All towns · concord

City Council Meeting- 8/10/26

Video

meeting of Monday, August 10th, 2026.
Um, I will mention uh that uh if anyone
in the audience has difficulty hearing
uh we do have audio devices available in
the back uh of the room at the Conquer
TV uh booth where Mike has been waving
his hand. Uh these are headphones that
are available uh to help augment uh the
sound and help with your hearing if you
need them. Uh we all please stand with
me and uh say the pledge of allegiance.
>> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the
United States of America and to the
republic for it stands one nation under
God indivisible with liberty and justice
for all.
>> Thank you. Madame clerk would please
call the role.
>> Yes. Councelor Brown here. Mayor
Chimplan
>> present.
>> Councelor Davyy
>> uh excused.
>> Councelor Fennessy
>> excused.
>> Councelor Foot
>> Councelor Grady Su
>> here. Councelor Horn
>> here.
>> Councelor Caleb
>> Councelor Ke
>> Councelor Kick here.
>> Councelor Curts
>> Councelor Squasher
>> Councelor Schultz
>> Councelor Seiku
>> And councelor Todd
>> Thank you. Um, next item is approval of
the meeting minutes of our July 13th
city council meeting.
>> Move approval. Second.
>> Moved and seconded. Um, all those in
favor, please signify by saying I.
>> Opposed? No.
>> The eyes have it. Uh, next item on the
agenda is a correction of the June 4th,
2026 city council meeting, uh, which was
requested by, uh, councelor, uh, Brown.
Uh this uh concerns recusals by
councelor Brown and council Caleb. Uh
during our June 4th city council meeting
and vote on the budget, uh councelor
Caleb had spoken to me prior to uh that
meeting indicating her intent to recuse
herself from any items uh that uh
pertained to the Thrive Resource Center.
uh for some reason at 11:30 at night um
I uh failed to mention that and to
include that in the minutes uh after I
don't I forget how many hours of
meetings. Uh therefore, I am going to
move uh that the official minutes of the
June 4th, 2026 city council meeting be
corrected to accurately reflect that no
recusals occurred by removing all
references stating uh that council Brown
advised major mayor Champlain that she
was recusing herself from voting on all
items related to the concrete police
department. Do I have a second?
>> Second.
>> Seconded. All in favor?
>> Opposed?
>> No.
>> Eyes have it. Uh the uh motion is
passed. Uh that next brings us to item
uh number seven point
>> which is madam
>> um you didn't address the part. Were you
going to change the minutes to reflect
that you spoke with councelor Caleb
prior to the meeting
>> because there still were no recusals
that occurred during that.
>> Sure. Thank you.
>> Thank you. Um, now, uh, it's my pleasure
to invite our executive counselor,
councelor Karen, uh, Leo Hill, to come
forward and give us an update on what's
going on with our executive council
district. Greetings.
>> Welcome.
>> Well, thank you so much. Uh, and it's
nice to be with all of you, counselors
and mayor. Uh, I was a city councelor in
Lebanon for 20 years prior to running
for executive counsel. And so I have
tremendous respect and uh appreciation
for all of the work and especially the
many hours that you put in on behalf of
the public and our shared constituents.
I am here to give you a quick update. I
know you have a a long meeting ahead of
you, but appreciate the opportunity to
spend a few minutes with you. Uh the
executive council has been called the
most important office you've never heard
of. And uh typically uh I I am
explaining to people what the executive
counsel does. And so I know many of you
do know the executive council, but folks
who are watching or who are listening um
may not. And so in brief, I think of the
executive council actually a lot like a
city council, just for the entire state.
Um I use the word cars when I talk about
the executive council. We're the only
first of all I should say we're the only
state that has an executive council like
ours. We're the only biccameal executive
branch in the country. All states have a
governor. We have a governor and then
five executive counselors. And uh the
governor has the power to put things on
the agenda, but she doesn't get a vote.
And the five of us get to vote, but we
don't get to have any choice on what's
on the agenda. And so in that way, we
are sharing power and we are a check and
balance on the governor. I use the word
cars when I talk about the executive
council because we vote on contracts,
all state spending over $10,000, which
is all state spending. Um, A is for
appointments. The way it works in New
Hampshire is that the governor makes
nominations for important boards and
committees, commissioners, all judges,
and the executive council votes on those
confirmations. R is for roads. We are
responsible for managing the state's
infrastructure, which is a lot of roads,
but also bridges, dams, prisons, and
that's something I want to talk about in
just a moment. Um, and S, so contracts,
appointments, roads, and lastly, uh, oh,
and roads, including the state's 10-year
highway plan, which I also am going to
talk about briefly. Um, and lastly, S is
for services. We do a lot of constituent
services, as I know all of you are also
familiar with. Um, and so I certainly
want you to know that if you have any
constituents who are coming to you with
questions or concerns, um, or if the
city as a constituent, um, I'm here to
serve, whether it's individuals or
organizations or, uh, municipalities, I
am here to be a liazison with state
government. Um, a couple of quick topics
I wanted to talk to you about was, um,
ICE, the 10-year plan, the men's prison,
uh, and property taxes. So I come to
this evening I was just in downtown Keen
where there was a gathering of the
community and uh a number of local
organized by local elected officials um
because this morning there was an ICE uh
there was an ICE presence and a
detention uh of some kind. I don't know
the the facts of it um other than there
have been firsthand reports uh and
eyewitness accounts of um of ICE
presence in Keen. Also over the weekend,
there was also I have confirmed that
there was also ICE activity in Lebanon
on Friday. And so I think um it's fair
to say that it appears that ICE is now
um taking becoming more active in New
Hampshire and potentially uh targeting
larger sized communities and so I share
that information with you. I don't
believe that the city of conquered is a
party to the 287g agreement. Is that
correct?
>> Correct. Okay. Um, the state of New
Hampshire is and I have been in
communication with the attorney
general's office about what the
parameters of are of our state police
interactions with ICE. Um, so I'll be
sharing some information and I think
it's um I see my perspective as that
it's important for the public to
understand what is happening. People are
concerned for their safety. Uh we've
seen in other places that ISIS presence
actually makes people less safe. Uh, and
so I'm here to try and ask questions and
get answers for the public. Regarding
the state's 10-year highway plan, as you
all know, this is the 10-year plan that
really addresses state roads and
bridges. Um, there is always far more
work to be done than there are funds to
do them with. And so, this document is
updated every two years on a rolling
basis. And over this last year, I know
many of you were able to attend or
followed the 10-year plan update, we
actually had to cut $300 million of
projects from the 10 from the next
version of the 10-year plan because
there simply are not adequate funds. One
of the ideas that was considered was a
$1 increase to the toll um that would
cover funds for turnpike projects
including the Bo conquered um highway
safety improvement project that's been
in discussions for a very long time as
well as a very significant exits five
and six safety improvement project um in
Manchester.
So, the legislature ended up uh ended up
passing the 10-year highway plan, but
also passed it with a toll increase. As
a result, the governor, who has uh
indicated publicly prior that she was
opposed to a toll increase, even though
it would only affect outofstate
residents, the Department of
Transportation had um figured out a way
to make it so that New Hampshire
residents would not be uh New Hampshire
easy pass holders would not be subject
to the toll increase. um she vetoed the
10-year highway plan. And so, as a
result, I know some folks have been
wondering what is the status um status
right now is that uh is that the
previous plan remains in place. That's
what the um Department of Transport,
that's what the attorney general has
been advising is that the previous plan
remains in place. So, ironically, it's a
plan that was actually $300 million
overs subscribed. So, we're now in a
place where we have a less realistic
10-year plan on the books. Um, we will
see. Veto day is coming up, so who
knows? Um, there will still be
developments ongoing. But I do think
that I want I wanted to raise this with
you because the status of the Bo
Conquered project is um is inshed in
these discussions. Um, it will not come
to pass. The construction funds are
simply not there unless there is an
increase to the tolls which have not has
not taken place for 20 years now. It's
been a dollar at hookset for 20 years
now. Um so that's on my radar and that
will I will share information as it
becomes available. the men's prison. Uh
you all know um but it's been new to me
over the last year and a half to learn
more about the conditions of the men's
prison which are really quite atrocious.
