City Council - Regular Meeting

I'm going to call to order the uh Monday, September 8th, 2025 meeting of Concrete City Council. Before we get started, I'll just remind folks that there are devices available for those who have difficulty hearing. Uh they use a transmitter and headphones uh and allow one to personally adjust the volume to their individual needs. Uh one of these devices may be obtained in the back of the room at the booth where Michael's hand is waving. Uh uh thank you Conquer TV. Uh now would you please all uh stand uh and join me in the pledge of allegiance to the flag. To the flag of the United States of America and to the stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Madame clerk, could you please call the role? Yes. Councelor Brown, here. Mayor Champlain, present. Councelor Fennessy, present. Councelor Foot, present. Councelor Grady Stton here. Council Porn uh excused. Councelor Keech here. Councelor Kick here. Councelor Herz here. Councelor Mclofflin here. Councelor McNamera here. Councelor Schlasher here. Councelor Schultz here. Councelor Sman here. And councelor Todd here. Thank you very much. Uh we now have before us the uh minutes of the August 11th, 2025 city council meeting. Do I have a motion? approved moved and seconded.

Any discussion? All those in favor, please signify by saying I. I. Oppos? No. Eyes have it. That moves us to the consent calendar. Uh I'll note that item 24 has been pulled from consent by councelor Brown. Yes. All right. Do I have a motion? Approved and seconded. All those in favor? Excuse me, your honor. Yes, councel. Um I recuse myself from item number 16. My husband is a member of the police department. Thank you very much. Council council Brown recuses herself from item number 16. Are we ready for the vote? All those in favor, please signify by saying I. Oppos? No.

The eyes have it. That takes us to the public hearing portion of tonight's meeting. Starting with item 31A. Madam City Clerk, it's a resolution appropriating the sum of $859,689 for the Steeplegate Mall municipal sewer pump replacement within the sewer pump station improvements project and accepting the sum of $859,689 in grant funds from the New Hampshire Department of Business and Economic Affairs for this purpose.

Thank you, Mr. City Manager. the honor members of the council. Um I'm going to go a little bit in depth into this report so the community uh is fully aware of this project and what is going to uh what we've done here and what happens next. So this as community is aware I believe in December of 2024 the city was designated as a housing champion by the New Hampshire Department of Business and Economic Affairs. uh as noted in the state's award letter, conquered was designated as a housing champion, quote, is a testament to community's outstanding commitment to fostering an environment that supports innovative and sustainable solutions to address New Hampshire's housing needs. It goes on to say, "The efforts have demonstrated leadership and vision in creating pathways for housing development that positively impact residents and contribute to solving the state's housing crisis." So that's a reflection on the city council's efforts and and work over the last several years. As a housing champion, um we have the ability to apply for $5 million of state grants to assist in infrastructure improvements and other uh initiatives to support housing. So the city coun the city council authorized us to apply for $ 1.75 million. Uh and uh the maximum was the maximum potential that we could apply for the city. Uh one of the projects we applied for was a new sewer pump station that will increase capacity from 91,000 gallons a day to 347,000 gallons per day up in the steeplegate mall area. Specifically areas designated uh located to the west, north, and east of Damonte Drive. The new pump station related sewer main improvements were necessitated largely due to the 2019, so you've been at this for quite a while now, change that permitted residential development in the Gateway Performance

District as the zoning district, which prior to 2019 fostered no residential um non-resident non-residential commercial development at a key areas gateways to the city. In April of this year, the New Hampshire Department of Business Affairs and Economic Affairs designated us 8 $859,869 for the steeplegate mall municipal sewer pump station replacement. Again, the reason it was called Steeplegate Mall, that's the location of where the pump station is. It's owned by the city. Uh the award uh required the city to execute the agreement contract no later than April 25th. On April 18th, I signed the award and under the resolutions, we've moved forward with the project. The governor and council approved the award in June. The final contract was submitted or transmitted to the city at the end of June. As such, staff recommends the city appropriate these funds to support replacement of the pump station. And the funds will provide additional financial resources that will actually then reduce the amount of bonds that we need to borrow and actually help reduce the cost to uh the rateayers uh for the sewer costs. While this grant application was prepared by the community development department, that portion of the high height sewer project pertaining to the new pump station is being managed by the water division Marco out there. Uh the general services department therefore general service department will administer this grant. I'd be glad to answer any questions.

Thank you. Are there any questions for the city manager? Councelor Sik. Thank you, your honor. My only question is that we already you said uh uh the executive council approved everything the money is in correct our accounts. Correct. All you are looking here today is really to move forward to execute the work. Am I to to accept to accept the dollars and we would move forward? We're ready to move forward. So you say go. Y thank you. Any other questions? Is this money going to be part of the $26 million U improvements that from the mall down to the Is this all part of the same?

It's all part of the same thing. There was two pieces of that. One was the the district or the I should say the collection system and the other was the pump station. This is the portion that will go towards the pump station. It's all part of that overall cost of that project. So this money could theoretically reduce some of the obligation that we have. It's exactly what it does. Excellent. Thank you. Congrat. It's the count council project. Other questions.

All right. Hearing none, I'll open this up for a public hearing. Is there anyone who would like to testify on item 31A? Going once, going twice. All right. Seeing none, Madam City clerk, item 31B. It is a resolution authorizing the city manager to enter into a project agreement with the New Hampshire Department of Transportation appropriating the sum of 3,664,480.97 in the Broadway West Street intersection project, accepting the sum of 3,169,4807 of congestion mitigation and air quality grant funds and authorizing the issuance of general obl application bonds and notes in the sum of $495,000 for this purpose.

Thank you. I think I sense a theme here.

Mr. is is this is all all of your hard work coming to uh fruition here. Um November 2022. Uh again, uh the city clerk mentioned the congestion mitigation and air quality grant program, which is federal money that comes down to the Department of Transportation. Otherwise, you'll hear the term CMAC. Uh the CMAC program is fedally funded. It provides 80% of the funds for projects to improve air quality by reducing the amount of vehicular emissions. The grant application was authorized by the city council in 2022. The grant application was filed in early 2023 and the funds are only made available on a 4-year rotating basis. So, you have to get in line and and stay in line and be patient. In 2024, city appropriated $275,000 for preliminary design. In April of 2024, New Hampshire DOT awarded $2.5 million in CMAC grant funds for the project. And at that time, that money was uh predicated upon estimated total cost of about $3.1 million as calculated by the New Hampshire Department of Transportation. In 2026, the capital uh program that you approved included $400,000 for final design and permitting. Um, of this 375,000 were grants which were astrided in the CIP and not appropriated in the in the 26 budget process. However, 25,000 was appropriate. So that this process will take care of all the funding associated with this. Construction improvements is tenatively programmed for the fiscal year 2027 capital improvement program. Design, permitting, and construction of McKe Square will be managed directly by the city via New Hampshire Department of Transportation. This is a local project very much like we did when we managed the SS Falls and built it uh essentially for the state. The uh the projects are transportation projects administered directly by municipalities which are

funded in part by state and federal grants. Uh so you have to actually authorize me to enter into an agreement with the state to be able to manage this project. In July, the city provided us with the required agreements. We reviewed them. We need to adopt the necessary resolutions to authorize me to execute those agreements as well as accept the funds and appropriate the city matching funds. The total estimated project uh which includes design, permitting, rightway, and construction uh currently um programmed by the state is 3 point 3,961,85121. of this $3,169,480.97 is programmed to be supported by the CMAC grant funds which is an increase over the original amount in 2024 and $792,37024 is programmed to be supported by city. So essentially you're getting a $4 million project for $792,000 recognizing previously appropriated city funds in 2024 2026 which total $300,000 is qualifying match for the CMAC grants. Uh once uh once required contract and agreements are in place, work to further refine intersection design alternatives will proceed in community meetings, which council slasher calls us every week and says, "When are we going? When are we going?" Uh will be held to receive input thereon. Uh following community meetings, the final uh preferred design concept we presented to city council. So you you will have it back before you. You'll take a look at it. You will actually approve the design before we proceed uh to full design. And upon acceptance the final design alternative by city council the project will advance the design complete design federal permitting state permitting additionally total costs will be updated in the event that additional fun is required additional CMAC money may be awarded by the state to avail from

available funds and then of course we would need to match that with the 8020 match if that takes place. Presently anticipate the construction will start in the summer of 2027. Be glad to answer any questions. Any questions for the city manager? Councelor Brown.

Yes. Have there been any um community meetings or sharetses about this intersection? Because I've recently heard from some folks who live in that area who have said that um there's a couple of times that it might be congested, but for the most part, it's not. And they, you know, are not in favor of the of the roundabout. They would like options. That's what I've heard. There's been a series of Matt. Do you want to talk to of discussions and community meetings over time?

Intersection in the city are one of them and has been for a long time. as part of this process. Um, so we we were going forward with conceptual designs when the city thought we're going to go it alone and fund it with our own dollars and then when the grant came along, we're actually going to pause, take two steps back and what um part of the the LPA process with the Department of Transportation is there will be uh a review of alternative design. So if my I would anticipate that it would not just be a roundabout that would look be looked at. I think there are going to be other options that will be looked at. Um there will be an analysis of pros and cons, a discussion with the community. We will then coales hopefully around a preferred concept and we'll go forward. So um that's my long way of saying that there will be additional public meetings so community can provide their input on what they think the intersection needs and what they think the best solution is for it.

