10 feet from the curb, right? Yep. Or maybe not 10, that doesn't setbacks, but you know what I mean. And then there's those houses that are on the top of the winding driveways with solid granite all the way up, right? Those are two very different experiences of connecting to water even if they're next door to each other and they have the same contamination. So what we're trying to do is help everybody get to it. That first house might not even need to it might be under the threshold of even being worth connect using this funding. It might not even cost them the whole dees rebate. The other one that's going to be a sub substantial lift. So again this gives you an idea of the total number of eligible properties in this first wave. If we take out Old Dair Road, we're looking at 179 estimated properties. The reason I say estimated is still need to double check where there's vacant lots in there. Um what addresses may actually be businesses and those were are not eligible this first round. It's about connecting residences. So there's going to be another fine tooth comb before we send this out, but we're looking roughly around right around 180 people that we're going to approach. So we basically need 90 to make that 50%.

Yeah, we need 90 people to sign representing 65% of value. So those are some of the more significant. Now the other thing is though is just because a propertyy's in the district and it is business or residential, it wouldn't be I need to I need to actually ask the Eagle's advice on whether they could sign the petition or not. So that's that's nitty-gritty though. That's really getting down to the details. Um timeline. So, we had a kickoff meeting with the staff last month and we've been working on the improvement plan and the application materials bringing us to today. Um, the update here and tomorrow's discussion with the utilities committee. We're hoping to get those letters out the beginning of next week and that gives us a few weeks to gather signatures, hold information sessions, chat with people. um that will likely go into early June simply because of um what everybody knows as um May timber to anybody with kids or families. You know, May it's like December without the presence. So, you know, give it another week or so after that. So, we'd look to be approaching you on June 15th to set a public hearing to accept the petition and set the public hearing provided we get the signatures by then. Obviously, if we don't get the signatures by then, this timeline would be extended. And then promptly after the meeting, we'd send out the letters informing everybody of the date of the public hearing. We need 30 days between that by statute. So then the public hearing would be in July on the special assessment district and hopefully approved at that point in time. We would then be able to open up applications in August. Now the initial we have no idea how many people will apply for this, right? It could be six. It could be 120. We don't know. So, the initial designation of $400,000 approved by the Warrant Article, in order to make it as equitable as possible, we're suggesting an initial 60-day

application period for the very first round. So people will submit their applications and the criteria that the council approved TC 104 about the water criteria that will be used to basically go through those applications and place them in an order of initial priority. If it uses up all the funds then the rest of them will go on a wait list for as more funds become available either as it's paid back through taxes or as the voters or the council can find additional funds for this program. After that initial application period, our suggestion is that it goes on a first come first- serve model and that we can accept applications as they come in and as they get as we the money becomes available for funding they get funded and then we after one round of applications and this is not something anybody's really done before. This is new so we don't have a basis for comparison but after the first round we will have a good basis of comparison to make future projections and so based on those few based on those projections we'll know what would need to happen in order to make this program a long-term viable one where we could introduce and expand these districts. So, that is the goal.

And then if you guys have any other questions, any questions? Just one more. Um, so I know you're not there's there's probably not a lot of businesses, but there probably are a few. And I understand we don't want to be a bank to a business, but why wouldn't we ask them to sign the petition? I just need to look into if they're not if we're saying they wouldn't sign on to the pipe on their own. Yes, absolutely. And there's nothing keeping them from doing that. I just want to make sure that if we're not and this is why I want to just run it by legal counsel if we're saying they're not eligible and we want to make sure they could still sign. You know, for example, there's a big one in that area which is Sunnyest, right? So, I want to make sure that it's legally okay. Again,

I'm thinking, you know, they got people going to their establishment having clean drinking water is a a plus. Yeah. Um, so I mean I I just think I that would be really good to find out. Yeah, absolutely. And that's one of the questions that is on the list for asking council. All right. Thank you. So, doing these connections, all right, from the curb stop to the home, do they get their own contractor or do we have Nope. No, we don't have anybody. So, this is a reimbursement program. Okay.

So, they will go out, get their estimate, they will submit their estimate with their testing results to the town in the application form. And once the work has been completed and inspected and is ready to go, they can submit their invoice and their inspection report and then they'll get their reimbursement. So the town is taking no part and I promised Dave Wallally I would stress this to the utmost degree. The town is not doing the work, maintaining the work, responsible for the work. It is simply an assessment to help fund the improvement. So it is simply a financial mechanism. The town will not be involved in any other part of that.

Thank you. I guess to lead off what Dan had there, do we want at least want to recommend companies for people to reach out to because some of these homeowners may not even know who to reach out to to do this work. The suggestion for those folks is going to be reach out to Penachuck Water, okay?

And they will if Penach will be able to guide them with recommendations for that. That way we don't put ourselves in a position of rep of recommending companies or potentially taking on any sort of liability at all, even to the tiniest degree. Penach is an expert at this. They know they're going to be the ones who are going to be inspecting the lines. So, they would be able to recommend contractors. Of course, e there may be some people on these routes who want to do it themselves, in which case they can submit receipts for materials and equipment rentals,

but not labor. We don't pay people for working on their own property. Then I have another question. Um, you had said that this would be reimbur uh paid back through your taxes. Would there be a mechanism that people can pay this back monthly if they wanted to? We do not want to set that up because then that creates a creating a whole new administrative kind of system. The answer is people can pay their taxes anytime they want. Yeah. But we're not creating a different system for it. Right. So right now if you want to pay your taxes on a on a more frequent basis, you can do that. There's nothing that prohibits that. So, but we will bill it twice a year like we build all the other taxes. So, it'll behave exactly like that. Sounds good. Any other questions?

Oh, one other question. I don't remember where we left off on this was um are we going to be charging any interest on this money that we're borrowing out to people or are we leaving this at a zero? We're suggesting no interest but an administrative fee that is a base fee for joining the program and then a charge per basically per year of assessment. So as you all know we need to um but for the public's benefit any fee that needs to be charged by the town has to be linked to costs

and so upfront there'll be a charge for administration paperwork but review. So that's the fixed fee for everybody who would participate and then an annual charge for each year of assessment which would cover the cost of having you know the tax collector and public works having to work on the assessment each year on the warrant each year. So that way it is the cost is directly linked to the labor that goes in. Um but it would be a fixed it would be administrative fee charged up front. They would pay that and then they would pay it there would be no interest on the amount itself. Sounds good. Thank you. Any other questions?

May I just ask one last thing? Is there anything that you need to know that you would need to know or would like to know in more detail before besides the um the legal factor of who can sign the petition? Is there anything that you would like to know before you see this petition come before you? Anything? Nope. I'm good. Okay. You'll know where to find me if that changes. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Up next under old business we have discuss and schedule a public hearing for municipal code chapter 20 code of ethics.

Oh man, I have to keep talking. All right. Okay. So the code of ethics, this originally came before you back in the back in the late summer, early spring that if I could find the actual sheet. July 21st, 2025.