Um and the need to replace it is clear.
The I had a tour last year and then the
governor and the executive council had a
tour of the men's prison together uh
about six months ago and the consensus
was that something needs to be done. the
legislature has appropriated funds to
complete a study. Um, however, the
executive council on a 4 to1 vote voted
down the study the the um the contract
to hire the consultant to do the study
to come up with options and pricing for
what will be the largest capital project
in our state's history. Uh, at the time,
a few years ago, it was estimated to be
$600 million. Um the executive council
voted down the study um because they
wanted to see if it could be done in a
more cost-effective way. Um I raised
objections or concerns because the more
you put off these kinds of projects, the
more the higher the costs go and we're
seeing significant escalation in costs
on all kinds of construction projects as
you know well. Um and so I have concerns
that putting it off um will raise costs.
However, what this does do is it
potentially does give us opportunity to
reconsider what might happen at the
men's on the campus of the men's prison.
I know that the city of conquered since
this is within your jurisdiction. I know
that you I think I have read and I don't
know exactly where that that the city
has been um opposed to the prison. So
I'm here to say that I would appreciate
opening up conversation so that I can
understand the interests of the city of
conquered so that if there are any
changes that could be considered that I
can advocate as best as possible. Um so
that's the men's prison.
Um and oh I I also have had a meeting I
should also say the city the town of B
sorry the town of BO is also my
constituent and when I met with them I
would say in the last several months and
I know this is not news to you but they
are interested and they certainly made
it clear to me that they were interested
in securing some intermunicipal
agreements with you regarding uh
disposal of waste water. I do believe
so. I am interested in I I
>> They want the They want the good water.
>> They want the good water. Okay. The good
water. So, an intermissible agreement
for good water. I guess they'll take
care of the disposal, but you know more
and hopefully you can I just want to put
it on the record that I'm also here.
>> I'm sure you're on firm footing.
[clears throat]
>> Thank you. I Thank you. And lastly,
property taxes. You know, as someone who
spent 20 years uh serving at the local
level and now [clears throat] two almost
two years at the state level, I can tell
you that the common refrain that I hear
from people is that property taxes are
just too high. And what I am
increasingly concerned about is that
this issue is being politicized in a way
that I have not seen that has not really
happened previously. Where I see right
now that local officials are being
blamed for high property taxes when the
fact is that the state has been
continuously downshifting costs to
cities and towns and school districts
over the last 50 years. and the the true
burden of property taxes is and and
property tax relief, the solution for
property tax relief is really something
that uh the state I think it's beyond
time for the state to address this. And
one of the things I really cherished
about serving at the local level is that
it was not partisan. I mean, I think
Manchester and NSHA maybe are elected on
a partisan basis, but um
>> there is that is is that they're not
>> they're all nonpartisan.
>> They're all n part technically. Okay.
Well, in Lebanon, they are technically
and also in spirit nonpartisan. I think
most people recognize that there
[clears throat] are not partisan
solutions to uh water and wastewater and
landfills and where we send our trash
and how we pay for our roads. And yet,
this issue of property taxes I see
becoming politicized. And so, um, I have
made it my mission to go on the road for
part of the last six months and to share
with folks about how, um, over the last
15 years alone, the state has
downshifted over $3 billion of costs
onto the backs of local property
taxpayers. And so, uh, I can I'm not
going to give you my 30 minute spiel,
um, here, [clears throat] but that's,
uh, I think that's an important thing. I
guess I just want you to know that I've
got your back. um because I know that
we're all really struggling and everyone
is doing the best with what we're handed
down from um from the state legislature
unfortunately. And so um there you go.
That's my list. Uh I have my card which
I will um send to share around with with
all of you and if I can be of assistance
and of service to you and your
constituents uh I would invite you to
call on me.
>> Thank you councelor. Any questions for
council Leo Hill? Council. Uh thank you
your honor. Just one um suggestion for
your notebook.
>> Conquered is the only city that has our
school and city council separated. And
so we when we talk about property taxes,
we are talking about only the city
portion. However, the weight of our
school taxes in both of the school
districts that are here have become
overburdensome to the point where our
our residents are being crushed.
>> Absolutely. Lebanon Lebanon is the same.
There are actually only two school
districts I think in the state that have
um where the school districts are
dependent on the on the city. Most
cities have separate um Lebanon has a
separate city and school. Twothirds uh
across the state about twothirds of the
average property tax bill is public
schools. So it certainly is the elephant
in the room in this discussion about
>> we don't set their budget. We have
nothing to do with their budget.
>> Correct. But they are being similarly
crushed by the decisions being made at
the state level to for example the
biggest one is eliminating the state's
contribution to retirement. Eliminating
the state's contribution to firefighters
and police officers and teachers. That
has been $2 billion on local property
taxpayers in the last 15 years alone. So
um thank you for that clarification.
>> Any other question council? Yes. Just in
regards to the prison, um I'm not sure
what the current population is now, but
I do know that as of January, the entire
incarcerated population in all of New
Hampshire was 19 uh was 1990. Uh the
census block for the men's prison states
2246,
but that is incorrect. That is not the
population at that location. 2246 is the
total incarcerated population in 2020.
So I know they're looking at a 1500 bed
prison. I don't know. I think it's the
capacity there is only 1,400. So you
know I would be curious if we really
need if New Hampshire really needs such
a large um prison. So, if you could look
into that uh correcting that census
block um population, that'd be great.
>> So, two issues.
>> Yes.
>> One is the census block
>> is incorrect.
>> Making sure that that's accurate and
that would be the men's prison and the
women's prison. They're [clears throat]
both in the same
>> Well, that number Yes. I I
>> Okay.
>> Yes. I confirmed with DOC, Department of
Corrections, that the 2246 reflects all
of New Hampshire's incarcerated people.
Um Yes. Not just that. Is that what? But
you said the census block shows that
>> the census block says that the census
block from
>> So it put all of it put all of the
incarcerated people in that location.
>> I see. I see what you're saying.
>> And if that prison Oh, I think their
capacity is only 1,400. I do not believe
they are at capacity. So I don't
necessarily think we should we need 1500
bed prison,
>> which is another which is which is the
second issue. Yes. And I have that same
I think we need to make sure that we are
doing good forecasting to make sure that
we are not overbuilding. Uh and uh I
that is definitely I think a really
important uh factor.
>> Just aside I would prefer that it's not
conquered.
>> That's just me personally.
>> Thank you councelor Kel Schultz. I'm
sorry.
>> Thank you. Um so glad you're here today.
I was kind of hoping you would do the 30
minute version because I think that is
really informative. If we wanted to find
that though, where can we find your
>> I have a slide presentation. I'd be
happy to share it uh and send it out to
all of you.