So I just want to clarify so that this is not definitely going to be a roundabout. We are just saying that we are definitely going to do something in with this intersection. We're going to do something there. A roundabout's long contemplated, but the DOT process will require us to look at alternative intersection improvements, not a roundabout, and then we'll make a community decision about what we're going to do. All right. Thank you very much. Thank you. Any other questions? And again, city council has final say. Whatever you want, as long as we can get it by the state and the feds, that's what we'll build. All right. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Walsh.

You're welcome. We'll now open this to a public hearing. Is there anyone who would like to testify in item 31B? Yes, ma'am. Please come up. Council Predic is leaping to your aid. Welcome. Please identify yourself.

Nancy Gilbo. Uh I am a I call Tucker's my kitchen. So what I would like to know is I read about this roundabout come long time ago when it was first talked about. I having lived in the South End many many years ago on South Street know that that whole Broadway, South Street, Clinton Street is a mess right now and it does. We have a lot of standing traffic. So, um I'm wondering is are all of those streets going to be considered a part of this design?

Okay. Yes. Actually, yes. We also wanted to look at that time and look at West Street and particularly because of West Street comes across and you see that you know of course we have the fire station right there. It's very dangerous coming up West Street. Absolutely. Absolutely. Where you've got Broadway right there and West Street coming together. That's what complicates it in terms of the size of the intersection. Really very quite large. Now do does the city own all of that grass land where Gford store was when I was a kid and the skating rink? It's the park.

The park. Yeah. I'm sorry. I don't know what a difference but yeah yes yes the yes uh they own all that and actually if I remember correctly m a large section of the parking lot related to tuckers okay but I'm talking about the grassy area yeah all that is all city that's city property now okay that's we have a lot a lot of land we have a lot to work with should be able to come up with a good solution yeah I appreciate that I one of my worries thank you for bringing I'd just like to say I appreciate someone who knows something that Tom doesn't know about the city. So, thank you very much for your testimony this evening. It's a rare occasion.

I am 8 Oh, soon to be 86 years old. So, just a couple years old just Is there anyone else who would like to testify? My goodness, she's on the wall for 86.

All right, seeing none, I'll declare the public hearing closed. Madam City Clerk, item 31 C. It's a resolution authorizing the city manager to enter into a utility agreement with the state department of transportation for the construction of water distribution infrastructure improvements as part of the state's bridge rehabilitation project at the east side drive bridge appropriating the sum of $300,000 in the water main replacement project and authorizing the issuance of general obligation bonds and notes in the sum of $300,000 for this purpose. Thank you, Mr. city clerk. M There you go. Uh the city had no promote. Yeah. I can't promote

demoted. It got No, I got That's a promotion. That's a popular

Exactly. Uh so the the project itself it includes a 16inch water man through both the north and the south parapit walls new 24inch steel uh casing piping on either side of the bridge expansion joints transition couplings temporary 12-in water man to maintain service during construction and other associated fillings uh fittings is recommended to be completed during the New Hampshire DOT bridge rehab rehabilitation project. uh they've offered to include the water improvement work as part of their construction project on the bridge. However, this arrangement requires a utility agreement. So, you need to approve that for me to enter into that as well as funding for the city's improve share of the improvement. We estimate that'll be between 250 and $300,000. So, we're asking for $300,000 approval to do this work all at the same time. That would save us money in the future and obviously we'll only spend absolutely the minimum amount that we need to spend. Glad to answer any questions. Any questions for the city manager?

Councelor Curts. Thank you. This bridge work is um essential and needed, right? This is one of the bridges that absolutely needs to be is there are one of the red line bridges. This is that's correct. This is this is one of the bridges that the state really wants to do and we really want really want to do it and we're just going to piggyback on. Perfect. With this. We just want to make sure people up the east side have water. Yeah. Seems like a reasonable requirement. Any other questions for the city manager? All right, seeing none, I'll open the public hearing. Is there anyone who'd like to testify on item 31C? Miss Gilboy.

This one definitely. Again, Nancy Gilbo. I live at 54 East Drive. right at the bridge. Yeah. Um, welcome back

with this water main business. I'm wondering, there's three houses. There's two on the westly side of East Side Drive and then I'm between Partridge Road and the on-ramp to 393. How far is that going to affect our water, our water and our pressure or whatever? No, actually no. Uh, let me let me bring one of our best people. Marco, you want if I Marco Filipon, um, he is the water he's the one in who provides all the water to your house on a on a daily basis. He's coming for he carries the bucket customer. Hopefully you're a good state. Oh yeah,

Marco Philipon, water superintendent. Yes, absolutely. I can speak to this. So during this process, your water service will not be interrupted at all. That's actually the temporary water man that was actually mentioned prior to. So when they're doing the uh the bridge work, they're going to be basically pulling the deck off and then after they're doing that, we'll install a temporary water mane maintaining service to everybody. Then we will disconnect the existing water man while everything is routed through the temporary. Then they'll replace the so we won't lose pressure our water or so. Uh so I can't talk but have any problems at all. We're not talking. He's the clean water guy. Okay. There's a hydrant too that's just um the west side

to the north and the south. Yeah, absolutely. Service will not be interrupted at all. God bless us when that happens. I'll tell you that's going to be a nightmare traffic wise. Yeah, the water will be fine. You won't notice a thing on the water side. Traffic on that. That'll be the state. You you give your number so she knows who to contact. We are not there. That's why when that bridge was built Yeah. Okay. I We had the state wanted to build our garage, turn our garage around on Patridge Road. Oh, no kidding. Yeah. Because we have a 25 uh a rightaway. The state has a rightway in from the front of my house. And I had to go as far as governor and council. Wow. Wow.

To get them to say, "All we need is a U driveway. We're not going to back through four lanes of traffic." Makes sense. Yeah. But it went all the way to Malcolm Mlan and he said, "Finally, this is what we need to do. Why do we need to turn that garage around?" Yeah. So anyway, if you have a problem, if you have a problem, you let me know. I don't have a problem. No. If you if during the project during the project or your counselor or your counselor or your counselor may always call me. You know where I live. I do know where you live. We all do now. The whole city. The whole city indeed.

If you can find me home, I may be in California. Would anyone else like to testify on this item? We're good. Then I will declare the public hearing closed. Madam city clerk, item 31D. It's a resolution authorizing the city manager to enter into a payment in le of taxes agreement between Karge Old Turnpike Road LLC in the city of conquered.

Mr. City Manager members of the council in 2023 in request to a request for proposal which was reviewed with city committees and city council. The city selected a proposal submitted by Kerarge Ker Old Turnpike Road LLC um to install, own, operate, maintain, and ultimately decommission a fully ballasted groundmounted solar photovotelic system to be located at the cap landfill located at 75 Turnpike Drive. The total capacity of the solar installation is approximately 5 megawatts alternating current and is and is planned to utilize approximately 23.36 acres of the 52.9 acre cap landfill. The project construction is expected to begin this month and is to be completed by the end of this year. The proposal submitted by KG offered payments of approximately $3 million over the next 20 years which is split between lease payments and pilot payments. There will also be annual payments resulting from the group net metering agreement. Of course, that depends on energy that's um uh actually created with respect to the payment l of taxes. RSA72 col 74 allows municipalities to enter into pilot agreements with renewable generation facilities. I give you example. We already have one with Essex Hydro and you need to make sure when you do these payment L tax agreements that they're uh they're equitable with other payment payment agreements that you have the payment L tax agreement is for 20 years which is determined the agreement in the event that lease is renewed a new agreement would be uh negotiated with city council. The annual payments to the city are proposed to be a flat fee of $98,729 unless adjusted due to changes in the project, meaning the scope of the project, the costs. In the event that the uh payment is adjusted due to cost of the project, the lease payments will be adjusted to ensure the city is receiving the full amount of the

anticipated payments. The attached payment agreement uh with city of conquered in Kis will be reviewed and agreed upon by parties and require city council approval which is what you're here for tonight to allow me to execute the agreement on on your behalf. The statue of the city council acceptance of proposed follow must be noted uh must be made after a public hearing which is why you have the public hearing today. Be glad to answer any questions. Questions for the city manager. Right. Seeing none, I'll open the public hearing. Is there anyone who would like to testify on item 31D? Seeing none, I close the public hearing. Madam city clerk, item 31E.

It is a public hearing to determine whether the city council should place the social district question on the municipal ballot. Thank you, Mr. City Manager.

Yeah. Uh so, uh today is September 8th. So, if applicable city council needs to hold a public hearing, it's really just to take public input to determine whether or not you want to place this question on the ballot. Uh, if the if you vote to place it on the ballot, um, it would be the November 4th election. And this would allow is really the last opportunity to add that question to that ballot. You need to make that decision tonight about whether or not you want to move forward with that. Um, our deputy city solicitor is here to answer any questions, but unless John, do you have anything you wanted to add to that in the report or just come up for comfort? Just kind of

fire questions. I'm at I'm at closer range now. No, we discussed this uh last uh last month when we met. Um this is uh you scheduled it for a public hearing to uh receive input on uh whether to place uh social districts on the on the ballot. Um social districts are uh designated areas where um pre-existing liquor licenses could sell and uh patrons could uh travel in in uh a common area after receiving a beverage in from those licenses. So um happy to answer any questions. Council Brown. Yes. uh if we say no, we're not going to put it on the ballot, then what happens?