Um, and then we came before you with the draft that was created from feedback from the public. And we came with for you on the October 20th meeting. You all discussed the revisions and the suggestions of the public and decided which ones to move forward with and which ones to um not move forward with. And then we went back to the public, back to staff, put it back out there for comment. We put it on the website. Um, we got no additional feedback after that. So, the draft you see before you is the exact same one that was presented to you and that you decided on at the October 20th, 2025 meeting. So, we would ask that you um the ask today is if you would like to set a public hearing for it on May 18th and move forward.

I'll start off. I have you. Okay. I have some proposed changes for the council to discuss that I've been reviewing for the last year, I'd say. Um, so I'd like to go through a few things. If um, section 20.10, I would suggest we remove that. I don't think it's necessary. Wait a minute. Um, I'll go through my changes and we can discuss them. Eliminate this whole section. Yes.

20.10. And then under 20.11, section three, I don't see a need for it. People could just call it point of order. I don't see a need for that section. Um, on section 20.8, I think our old policy is actually better and more descriptive than the new one. So 20.9 I would recommend that we put section 4 back in from the old policy. And the one other change I would make is on section 20.12 to remove section C. Oh, and um I wanted to discuss with the council about the old policy had exclusions that were left off of this policy and see if they would include the inclusions from the old policy. Here's some things for discussion. Well, um I personally think that this um code of ethics is pretty fair and balanced. It protects everyone equally, residents, staff, and elected officials. Um I understand it's a draft. I I feel that the draft has real strengths, including clear expectations and more modern structure. Um, where I do see some problems down the road is if we don't tighten up some of the language by adding clear

definitions, outlining a transparent investigation process, ensuring an appeals path, and also aligning the language with the New Hampshire Municipal Association's best practices. Um, I think if we do that, um, we'll end up with a, uh, strong, fair, and protective, um, code, um, that the community could trust. So, I I I'm focusing in on the New Hampshire Municipal Association's best practices as well as national best practices standards. And I see a lot of it in here. I just think definitions need to be a little bit clearer um so that there's no confusion. But that's just me.

Do you have overall I thought this was a very um equal like for everybody. Do you have any um I didn't have a chance to ref any any references we can look at for the municipal association? Um you guys can all just call and you can just also in the search button. No, I just didn't know what code of ethics. I no I just a little paragraph for myself. I have it at home, but I don't have it here. Okay. I I will say though, the one issue I have with just pulling from framework sometimes is you lose the specificity of what is unique to this community and what it needs to go through. So, especially with national standards and then when you get down to something even statewide, I think we've got to be careful about not just wholesale adopting.

I I find that funny, Sean. I appreciate it. But I find it funny because when I said that on the PUD stuff, you said we need Y brush and we shouldn't be going by the standards. We should be more loosey goosey when all the state everybody else and national and state standards are tighter. You were like, "No, we need to be more open and putting it in into a dress." So, I'm confused as I don't remember the specifics of that conversation.

We had it. I'm here and as a matter of fact, I have the answers to your questions that you said I was illegal and stuff. I got all the correct answers. um and sites for you. Um but I I think that you have to have some sort of basis. Um you're not the first one inventing a wheel. It's like good rich tires, you know, they're not the first one to invent the tire. They look at it, they approve upon it. And I thought that's what we did. I mean, you think differently. I haven't looked at what you said to cross-examine it, so I can't answer your questions, Ron. That's okay. But I appreciate the fact that you looked at it. I I just looked at it as a general piece. I spent more time than I spent a long time on this document.

Um but cuz I I think it's very important for us. I think it's something where we we need I think it's very very important. But it also needs to be very fair and very balanced because it's not just us officials we're talking about. Absolutely. It's you know the employees, it's people on boards and committees and they're volunteers. Um they're not getting paid, you know. So I think we have to be careful and inclusive of all of that. So that's why I said the only problem I see that this could like become a problem is with the lack of definitions. Okay. Um and I figured I'd get into that after the public hearing, but

Okay. Um, but I I would I was I would hope that you could share your comments that you just had, Ronn, in a document so that I could look at the ones you were talking about. Yeah, I'd appreciate that. I didn't write it down. Email it to us. I'd be happy to. I was trying to scroll up and down and but if you could Yeah. say, you know, and and and do and if you have suggestions like I know you said take this out, but Yeah. but fix it or the old one you said that was better. So that I it's all together. I'm sure you have it. I do. I happy to share that. I um I thought some of the old policy, especially um in section um four of the old policy, I thought it was more descriptive and had a better definition than what the new one has. Um

and off my top of my head, I'd be very happy. I have five changes. I'd be very happy to email them all to to Well, you should email them to all of us. Yeah, that'd be fantastic. No problem with that. Thank you. Any other changes or anything we want to discuss? No, I thought your changes made a lot of sense. Okay. Yeah, it seemed seemed good to me. It addressed the issues that I had with it and yeah, just reading through the old document too, I thought especially section 4 and um I did like the the form attached, but yeah, other than that, I think so. Should we push back the public hearing so we can No, we still have the public hearing. Okay, just public the public hearing. We can still hear from the public and then we can I haven't seen it. So, okay. Yeah.

Yeah. Sean, if you could send yours too, your ideas, that's good, too, to see. Okay. It really is. It helps me see where you're coming from and what you're talking about. I mean, I'll send you I'll send out my word descriptions as well. They're not much. So, yeah, that'd be helpful. Anybody else have any updates or suggestions? Mr. Chair, if I may, if you could send those over if you would like them in writing and in a final format for it, we can also put those much like we did with the um strategic plan this week and the suggested changes. We can have them in a way that would be Can I come see you? Yeah, send it to Tanya and I that would be wonderful. That'd be perfect.

You can be more eloquent than I can be. Thank you. Um, we're going to continue the discussion on the plan unit development. Any update? Back up. So, we're not doing the public hearing on the 18th, obviously. Um, yes, I think we are. Yeah. We're going to make substantial changes to it and we're not going to give advanced warning to people what those are going to be, the rewritten version of it. That doesn't make any sense. Oh, that's true. I didn't think of that. My suggestion just make it indeterminate because I don't know how to get to it. Then, let's do let's do that then. Yeah. Um, so if you suggested making it indeterminate, so you don't need to look at the calendar for that. Oh,

we've been doing Well, I want to be fair to the I here. I don't you know, we don't. So, so what if we um move it out to the next meeting from the 18th to June 1st? Well, the the problem as Sean was alluding to is if you move it to June 1st and all of a sudden some substantial changes come on the 18th, then we end up move it out again. So, I'd like your suggestion under old business on the under old business. Hold on. So, you folks, if you want to make changes, if you'd get it to us, okay, we'll send it back out to the council. That way, you're not having an illegal meeting. All right. And then you can decide what draft of that. And once you get to to the point where you want it, then you can decide about sending out to a public hearing. But we don't want that in advance. Yeah.

Okay. Fair enough. Thank you. All right. Up next is the discussion on the plan unit development. Miss Karen is not here, so I'm going to assume it's there's nothing for us to add. I mean, it's further for you folks to have as to what you might want to do with that.