>> That would be great. And then my um
second question is about you know I
realize we don't have anything to do
with our school budgets and our two
school districts but do you have a sense
or is there a way we can find out how
many um
how many students that would be going to
public school are receiving the voucher
money. I think it's like 4,000 a student
or something like that to go to private
school on uh taxpayer dollars. How do we
find out how many people in conquered
are getting that taxpayer money to go to
private school? That is a great
question. I'm certainly can ask the
Department of Education. I would imagine
that they have statistics on that. Um we
do know that 90% of the students who are
using those vouchers um that um that
they are not leaving public school to
use that they were already attending
private school or religious school and
in um fewer cases homeschooling. Um so
90% of those funds that are leaving our
public school systems are going to
people to families who quite honestly
didn't need it. Um and that was one of
the consequences of eliminating the
income uh the income requirement. It was
originally started as a way to support,
you know, kids maybe who were falling
through the cracks and uh lowincome
families and then it was obviously um
changed. So, it's having a greater over
$50 million in the last year alone um
went out in vouchers and 90% of that was
to to families who were already sending
their kids to private school. I'd be
happy to look into the statistics for uh
the city conquered the two school
districts. I know that district
[laughter]
in the city of conquered. We'll look
into that.
>> Thank you,
>> Council Leo Hill. If uh you uh care to
share the slide deck, uh you can with
us, you can just send it to city clerk
Janice Bonafont,
>> right?
>> And she can circulate it to the city
council.
>> Thank you very much. And actually, um I
will leave a question for you. I also
just received a Oh, now I'm echoing. I
just received a copy of a letter that
was sent from the cities of Manchester,
Nshawa, and Portsouth from their citys
to the Secretary of State asking for
guidance on the um HB1300
question that is going to be on the
ballot. Um apparently the wording of the
ballot language doesn't match the
process in those cities and so those
city clerks are asking for guidance. I
will send you that letter to see. I'm
curious to know if it's also a similar
concern uh here in the city of
>> Thank you.
>> Super.
>> Well, thank you very much.
>> Thank you so much.
>> I hope you'll come back.
>> That brings us to the consent uh
calendar portion of our meetings. I'll
note that excuse me,
[clears throat and cough] items 22 and
23 have been pulled from the consent
calendar. Uh for anyone in the audience
who's interested in those two items,
I'll mention that they will be taken up
at the end of uh this evening's
business. Uh may I have a motion to
approve the consent?
>> So, council second.
>> Moved and seconded. Councelor Brown.
>> Yes. I'm recusing myself from uh consent
item number 17 as my husband is a police
officer.
>> Thank you, councelor. Are we ready for
the vote? All in favor, please signify
by saying I.
>> I
>> oppose. No. Eyes have it. Consent
calendar is adopted. This moves us to
our public hearing phase of our meeting.
Madam city clerk, item number 27.
>> 26A. Want to start?
>> Oh, I'm sorry. I was going to action.
I'm sorry. Thank you. 26A. That's what
happens when you take a vacation.
>> A welldeserved one. Um, an ordinance
amending the code of ordinances, title
one, general code, chapter 14, morals
and conduct.
>> Thank you, Mr. Acting City Manager.
>> I would like to call uh the deputy the
city solicitor up to discuss this issue,
please. Sorry about that.
>> Demoted.
>> I think I just got demoted. [laughter]
>> We'll talk tomorrow.
>> Probably
probably deserved it. Um,
so good evening, Mr. Mayor, uh, members
of the council. Um the uh ordinance
before you uh is a result of um
legislative changes that took place last
year. Uh legislature passed RSA 17833
through 38 um which authorized social
districts in New Hampshire. Um the way
that the uh legislation was structured,
uh municipalities needed to opt in
through a ballot initiative and
conquered uh placed the question on the
ballot last November uh and and it
passed um allowing the city um and
specifically the city council to
establish um social districts within the
city. Um under that legislation, social
districts are uh areas uh that are
defined and bound bounded uh where uh
individuals can uh carry out open carry
alcoholic beverages uh between license
uh licensed establishments. So um those
establishments that already have liquor
licenses, they can serve within
designated uh receptacles and it allows
the patrons to go out in that rounded
area and enjoy their beverage while
walking around. Um, so as we noted, the
city indicated an interest in doing so
by passing the ballot question. Um, and
the question then became, um, if we were
going to, uh, press forward with, uh,
social districts, how do we, um, go
about, uh, implementing that? Um, and so
the, uh, public safety advisory board
has been reviewing, um, how to go about
that implementation. Um and they worked
with uh our office um to basically look
at what would the legal framework be for
for that. Um so the uh the way that the
ordinances read right now uh there's a
general prohibition on um consuming
alcohol in public. Um there are
exceptions to that. Obviously in areas
where there are licenses. So, if you
think of the patios of particular um
establishments, we have an exception for
um nonprofits, which is what we do for
um market days every year. Um we have
beer gardens that are uh set up under
that exception. Um but we would need to
within the ordinance create an exception
for social districts. Um we would also
need to set up a process for how social
districts would come before the council
and would get uh review and approval. So
what you have in front of you is the
proposal that was uh we worked with uh
the public safety advisory board. Um and
it very it is very simply an enabling
ordinance. There's still a lot of work
to be done. So this would be step one in
a multi-step process before we would
move forward with actual social
districts. So what the ordinance in
front of you proposes to do is one
create the legal exception to allow
social districts um in in the city. Um,
two, to ask code uh administration to
create an application and enforcement
policy that would come back before you
uh for your [clears throat] review and
approval of how we're actually going to
get applications in and then decide what
the rules are going to be, the
maintenance plan as it is laid out in
city uh, excuse me, in state law. Um and
then three, once we have that set up,
how our applications going to be
received and reviewed. And in the
ordinance as as um as written right now,
uh those would be go through an initial
review at the public safety advisory
board where they could hold a hearing if
they so chose um or get public input at
that point and then send a
recommendation to the city council. So
this is again it would be what what you
have in front of you is a first step in
the process enabling those uh social
districts and um there would still be
other uh aspects that council would have
to review and approve in order for us to
get to a place where these would be
operational. So happy to answer any
questions that you might have regarding
the ordinance in [clears throat] front
of you or the law or the process.
>> Thank you. Any questions for Mr.
Confori? Councelor Brown.
>> Yes. I noticed that a number of items on
the agenda are typically referred to a
committee. Um the council has decided
that this is something we want to
address. I don't believe that the
council actually referred this to the
public safety board. Is that correct?
>> I am not aware of whether how the public
safety advisory board began uh their
deliberations on this.
>> Any other follow? Yes. Perhaps I could
ask the chair of the public safety
board. I know that there was
conversation publicly uh that you had
said it should be re referred uh do you
recall a time do you recall
>> counselor what's your concern
>> was this referred to the public safety
board
>> I'm just wondering what you're what
you're getting toward the process I'm
looking at other items that are referred
to the public safety board and have been
referred and I'm wondering when this was
referred
>> sure the public safety advisory board
spent several months working on this and
that was generated through discussion
and I I'm not sure if there was a formal
recommendation, but there doesn't need
to be a formal recommendation for the
public safety advisory board to take up
any items.
>> I think that the counselor is confusing
letters and requests from uh members of
the public which are referred to various
committees. Uh any other questions for
Mr. Confori?
>> I'm sorry, Council Kayla.
>> Yes, just a quick one. Um, so is this
saying um that the city council would
have to take a vote on every like
application that comes forward for a
social district?
>> So we would um the city council is the
is the party that has to establish the
social district. So if we had licenses
that wanted to establish particular
district, yes, it would have to come
before you in order to get approval.
>> Okay. Thank you.
>> Any other questions? C
>> follow up to that and code will write
the a draft of the policy and then bring
it to us. So for example, if code said
we would have the power to then
determine if we're approving something
to happen annually or to say that we
want to review it every iteration.
>> Correct. That is something that I think
is left open to the buildout of the
policy in terms of what level of whether
you wanted to um approve once and then
allow it to stay um as it is um even
intermittently um or if you want people
to come back to you every single time
there's going to be a social distance.
>> Uh councelor Credovic and then councelor
Kay.
>> Thank you. Just for clarity sake, this
is no different than if somebody was
going to do a permit for a street
closure or if somebody was going to do
an event permit or somebody was going to
do a parade permit or a banner permit.