Okay, so if then we would not for the next two years be able to enact a social district at that point in time. Um and then that could be revisited in November of 2027. Um at that point, other municipalities may have addressed it and obviously uh one of the other things that we discussed is uh the liquor commission is supposed to adopt um uh rules related to social districts. They obviously haven't had the opportunity to do that yet because uh the legislation is so new and we'll make it takes at least six months. Um so you if you say no and don't want to put it on now, you can uh readress it in two years. Councelor uh great.

Thank you, your honor. Um can if we were to reject this uh this evening, can the public petition to have this put on the ballot? they at this point they would not have time to place it on the ballot for this election. So u that would be open to uh the public again in 2027. So really we're at the end of the time period um where we can address the November ballot. Thank you. Council Kurts. Thank you. Should we elect to put this on the ballot? What will the language of the ballot question be or is that yet to be determined? No, it is prescribed uh by the statute and it is literally shall we allow the operation of social districts within the city. Follow followup

at that point in this hypothetical we allow it. It's on the ballots it's approved. What controls does city council then have or who determines the parameters around said social districts? city council would uh still have the ability to identify the district and the maintenance plan um that is u that is called for in the statute. So um if you decided to put it on the ballot and it was approved and uh the city decided along with potential lenses to identify an area, we would still have to come back to you um to get approval to actually uh establish the district um and establish the rules that will go around the district.

Am I correct? I'm going to just interject here. Am I correct though that those rules would have to be approved by the state liquor commission. Correct? They they would uh there's a little bit of lack of clarity. There's in the statute it says that there needs to be a maintenance plan and we would have to identify the boundaries, the rules, the hours, and the days and and submit that to the commission. Um what uh approval or disapproval they may have at that point in time if we're in compliance with all of the laws is unclear to me. Uh so I don't know that they we would need to notify uh I believe right now as the statute's written it's more of a notification to the commission um uh as opposed to requesting.

Thank you. Uh let me see councelor M. Um so if this were to go through if you have no business who wants to participate would that just put at a standstill?

It would. Um I think if we were going to establish a district obviously you would need licenses who would want to sell into the district. Um and so this would be you know I don't want to speak to um you know I I deal with the legality of it not the practicality of if we but we would need I think businesses who would want to participate who are in close proximity to one another so that we could create a district because these have to be cont continuous um areas. So we would need licences that are in close proximity to one another so that we could identify that that location. Followup.

So if you had multiple businesses who want to participate in this, maybe you had two that were in proximity and one was not. I know this is we don't answer for this, but there would have to be some discussion on do we eliminate one or how do we manage all of those? Correct.

Correct. Well, they would still have uh to participate. There are things that they would need to do to be able to participate in the social district. So if we drew a social district boundary around and there was a lency within that district who did not want to participate, they would not have to because there are um they they have to uh label their uh beverages and they would have to abide by certain rules relating to the social district. So theoretically they could opt out by just not participating in that way. Council credit.

Thank you. Um, speaking of hypotheticals, you did mention rules, hours, and days are part of this legislation. So, hypothetically speaking, if it were market days, and three local restaurants that happen to be right around Bsentennial Square in a contained area could ask the city during market days if they could have a social district that they then control. um people coming in, people coming out, but then they would be able to potentially have alcohol in bysentennial square during market days in a limited amount of time if this was something that the the city adopted as a social district, hours, days,

right? So, hypothetically, um I think to to instead of addressing a specific area, addressing this could be very temporary. Um, if you so chose to just say we want to do this for three days, whether it be market days or some other limited time period, um, my understanding of the of the legislation is that you can set up the social district with a very defined period of time for operation both in terms of which days you'll allow, which hours you will allow. So, um, I believe that hypothetical is correct. Thank you. Uh, Council Kee,

thank you. Uh, just a quick question. Um, I'm first of all, I'm very supportive of this, but uh, if it rolled out and two years later we found out it was a disaster, we would have the ability to obviously shut it shut it down. Correct. You would be able to put it back on the ballot to uh to uh, have it rescended.

So, would have Well, there's two there's two layers of approval here, right? there is the baseline layer of ballot approval to say as a as a as a municipality are we allowing this at all. The council would still have authority to approve uh districts or not on a basis as long as that approval is given by the voters. Um I think theoretically voters could resend that approval in two years.

Okay. Uh I saw councelor Todd, councelor Schultz, councelor Seku, councelor Fanny. Thank you, your honor. Uh, councelor Keech's question is kind of what I was thinking in case folks are confused out there. So, let's just do another hypothetical if you don't mind. Uh, we decide to go ahead and put this on the ballot and then the voters will decide one way or the other as to whether or not they would allow this entity called a social district to uh exist in the city. Um, if the if the obviously if the voters decide no, then we do not have the option and we're done. If the voters decide yes, that does not necessarily mean that uh just because uh entities that have liquor licenses can because of the the vote, they can automatically just create a district. They can say, "Okay, we're we're signing up. We're going to create this district." In other words, the council would be be able to uh has to make the final decision as to whether or not to allow a district with the parameters of it as you were describing earlier. And then as council Keats suggested, then if in fact it it didn't work out for some reason, would it not then be the council's prerogative to simply say no, we are we are disbanding this?

That is that is correct. Um so I would think of it as the voters are allowing or giving the city council the power or the tool to use that. Um it's up to the city council to exercise that power how they see fit in terms of whether they want to set up the district. if they have an experiment where they're not happy with how it goes, certainly the city council does not need to approve any further social districts at that point in time.

Thank you. U and with that, I would assume that uh it would also be the council's prerogative to hold a public hearing. In other words, we could have a a district designed and we could hold a public hearing to get public input as to whether or not they approved that or they thought it was good or had suggestions. There could be a process for that as well. I certainly believe that would be within the city council's prerogative to do um before making a final decision on approving a social. Thank you. You councelor Schulz. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um so the language is what the legislature says we put on the ballot. Are we allowed to add anything any clarifying if we felt we needed to?

I don't believe so. I believe that because the statute is prescriptive of saying this is what is on the ballot. That is the wording that we are we are locked into. Quick followup. Followup. Are we allowed to if we wanted to I don't know if we want to do any sort of clarifying um information like we do in other pieces of election material to help inform voters.

I don't think there would be any harm. I know there's voter information uh booklets that are given. Um, I'll also say that the statute requires a a further public hearing before uh the election. So, if you decide tonight to move forward uh to put the question on the ballot, we would have another public hearing um at your likely at your October meeting, we'd have to have it between 15 and 30 days before the vote. Um and again, the the purpose of that is so that voters are educated on the ballot initiative before they go to the polls. Great. Thank you. Thank you, council second.

Thank you. And I think K asked my first question but uh I have my second question because I think we are asking about what is the process of if this happened or this happened. I'm more interested I I do understand we have the authority to put it on the ballot. We have the authority once it pass to limit where the district goes. what would be the city um responsibility if it come to accountability wise because I know we don't sell the uh liquor at all but we do have certain responsibility because we allow that. Yes. Could you please speak to that?

So we would have to create what's called a maintenance plan within the statute. It's not very entirely clear I think all of the elements of the maintenance plan that are going to be required by the commission. Um, but we would be responsible for the boundaries, for marking the boundaries, uh, for having signage up. Um, I believe that it's very likely that the commission will want to know what we're going to do in terms of policing those areas. Um, there need to be disposal areas around the boundaries because um, people cannot exit the social districts once you set that up. They cannot exit the social districts with a drink. They have to be disposed of before they exit. So right now what we know is that we have to create a maintenance plan and we know those are the basics of the maintenance plan. We I assume that the um the rules that come out from the liquor commission will provide further details on what a municipality's responsibilities are with respect to um maintaining that district um policing that district and those other things. But in terms of what's in the statute itself, those are the things in terms of setting the boundaries, signing the boundaries, and making sure that nobody's going outside those boundaries.

Yes. So my understanding is that once we reach to that point to implement that maintenance plan, what would be the key players means those people that want to be part of the district? Are they going to be able to be part of that maintenance plan or just a city responsibility? It the statute doesn't speak to that specifically, but it would seem to make sense that you would want to have communications with the people who are going to be participating within the social district um in order to uh work with them on what the city's maintenance plan is going to look like. Follow up.

Thank you, your honor. Last but not least, I'm just trying to see because when we vote or when things move forward, the responsibility of the city is critical here and especially when it come to alcohol and the safety of the community that we serve because it's open, right? Even though they don't take alcohol, people drink, they move out of that area. And last time when you brought it to us, I asked of the people that sell the alcohol have the responsibility to cut them off when it's time or whatever. That's not our responsibility. Other than the maintenance plan that you listed, our responsibility is very limited. It looks like

I would say that it is setting up the boundaries. Again, we don't have any responsibility with regard to the service of the alcohol at all. That remains the responsibility of the lency. Um, with respect to setting up where the boundaries are, making sure that it's signed and clear where the boundaries are. We do have to post ahead of time to let people know these are the hours, these are the days, this is the Um, these are, you know, likely you would want to say these are the participating entities because again they can only take certain drinks that are labeled from a participating entity into the social district. Um, so sort of maintaining the the the uh the perimeter of that area is going to be where the city is going to have the responsibility there. Thank you.