Any further discussion? Um uh I I sent out um as it's it's on here um talking about um the difference and why all of the things that I had suggested to add into the PUD is important and you guys said you know we want to put them into a development agreement. Um the basic concept of a PUD is you have all of these things in it. You can't put something in a development agreement that's not listed. So the development agreement is the law is the rule. Okay. The I'm not the development agreement, excuse me. The PUD is the law is the rule. The development agreement is the enforcing tool of that law. So if you do not have something in that development agreement, I mean in that PUDA, you cannot put it in to the development agreement because there's no point of reference to it in the PUD. So that their attorneys would say to you, this is circumstantial and this is from a land use attorney that told me this. And

may I ask a question on that? Yes, sir. Um, so the the Woodmont agreement because it you know I read the the old PUB and the old PUD is like barely a you know it's very short. It's easy to consume quickly. That Woodmont PUD is vast and so there's not a onetoone tie between the Woodmont development agreement and the PUD. So that's where I'm wondering how it just because that's the way that one was set up doesn't mean it was set up correctly. And I I hate to say that but I believe it wasn't. If you take the time to look at the towns that I I went to, like read Bedford's, read

and I read through your comments in here.

I mean, Dover's got the best one. It's very detailed. It's very strong. And their development agreements as well are very strong. And if you go look at their couple of their large projects, they really done well. and the town, the taxpayers benefited from it because they took the time. Um, without getting into a lot of details and throwing things under the bus, which I don't think is appropriate, um, the taxpayer could have benefited a lot more from Woodmont if things had been done correctly from the get-go. Granted, it was a new thing. people didn't know what they were doing. But is that what we really want to continue with is something that could hurt the potentially right now that's an active ordinance. I know there's not a lot of 100 acre pieces out there, but they're out there. And um to me, the newer agreement that we have needs some work. But to me, we need to take that old one that's really bad over here and replace it with the one that Kelly and the department did. And I think we need to continue to work on this one because that's the best thing for the taxpayer in my mind cuz right now we're leaving ourselves open with a not so good um PUB. And at least if we have a better one, it's not so much exposure.

Um, and and again, I know we don't have a lot and there's not a lot of damage, but something of that size has catastrophic damage. Just one. So, um, that that's my suggestion. I I really think that, you know, I I felt like Jack Jeff, excuse me, Jake was willing to sit and go through these things. And I think that we're so close that if we just move to move if the new one forward with the strong with the de everyone getting a development agreement and move that forward so that the old one's off the books and continue to work on this where there's a small subcommittee with the planning department and the planning couple sub people on the planning board couple of counselors and improve this will be sitting in a very good spot. Um, but right now I'm very uncomfortable. We're exposed and it's it's obvious. Um, and and it's it's nothing that I had said in any of these things um was a violation of any of the uh RSA codes. Um, and I double checked that and uh we did fall into line. So there is nothing illegal or risky. It's exactly what RSA 674.21 was written to allow. Um, so in my mind, a strong PUD ordinance with a strong development agreement and if we had them impact fees, extraction fees, this protects the taxpayer and everybody and they know exactly what's coming on. And so I think that we we should we should really really consider that. And that that's all I'm going to say.

Okay. At this moment. Any other discussion? All right. Well, um I guess I'll make a motion to move this forward to the the public hearing on May 18th. I don't second that. Okay. So I have Do we need a motion? actually. Oh, we don't have to have an action. It's just going to be acquired at the meeting. Okay. So, we don't need an action, but yeah. All right. We're all in agreement. Yeah, we're all in agreement. It's already scheduled for May. Thank you.

All right. Up next, review and discuss the proposed draft of strategic plan. I'll start us off. I had a few things to suggest. Um, what would the council think if we put it in phases? I had a a resident say to me that it'd be easier to read if we had like say phase one be maybe the first fiscal year and phase two be the other two years or we could do phase two and phase three being the second and third year. Um, and I thought that made sense because when you look at like key performance indicators if you're just looking at them, it's kind of hard to see. There's so many things going on. If we had it separated, we could say, okay, wow, we got a we have a lot going on in year two. Maybe we should switch things around. I just want to know what the council thought

that' be easier to read. I'll make a comment on that. I think Yeah. Yeah. So like like you know how dev like here there's you're just talking about a format design kind of thing, right? Yeah. Okay. I'm just I think like it's like there's so many things here. If we had it separated so that they knew like phase one, this is going to be done by June of 27 and then phase two or it could be two or three phases. You're just talking like layout. You're not talking about rewriting them. No, just layout. No, you're not talking about putting this in in phases, implementing this in phases. You're you're talking about just the way it's written up.

I'm just asking the council how they would feel if we just organized it a little differently so it was easier to read. Like if we so I'll give you an example what what the resident said to me is say you know we've got all these different pages of this. Okay. So under government excellence for example there's about 11 things to do. Yeah. If we said, "Okay, says all of them are due at the end of 27." That'd be too many things to do in once, you know, like just easier layout. You say, "Okay, I got five here, I got four here, and I got, you know, couple here." Just for layout purposes. I just think it'd be easier to read. Throwing it out there as a suggestion. Don't have to decide tonight. Um,

I I like that idea just for readability and clarity. And I know going through large projects with lots of things and many KPIs, it's good to be able to visualize it in that manner. So you know, especially like you get to phase two and you're behind on 75% of phase one. Well, that kind of indicates phase two is probably going to have some issues, right, going forward and then you kind of you can redirect. And I know that we adopted we put into the plan your suggestions Deb I know you had talked to so that's in there so that's good. Um and then we um Deb asked to have like um the senior center involved

into the head. Oh yeah yeah yeah. She was very excited about that. That was you got right back. She'd be speaking with um Mr. Mahal. I guess they meet. Yeah. And so um she would be She had ideas. She was all ready to tell me when they were going to have their first meeting to figure this out. And this is more of an open question. Um, it says under the government excellence under the 2027 KPIs, it says develop and implement mental health awareness programs for LPD and LFD. We were told they already have that. So why would we do that? I guess I'm just asking like if they're already doing that, why would we put that as a goal? I think they can do better.

Okay. Yeah. I think that, you know, they have stuff in there, but I think if they both get on the same page, so then I think we need to rewrite that or reward that because that to me implies that they don't have anything right now. So you want to say enhance, I guess. Yeah. You want to enhance that that uh part of that mental health program. Yeah. Correct. saying, you know, how how they already have a program and okay um I'm looking for feedback as So my question can you just tell me because I'm I'm new here. What's the program? No, it just it just says another thing. It just says develop and implement mental health awareness program for LPD and LFD, right?

And we were told by the that's already starts on July one. What? That's in the budget that starts on July 1. Okay. Because you don't have you don't have those programs. Okay. I was told they already have a peer program where if something happens, they can call a peer and No, they don't. Okay. We're getting nodding from our chief that we already have this in place.

Well, if you want to talk about and show me the certifications for those programs and all that because I haven't seen that. So we we have a lieutenant who was assigned to our SISM program. He belongs to the Southern New Hampshire team as well. He is certified. Uh we have I think three members of the Pete I believe. Um and there's a current proposal in place to broaden that as well. And I know Dan, you just mentioned we can always do better. This one of the things that Lieutenant Mlan's been working on for us for quite some time. Uh it is on my desk. I just haven't had a chance to get caught up on that. But this type of program, we've been we've been doing these things for a while at the PD. Uh but I can get a uh more detailed presentation to the town manager for you folks to clarify what what you're asking up there.