These all run through code enforcement
and the public safety board was
recommending that they oversee this
process because they're already familiar
with this process. Do I have that
>> That's correct. I think that they were
looking at that as analogous processes
and code usually does the the policy and
the application process and PSAB
obviously does review those and have
oversight of those and so I think in
looking at this from my understanding of
being in those discussions they were
looking at this as analogous to those
types of events that you were just
talking about.
>> Okay, councelor Caleb.
>> Yes. Um and so similar I guess to all of
those permits um and things like that.
Uh would this would there be like fee
structures like application fees and
okay is that deter like is that deter
determined by council?
>> That would be determined by council. So
when um when code would come back before
you, they would have an application
process and that would uh have the
application itself, the enforcement
process that they would have um and then
it would have a fee structure. Um again,
council in this ordinance is maintaining
complete control over this. This is
again an enabling step to carve out in
the law the ability to go forward with
these social districts. Um and then
asking code to put together a process
for you to review with regard to that.
>> Great.
Council Todd.
>> Uh thank you, your honor. This is maybe
a question for you, but um the uh
process then if we if we reach the point
of an application applied for that is
being presented to the city council that
uh we would have uh the ability then to
hold a public hearing so the public
would actually be able to provide input
before we would make a decision about
any particular application for social
district. Correct.
>> Correct.
>> Council Brown.
>> Yes. Do we have I I understand that
Laconia has a social district. Do we
have any information about um how that's
going?
>> I I did reach out um it went into effect
in u I think Memorial Day weekend and I
did reach out to um Laconia a few weeks
in and from what I understood that it
had been quiet. It had been a success.
um to that point. Um I have not spoken
to them since then or um I may check in
with them at the end of the summer to
see what what other learnings we can
have from them.
>> Followup.
>> Uh would it be possible to get could you
um forward that to the entire council
the results of that conversation?
>> I can we'll if we'll report it to the
city manager and let city manager
determine how to uh
uh get that information to you.
Okay.
>> All right. Thank you, Mr. Conford.
>> I'll open the public hearing. Is there
anyone in the audience who would like to
testify on this item? Yes, sir. Please.
Welcome.
>> Hey. Uh, thanks for having me. Uh, my
name is Ben Greenlate. I live at uh 47
South State Street. Um, so I just want
to say thank you to all of you and the
mayor. Um, but most importantly the
voters for approving this. Um, I know it
was a pretty close vote. I think it got
about 52%. Um, but I think this is a
great opportunity for the city. Um, and
uh, I just want to say personally, so
um, I used to work for the legislature.
Um, I worked for the nonp nonpartisan
office of legislative services and I was
involved in the drafting process for
this law, this series of laws. Um, and I
think this is an awesome opportunity for
the city. Um, the law itself is pretty
big. Um the uh city just really has the
responsibility to make sure that
licences put either a sticker on the um
glasses or that they have a label on
them that says 21 only. You know, it
says the um R or place that they got the
drink from. Um, and the city just says
it needs to designate um, a certain area
and that area needs to have signs that
say you can't go past this point with
these drinks. Um, but other than that,
it's really up to the city council to
decide how they want to approach this.
Um, so you can set um, date or time
limits. Um, you can do it year round.
Um, you can do it like Laconia where
they do it for weekends um, in a you
know area downtown. Um, and so I think
this is a great opportunity and this is
a rare um rare opportunity from the
legislature that has done a lot of bad
things for local government over the
years. Uh, and I think that this is a
rare opportunity and the city should
seize it. Um, so um, I also want to say
that um, you know, I think that not
having it in place by market days was a
missed opportunity. Um, I think this is
a real draw. I think this is a real
opportunity for local businesses to see,
I don't know, tens of thousands of
dollars of additional revenue. Um, and I
think the city can approach it however
they want. Um, and so I think that this
is great that this process is moving
forward. Um, and I really hope that the
city moves forward because it was
mentioned earlier, Laconia has
implemented this. They had bike week and
didn't have any problems with this. So,
I think this goes to show that this can
really be done um in a safe, effective
way that really benefits our local
businesses, especially when they are
going to be hit with some high property
tax increases. So, um please keep this
process moving forward. Thank you again.
That's all. Any questions for sleep?
>> Yes. Um how much trash did this generate
in Laconia? cuz I know that trash cans
are a is are very contentious right now
in conquered because they're not in
parks and they're in c they're in like
the cemetery, they're at the golf
course. A lot of people want to see
trash cans and this has been when I
called and spoke to other uh communities
that implemented that. That was their
complaint is that it generates a lot
[clears throat] of trash.
>> Implemented social districts.
>> I believe Laconia is the only one that's
done that.
>> No, no, no. Because of other states that
have done it. Um, you know, that's I
can't speak to that trash issue, but
just off the top of my head, I think
that um, and I think one other thing I
would like to say I forgot to mention
was that I think any moving forward with
this process should really make sure to
include local businesses. Um, give them
a seat at the table because, you know, I
think they're the ones that know best
what's going to work for them and I
think that they really be consulted in
how this moves forward. But I would also
say I think that a lot of these local
businesses would be more than happy to
sponsor trash cans if that means that
they can serve drinks to people. So I
think that best way to address that
would be engaging with the local
business community because I'm sure that
they would be willing to pay for purple
bags to get the ability to sell off off
premise. Councilman,
>> thank you so much for coming. I really
appreciate it. I like having somebody
here that was on the ground level um in
[snorts] writing the legislation. It was
my understanding last fall when this was
first being brought up, part of the
reason that um we wanted to institute
social districts was in support of our
local restaurants specifically because
they're losing somewhere in the tune of
60 billion dollars a year in revenue to
um beer and alcohol sales because of the
surrounding states that sell marijuana.
>> Is that true?
>> I don't know. I I yeah [laughter]
I I you know I I just honest man
>> I've read I've read the bill I had a
hand in drafting it. Um I'm a fan of it
but I mean I can't really speak and I
know I've read the reports about Laconia
how it's gone there how it's gone very
well. Um what I would say is and I would
also go yes alcohol sales are down. I
think that's for a number of reasons. I
think it's also because apparently the
zoomers don't drink is what they say.
So, it's also true. I think this is an
opportunity to
>> re-imagine um
>> the community and the public's
relationship with alcohol.
>> Thank you. I appreciate it.
>> Any other questions?
>> All right. Thank you. Thank you so much.
>> Thank you very much.
>> Appreciate you coming up to testify. Is
there anyone else who would like to
testify on item 26A?
Right. Seeing none, I'll close the
public hearing. Madam City Clerk, item
26B. It is a public hearing regarding
the status of $130,000
in community development block grant
funds, the majority of which were
subgranted to the conquered coalition to
end homelessness for costs incurred in
operating emergency winter shelter at
240 North Main Street and the resource
center at 238 North Main for the period
December 1st, 2025 to April 30th, 2026.
>> Thank you, Mr. Acting City Manager. I am
not going to bring titles up. I'm just
going to invite Tim Thompson up to read
what he needs to do.
[laughter and clears throat]
>> Welcome, Mr. Thompson.
>> Good evening, Mr. Mayor, members of the
city council. Uh, as you are no doubt
aware of those of you who have been on
the council for a while, when we do a
status update hearing for a CDBG grant,
there's specific requirements that we
need to follow in order to meet the
federal guidelines. So, please bear with
me as I read my script. Uh first and
foremost, there are handouts in the back
of the room at the table that summarize
the status update for this particular
CDBG project. Community development
block grant funds are available to
municipalities through the New Hampshire
Community Development Finance Authority.