Okay. Thank you. Any other questions? Council. Yes. Thank you. Can you speak to more uh more about the rules coming out of the the liquor commission? When or when is that expected? So the legislation just passed. It was signed in July. Um and from what I understand there is not emergency rule making uh associated with this. So um again I I don't have any special knowledge with respect to these rules. Just in general rule making on the state level is a six to ninemonth process. Um so my expectation is um this would probably be we would probably see something from them early in the calendar year.

Uh Mr. Confori, I uh I had three really good questions from a constituent who emailed us, Mr. Cadet. Um and uh I think that all of them have really kind of been addressed. He asked if we could share a skeleton idea of what a maintenance plan would entail. I think we've done that in response to the questions. Um, he asked he he asked if the police department could comment on possible law enforcement concerns, mitigations. I think that the police department is not here tonight, but you I think addressed that to a certain extent. U and also he asked uh about discussing the potential advertising of an exclamation explanation of what this actually is as people go to the polls. And I think you addressed that in terms of the second public hearing that we would have in October should this body decide to place this on the ballot uh for uh the uh voters in November. Um was there um any financial impact statement on this piece of legislation that that maybe looked at what it might cost municipalities to for our end of the of the deal?

I don't believe so. Uh your honor, right? I I I don't I recall seeing in either um my research on this a u a financial impact on municipalities. Um and it's not indicated in the in the session number or the bill number that there was an FN done. Um so I I don't think that one was done. I'm not 100% certain, but I don't believe so. I suspect it wasn't, but thank you. It's not atypical when the only impact would be to the municipality that that gets overlooked. I understand. Thank you. Seeing no other questions from the council, I'll thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Is there anyone who would like to testify on this? Please come forward.

Welcome.

Thank you. Good evening. My name is Kate Fry. I'm the vice president of advocacy at New Futures and I'm also a city of uh conquered city resident. Um so I am here to testify uh regarding um provide public testimony on social districts. I will say New Futures is not taking a position on whether or not um an item should be on a ballot. I think that's a uh consideration for local control. I will say as a city council member or a city uh resident when I go to the polls every two years and I see these questions and I have no idea what they mean. I would advise the city council to do a lot of education. I've worked 10 years in alcohol policy. I didn't know what the term social district meant till last year. So uh those are just um off-the-top um comments. One of the reasons I'm here to testify is because I think the misleading um coverage around social districts. Um this is something that has happened in other states nationally. Um it has uh worked very well in some cases, but it has worked I think um from a public health prevention point of view when it's a community district. The social district is focused on the community and not the drinking. You have communities like um Virginia Beach and other areas where the focus is completely drinking and then you have other more rural communities that the focus is more on culture and community. And so I would encourage the city council to look from the angle of how can we support our community. Um so just a few points and I have written testimony. Um we are non nonpartisan organization. We work on the health and wellness of New Hampshire residents through policy change. We've worked extensively with policymakers and prevention partners to prevent and reduce alcohol drug problems in the state. While proponents of social

districts uh have indicated the creation of these districts will be a boom from communities from an economic point perspective, it's really important to remember that social districts in their very nature will increase access to alcohol and alcohol consumption in communities. Wellestablished research has established that increased alcohol consumption is linked to social problems including domestic violence, traffic accidents, crime among any other pro many other problems. These negative impacts extend beyond just individuals to families, communities and societies. So therefore, the social district should be really thoughtfully and carefully established by local governments with clear and controlled zones while ensuring public health and safety and implementing measures that support prevention efforts. um and neg reduce negative impacts. Uh I think it was really well explained um what the statute included and what needed to be covered. We work with a lot of national organizations that I said identify best practices for the social districts and communities. Um we asked the city council to carefully consider the clear geographic zone, define the boundaries of the social district and report file that map to the liquor commission which is required by statute. set hours and days and clearly establish and communicate the specific hours. We would strongly encourage this community to establish a temporary districts around community special events or festivals and not ongoing permanent districts. We would also suggest avoiding events that are targeted towards youth like conquered Halloween. Um part I would really conquer has some great partners in prevention. Um some are around the table tonight. um and substance misuse prevention and other prevention partners should be at the table when establishing the plan and the maintenance plan along with law enforcement. Um the uh ordinance should be very clear and uh

you do want to provide adequate enforcement. I think it was um well described by the attorney. There are a lot of things to think about as far as um you know people have to leave the area. You have to think about trash. You have to think about um where will you zone be? Will it affect the traffic patterns at all? Might not be the case here, but that's a big problem in other states that have taken on social districts. Um a key in public health is evaluation. So, I would say your maintenance plan should have a very clear outline of what you will be evaluating. Are there increased um traffic accidents? Are there concerns around um drunk driving? Was there service to somebody who is underage? All of those things should be evaluated as well. Um, industry circular. I will say I've been working with the New Hampshire Look at Commission Division of Enforcement. They will have an industry circular that will be posted soon. I uh just texted to see what the timeline would be for rules. uh the language is very vague about what they would be writing rules on. So I'm not sure if that will give you um more direction at the industry circular may um as well and I can forward that when that's out. Um but I think that's

great. Thank you. Uh any questions from this prize? Council second. Thank you very much for your testimony tonight. You gave few example related to Virginia Beach what worked in some communities what didn't work and I really loved the community and culture support aspect of it could you please speak a little about it what community has done and done well when it come to this objective of community and cultures

one um one state in particular that has really taken on social districts has been North Carolina and some of the more rural areas of that. Um I was at a presentation a few years ago where their focus was really about um again the community, the culture, bringing families together. Um yes, the social district did involve drinking, but the focus wasn't drinking. the focus was um events directed towards kids, family events, um uh tableabling by local uh nonprofit organizations that may be a resource for families that they did not know existed. So taking that model as opposed to Virginia Beach and other beach communities where the emphasis is as you can imagine um just heavy drinking um and that's the focus um you know stepping away from that and really uh I think what conquer does really well is um you know recognize and appreciate um families and the importance of community and families. So I think if that resonates within the plan for your social district it could be very successful. Thank you. Other questions?

Well, thank you very much. Appreciate it. Thank you. Would anyone else like to testify on this item, item 31?

Seeing none, I'll declare the public hearing close. That brings us to the public hearing action portion of our meeting. Madame City Clerk, item 32. It's a resolution appropriating the sum of $859,689 for this steeplegate mall municipal sewer pump replacement within the sewer pump station improvements project and accepting the sum of $859,689 in grant funds from the New Hampshire Department of Business and Economic Affairs for this purpose. Second.

Motion is moved and seconded. any discussion. Right. Uh I'll just say this is one more example of the good work of our city administration in capturing outside funds to uh helps uh minimize the impact uh on taxpayers of major infrastructure projects. Mr. Walsh and his team. Thank you very much. All right. All those in favor of the motion, please signify by saying I. I.

Oppos? No. Eyes have it. Madam City Clerk, item 33. Uh I'm sorry, eyes have it by the uh necessary twothirds vote. MCL. Uh, it is a resolution authorizing the city manager to enter into a project agreement with the New Hampshire Department of Transportation appropriating the sum of 3,664,480.97 in the Broadway West Street intersection project, accepting the sum of 3,169,480.97 of congestion mitigation and air quality grant funds and authorizing the issuance of general obligation bonds and notes in the sum of $495,000 for this purpose.

Move approval. Second. Moved and seconded. Any discussion? Council Schlasser. Yeah. I'm just would like to comment a little bit on the last note you just made, Mr. Mr. Mayor. The long history of this just shows how long and how much work is involved in these kind of projects and how much work our city staff did in procuring funds uh from the state for these projects. So, I just want to appreciate the work of community development department and maybe others involved in this to obtain these funds for this city. So, thank you. Thank you, councelor. Any other comments? All right. All those in favor of the motion as presented, please signify by saying I opposed. No.

Eyes have it. Madam city clerk, item 34 by the necessary twothirds majority. Item 34 is a resolution authorizing the city manager to enter into a utility agreement with the state of New Hampshire for the construction of water distribution infrastructure improvements as part of the state's bridge rehabilitation project at the east side drive bridge appropriating the sum of $300,000 in water main replacement project and authorizing the issuance of general obligation bonds and notes in the sum of $300,000 for this purpose. Thank you. So moved. Moved. Second. Moved and seconded. Any discussion?

All those in favor of the motion as presented, please signify by saying I. I. Opposed. No. Eyes have it. Motion passes by the necessary twothirds majority. M city clerk. Item 35. It is a resolution authorizing the city manager to enter into a payment in lie of taxes agreement between Ker Old Turnpike Road LLC and the city of conquer. Move approval. Second. Moved and seconded. Any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor of the motion as presented, please signify by saying I. I. No. Eyes have it. I have city clerk. Item 36. It was a public hearing to determine whether the city council should place the social district question on the municipal ballot. Move approval.

Second. Moved and seconded. Any discussion?

Councelor uh McNamera. Um, I spent a lot of time thinking about this and I can't say I'm pro or against this, but I am concerned at how this feels very rushed. And for it to be rushed, we're going to have to do extreme due diligence if it passes to make it very clear on what needs to happen. There are six communities in Michigan who have put this in place and there was um an echo among all of them that we needed more police surveillance, we had more trash, we had more cars. I don't think it's a problem for us because we just had a survey done that shows that we have plenty of parking. But um because of the things that I saw as concerns in other communities for our community, we need to really make sure that it's clear that we're looking at the values, family values, and bringing the people who deal with substance abuse, drug and or alcohol to the table, all these conversations. That's my concern that I think that we'll have to really do some due diligence around.