I think it'd be important to to have that presented to the town manager and have him review it and see what his thoughts are on this. Yeah. I don't know. Was there a cost associated with that one that Ryan gave you? The new one. Yeah. He has a breakdown of it. Yeah. So there there is some monies uh uh tied to that. One of the things that we were looking to do with that also was not really have it come out of a budgetary thing. We were looking for ways within the police association etc to try to handle some of these things too. So that's been a work in progress for quite some time. I I I would say I guess if there is a presentation I'm not saying you're going to do a presentation but if there is a presentation I'd actually like it in front of the council if we're going to do one. I agree. Yeah. For that type of program. Sure. Absolutely. Easy enough.

Thank I think it'd be good to have both fire and police. Okay. On their programs. Um um I also wanted to get further updated on one of in the communications and civic trust and community engagement. It says 50% of boards and commissions meeting held with hybrids teams participating. Um, I don't know. There's one person at the council. I kind of like when the boards are together. I think they Yeah, it's on uh B2.

So, I don't know if that's something that I I think it's hard to get everybody together. I don't think it's hard at all. It's actually um was I apologize. There's a clarity thing there. That's meant for um hybrid participation available to the public. Okay. Not not the board members. So, opening it up to allow remote contributions from the public so that they could join in the team's meeting and comment in an organized fashion. Not like that. I know we all remember the first co meeting. Not like that. Things have come a long way. Um that's what that means.

Okay. Well, I I mentioned that run because I remember the planning board and the town council joint meeting. Uh there was only you and I there and then you left and I was there to take the wrath of the planning board. So I remember that one. I was there. Um I don't want to be a one person show. Does anyone else have anything to add or

Well, I I mean I thought that the strategic plan on a whole was concise, smart, and it had accountability. It had an accountability focus, which I like. Um my only questions really are um as we progress through this, how will this be reported to the council? Um, so quarterly, yearly, um, you know, so how as as we move and take things off the key things. Do you know what I'm saying? How is that going to be updated or is it just going to be updated online as we satisfy certain things? You know what I'm saying? When would they be removed and how would we

So the status reports would be on a quarterly basis and they get removed on an annual basis. When an item has been the objective has been accomplished, then you would remove that and move on to the next items. So that would be put on the agenda and done at a meeting publicly. Yeah. A lot of these are um they're the initial assessment and then the implementation. So they usually take more than just one year to finish anyway. Yeah. I just didn't want to, you know, keep it look, you know, because it'd be nice to be able to see, oh my god, we accomplished this much and it keeps a kind of like an excitement and an energy of moving forward that we're reaching accomplishments. You know what I mean? Hitting goals, getting there, and wow, we had 10. We got nine out of the 10. Way to go. You know what I mean? Kind of encouragement for the next year or which gets measured gets done.

Huh? That which gets measured gets done. Correct. That which does not get measured generally does not get done. Correct. But I'm just saying to keep it on track and that's why I asked. That was the only thing I didn't see like but I thought it was like I said very very good. It it shows accountability. It was kind of smart. Um it was very concise. I thought it was pretty good. I mean, that's my two cents, Ron. Sorry, I don't have a lot of questions. I think I had them last time. I don't have this time. That's why we've had this the next couple meetings so we can get it get it perfect. I don't have a lot of questions. I just want to echo that.

Uh, you know, this holds people accountable. It gets things done. We plan ahead. As you've noticed the issue with the library, fire station, there's a lot of issues that have we have not been planning for um and this is this helps us to do that. It's going to help us also, you know, planning for our budget. So, we can look long term and say, you know what, that roof does need to be replaced in two years and we need to plan on that. We need to budget for that. Right now, everything that we do is just kind of a knee-jerk reaction. It's like, okay, now we've got this, you know, problem at at the fire station and we have to, you know, get people out of there and now we have to deal with that. This is all something that I feel could be avoided by long-term planning and this is what strategic planning is all about.

So, okay. Any other further input on the strategic plan for tonight?

Just I just want to be careful of like I agree with some kind of strategic plan. I just want to be careful of selling it as a panacea that's going to solve all our problems. Um it's going to it's going to help. It's going to help measure things and and take a look and get ideas of like the scope of what needs to be done, what doesn't need to be done, and get an overarching plan. I just want to like I don't know that it significantly improves operations. That's all in the implementation aspect of it. And I think just, you know, we there there's been times in the past where councils have sold us on bigger things that are going to do a whole bunch of stuff. The public gets it and they're sorely disappointed. And I just want to make sure that while it's a positive step, that doesn't mean it's going to solve everything.

Well, I I I just want to, you know, make a comment that last year when I get got on the council, everybody's like, "Okay, we got to have our goals." You know, every council has a goal. You know, where did those goals go? Now, nowhere. I mean, this I would disagree with Dan on that. Yeah, mine went. I would say that the uh I want to push back on you because I feel like the water the utility committee did did what we asked them to do. All right. that they they put forth a phase plan, but that that that's something that had been in the works planned. You know, it wasn't this is my goal for this year, but significant work by him during the year to drive that across the talent. And Sean, you you know, you say your your big goal was traffic. Yep.

Traffic traffic. What have you done for traffic? We got something on the ballot. We got it passed. We are looking at long-term solutions and different ways to look at things like permanent traffic counting devices and other things to gather data to find the problem intersections. Well, I I will tell you that I have not seen I have not seen you at any of those meetings. So where your involvement is on these meetings? Not the safety committee. There's overarching bigger aspects than that. Okay, Mr. Chief. Go ahead, Mr. Chair. Yeah, please. Uh this our time to make additions or subtractions. Absolutely. We have we have two more meetings possible. Yes,

of course. So section uh C3 like to add a KPI for a priority action item of create an economic development program and determine the necessary leadership structure to execute the plan with a key performance indicator of roadmap the economic development plan to include roles and responsibilities by June 30th, 2027. this point. Are you just so I know you're on objective three? Yep. Okay, perfect. Could you just repeat that for the record one more time?

It's the C3 enhance economic development opportunities and strengthen lenders economic identity, a priority action item. Create an economic development program and determine the necessary leadership structure to execute the plan with a key performance indicator road map. the economic development plan to include roles and responsibilities by June 30th, 2027. Anybody object to that? It's on the board if you want to read it over again. Okay.

Good. Well, I I like it, but the question in my mind is when you say program, Ted, are you saying something that it's in house? So, we going to form an economic development committee?

No committee. The committee has no power and it has no money to spend anything to actually improve anything for the town or to even put together a a plan for economic development. So, you can't have a committee on this. You need an actual staff. You need a paid person. You need the ability to spend resources if need be. You need actual u hired staff who are experienced in this kind of area. So, you're talking about hiring new staff

potentially, but whether the in-house staff can have other responsibilities with that, that may be, but it's up to the town manager to determine where does that fit correctly with the staff that we have or with uh new staff that can also take on other responsibilities. But a committee does not have the power to be able to do what we need them to do to promote the town. Then how do other towns do it? I mean I know other towns do all their economic used to have an economic director for about 10 15 years until I'm sorry I couldn't hear the first party what you said too. We used to have an economic director for about 101 15 years. Yeah. Andre Garren.