Up to 500,000 annually is available for
economic development projects, up to
750,000 for public facilities projects,
up to 750,000 for housing projects, and
up to 500,000 for emergency activities.
Up to $25,000 is available for a
planning study grant. Up to $1.038
million was available through a coid9
CDBGCV funding opportunity for public
service providers serving unhoused
individuals or lower moderate income
households or persons impacted by CO 19.
All projects under that program had to
benefit a majority low and moderate
income person. This public hearing is
intended to update the public on and
take comment on a CDBG CV grant of
$130,000,
the majority of which was subranted to
the Conquer Coalition to End
Homelessness for costs incurred for
operating their emergency winter shelter
at 240 North Main Street and their
resource center at 238 North Main Street
for the period of December 1, 2025 to
April 30, 2026.
those [clears throat] funds that were
provided reimbursement for the
additional services that the coalition
provided to people who are experiencing
homeless and conquered homelessness and
conquered related to CO 19. 674 persons
were benefited by this particular
project. That ends the script portion.
Just to clarify a couple other items for
this. Uh, of that $130,000 grant,
114,000 of that was grant subgranted to
the coalition that they then used to
reimburse their operating costs for the
shelter and their resource center during
that time. The remaining $16,000 of that
$130,000 grant were paid to the CDG
consult that the city contracts with for
contract administration and grant
writing.
Any questions? I'm happy to take them at
this point. And I also will note that
Karen Jansen from the coalition is here
if you have any questions for her.
>> Mr. Thompson, uh I think that there was
some uh confusion on social media,
assuming that the $16,000 was an
additional [clears throat] grant. Uh
you've clarified that that that $16,000
was for administrative costs, correct?
Uh connected with applying for and
administrating the grant. Correct. And
all these funds have all these funds
have have been used.
>> All the funds have currently been
expended. Correct.
>> Which is your function tonight.
>> Exactly.
>> Any other questions? Council War.
>> Uh, also I think some confusion from
probably similar social media was the
dates that we gave the um organization
to cover were up until April 30th.
>> Um people have seen that they were the
winter shel shelter is only open I think
through the end of March. We were just
giving them dates all inclusive of when
it could be open. that time period was
established by the CDFA in terms of
their grant opportunity for
municipalities. So that cover any
granting uh agency that received CDBGCV
funds under this ground was for that
period of December through April.
>> Follow up
>> just so we weren't requiring you to have
the shelter open.
>> And I think this is also was not just
for the shelter but also for the
resource center which is open year
round.
>> That's correct. Correct.
>> Council credit.
>> Thank you Mr. Thompson. Is it standard
language in these grants that there
would be an administrative fee paid out
to someone? Even if it was like our city
administrative staff that was um
overseeing this, we would have um
received uh basically the $16,000 to
help pay a staff person in house that
it's not just um for somebody that uh we
hire to do these grants. Is that
standard for like most grants?
>> It is standard for communities that are
not entitlement communities. Uh,
Concrete is not an entitlement
community. We compete with the state,
the entire state for CDBG funds. There
are several entitlement communities in
New Hampshire, Manchester, Nasha,
Rochester. Off the top of my head, are
all entitlement communities that receive
direct funding from the US Department of
Housing and Urban Development. And they
administer those funds directly from the
federal government. Whereas the rest of
New Hampshire, including conquered,
competes for these programs that are
administered through the community
development finance authority. A
followup one clarifying um I understood
that but this is common for all grants
federal grants etc that there is an
administrative fee that's typically to
the grant
>> there is an allowance under federal law
for administrative
>> cost I just wanted to assure this wasn't
something abnormal
>> thank you
>> questions
a foot
>> thank you your honor u following um
wow
help you know, um, last year, maybe it
was this year, um, one or the committees
I'm on, we were, uh, there were two
groups that came in looking for block
money. [clears throat]
>> Will this distribution negatively affect
either one of those potential block
grants? No, you're you're I believe
you're recalling we had um families in
transition was one of the two and there
was I believe it was Riverbend looking
for fund for the Portill house that were
both competing for housing funds which
is a separate pot of federal money under
the CDBG program. Uh under that program
uh the community development advisory
committee and the city council opted to
apply on behalf of families in
transition. That grant has been awarded.
They were awarded a $500,000
uh community development block grant
housing grant to help assist with their
project to convert uh
commercial space within their buildings
in Bsentennial Square uh to five
additional lowincome housing units. Uh
out of that $500,000
with 25 or so thousand dollars of that
are also being used for administration.
So, it's $475,000
will be subgranted to families in
transition and $25,000 is for grant
administration that particular project,
but they are separate pots of of money.
Uh the CDBGCV program was a very quick
turnaround process with the community
development finance authority because
the funds that were unexpended initially
through that co 19 program were about to
be clawed back by the federal
government. So this was an additional
opportunity for communities to get these
funds associated with the CO 19 pandemic
which is where we were successful with
the coalition.
>> I know I'm digressing. What about
Riverbend?
>> Riverbend was not selected. Uh we can
only make one selection uh for the
housing or economic development or
public facilities programs
because those have specific yearly uh
deadlines associated with them. So the
community development advisory committee
out of the two chose that the more
competitive application will be families
in transition which again was ultimately
funded.
>> Thank you Mr. Thompson.
>> Appreciate it.
>> I'll now open the public hearing on item
26B. Is there anyone in the audience who
would like to testify?
>> Good evening.
>> Karen Jason. I'm the executive director
of the Conquer Coalition to End
Homelessness. So, these funds in
particular, this is a rare opportunity
for us and we are very grateful for the
city um supporting us. We it enabled us
with the shelter to open earlier and
stay just a half hour and also stay open
later in the morning a half hour. That
doesn't seem like a lot of time, but
when you're coordinating with the
friendly kitchen of where people can go
and move during the very extreme cold,
that makes a lot of difference. In
addition, we had during the week um
expanded our operating hours to Tuesday
and Thursday afternoons.
This
um and with the extreme cold we had this
winter, it this funding enabled us also
to stay open 10 Monday afternoons and
also an additional 10 Friday afternoons.
The city was very generous in granting
us funding for warming center hours.
Those were only in the afternoon for
Saturdays and Sundays during our winter
shelter season. But we had a number of
weekends where we were open um early on
both Saturday and Sunday. We had just ex
devastatingly cold cold winter. So all
in all this helps support not just our
general operations, but about 73 extra
hours worth of time that we were open.
And in that time, we're able to make
deeper connections with people, we're
able to provide better case management
or ongoing case management support. And
over the course of the year, we um in
addition to support with community other
community agencies were able to house
get 43 people housed this past year. So,
thank you.
questions.
>> I just like to thank you. Thank you for
bringing up that warming center because
I think conquered coalition was a key
partner in that and and the friendly
kitchen, the two agencies. I think you
deserve a lot of credit and and also the
friendly kitchen for uh organizing to
extend your hours and ensure that there
was 247
coverage for places to for people to go
both the the winter shelter at night and
in the resource center during the day.
So, thank you for that work and I think
the community should be really grateful
for that work of protecting some of our
vulnerable citizens. So, thank you very
much,
>> Councelor Schultz.
>> Thank you. Um, thank you, Mr. Mayor. On
that note, um, I just wanted to make
sure you were aware that there is going
to be a discussion around uh, extreme
heat [clears throat] um, times. I
realize the shelter isn't open, but the
resource center probably is. And so, if
that's something that you think that
your organization could uh, play a role
in, that will be coming up in September.
>> Next week,
>> next week. Sorry. So, I just wanted to
make sure if no one had made you aware
of that that you knew that this was a
discussion that just recently started.
>> I I know it's under discussion. We just
haven't gone through through it, you
know, vetted it and what it would do for
our populations, but we do know that the
heat is really
it's tough. It's really tough on people
out there.