Thank you, Councelor. Councelor Brown. Yes, I agree with U. Council Mcamera, I do feel like this is rushed. Um on the parking committee, we heard about different initiatives that other municipalities were taking and we thought this is great. Let's watch and wait and see how things go. And I think that would be the best course of action now because this legislation did just pass and the rules aren't out there yet. Let's there's no harm in waiting. According to the report, we already are able to have um small districts. Um, so I don't think there's any need to rush forward with this council. Counselor uh Schultz. Yay. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um, I was yang because

I don't got the right name this time.

Yes. Um, first of all, weirdly, I've heard more about this topic recently than a lot of other topics I usually hear about. So, that's interesting. which leads to my more salient second point which is I do trust the voters in conquered and I therefore will be supporting this because of that and also third I do agree that the voter education piece is important I don't know if this is a good idea or not but should you want to do some sort of an ad hoc committee to come up with language or a PDF or whatever that needs to be I would love to help. I think that um you know we can include the pertinent information that we think should be um helpful to people but you know because not everybody reads the paper anymore. I do think though that I trust the people of conquered to um discern and make a choice.

Thank you councelor councy.

Thank you. Um I do think everything's moving a little fast but I do have a great deal of trust in the voters having the opportunity to make a decision. Um, I I guess I'm not as concerned about sort of the speed at which things are moving because I think if it gets on the ballot in November, that's really the first step. And that would just simply be giving us the authorization to put in place a process. And I think um you know realistically we're probably at least a year away from any sort of social districts being assuming it gets on the ballot. Assuming it's approved, you're still going to have some significant time before there's rules in place. So uh I'm fairly comfortable with this moving forward at least on the ballot.

Thank you councel council. Thank you your honor. Um I concur with uh uh councelor Feny. I'm less concerned about the speed. Um, I do want to hear from the voters um if it is approved. Uh, as a council, we have the prerogative to slow the whole thing down until we're clear with the what the rules are and what it should look like. So, again, step one is the community want it or not. If they do, uh, then we can take our time crafting the rules and coming up with a a strict um, approach to it. So, I'm I'm less concerned about the the rush part. Thank you. Any other comments? Councelor Todd.

Thank you, your honor. Uh, yes, I'm in agreement with councelor Schultz's comments. Uh, I when there's a whenever there's an opportunity for the voters to decide, I'm always in favor of that and I think that we should give them that opportunity here. We did that several years ago with Kino. Uh, so we we find in a few years, another dozen years, this may come back to us as, well, now you got to you got to opt out. But, uh, for now, we have the opportunity to opt in. I think we should let the public decide that through the vote. Thank you. Thank you, councelor. Council Credit.

Thank you. I I agree with most of the comments that have been made around the table, even those that are worried that it is a rush, but the most important item that I heard from our legal counsel is we can slow the process down. And so I think that because we do maintain control and we could say no to any um request that comes ahead of us, we're also very measured in what we do. when we looked at outdoor seating in the downtown, it was a committee that looked at that and I think that we would act just as well if the voters decided that we even wanted this. And again, the trust in the voters was a really good comment and I appreciate that. Councor,

thank you, your honor. Um, I would just say that I if uh we were to um to pass it tonight and and the voters were to pass the measure on the ballot that um this item be sent to the public safety advisory board to work closely with the fire and police departments, any other stakeholders to address the issues that I think um Miss uh Frey uh outlined in her testimony u because I think all of those were very real uh potential public safety concerns. Thank you. also second.

I just want to take this opportunity also to say that what new features Miss Frey just stated made me feel very comfortable with it because at first I didn't know what is the accountability and of course the challenges but taking this opportunity to explain that social district doesn't have to do with alcohol only it can do with family and everything else I think um I'm very comfortable and of course giving our uh the city voters an opportunity to speak to it. It's a great opportunity as well. So I have no concern about the speed because as councelor said, it's just first process. The rest will deal with it when the time come.

Thank you, Councelor Brown.

Yes. Um and I appreciate that we um have the opportunity to slow this down and we do want to hear from voters. My concern is with how vague the question is. Shall we allow the operation of social districts within the city? There are no social districts because this law was just passed. So there is nothing for our residents to go and see to experience for themselves in New Hampshire. So while I definitely think we should hear from voters, I don't think this gives us enough time to educate them about what social districts truly are. So, I think um we have plenty of time to let the rules come out, to have other communities be the guinea pig uh that we can look to see what works, what doesn't um and for people to understand what a social district a social district truly looks like in New Hampshire.

Thank you, counselor. Anyone else?

Right. I I'm going to say that I will be voting in favor of this measure. Um I I do share some of the concerns uh you know in terms of the speed with which this is coming uh being handed to us by the legislature in terms of not wanting to make sure we do this right in terms of us having a family-friendly downtown and the fact that we want to maintain that. But I also as councelor Schultz so eloquently stated I have great faith in the voters of of conquered. Um I do think that it is incumbent upon us to do what we can to educate the voters. I think that the public hearing that will be held next month in October at this uh city council meeting, that's a great opportunity for all of us who are counselors who all communicate with our constituents to let them know and to urge people to come out and testify uh so that there is a robust public conversation that can be reported in local media so that people are educated and if there are other efforts that we can uh make uh you know on the city's behalf to inform people more fully I think we should take uh those actions as well. Um, and if the voters decide that this is something that they would like to see in conquered, uh, in terms of what Miss Frey said, I think it would be great for us to also besides our safety services individuals also have some social service uh, organizations at the table uh, to talk about what the ramifications are so that as we frame our maintenance plan, we do it in a very intentional, very careful way uh, that ensures that we maintain what concrete is today. uh as we look at this new option for us. So I will be as I said voting in favor of this measure. Are we ready for the question?

Yes. All those in favor of the motion as presented. The motion is to approve this and put this on the ballot for November. Uh all those in favor of the motion as presented, please signify by saying I. I oppose. No. No. Eyes have it. This brings Mr. City Manager. And just as a clarification, not clarification, just um just What we would then do is we would add this to the October agenda. You have a public hearing as part of a way to explain it to folks. So that by your approval, I'm taking that also as putting this on the October agenda as a for public hearing. Yes. Correct. That's correct.

This moves us to reports. Uh we have a report I believe from Mr. Comfort on another item that is going to go on the legislaturator's been up to more. Council Schultz, what do you voted against?

If you like the speed of social districts, you're going to love the speed of Kino. Um, so the legislature uh uh in 2017 passed uh RCA 28451, which authorized the uh lottery game, Kino. Um, at that time there was a local option attached to Kino uh whereby the game could only be uh offered in municipalities that had approved um the sale of Kino within their borders. Um in 2017 um that was brought before this body. Um they decided to put the local option on the ballot um and it was rejected by voters. Um and since that time kino has not been offered in conquered um pursuant to the statute. This session uh there was a house bill 737 which uh among other things amended RSA 28451 essentially flipping the language there. um it kept the local option, but the local option now reads that uh Kino is default authorized unless a municipality votes to uh to uh deny uh approval. Um so, uh we have gone from having to authorize Kino to as municipality needing to decide whether to prohibit it. Um that uh particular change does not come into effect until June 1 of 2027. However, as you know, uh our only election between now and that date will be in November. Um this bill was signed in August uh on August 1, 2025. So this is really our first opportunity to get it in front of you. Um so at this time um unfortunately again with great speed um you are going to have to decide whether to place a prohibition of Kino on the ballot. Um as with the other statute, the language is uh prescripted.

of it is shall we prohibit the operation of Kino games within the city of conquered at least that one is a little more uh clear I think to the average voter and obviously there's more knowledge of Kino now that it's been in the public consciousness for the last eight years. Um so uh happy to take any questions but essentially the very short way of saying this is Kino was an opt-in. It's now been changed by the legislature to an opt out and uh the question is whether would like to put that opt out on the ballot. Questions Mr. Councelor Schllas. So what's your opinion about whether our previous ballot question would uh satisfy the requirement to put the vote put the issue to the voters?

Uh in terms of whether the pre the previous ballot question is basically answers the question already. I don't believe so because essentially at that point there was the question was whether to authorize uh kino. This is now a question of whether to prohibit which are very closely related but not exactly the same. Council Brown. Thank you. So, uh, if we don't do anything, um, if we say we're not going to put this on the ballot, people can just play Kino.

So, as of June 1, 2027, a lottery retailer within the city of Conquer could apply for a license to sell Kino at that time. Um so obviously because um we do not have a election uh between now and June uh other than the one in November um that could that could then be authorized to begin selling Kino two years from now two this summer two years from now. Um that could be placed on the ballot again in November. Um and that uh approval could again be pulled back by the voters in 2027, 2029 or or whenever the the leg the um the the voters would like to act on it. Um but obviously the the go live date for statewide kino unless prohibited is June 1 of 2027.

Credit. Thank you, your honor. In the interest of consideration and courtesy of the knowledge of our community and uh what their wishes might be, would you entertain a motion to place this item on the ballot? I will. I will make that motion. It's moved and seconded. Is there any further discussion? Council Fennison.

I was going to say similar to the last item that we dealt with, uh I trust the voters to make a decision here. I think in this particular situation where voters already made a decision in the past, I think it is incumbent upon us to put it back on the ballot before this would sort of automatically open up uh the gates to Kino. So, um it maybe there's been, you know, a change in how the city feels about it. Uh I don't know, but uh I think it's incumbent upon us to put on the ballot and see. Thank you, Cas. Thank you, honor. Um, you may not know the answer to this, but is there any revenue stream to the municipality through the the keynote?