Yes. And that position then or salary for that position went to other things within the town. We should have an economic de development director for the size of our town and where we are located within the state and to have better communications with the economic director of the state of New Hampshire as well. When we have a town planner that works on designs and everything else, we have a uh director of that department who's also working on plans for the town. We need someone who's focused solely on the economic development and marketing of the town. Okay. So you wouldn't even consider using a committee or outsourcing?

No, because a committee is made up of towns people who are not experienced in this type of work. Well, technically none of us are experienced in this type of work. We are elected. We're not committee people. Technically the people on the planning board aren't experienced. Most of those people are experienced withinstruction. They're not necessarily Most of them have some sort of construction background. I think it's a discussion. Okay. How do other towns make it work? I'm thinking about the taxpayer,

you know, as just to get it going. It might be easier to do it at a more coste effective way to have a a committee who's focused on how they're going to get there and what they want to see. Do all of that ground leg work stuff, the the the strategic plan of it all. And then later, this way, you can hire someone and you can say to them, "This is what we're looking for because this is what people said." They'd like I don't know. It's a discussion. I mean, I think that's great. I just wanted to understand what Ted was that Put it in there. I think that's good. I'd like to know from our town manager if we have the staff to do this or are we going to be have to hire people.

I don't know what exactly the program is going to entail. So, you'd have to figure out what the tasks are and then you determine what the best way to solve those to achieve those tasks, whether it be contracting out or hiring your own staff to do that. Uh, that's how you would have to do that, but you have to figure out what the task items are first. Thank you. And Ted, I I I support what you want to do. My only concern is if we have to hire somebody, that's another expense on the town. That's my only concern. But I agree with that may be, but if they're driving business to come to the town, offsetting their salary. Mhm. In a way, it's like a sales position.

So, we can put it. What do you guys think? I think it it should be in there. Okay. But I think we as a council should discuss it because it's a whole new Okay. concept really. Yeah.

Um I don't know. I mean, that's just how I see it. It's it's it's worth a discussion. And I do know there are companies out there that you can hire that like Derry hires. They have an economic developer, but they had had a committee that figured out what they wanted, how they wanted to revitalize the downtown, how they wanted it. They gave it to the employee. It was the employees job to do it. Then they hired a consultant as a on a they get paid by what they bring it, like a percentage of what they bring in. And that's how it they they're doing it then. and their economic development does like all the events and all the things like but I mean that's them. I mean we're us. So we got to figure out what it is. I mean there's a whole web thing involved in it. How you want to present it on the website?

And it all goes back to what is the vision of London? Who do we want to be? Do we want to be like a dairy? Do you want to be like a Hudson? Do you want to be like a Hollis? What do you want to look like? because that's going to be what the economic developers mission is going to be. It's not just bringing in. You want to bring in the right businesses, the right things. You know, personally, I'd like to see a Trader Joe's here. I think right aid's perfect. Can I have the ability to go call Trader Joe's and say, "We got this building that's about the same square footage as your one up in Bedford. Could you come down here? You could have access to Windham, Derry, Hudson, Lichfield." I don't know. I mean, that's really what happens. I mean, it's not rocket science.

I don't know. It's a discussion. Yeah. I think it's a good it's a good addition. I think that was a good catch by Ted. All right. So, we'll add that in. All right. Just before you add them in. Yep. Who's going to do what when it comes to this? So the things we've got in there, we've got people who are going to do certain tasks, certain functions by a certain time frame. So who's going to do what with this? Well, that would fall under the town manager's task, I would assume. Okay. So you want him to be the economic developer? No, it's not. Well, no, he needs to develop the plan and develop a

position or hiring of companies to do the things that we need to So I need I'm going to need a little bit more guidance as to the direction that you want to go in in terms of economic dome. We trying to get more industrial. We're trying to get into more commercial. What are we trying to accomplish? What is the task that we're trying to accomplish? And where are we focusing on different parts of the community? Because how I look at the task items for that. I'll have to craft that to do that. And then the resources that are needed to accomplish the task. Do an inventory of the buildings too. What's available? What we can revitalize. I'd like to know what the re, you know, what exactly tasks are going to be and are we looking at hiring somebody and that's why I left it a little vague.

The good news is we have two more meetings to discuss this. So, we could we could just say we'll discuss it in the next before the next meeting and bring it back. That's fine. And I'm just saying but I I do want to I do think that Ted's direction is important. I just am concerned about how we pay for it. That's all. Yeah. how we pay for it. How do we get there? Well, we can have a further conversation on that, but yeah, Rome wasn't built in today. So, perhaps I should work with council kums to flesh this out some more. That way you can have a more definitive discussion about the direction that that makes sense. Works for us. It's fine. Any other additions, subtractions, updates? Well, there's three there. Huh?

There's three listed that were sent out to you. You've got G2 and two C3s. Anything else? Right now, we already know we're going to deal with one of the C3s, the one that was proposed by Council Ks. And I think the other one's conflicting. So, okay.

Which one's conflicting? The second one. The G2. No, the C. The other one. right there. Which one is So I think they're both kind of the same thing is my point. Okay. It's it's just two different directions basically.

So do you want to accept one of them? Any input from anyone? So why can't we have an economic development commission? I felt it wasn't necessary because it would have no power. You'd have no power. You'd have no authority to spend money. You'd have no real authority to talk to these companies or no carry really no weight with your name. It takes filling and staffing a board. A lot of times it takes time. Sometimes they don't come to conclusions. Sometimes it's it's if you if you want to take a a very slow approach or you want to kind of get it going, it's

um the the the cons of the other stuff is like cost, but there's an efficiency and when having someone have a dedicated job to to doing it. Um and so, you know, I picking between the two, I tend to think like Ted's version of this gets us where do we want to be? The other ones maybe we'll get there. Mhm. Um, and it's kind of hard to hold a committee to KPIs. Yeah. So, why don't we go back to our original plan? We'll have councelor Commes talk to Mr. Mahalan and Yeah. the details in the next meeting. Does that work for you? Concrete. I I'm fine. Okay.

Whatever. I like the commission idea because it doesn't cost money compared to the other one which if we hire people it's going to cost taxpayers more money benefits and everything. I would say Ted if you're willing to work with Mr. Mahaland. Yes. Let's approach that and bring us at the next meeting. Sounds good. We'll work on our calendars. Yeah. Anything else to discuss on strategic plan before we You got G2 as well. G2. Okay. Approve document G2. Let's see. G2.