>> That's a credit.
>> Thank you. I just wanted to echo uh
councelor Schlloer's words about um
[clears throat] how much support and
gratitude that the city of conquered
should have to your organization. You
know, when Mr. Thompson told us about
the 614 people that um benefited from
the shelter this winter, um I think that
the other part that goes along with it
was your comment about the more people
that you were able to do outreach to
this winter. Unfortunately, the heat and
the cold drives people indoors places
when they are in need, but a lot of the
times if the weather were mild, we may
not even see them. They'll go under the
radar. So, I appreciate all you do, as
you know.
>> All right. Thank you very much. Thank
you.
>> Mr. Thompson.
>> I say it wrong.
I neglected to mention during my
presentation that uh you do have an
action item associated with this public
hearing. There is no action necessary
for the council. Just holding the public
hearing is all that is required under
the law.
>> Thank you. So we can skip this when we
get to public hearing action.
>> We'll rely on the city clerk to keep me
on track with that. Is there anyone else
who would like to testify on this item?
Right. Seeing none,
I will close the public hearing.
Madam, city clerk, item 26 C.
>> It is a resolution appropriating the sum
of $67,376
in the general fund as a transfer out to
trust and accepting the sum of $67,376
from the Boys and Girls Club of Central
and Northern New Hampshire for this
purpose.
>> Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Uh as part of the
off-site improvements identified during
the planning board review process for
the Pinnacook Community Center, uh the
Boys and Girls Club uh was required to
construct sidewalks on Dolphin Street.
Uh although the city partnered with the
Boys and Girls Club on the community
center project, uh they were the ones
who were responsible for all
construction costs. Dolphin Street was
part of the fiscical year 23
neighborhood street paving program.
That's CIP78. in order to efficiently
construct the sidewalk in coordination
with the paving project. Uh they agreed
to cover the full cost if the city
included the sidewalk under the same CIP
for the Dolphin Street paving. This work
was completed and the funds have all
been received by the city. Uh because
the sidewalk project was complete and
has been closed, the city would like to
transfer these funds to the highway
reserve for future neighborhood street
paving programs. So we have the money
now. It's to move the money to the CIP78
or to the reserve account and then that
can be used CIP78 in future years.
>> Thank you. Any questions for the acting
city manager? Right. Seeing none, I'll
open the public hearing. Is there anyone
in the audience who would like to uh
testify on this?
>> I think Brown had a question.
>> Sorry. Oh, Council Brown, did you have a
question?
>> Um, I I was I can wait. That's fine.
Until at the action phase.
I close the public hearing. Madam City
Clerk, item 26D.
of $11,500
in the Parks and Recreation
Miscellaneous Grants and Donations
Project for the free summer concert
series and accepting the sum $11,500
as a donation from the Walker Lecture
Series for this purpose.
>> Mr. there. In uh 2022, um the city
approached Walker Walker lecture series
to see if they would fund an expansion
of the concert series to include Sunday
morning concerts at the Marramck Lodge
at White Park. They agreed to fund uh
the expan the expanded series and in the
summer of 22 there were 10 concerts that
were held at the lodge from mid June to
midepptember. Since 2022, the lecture
Walker lecture series has continued to
fund the Thursday night and Sunday
morning free community concerts. Last
year, the donation was also $11,500 to
include new concerts at Canal Riverfront
Park in Pinnacook. Um, and this donation
will be used to support the 2026 summer
concert series. So, this is just in
order for us to be able to move forward
that series.
city minister? Council Brown.
>> Yes. I'm just wondering where um the
fund is, where this donation, how can we
see how much money is in that and is it
exclusive to um this type of event?
>> Yeah, this will go into the grants and
donations fund. Um and we will be having
a full report that will come to the city
council when you receive the first
quarter report for all the grants and
donations. So, you'll see it there.
>> Follow up.
>> Uh can we I'm sorry. Can we see that um
information on the ACFR or in the budget
in any of our other financial documents?
>> It's included in the ACFR as a
consolidated number. Uh it is not
included in the regular operating budget
on an annual basis. That's why you get
it here as a supplemental appropriation.
>> You any other questions for the acting
city manager? [clears throat]
Seeing none, I'll open the public
hearing. Is there anyone in the audience
who would like to testify on this?
Seeing none, I'll close the public
hearing. Madam City Clerk, item 26E.
>> It is a resolution modifying the elderly
exemption for the city of Conquered
pursuant to the provisions of RSA 7227A.
>> Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I'd like to bring
John Rice in order to talk about this uh
resolution.
Welcome, Mr. Rice.
>> Thank you. Good evening, honorable mayor
and council members.
Uh so this is a recommendation that was
made to the tax exemptions uh policy
committee uh with the ongoing
revaluation in the preliminary numbers
for residential
uh housing. We want to look at our uh
population of people who are currently
qualified for the elderly uh exemption.
Um
and make sure again the goal uh the goal
of the committee was to maintain uh the
same number of people who qualified for
the exemption uh to continue to receive
that exemption. I think we had talked
about this uh before here at council.
um based on
prior year and what we prior years I
should say leading up to this we tried
to project what was needed uh to
increase the
value at which the um
uh the value which we're going to target
uh end up at I guess reval wise then
what the need would be for that
exemption amount we did that preliminary
uh we had a meeting with tax exemption
policy committee
uh that is what is put forward here.
However, since then we had our
preliminary values went out to
residential taxpayers. We took those
results and applied them to the need and
they matched. So, we did a pretty good
job estimating. Um
prior to this year, 2025, we had uh 98
uh zero tax bills essentially. So the
exemption amount resulted in
uh 98 taxpayers receiving a zero tax
bill. We're trying to maintain that
number and qualify as many people as
possible. Based on our projections,
currently uh 94 of 98 would continue to
have zero tax bill. However,
10 additional people are added to that
list. So we have a a total of 104 based
on our current projections.
and 25 of the people um
who
uh qualified have a lower assessed
value. So um we're kind of tracking all
the numbers trying to project. When I
did meet with the tax exemption policy
committee, we did ask uh for the ability
for me as the director of assessing to
come forward once we know the
residential values are final. We find
these numbers drastically change. There
is still an opportunity for us prior to
the tax bills going out to come back and
um make adjustments as needed.
And uh
I I'm sure you've seen it, but the
recommendation uh current amounts are uh
the exemption amount for 65 to 74 years
old is $80,000.
Uh ages 75 to 79 are 131,000.
Ages 80 plus 223,000.
And our recommendation uh in the
resolution
is ages 65 to 74 increasing to 155,000,
ages 75 to 79 to 250,000,
and ages 80 plus to 375,000.
>> Thank you, Mr. Rice. Uh I have a quick
question. Could you explain how uh an
exemption works so that people
understand kind of what impact that has
on how much someone would pay in
property taxes?
>> Yeah. So uh exemptions do not act like
uh tax credits. We have t tax credits
and exemptions. Exemptions are a
decrease in value before the tax rate is
calculated. Uh so the um amount is the
amount of assessed value that will be
removed from your assessment prior to
your your tax calculation.
>> Thank you. So, uh, for example, um, if I
was 75 years or older, or up to 80, I
guess, I could have $250,000 deducted
from the assessed value of my house. So,
if my house was uh, let's say was valued
at half a million dollar, I'd only pay
taxes on $250,000 on that. Correct.
>> If they qualify. Yes,
>> if I qualify. Yeah, exactly. Any
questions? Councelor Schlawson.
>> And the qualifications, there's income.
These are for lowincome individuals.
There's definitely income.
>> It's income and asset based. Yeah.
>> Yes. Thank you.
>> Any other questions for Mr. Rice?
>> Professor Schultz,
>> I see your wheel the wheels.
>> Sometimes you can see the wheels
turning.