I don't believe so. It's still a uh dedicated fund for uh the state's education trust fund. And again, the funding decisions that are made out of that fund do not apply to whether the municipality actually approves Kino or doesn't. That's been the case since 2017. Thank you, Councelor Kirk. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um, I agree that we should put this on the ballot and I'll just add to councelor Schultz's uh previous call for some education around it. Given that this will has flip-flopped, I think we have a obligation to the public who voted one way before and may not understand the language of the ballot initiative without a little bit of context. You took the words out of my mouth.

I should just interject as well. This this would also require a another public hearing in October uh during that 15 to 30 day and again your next uh meeting would fall within that timeline. There would be a public hearing for voters to hear about this issue at greater length. Thank you. Any other discussion? All right, we have a motion on the table. Are we ready for the motion? All those in favor of the motion as presented, please signify by saying I. I posted no. Eyes have it. Motion passes. Thank you, Mr. That brings us to items pulled from consent. Uh, Madam Cler, I would like to point out that I was not a legislator when that was voted. Thank you, councelor.

Originally, thank you. Thank you, councelor. Representative, the u only item pulled from the consent agenda was item number 24 pulled from the consent agenda by councelor Brown. It is the June 30th, 2025 MS9 and MS10 reports from the city treasurer tax collector. Thank you. Councelor Brown, would you like to speak to the item?

Yes. Yes. Thank you. Um, as my colleagues may remember, I had asked questions about the recreation reserve and the MS9 is the annual report that is submitted to the department of revenue administration tracking our capital reserve accounts. Um I had asked after looking at this report um that was circulated recently um it reflects the 400,000 that we approved being um added in January it also reflects 200,000 being withdrawn and when I asked for additional information about the withdrawals um I received information from uh the deputy city manager of finance and Um the annotation was that it was in the uh fiscal year 25 budget. I was unable to find it anywhere in the budget. Um and this may just because I'm not a finance person, but I do feel that we have a responsibility actually um for our constituents funds um our assets. and I had questions. Um, I was unable to find it in the budgets that were previously listed. There were three resolutions um that were annotated as uh showing withdrawals that actually don't mention the recreation reserve at all. So, I would like more information about what that $200,000 was for because I do not believe that the council was the council gave approval for it or there was discussion about it. Would you like me to have the

I I think I have this. Okay.

This one's a This is really a budgetary item that the city council um considered uh during the 2025 budget deliberation. So, this was back in June 2024. If you uh look back in the budget in the recreation department, they transfer in from trust and $200,000 um transfer in from trust was part of this from the recreation reserve uh during 2025. In the 2020 budget, that amount was $100,000. So there are other numbers involved in that transfer in from trust uh that also occurs and that's for the cemeteries and things like that. So it may not be in the budget document that you receive. It's the uh full public document on the city website, but in the details of the budget that you received um when the budget was delivered for 2025, if you look down through the uh trust details, you'll actually see that $200,000. I believe I provided that to you in the documents that I provided when I sent that um response to your request back uh a month and so ago.

Followup.

Uh I was unable it unable to find that. Um in fact in the budget we show highway reserve um withdrawals, we show transfer from economic development. We showed transfers from other reserve funds. The recreation reserve was not listed. I did see uh comments that said funding from the recreation reserve for 400,000 uh for fiscal year 2020, but it does not reflect what that was paying for. It was a It was a general revenue transfer. So, it came from the dollars that were available in the recreation reserve. It was transferred into the general fund to help offset the tax rate as part of the um uh overall recreation programs. So, we just built a new community center. We had additional uh expenses for debt service, operating costs, things like that. So, there was funds that were being transferred to help cover that. The intent over that period of time when we started doing that was for the dollars to be uh transferred in and then over time kind of slowly whittle that down which we've whittleled it down to about $100,000 in fiscal year 2026. So you you'll see those dollars again. You'll see a line of transfer reserve, but it includes a number of different things in that transfer in from trust or from reserve included in that. If you go to the details and we provide a detail of every single item that is in the budget and every budget item within each one of those lines, we provide that each year to the city council when the budget is uh when the budget is delivered. And you can see it exactly in there. I believe in the documents that I sent to you back about a month or so ago, I included the the description or the detail of that budget line that showed the transfer or showed the $200,000 in fiscal year 25 from the transfer in from

recreation reserve. I showed it to you, Mr. Lebron. Were any of these funds transferred without the authorization or approval of city council? uh every single item that goes in and out of that recreation reserve was an approval from the city council either through a supplemental appropriation or through the budget process uh during the budget deliberations uh in June of each year. Thank you. Do I have a motion? Excuse me, your honor. I have follow up. What I guess I'm trying to understand what your point here is counselor.

Your honor, I I'm trying to understand the reserves that we are responsible for as the governing body is RSA41 colon 9. We are responsible for these funds for internal controls. So I am trying to track down or try to understand the reserve accounts that we everyone at this table is responsible for. The recreation reserve was created in 2016 for uh future projects relating to the community center. And during that time, I believe it was councelor Herslag who said, "Can we use this to pay down the debt?" And the answer was, "No, we're not using this to pay down the debt. This is for future projects." So, $ three and a half million dollars has been put into the recreation reserve and I am unable to show my constituents where those funds have gone to directly. The uh the information Mr. Lebron is showing me says fiscal year 200,000 but it does not show a line item of all these different things. The resolution does not show uh recreation funds. shows recreation impact fees, shows uh highway reserve transfer, but it doesn't show the recreation reserve. And it is on us to show our constituents that we are good stewards of their tax dollars. I I would like to

I And you think that what counselor? I I would like to be able to show them clearly that the three and a half million put into the recreation reserve for a specific reason, I can show them. See, this is what your money was spent on. So, I would like to make a motion that we have that clarity of what recreation items the recreation reserve funds paid for. All right. Is there a second on your motion? Hearing none. I second it so that we can have that discussion because I think I think I already had a motion on the table with a second. You did? With my second. Second. Thank you.

I don't understand what was your motion. My motion was to accept the report. Seconded. All right. Any discussion on that motion? I would like to have clarity on what the withdrawals are in this report, the 200,000. Oh, Council Schultz.

I don't always understand some of the conversation that I think Councelor Brown is asking, but I think that's because I I'm still learning a lot about the budget. I do think, you know, um it would be helpful to I guess the process. I'm trying to think come up with the right words. Um I do believe that the staff are doing what they say they're doing. But if it's a s if it's understanding where that is in what we've voted on whatnot that can't we do that at a sitdown meeting with maybe the city manager and make sure that your questions are answered councelor Brown.

I guess that's more of a question to you.

I'd like to just clarify that that $200,000 it may have gone to buy pencils. It may have gone to pay debt service. may have gone to pay for some electricity. It went to a little bit of all of those things, but we don't break down the $200,000 there to say we bought 11 pencils, you know, we're going to buy, you know, 14 notebooks. We're going to It doesn't break down that. It's a revenue source just like the other revenue sources that we have within the budget. If you go to all of the departments within the budget, we have revenue budgets and that's exactly where this this revenue stream is showing. It's been this way for years and years and years. What we show is a revenue coming in to help offset the expenses. When you look at the overall budget, we have all of these revenues that come in from transfers in from reserve, from auto registrations, from permits that we sell, from every other source that we have. And then we have a budget number that we have expenditures. We subtract all those revenues from the budget number of expenditures and we come up with a number that says this is the amount that we have to raise in taxes and then we estimate the tax report. When we collect motor vehicle registrations, we don't mark down every car that comes in and say this is going to go by, you know, 14 notebooks or it's going to pay for $12 of electricity. That's not how that revenue stream works. It doesn't go to that level of clarity on that. When we look at the the capital budget and we transfer money in from the capital budget for the highway maintenance program, we know that it's going to go to paving streets to reclaiming streets. So, it's going to go to those kind of things because that's very specific. But when you when you transfer them into the operating budgets like that, it goes to a whole variety of expenses that are in that operating budget. In this case, it's for

recreation purposes. You know, if you're asking me to come up with a a list of pencils and pens that we bought with that $200,000, I can't do it. Mr. Lebron, our current operate our current general fund budget, I think, is $9 million, is it not? Do you have any idea what the 2025 uh general fund uh budget was? Probably less than that. Yeah, it was about 83 and a half. 83 million. How many staff would we require if we were going to track this level of detail to see what we bought for that $200,000? You mean all the pens or every $200,000?

I I probably need to probably need about 75 people in order to try to get to that level of detail. It just we we don't do that. That's not how this works. And this is the level of work you've been doing to respond to some of these questions,

Mr. Mayor. when you get your paycheck, you know, and I know that it's a pretty substantial paycheck as the mayor saw. When you get that paycheck, you know, you put it into your checking account and that goes to help to offset, you know, your electricity bill, your uh your food bill, your car expenses, whatever it is, but it's not, you know, you don't say, you know, this amount is going for that piece of it, right? Because not only do you have that $2,000 paycheck that you get, but you probably have some other money coming in from this source and that source. It all kind of gets brought in together and that's what helps fund your overall operation. And when you're out of that money, you got to go into your savings account, right? And you got to you got to pull some money out of the savings account in order to do the rest of it. Great. Thank you, Council.