That could be aggressive. That goal. Yeah. And I I think this is something we already had discussed before as a council and we ended up rejecting that idea then and I just with a lot of stuff in there I I don't that's my thought on it. I just think if it stays in there the date's got to change. I think the date's too soon. Input W. Okay. Any

Well, I mean Ted mentioned last time that, you know, looking at doing a recreation building, making more for recreation. This kind of addresses some of that. I think it's the number one thing, you know, on the master plan questioning, you know, evaluating three priority locations for future recreation. So, I mean, I'm just looking at the overall picture if we're going to spend money We need a DWA doesn't cost much. So

I mean a lot of it can be done through volunteerism or different organizations. For example, you want to put in a a um a pocket park somewhere in a neighborhood. You reach out to the people. It's all it can be all done at a grassroots level. It it doesn't have to be always through the town and have the town employees do it. They're there to help. We have great employees. Like Kristen is wonderful at organizing and setting things up and her time she spent she this girl is got like a robot brain. She's like, "This is it all the time." And like once you get someone excited, other side people put all the data together and they they feed it into Kristen's robot brain and she spits out this beautiful thing and it's good to go and it's got the town approval and it it I think it should be working together, people working together like that listening session that we had for the meeting house. because of that session. There's now a group that's formed um citizens for the meeting house or something like that and then you know they came up with a name. They're going to get together. They've already thinking about where they're going to go, how they're going to fund raise. I mean I've gotten more emails and phone calls people some of them I didn't even know some of them I did know who are very excited about moving this thing forward and raising money and saving this building. People get excited about outdoor space like you saw with the skate park.

People get excited about that. You know, I'm going to go back to 23 years ago when I came here and pitched the concert to the commons to the council and they didn't want to do it. It's going to take time. It's going to cause police and and and look at it now. It's a baby steps. You can't you're not going to be a full-blown little digestion little bits at a time. And so I I agree with you. I'll take a note here. So take all this kind of falls under the bullet point one on this of developing a 10-year improvement plan. So I feel like it's a redundant item of bullet number one.

So what what I was going to add to that is I think what you underline is some good examples of things, Deb, that are getting done with community involvement. Like we don't have the Reverend Morrison house in here. We don't have the skate park in here. We don't necessarily just because it's not in here doesn't mean it doesn't happen. But it all falls under the 10-year improvement plan. Yeah. When when when you're trying to do large scale strategic planning KPIs, you can't put every single detail in there. And just because something's not in there doesn't mean it's not good. And just, you know, it's just trying to get some focus around key high.

Saying that I believe that's considered recreation. And so therefore, that is important. And you are painting with the right brush. And that's why I was put leaving it in there. That's why I was saying that. I understand what you're saying, Sean. I agree with you. I agree with you. We can't get into every little project, but that's part of it. This is the big picture and then those are the little things. I understand, but I I don't understand what you're seeing as far as overlay and maybe I'm just missing it. So, a lot of what you're mentioning here really is I guess what he's trying to say is a detailed level of what falls under the bullet number one here

of assess parks, fields, courts, playgrounds, lights, and related recreation assets and develop a 10-year improvement plan. So, right, all of that kind of falls under the umbrella of a 10-year improvement plan. But you just said you wanted to take that out. No, I'm saying we don't include that because it falls under the umbrella of a 10-year improvement plan. Okay. But shouldn't it be stated that that's what the thing includes?

I think that gives us more flexibility stated the other way. Again, these are over these are highlevel achievements that have KPIs attached to them. So the goal is to to be able to achieve them, but that doesn't it doesn't break down all the details because this this plan would be, you know, 250 pages and so it's just doing things at that we're looking at a different level of scale and scope here. I I understand. I just think it should be lift and I thought it was broadly lifted and that's what was important so that people understood what things were in it not just all the little details but what never mind it doesn't matter you guys

what what can we put together that would make everyone happy seems like you guys are on the same page but we're just missing a word or two well I think it's like we said it's already stated that's why we're here okay Kirsten can you bring that back up for a I I just don't think I'm understanding. I'll tell you, Ron, the one thing I that I like about it is to It's kind of like this is the back of the book, not the whole book. I understand, but evaluate and present three priority locations for future recreational. It's already listed on here. Where? It's already on here.

Already have it down here. Evaluate three potential future locations for recreational spaces by 6:30 2027. Forget it. Good. Yeah, I'm off tonight. So, that's hard to come tonight. All right. I got four on board. Yeah, I'm kidding. It's fine. No, I just It's just a redundancy. That's all. It's right there. I If you all agree it's Make sure it's fine. I I just don't want to lose recreation or open space in anything. We're not. We're just saying what you is written here is a redundant of what they've already put into the plan. All right, we're good. Anything else to discuss? Okay. Anything else want to discuss before we move on? No.

All right. Thank you guys for your working together. That was All right. Up next, approval of consent items. I'll accept a motion to accept the consent items. So moved. Second. Motion from Sean. Second from Ted. Any discussion? All those in favor say I. I any opposed chair the affirmative 5-0.

All right. Up next we have liaison reports. Anything from uh had a good meeting with our uh group developing the new SIU building. Uh everything's moving forward. Um it'll be an exciting summer and into the winter. uh next door and with the expansion of our parking lot. Excellent. And as well having better access to the recreational fields behind our building here with the new parking. So, it'll be exciting going forward. Any other ways reports?

Well, I talked with Doug Cole for recreation. Uh a lot of exciting things. Him and I are working on a couple of things. um on a sidebar. Uh and I went to the uh fishing derby uh fishing game did on Sunday. Very well attended. They have uh 500 of those little trout fishies in there. The kids were going crazy. They were all catching like uh 12 to 13 inch fish, which was pretty impressive. Um so that was fun. And I I did go to the listening session, which I think uh was very very good. There were people there who really really cared and really want to do something. And I think that it was exciting because they were all willing to work together and hopefully we can get a custodium a consortium together of different organizations that all have the same mission so they could have a home.

So I think that's great. Excellent. You good?

That looks good. Uh I will say I also went to the Musquatch trails uh not this past weekend but the weekend before. It was nice to see the the trails nice and widely open but some of the smaller bridges that are within there on the trails might need to be having some repairs. So maybe some talking with uh trailways and hopefully if there might be some Boy Scout troops out there looking for some Eagle Scout projects making some repairs to their small bridges. That that did bring up a question I had. Do we So we had done this in prior years. Do we do any kind of tick spraying? Someone had asked me about that from as far as the trails go because they said ticks were particularly bad this year. Do we we don't have any involvement with any of that? No.

Do on the town common though, right? Yeah. Okay. And you don't want to spray. Tick tubes are the best. Well, yeah. Mitigation measures. Yeah, tick tubes. That's what we do with the Y. Tick tubes.