>> I can um I don't know that you can
answer this, but is since it's a
proactive prog process, isn't it
possible that there are people who could
qualify that just aren't applying?
>> Yes. And we've had quite a few uh with
the ongoing residential um hearings that
we had uh we had quite a few people u
come in and we uh recommended for many
of them um you know we we were able to
have discussions to determine whether
they met or exceeded the uh income and
asset limitations if they thought they
were close. We we want to encourage
taxpayers if to apply. We're not we're
not here to deny anyone. It's a it's a
system where we have to look at your
income. We have to look at your assets.
If we can qualify you, you will qualify.
>> I feel like that needs to be a headline
emlazed in the sky. You might you might
qualify. Thank you.
>> Any other questions? Council.
>> Yes. Um Mr. Rice, you had mentioned that
um there may be something else that
other things that you could do. What
kinds of things could we could you do?
I'm I'm not
>> Didn't Didn't you just say, you know,
bring if somebody doesn't quite qualify,
you know, we can still there's still
things that we can do.
>> I wasn't sure if there was other
options.
>> I think what he was saying was that if
the results of the uh assessments come
back and they're significantly different
than what was estimated that there would
still be time for him to come back to
the council to ask for changes to these
values,
>> right? So, it's really an issue of
having a significant change from what
was anticipated, which [clears throat]
doesn't sound like that's
>> No. And based on um again, we had our
hearings uh the last uh three and a
half, four weeks. Um actually, I think
phone hearings are just wrapping up. Um
I don't anticipate a large change to the
preliminary values. Um there will be
some changes. Um there will be final uh
notices for those people who are values
have changed, but I don't anticipate
it'll be large enough to affect the
recommendation.
>> Council Brown,
>> follow up.
>> Yes. And this is off of what you just
said, Mr. Lebron. Um so people, this is
after they get their tax bill that we
could still do. Could you rephrase that?
At what [clears throat] point? This is
really the part of the valuation process
when you're looking at where the
valuations fall and compared to uh the
folks who had qualified and were getting
the uh uh exemptions as we were looking
at them. If there was a significant
change to all of that, we would still
have the opportunity before the tax
bills were out in order to come back and
have the city council make adjustments
here. That doesn't look like that's
going to be the case, but it still could
there still could be some opportunity.
>> Correct. And and we review this every
year. So even if it weren't prior to the
tax bill, we still have an opportunity
next year to make
>> Just clarification. So we could still
make it the tax bills are going out in
December. Is that correct?
>> November. December.
>> November. December. Okay. So we have
this that buffer.
>> It's it's really I mean that's the when
the tax bills go out, but if you think
about when the tax rate gets set, if you
think about when the MS1 report is filed
with the Department of Revenue, there's
a lot of things that have to happen
before that tax rate goes out. These
values have to be established and
completed by that time. We'll know very
shortly if there is going to be anything
based on the preliminary discussions
that you're having and the preliminary
review. You just said that there really
wasn't a lot of additional changes that
you're seeing. It still could happen. It
doesn't look like it's going to, but it
would have to be done long before the
time the tax bill goes out because there
are plenty of things that have to happen
before that tax bill is actually
calculated. And and I only brought it up
because we had the discussion to give me
the power to come and make a
recommendation to city council so that
we wouldn't have to hold another
meeting. And
>> it's a safety it's a safety measure.
Yeah. Yeah. The the the committee did in
fact give you the authority to come back
power to come back. Any other questions
for Mr. Rice?
>> One last.
>> Sure.
>> Uh the when will the commercial property
assessments be completed?
>> That's a great question. Uh letters uh
went out today. They're in the mail not
being received. It may take um
three, four days start being received.
>> Mr. Rice, would you believe that my uh
new assessment is pretty much spot on to
what the many real estate agents who
really want to sell my house telling me
my house is valued.
>> I mean, I can believe it, but [laughter]
>> Well, you did good job on my house
anyway.
>> All right. and it was 58% increase for a
single family home. So that's right in
the range of that 60% that you
estimated. So you did really well.
>> Right. Thank you very much.
>> Don't go too far. I figured [laughter]
>> uh is there I'm going to open the public
hearing.
>> You can go.
>> You can you can leave for now.
>> Yeah.
>> Don't go too far.
>> You're getting you're getting cross
signals. I'm sorry. But yeah, don't go
too far. Is there anyone in the audience
who would like to testify on this item,
the elderly tax exemption?
>> All right. Hearing close the public
hearing. Uh,
Miss Miss Ms. City Clerk. Um, item 20 uh
26F, please. It is a report from the
director of assessing recommending the
city manager be authorized to enter into
a payment and move taxes agreement
between the city of conquered and brier
hydro associates for Ralph Canal Falls,
Penokeook upper falls and Penuk lower
falls.
>> Thank you, Mr. City Manager. Do I
suspect we're going to hear from Mr.
Rice again?
>> I believe we're going to hear from Mr.
Rice again. So, John, if you could come
back up.
>> Welcome back, Mr. Rice.
>> Been a while. Yeah,
>> you've gotten grayer.
>> What's that?
>> You've gotten grayer.
>> Athens.
Uh, thank you for that.
[laughter] Um, so this is a an agreement
you've seen before um
with Brier Hydro. Uh we've been working
with uh I guess in the assessing
department to come up with a value for
their assets. Um it can be a challenging
uh process. Uh we have been we have
negotiated with Brier Hydro in the past
for uh payment L uh agreements
and what we we went to Brier Hydro this
year with ongoing revaluation. We asked
them if they would do a bridge year with
the city uh in the interest of
finalizing the value of their property.
Uh that process is ongoing. Um, we I I
have a preliminary value, but we did not
have it when we needed to be
negotiating. Their prior contract uh was
up uh March 31st of of 26. So, uh this
is a bridgeear contract. It's the same
contract you've seen uh the prior year
for $255,000.
It's a flat fee agreement uh based on
the value that I assigned to it for
2025. uh the tax rate and then um a
discount that we looked at uh for 2025.
Again, we're looking at this a bridge
year. We're going to develop a value on
this property, same with every other
property uh for the revaluation and
apply the tax rate and have to
renegotiate. We're looking to do uh
five-year uh agreements in the future.
This is just the bridge year for that.
>> Thank you. Any questions for Mr. Rice on
this?
>> Thank you, your honor. Does Bosquin also
have a pilot agreement?
>> Boss Quinn has a pilot agreement. Y and
and actually the value that I'm
developing for the reval is done being
done. Uh I met with Chad Roers. Um he's
with Avatar Associates and he does the
value for for Brier. We work together on
it because we're diving up the value uh
correctly. So there no either uh that
collectively the two communities are not
overvaluing it.
>> Thank you. Any other questions? Mr.
Rice.
Seeing none. Thank you, Mr. Rice.
>> I'll now open the public hearing. Is
there anyone who would like to testify
on item 26F?
>> Seeing none, I'll close the public
hearing. Madame city clerk. Uh item 26G.
It is a discretionary preservation
easement renewal request per RSA 79D for
property located at 102 Little Pond Road
owned by Sylvia Miscoco Trust.
>> Mr. Acting City Manager
>> and I will ask John Rice to come back
one more time this evening.
>> All right. So, this is a barn
preservation easement uh for
uh 102 Little Pond Road. Uh the MSOs own
the property. Very well known uh at
least in my office in town. Um you have
seen this before. They've had two uh
prior year uh pri prior um easements.