I just want to say thank you, Mr. O'Brien, because I think it's always good when we take time to explain. It's a question. It's not too complicated. Now we know whoever is interested especially me now I know where to go to find it as you said it's trust details what I do want to say here that every single question that come to the table it's education for me and for many other counselors so it's very important sometimes like you just did and I never like I said I don't want your job so I will never ask detail by pen and pencil but I do think it's a responsibility lead you of all of us to know if we need an information where to find it and that's what you just did. So, thank you.

You're welcome. And and that that detailed report that we provide to you when we deliver the budget, look through that report. I mean, that gives you pretty much a detail of every single line item, you know, the the very lowest detail that we can get to. Thank

you, your honor. And I'm glad that you said that, Mr. LeBron because it actually is a report in the appendices of our budget and it's there every single year and it is more than 60 pages long and it is probably an eightoint font that tells you money in money out on every single department on every single line item. And when it says transfer in it means that revenue is coming from a source in this bucket to offset this expense um anticipated in the budget. And I think what Mr. LeBron was saying is this is from a previous year's budget. This is not this year budget that we're operating in now. Your honor, councelor.

Yes. I'd just like to point out that we selected we chose 400,000 or 400,000 was assigned to recreation and ordinarily when you assign those funds it's for a project that you are anticipating. I would assume that if we're paying for pens and pencils, it would be it would be equipment or we would use the unassigned fund balance for that. I think what troubles me and what I don't understand is that this was assigned for recreation and there is no clear line to what recreation dollars this was covering. That's and during budget when we suggested can we use this to pay for other recreation projects the answer was no. This is dedicated to the clubhouse. So if we have put in $ three and a half million dollars into the recreation reserve, I think we should know what it has been paying for.

Counc. Thank you, your honor. We have a motion on the table with a second. I would suggest move the question. All right. Move the question requires uh a twothirds majority vote. All those and a second. Is there a second? Second. I heard a second. All those in favor signify by saying I. I opposed. No. Question is moved. I'm going to move the question. It's not which question is what I would like to know. Move the motion. This is the motion that's on the table to have a detailed report. The the motion that's on the table is to accept the report. It's a motion that you made. So the motion is to accept the report presented by staff. All those in favor, please signify by saying I. Oppos? No.

Eyes have it. It passes unanimously. But we also have another motion on the table that was second that was seconded by councelor Su for a detailed report that was subsequent to Jennifer's motion. So this is a motion that was made. It's too late. No, it's not too late. How is it too late? This was it was a motion that was seconded. Procedurally that came first, right? Procedurally. And so we can accept the report. Are you making another motion? I I guess we could convert it to an amendment. No, the motion is for a detailed uh report of the withdrawals from the recreation reserve. That was seconded by councelor. What I second was go ahead councelor su

what I second was really to answer the question and guide us where to find if there is any question to where to find that directions and I think Brian Mr. and take the time now to give us the direction where we can go and learn about this. Now that we move on to next item on our agenda, I think I'm all set. All right. Thank you. You can withdraw your second. You withdrew your technically withdrew your second. So this you see last time I shared with you that I'm very confus I was confused last vote we did

about parking and now we are coming to the same thing. I thought that when we vote on something, we move on. We don't come back on second and third and fourth. You're not confused. Yeah. Thank you. That's what that's how it should be. You're not confused. You understand exactly how, right?

I just Thank you, your honor. I just want to add to that. I because I've talked to Councelor Brown a little bit about some of her of her concerns. Again, I don't I mean, she's far ahead of me on trying to I don't know that I could explain them. Um, I just would like to address the fact that if you have lingering questions that we could sit down and go over those and find ways to clarify that even without a motion and I would I would be open to helping with that where I can as a fellow counselor. Um, I do agree with what uh councelor Seu said, but that doesn't negate, you know, if there's still a lingering question there still have a right to look for that. Thank you. So, the motion fails for lack of a second. Uh we now go to uh suspense items. Madam city clerk,

there is one um suspense item listed on the agenda. It's listed as a referral to the traffic operations committee. It's a communication from Jessica Wheeler Russell and Devin Rodri on behalf of area residents requesting safety improvements in the Manor neighborhood and surrounding streets, I believe. Thank you. Uh, do we have a motion to refer this? Motion to to refer. Motion to suspend the rules. Right. Rules. To suspend the rules. Yes. And do we have a second? Thank you. Moved and seconded. All right. Thank you, councelor Kredovic.

Yes. I'm going to um make a motion that we do send this to traffic operations, but also to include the area of the lower end of Manor Road, Su Falls Road, and Abbott that feed into this area. Second. Second to the court at that. I think we have to vote on the rules first. Yeah, we Yeah, we do have to move to suspend the rules. Thank you. All right. The motion is to the rules. The motion is to suspend the rules. Do you want to speak to it, councelor Todd? To suspend the rules? No. Okay. In favor of the motion, please signify by saying I. Oppos? No. Eyes have it by the required twothirds majority. Now, councelor credits motion.

My apologies. I thought we already did say yes. Must be getting late. And you because baffled me. Yes. And so I would like to uh uh request that this communication also include Lower Manor Roads and Abbott as part of that discussion with the traffic operations. Second. All right. Second. Your comments were included in the referral. All right. But the the language says man neighborhood. All right. Councelor Todd, would you like to speak to the motion?

Yes, I would. Thank you. Um so I just first of all want to all of the residents who have been very proactive uh and engaged in this process and uh the two residents Mr. Rodrik and Wheeler Russell uh especially but also a larger group of the community who have been basically on a Facebook page and kind of exchanging ideas on this and so I think it's been a great process. I view this as a natural second step. What we've done already in this area is work with enforcement and I think that's uh provides really positive results. The second phase is to look at the actual, you know, engineering piece of the roads. Is there anything that we can do beyond enforcement that could assist residents with their concerns. So, uh, I'm fully supportive of this and I thank, uh, Council Credit also for amending this to include a a wider area, uh, and specifying what that is. So, I look forward to traffic operation committee's uh, recommendations on this.

Thank you, Council Grady Sex. Um, thank you. I also support this. Um, and I would like to conquered police department for um taking some preliminary action to address these issues that were brought forward. Any other discussion? Those in favor of the motion as presented, please signify by saying I. I. Both no. Eyes have it. The motion is adopted. Brings us to comments. Councelor, start with councelor Todd and come down.

Thank you, your honor. I just want to note that this is the last city council meeting in which our Solicitor Danielle Pac will be sitting and uh I just want to uh thank her on behalf of the community and ourselves as a body and the council for all of her diligent great work over the years uh and wish her the best of luck and success in her new venture. [Applause] Nice. Thank you, counselor. Council Credit,

thank you. I'm so glad we had some laughter tonight. I was recently at a yard sale. This beauty was sitting there for sale and it had 50 cents marked on it. And I'm pretty sure that when it was auctioned off during a Paint the Town Red fundraiser for a local nonprofit organization that it sold for $250 and I bargained down to get it for free so that I could give it to my dear friend Amanda Grady Ston, the artist of the painting. I love it.

Right. Right. I didn't know where he was. Right next to it, was another beauty also marked at 50ents. And I want to say with certainty, they both sold for $250 cuz I wouldn't want one to outweigh the other. And this goes to my dear friend, Counselor Keech. It's got many talents. I know, right? I'll buy it for three. Impressive. Wow. Wow. Those are great. I think some wall space shapers. I think that's a good idea.

I think there was one other from the council, but I'm not quite sure. I can't read the signature. It might actually be the mayor's. Uh, do you know what you painted when when uh for the painted town red? Oh, but that's a long time ago. I know. I can bring the two in. Let you decide. I painted the state house dome with a moon. I think I might have that. Oh god. Wow. 75. That is terrifying. $5 a dollar. If you leave me to gohead. Go ahead.

I just want to announce that um our Thrive Crisis Center Hampshire is having their wham walk a mile event. It's always the first Wednesday of October. This year it'll be October 8th. Uh there are teams forming. You can go on their site. You can pick a team. Uh last year we had Never mind. I won't go on. But it's an opportunity for you to be a part of that wonderful organization. Council Brown.

Great. So, uh, Sun, anyone who went to the Sunflower Festival, um, if you have an opportunity to go to their dinners, it was incredible. Rivals anything on the Eastern Seaboard, which is just amazing. If you have foodies in your family, your friends, that is an event that they should not miss. That was huge. September is library card signup. There's so much you can do with your library card. um from downloading books uh to borrowing things um to getting museum passes. So everybody should take advantage of that. And also um you can come and meet me and Steve Wette at the farmers market on the 20th. We'll be representing the tree subcommittee talking about bittersweet um in our community. And also for my colleagues, the New Hampshire Municipal Association holds classes and trainings for free. Um and tomorrow the class is on operation policies and understanding fund balance. So join me.

Excellent.

Thank you. Um I would just like to say I hope everyone's had a wonderful back to school and to remind all residents and visitors to conquer to slow down during morning and afternoon when we have a lot of healthy walkers and cyclists on their way to and from our many school buildings. And if you are avoiding traffic by cutting through neighborhoods, please do so slowly and mindfully of the residents who live there. Saturday, excuse me, Sunday, September 21st from 11:00 to 5:00, um, in Keech Park is Conquer's annual multicultural festival. It's always a wonderful event with lots of fantastic food. Pray for good weather and check it out. And I'd also like to wish Lashana Tova a happy new year to uh Jewish members of conquered community who will be celebrating their Jewish new year um in the coming weeks. Thank you.