Anything else? Tom man's report. I'm just going to go over the agenda. Obviously, there's quite a few changes. Uh on May 18th, we're not having a public hearing on the ethics code, so that's been removed. We are having a public hearing on the PUD. Um and I suspect that'll take take up some time. Um I spoke with the chairman today. We are we're not going to move forward on TC 105 use of legal council policy. So, that is not moving forward at this time or at all. Um and then we have discussion and provide guidance to the town manager for the development of the FY2028 budget which is required by TC901. Um so be looking forward to that. If you need anything from us in regards to that, please let me know as soon as possible and review and discuss uh the proposed draft strategic plan for refinement. Again, we'll be there'll be another opportunity to do that and hopefully we have some things available for you for that. uh council kums and I and then moving on to June 1st uh we had a public hearing scheduled for TC 105 East legal council obviously we're not moving forward on that and then we have a presentation in the child pastor safety program 25 years of community service so that's a very positive thing uh receive a presentation from the traffic management working group regarding the strategy and plan to address traffic safety and traffic congestion in the community discuss and review consider uh the relicensing Murray's Auto Recycling located at 55 Hall Road. Um I have not received anything from SNS, so I don't know if they're going to be asking for relicensing on there. So we're waiting to find out on that. I've asked codes to reach out to them. Those are the only two that we have. And then we have discussion public discuss and schedule public hearing for June 15 26 regarding the municipal code uh for departments if that goes forward. and then discuss and schedule a public hearing for June 15th regarding proposed revision of municipal code regarding uh

boards, committees and commissions if that goes forward. And then set uh a public hearing for June 15th regarding the the water special assessment district if we have all the petition material in by then and discuss and act upon options for the Perry House uh wood that's been in storage as discussed at the February 2nd, 2026 town council meeting. And then review and discussion proposed draft strategic plan items for refinement. Again, we talked about that with a public hearing at least tentatively scheduled for the 50. That's all I have. Mr. Chair,

why are we not proceeding with TC 105 use of legal council policy? I mean, our our legal bills are outrageously high. So why this is the first I hear that we're not moving forward with this. Uh the council put it on the table. So can we make a motion to take it off the table to relook at it? Um so right now we put this on the on the table. Was that when Sean tabled everything? Yeah. Everything. Yeah. Tabled. But you can bring it back at any time. Only if it's a motion from a member of the prevailing. And so one of us three would have to make a motion to um

only if it's a motion to what because because we were we were on the the majority. When you table something, someone in the majority has to reconsider and then pull somebody from the table back. Well, you'd have to have a majority of the vote. So either it it wouldn't make any sense. In other words, Deb, they're telling us there's no way that's going to move forward. Seems like it's damaging the tone. Yep. anything further?

Uh the other thing I want to add is that uh you talked about SNS medals. SNS medals uh I talked to him and he said that by the end of this month he should be done and he's having an auction there in June. So he'll be out of there. So that's probably why we're not going to get it. I'd like to ask the town manager something. Mr. town manager, can you explain to me by by tableabling these things how it affects the town and how our workings and how it may slow down things, please? Tabling equals this is a public policy decision that the council gets to make if it chooses to do so or not. I mean, it's it's simple as that.

That wasn't my question. And my question was, by tableabling this, does it slow down anything at town hall in operations or does it cause any issue um by not doing it? That's all I'm asking. It doesn't slow anything down at town hall, but obviously there are issues. That's why it's been proposed and been reviewed by legal counsel because there are there are problems in the present way you do business and we've recommended a different way to do business and that's up to the council to decide whether it wants to do that or not. It obviously does not. Okay. So, these these kinds of problems are what kind of problems are they?

I I just need to understand what we're doing to the town right now by doing it or not doing it. In order for the council to do anything, it must act as a council. It's in your charter. It's in your rules that you have adopted.

Okay? If you have counselors that act unilaterally and they expend public funds uh and incur costs to the town, they don't have the authority to do that. So that's why this policy was written to address that issue to follow the charter and to follow the rules of procedure that the council approved which mirrors the charter. So we don't have that going on. So we have expenditures that are occurring by individual counselors or one or two counselors that they don't have the authority to do. Is that a violation of a law? That's the charter. It's at the expense of the taxpayer. We

That's why I think you guys should reconsider and not table this anymore and just address it. Get it over with. I would I would disagree with that assessment of it, but we tabled this. I'm not getting into discussion about it. Yeah. All right, further. All right. It's not fair enough, but it's arrogant enough. I Good. All right. I own public comment.

How are you, Christine?

Christine Perez, 5 Wesley Drive. Um, I'm a little concerned about the statement made that only the three people who tabled this can bring it back. I do not believe that is the legal way. Might you know, Mr. Mahaland, if that's legal because I know at the state house when we put something on the table, anybody can bring it back. Anybody who is a state rep can bring it back. So therefore, councelor Dunn, would you ask Mr. Councelor Faber where he got that information because I do not believe that is true. And if we have two members of a five member council who have our lawyer on speed dial without the permission of the entire council and we're getting bills that are like 25 and $30,000 a month. This needs to be addressed. It needs to be addressed. Have we accomplished anything this year? I I would really like a list of things that this council has accomplished this year because it appears to me that everything gets pushed down the road. So, Mr. Favored, what legal right you say? Okay. So, is it true that those only you three can take this off the table? Where did that come from? I don't think that's true. Is it true? Answer me. Is that true,

Christina? I will find an answer for you. I do not know the answer. Okay, I would like an answer as soon as possible. What's your answer?

Because to state something to put a noose around people's neck and a noose around the town and having two of you have the c have the lawyer on speed dial and costing me my tax money. I have an issue with that. You have kicked every single thing down the road for a year or for the last 10 months. To get an ethics policy through to take 10 months is ridiculous. So maybe you all can come up with a list of things you've you all have accomplished, not what Mr. Mahaland has accomplished.

Thank you. Two of us don't have the lawyer on speed dial. It's a mischaracterization. Anyone in the council can access Janet Hudelof, five Stony Point Drive. Good evening, London. Hi there. I can answer your question about it's a parliamentary procedure. Robert's rules. When you table an item, there's been a vote. In order to get it back on the table, someone has to make a motion to bring it back and then you have to vote again. Okay? You have to vote, the council has to vote again whether they're going to bring it back. That's the answer for Robert's rules. Thank you. Good evening, Moore. How are you tonight? I am okay. How are you?

Good. I don't like having a noose around my neck. Um, but I do have a question. Um, I know that Dennis asked earlier as to who made the decision to not implement the optional veterans tax credit. And I would actually like to know the answer to that because I did file a right to know request on that. Richard asked that question. Mhm. We're going to get an update and then we can share it. Well, I feel like you should have that. This is my what fifth or sixth time coming before this body and asking that question. Do you normally have people have to come five and six times to ask a question? The next meeting? We try not to. We'll have an update by next meeting.

And the other issue is that I called and went through the process to put an agenda item on for this meeting um to talk about community based block grants for ADUs. Um, and I was told that I would have to have a meeting with the town manager to explain why we can't do that. Um, and I would like to still have my agenda item brought forward because I prepared a presentation and I got presenters. Um, I'd like to know of all the people in this room, who here has a disability? Just me. Who has a relative with a disability? Just me. Who's active in the disability community? Me. Who knows the law regarding disabled people? me and I also have an elderly parent aging in place in this town. So, the reason I'm bringing it forward is because it's an important issue for members of that community and we should be pursuing this especially since the state law just changed. I do not like, as much as everyone seems to think it's okay to assume that everyone is an idiot, that's not always the case and it's not appropriate. So, I would like my item I went through the proper process reinstated for the agenda. That's all.

Thank you, Richard. How are you again tonight? I'm back. Richard Blinsky 8 Hall Road. So, let's finish up a couple of things and a couple of new ones. CIP. Do we Does the town have a definition of what qualifies for a CIP project? It's on the website, Richard. It's on the website. Projects for CIP. Yes. Do we have a def I haven't been able to find it, so it may be written down somewhere. I just I will find that for you. All right. Yep.

That's one. Um, two, the $94,518 was spoken about here tonight that you guys are moving forward. Is that coming out of money that was already appropriated or is that coming out of money that needs to be appropriated? And if so, it was voted to do it, would nobody know where the appropriation was coming from? Because my my concern is we we got like a $325,000 I think it was $325,000 bill estimate, whatever you want to call it from the insurance company they're going to cover for the water damage over there that quite frankly should have never happened. They had a pipe break a year and a half ago and it wasn't fixed proper. The pipe was fixed properly, but they didn't winterize the system. They didn't put antifreeze in it. So we're cleaning up something over there should have never happened. I brought it up when the pipe broke a year and a half ago. of course was ignored. So nobody put antifreeze, hydronulic antifreeze or a circulator pump that goes on automatically in the system so it doesn't sit there stagnant and freeze. So we're cleaning up a mess that should have never happened. Okay. So, and the last one is these raises that are being given out, including the one for the tax collector that and this is nothing against the tax collector, the person. This is this is not sustainable. You ended up giving them $90,2 up from approximately 80,42570. That's an 11.9% increase. Plus, they get their $5,000 stipen for being deputy clerk on top of that. When I look at the original contract, it was for 95350, which is an 18.55% increase. Then you had all those ones

for the 131,000. I've been asking where that money came from forever. And that was like a 15.8% average. And I got a hold of list of other ones that was given to me tonight that somebody did the analysis on, beat me to it. and they're, you know, they're anywhere from like 8 9% up to into the 20s. How long do you think that can be sustained in a community that's an aging community? It's not.

It can't be. So, I'm not saying people aren't entitled to get raises. They have to be reasonable. They have to be what can be afforded by this town. I'm really getting tired coming here bringing this up. Now, we got this MRI report coming out in June. I'm sure that's going to be another fiasco considering that's tied in with the municipal association. So, you know what that's going to say. So, we better take that with a grain of salt when that comes in. Somebody I'm going to say it plainly, somebody's got to get their head out of their ass and figure out what's going on here. All right. I'm tired of talking to people that are leaving this town because they can't afford to stay here. They're on fixed incomes. A lot of them. I think we all know this is an Asian community. As I said earlier, it's not a joke. All right. These are unsubstantain. Where in the in the regular workforce do you get these type of numbers? Occasionally somebody gets a promotion or something and giving you know changing the name of a of a job just to make it look like a promotion so you can give a big raise is an end round. So you all got to work with the town manager and the town manager work. is not sustainable. The position of the tax collector is not even supposed to exist in its current form. Yes, by law, we have to have one. 12 years ago, it was supposed to be absorbed into the into the town clerk's office because they were doing that. But of course, that was another vote that the people voted for and approved

that wasn't implemented. 15 seconds. Okay. So, somebody's got to come up with the answers because these numbers, you just can't keep doing this. You're going to This town's going to be bankrupt at this rate or at least in maybe not bankrupt, but hurting. If you did your own finances this way, you'd be in trouble. But, you know what the hell? We'll just hit up the taxpayer and put them in in the poor farm.

Thank you, Richard. Anybody else a public comment? Good evening.

Marchway 189 Litzfield right road. um you might want to reconsider doing the economic development committee or commission and whether it has power or not does not discount their value. If you take a look at the utilities committee and all that they have accomplished they have no power but look what they've done. I think that same thing can be done with economic development. Thank you.

Good evening sir. Good evening, Tony D. Francesco. I I knew she was going to say that, so I let her go first. So, um I think that we should bring back to Ted's point, economic development director. You could do it as a combo combo problem, combo job. Um town planner, economic development director, make it a combo thing. doesn't cost you hardly anything compared to the line items that are already there. Um, the real reason I came up today was I saw my name um up on the the the slide that the lees uh provided tonight and it said D Franceso Construction and on an annual basis and a bianual basis I remind everybody that is not me.

That is not my family. They are no relation. I have never met them. Mhm.

I don't know what else I can say, but it's not me. And and there there is no it's just like uh we have a Smith in this town. We have more than one Smith in this town that that everyone thought was related to a famous governor uh in the state of New Hampshire. And that's and that's not true either. And so, uh keep that in mind whenever you see that on News9 and all over the place. It's not me. I've never been associated with them. I don't know who they are. I've never met them, but for sure they are not relatives of mine either. Um, I hope you learned from the library issue to Dan's point and and he he said it under his breath. I'll say it out loud and I'll say it louder. That's what happens when you don't do periodic maintenance. It's very clear where the issue is. You can kick the can down the road on a lot of things, but when you kick the can on periodic maintenance, you're ending up costing you yourself more money than less money pennywise. Pound foolish.

Deb. Uh oh.

Trader Joe's. My goodness. Do you own stock in them? You say you say that. You say them constant. Listen, here's how it works. An owner owns land. An owner hires a realtor. The realtor negoti negotiates on behalf of the owner. The town doesn't get involved unless it's blighted and unless the town takes the land over. Now, if you think that that the the realtor hasn't made those phone calls, you're not paying attention because that's how it works because the realtor doesn't get paid until that space is full. So, yikes. the town can't get involved in that stuff. It's a very slippery slope. Um be careful um with with that. Um thanks for what you do. Have a good night.

Thank you, Tony. Anybody else who have a comment? Good, sir. Absolutely. I believe you're the only one left from the from the comments. Correct. Correct. All right. So, I've been waiting patiently to tell you this. I wanted to go home two hours ago, but uh the London Area Police Association, I was texting them throughout this meeting. They're going to make a $900 donation to be I think it's a second from the top, whatever. So, we'll uh we'll take care of that. Tomorrow, we'll get a check out to them for that. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. It's a great way to end the meeting. Anybody else have public comment? Mr. Chair, I do. Okay. Um

can you top that? Not entirely, but um I'd like to address the item again for the petition letters that were put forth to the voters back in March that uh citizen Paul Scler had put forth and at the time I was only one who had signed them and I'd really like to again I believe he's reached out to all four of you to please sign these letters. Um, I'd also like to ask uh town manager Mo Holland uh given your many years of municipal executive experience, have you encountered a similar situation by which a letter generated by the town council or similar body being sent to local state legislators in the governor's office did not have the signatures of all members of the governing body?

No, I've not experienced that to the contrary that the governing body has signed those because it's not a decision of the governing body, it's a decision of the legislative body. You're just simply transferring that from the town to that entity whether it be the federal government or the state government as an email out to that effect which I forwarded out to all of you today. All right. So I would implore you all to please sign these letters that go off to our legislators. All right. If not please respond to citizen uh Paul Scedler upon why you are imploring not to sign them. I did respond to Paul just so you know Ted. Thank you. You're welcome. and I also sat down with him for an hour and a half. So, I responded as well.

Um, anybody else comment? I will close public comment. All right. Up next, pursuant to RSA 91A colon 32B. I need to go into non-public session with a roll call vote. I Holmes. I Dan Bard. I Ron Dunn. I Sean Faber. I Doug Paul. We actually need a second. Oh, a second. Sorry. Sorry. I'll second it. Sorry. All right. One more vote just for the record. I took Holmes. I didn't. Hi, Ron. Done. Hi, Sean. Favor. Imp. Are we not returning? Are we coming back? Okay. Nothing else to do.

Was there something else I don't know about? We have to end the