Thank you. That's a great Thank you, honor. Um let's see. The first I wanted to thank the uh staff at Parks and Wreck for an incredible summer staffing our our pools as well as the summer programming they put on and of course the summer camps which I think are extraordinary and I'm so grateful for all of them. Also wanted to announce the bsentennial square restoration project public meeting that'll be held right here on September 16th at 6. Um and you can come here and learn about the plans to renovate bysentennial square. And I'll also be holding a private auction um on a piece. [Laughter]

Councelor Kee, anything? Oh, a pass. Thank you, Council. Council Schllo.

So um on New New Braver Angels is a national organization that promotes civil dialogue of people with different political persuasions. And on uh September 23rd from 7:00 to 8:30 at the West Ward House, there's going to be a special meeting for conquered city residents uh hosted by me, but our special guest will be Joel Burman who is the New Hampshire who lives in conquered. He's a conquered resident and he's the New Hampshire lead for Braver Angels. So, there will be a special meeting 7 to 8:30 at the West Street Ward House. Uh he will facilitate a conversation and exercise on skills for disagreeing better. Uh we will use we're not going to use any national political issues, but we know people disagree in this community about many things sometimes with polarizing debate like middle school property taxes, homeless solutions, Beaver Meadow pays you through garbage, speeding on the streets. You've heard many of the concerns. So it's imperative that we learn to disagree constructively. And so we will use we are going to use the Beaver Meadow clubhouse renovation issue as a prompt for us to reflect how we disagree. It is designed to be an encouraging an engaging evening and residents from both sides of the clubhouse issue are encouraged to attend. And uh the uh this what we hope to accomplish is that people who attend uh will help participants understand the values and concerns of those who disagree with them, who differ from them politically or on this issue and teach essential skills for communicating across differences and finding common ground. So, I'd like to invite all members of the city council and city staff and city residents to attend September 23rd from 7:00 to 8:30 at the West Street Courthouse uh a workshop on skills for disagreeing better. So, come if you can.

Thank you, counselor. Mr. Mayor Proen,

thank you your honor and thank you councelor Curts. You mentioned that the multicultural day. I will say that I have been attending this event. It's a great event. It's a event to connect with that fellow resident of the city of conqueror but also all the festivity that goes in from dancing to good food. So it's a great time for all people that attend. So it's on September 21st as she um eloquently uh stated. The other event that we have in our community is community walk on Thursday September 18 organized by the YMCA here in Concord from 6:00 to 7:00. So please, if you are available, join the YMCA. They are trying to do an they're doing an amazing job and I think it's important that we support wherever we can. Thank you.

Thank you, Council Schultz.

Thank you, um, your honor. Um this I don't have my thoughts totally together on this so forgive me but there was a um article about a young father 29 years old named Tim Russell who was reported in a very well-ritten story in the conquered monitor that talked about uh the fact that he was houseless when he passed. I they didn't give the details about what caused him to pass. I don't know that that's any of my business and I'm okay with that. But what it did tell in great detail was his story. He had a full-time job here at one of my favorite establishments, uh, Dos Amigos Burritos, and he was a dishwasher there. Um, he, like I said, is a father. He was in contact and working regularly with the wonderful folks at the conquered coalition to end homelessness and the community action program for Bellnap and Marramac County. He was the next person in line to receive housing in their process, which is just another sad part of the story. Um, and the phrase in that article that really is haunting me is the phrase tragically common, referring to his uh situation. And I am horrified that we can think of it as tragically common. It puts an exclamation point on a lot of the things we talk about here that we care about that um really is so hidden. you know, to hear that there are over a hundred kids that are houseless in our city in at least in the conquered school district alone um is hard to wrap your mind around to know that there are so many people that are houseless in our community that don't have decent enough

access to um mental health care or health care in general um even when they're working full-time. Um, so when I talked to uh representative or counselor Schluster uh yesterday when I ran into him and he's like, "Well, what do you want folks to do about this when you raise it?" And it I don't know that I have all the answers to that other than obviously if you pray or meditate or send empathy and compassion, we should do that for all in knew who knew and love Tim Russell. We in my opinion should also um start really planning because these sorts of situations are only going to get worse as the downshifting to the localities uh gets worse uh around issues of Medicaid etc. Um I hope that folks can come to the state house and advocate for a better minimum wage since we just default to $2.35 an hour. Um, and for restaurant workers, it's still a lot lower than that. Um, we really shouldn't have a tragically common situation. If we're the wealthiest country on earth, a very wealthy state, um, when we have such great compassion, it isn't just up to the churches in the temple and and uh the Islamic centers to catch and create that social safety net. And the people who have that in our town and that work with our citizens do a great job, but we don't fend it fund it enough. We don't do enough. Uh sometimes we are uh what is it? Pennywise, but pound foolish. I think this that that we have a tragically common situation like this. We need to roll up our sleeves and get some stuff done. And I'm sure that everybody here agrees with me, but um the ways that we need to do that, I don't know that we've done enough. And

for that, I hope that we can remember Tim Russell and honor his memory by putting it into action through our microphones, our pens and pencils and keyboards and any and walking to the state house any ways that we can. I encourage and we'll continue to organize on that. And um I wish I could say and do more in this moment, but that's you know, if we could just take a a few seconds in of silence in his memory. Sure. Thank you.

Thank you, council. I just want to say that I attended Tim Russell's service at the Salvation Army. Nice.

I know his mother very well and uh I was honored to be invited to attend that service. So thank you for raising this and the conqueror coalition to end homelessness court corner did share a lot about Tim. It was a beautiful service very well attended lot of people they had shared stories about Tim. They said even though he was on house if he has $1, he think that somebody else need it more than he does. So he was described as a very genuine young man that gave a lot to the community and I have never had the honor to meet him in person but I did attend his service and it was very beautiful service. So it's a very tragic things that I think I don't know what to say here if it was could prevent or not but the housing part I think there is a lot of work to be done. Thank you

councelor foot.

Yes. Thank you, your honor. Um, just want to mention that on October 18th, the third annual Pink Tide Gala is being held at the historic Phoenix Hall with a goal of raising $100,000 all through donations for the American Cancer Society. So, there'll be all sorts of copious amounts of food, drink, and entertainment that evening. And you can, if you're interested, you can purchase tickets at the pink thai gala.givesmart.com. pinktiggala.givesmart.com. I've been to it in years past. It's a great event. And again, everything is being donated. Uh there's no compensation. Um it's all strictly donations. Great cause in the month of October. So get your tickets early while they last. Thank you.

Thank you. Um, the multicultural festival has already been mentioned by uh, councelor Kurts and council secu and I will second what they said. Um, it's a great flag parade, the great food, the performances, the booths, the activities, it's all great. Uh, my next item is not as sexy as the multicultural festival or the community walk or the pink tide gala. Uh but uh uh I would mention to you that or remind you that Concrete General Services is holding its annual hazardous waste collection day for Conquered in Penacook uh from 9 to 3 this Saturday, September 13th at Ever Arena on Lowden Road. Uh you can bring your unwanted household hazardous waste and safely dispose of it. Uh you can go to the city website for details on what they're accepting. This is household waste. And in years past, I'm not sure how it's run today, but or is going to be run on Saturday, but in years past, uh, it was pretty pretty much a driveby. You drive up and there's somebody there and they take what you have and ask what it is and it's really effortless except for sitting in line. Uh, so please remember that. The other thing I want to mention is that on con on on tonight's consent agenda, the city council approved holding a citywide conversation about what kind of a community we want conquered to be in the next quarter century. This will be a groundup discussion that we can be used that can be used to inform our master planning process which will start next year. The conquered 2050 vision process will be proactive building on the great success of the conquered 2020 vision held in the late 1990s and some of the counselors around this table played important roles in that process. That 2020 vision focused development towards the downtown, the opportunity corridor, and the city's

villages, preserving open space, conserving resources, sparking economic vitality, and encouraging walkable communities throughout the the city, but are these still our focuses? Have our priorities changed? I hope that the conquered 2050 vision will help to answer these questions. I'll be appointing a planning group that will work with New Hampshire Listens to frame the focus and design of this community engagement. This will be followed by one or two community engagement events where we can sit down across the table or maybe even virtually from one another as neighbors to discuss our hopes and ambitions for conquer. It will be incumbent upon us to engage as broad a cross-section of our community as possible in this conversation and I ask those of you around this table in the audience as well as those watching from home to commit to realizing this this goal of broad community participation. So my thanks to the city council for supporting this initiative. I look forward to working with you on the conquered 2050 vision.

Council Credit, I apologize for speaking after you. Um I in my comments, I really was just making it very light, but I also do want both council and councelor Amanda Grady Sexton to know the person that purchased that and gave the contribution to their nonprofit organization wanted you to have the painting back. They were not really in a yard sale. I'm still going to sell it. All right. Councelor Schultz moves we adjourn. No, another one. I'm sorry.

I apologize. Also, but if you haven't noticed, I want to give a shout out to Swack Solid Waste Advisory Committee. They have rewrapped their bags in that non crinkly plastic is no more. And there's a QR code on there. It's a great avenue for education. You just have to click it. It will tell people what's happening, especially with the pilots that are going to be happening. I think it's a great thing that they're doing to communicate. So, yay. Yay to that. All right. So, how much longer do folks want to sit here? No. All right. Move to move to adjourn. Seconded. All in favor? Opposed? All right.