They are for 10 years. So they've had it
for 20 years. Uh we did inspect the
barn. We always do an inspection uh of
the property and we score them and we
make a recommendation. Uh this is if
you've ever seen the property or the
barn, you've you're very fortunate. Is
very well-kept barn uh in excellent
condition. They are very expensive to
maintain and that's really the idea of
the easement is for us to be sure that
what they say they are doing they are
doing to the property. um they are doing
quite a bit of work and uh it's getting
more and more expensive to preserve the
barn and therefore our recommendation as
you'll see is outstanding as it's been
in the past and this is for another 10
years.
>> Thank you, Mr. Rice. Any questions for
Mr. Rice?
>> Seeing none. Thank you very much.
>> I'll open the public hearing on item
26G. Is there anyone who'd like to
public hearing. Madam City clerk, this
brings us to the public hearing action
phase item 27.
>> It is an ordinance amending the code of
ordinances, title one, general code,
chapter 14, morals and conduct.
>> Move approval.
>> Moved and seconded. Any discussion?
Council Brown.
>> Yes. Um, I uh believe that I am making a
motion that we table this until we
receive additional information. I'm
concerned that we've prioritized
um we've prioritized social districts
over uh warming stations, cooling
centers, um over things that are s that
do um necessitate the safety of our
residents. Are you making You're making
a motion, counselor?
>> I am making a motion.
>> Okay. Is there a second?
>> Okay. The motion fails for lack of a
second.
>> Your honor, may I continue discussion?
>> No, ma'am. You made your motion.
>> Okay. I made a motion, but I would like
to No second.
>> Okay. We're still Are we in the
discussion phase?
>> There is no motion on the table.
>> My motion is on the table, your honor.
>> That's right. I'm sorry. Yes. Councelor
Kovich, please.
>> Yes. Well, I would like to speak to
that.
>> Speak to that motion. Very well. Um, I
would like to point out that a member of
the safety board is also a lobbyist for
an alcoholic organization and I would
like to know if this uh lobbyist
disclosed that during any of the five
meetings that the safety board had about
social districts because I I think that
is that is a concern. There were uh two
members of the safety board that opposed
moving forward that asked that this be
slowed down. One of them was a former
member of the DEIJB committee. I think
that the safety board did not discuss
the open carry and concealed carry um
effect um that we have in New Hampshire
and how alcohol that the impact of
alcohol in our downtown where people are
allowed to carry a weapon without a
permit concealed. And also, as we heard
from the person who testified, that
there are fewer people who are drinking.
In fact, the New Hampshire liquor
commission is losing alcohol sales. The
sales that are growing year overyear are
non-alcoholic. So, I think we will be
alienating a large group of people uh in
conquered people who uh do not want to
be around a bunch of drunk people
walking around. We have not explored the
impact of trash on this. I think that
this uh does not need to be rushed
forward over other issues particularly
heating uh centers and warming centers
and cooling stations. I just I feel that
that the prioritization of a social
district over other things um is
concerning.
>> Okay. Thank you, councelor. Any other
discussion? Councelor Grady Sex.
>> Thank your honor. I'll just say that all
of those um issues were discussed at
length in multiple subcommittees as well
as with the full public safety advisory
board. Thank you.
>> Thank you, councelor. Any other
discussion? Councelor Schultz.
>> Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I want to thank um
uh the citizen who testified because um
I've heard some of the same arguments
from our state representatives who also
were at the hearings for that on the
commerce committee. I'm not talking
about myself. Um that felt that this
issue was very well discussed, debated
um with all of those issues in mind and
I think that the folks who looked at
this on our committees I trust uh this
recommendation to move forward. So I I
appreciate that opportunity. Thank you.
>> Thanks. Right, Council Caleb.
>> Yes. Um, in thinking about the permits
and fees and all of that that will be
associated with these social districts,
potentially uh implementing the social
districts could be some sort of revenue
generator. So, I just wanted to throw
that out as a reminder.
>> Thank you, councelor
Councelor Curts.
>> Yeah, thank you. I'd also I will be
supporting this motion. Um, I don't have
any sense that this has been rushed. In
fact, I know there were some
organizations in the community who were
hopeful to make use of social
districting um earlier this summer um
and the committee was careful in um
working with legal to make sure that the
city has a well-developed process um and
all of the sort of safeties in place and
the discretion of the council remains um
intact for assessing those. So, this
does not feel um like a rush to me at
all and I will be supporting the motion.
>> Council,
>> uh I would echo what councelor Curts had
to say. I believe Mr. Conford also noted
we still probably have a very long
process ahead of us with multiple more
committees multiple times probably
coming to the council and a reminder
that our constituents did actually vote
for us to do this in the long run. So,
>> council key.
>> Thank you, honor. And I'll just add uh
not only is this not rush, this has been
delayed beyond belief and uh time needs
to come and obstructionist
uh talk like councelor Brown just blows
my mind. So I'll I'll be in favor of
this.
>> Of course you will.
>> Counc.
Thank you, your honor. Um I'll be
supporting this mostly because um I
think that I want to support our our
local businesses, especially those that
um serve alcohol. They have um
restaurant servers who are licensed to
do so and they are still responsible for
the poor services poor ring services
that you can shake your head counselor
that's okay but
>> I can support this motion on on behalf
of our residents that asked for this.
>> Thank you councelor Todd.
>> Thank you. Uh I'll be supporting this
also. I just want to comment that the
ordinance I think is although it's been
acknowledged that it's a rather simple
ordinance but it's well written and I
think that uh I have every faith and
confidence that the way it's set up with
uh these applications being submitted
first to the public safety board uh is
an excellent process and I have every
confidence that the uh public safety
board chair and members will u you know
efficiently review each application and
then provide the council with the
appropriate information to in order for
us to make a decision. So, thank you.
>> Thank you. Any other comments? Councelor
Grady St.
>> Thank you, honor. Just one last um
statement. The members of the public
safety advisory board work very hard.
This is a time-intensive
um advisory board to serve on and I am
just grateful for all of them and I I'm
very sorry that somebody may have been
um disparaged this evening.
>> Thank you. Uh let me just say uh that I
too will be voting in favor of this. I
want to thank uh councelor Grady Ston,
the chairman of the public safety
advisory board for the work that she and
her committee did on this. Uh it was
indeed a long and detailed process. I
have to say that the people who have
reached out to me asking uh whether when
we be when we will be able to have
social districts are largely from our
nonprofit community. uh they're all very
eager to look at the opportunities this
might serve for them and uh as has
already been said some have been
disappointed that uh that we haven't
acted with more elacrity uh so that they
could start using uh social districts
sooner but I think that there has been
concern council Grey Sex and I certainly
have had offline conversations about
wanting to be sensitive to neighborhoods
and to uh public safety and to ensuring
that uh when we do this we do it the
right way and don't feel compelled to be
rushed by the fact that Laconia has
established one before us. As I told the
paper, this is not a race. This is
making public policy that sound. So, I
will be voting in favor of it. Are we
ready for the vote? All those in favor
of the motion, please signify by saying
I.
>> I.
>> Oppos? No.
>> The eyes have it.
>> Madam city clerk, item number 28.
>> There is no action needed on that.
>> That is Thank you. See I to yes there's
no action required. So we'll move right
to item 29.
>> That is a resolution appropriating the
sum of $67,376
trust and accepting the same from the
Boys and Girls Club of Central and
Northern New Hampshire.
>> Moved and seconded. Is there discussion?
>> Yes. I had wanted to ask which trust
this was going to.
I believe that was stated that it is
going into the highway trust.
>> It's a highway
>> reserve reserve.
>> Highway reserve. Thank you.
>> Are we ready for the vote? All those in
favor, please signify by saying I
>> opposed. No. Eyes have it.
>> Uh the motion passes by the necessary
twothirds majority. Madam city clerk,
item number 30. It is a resolution
appropriating the sum of $11,500
in the parks and recreation
miscellaneous grants and donations
project for the free summer concert
series and accepting the sum of $11,500
as a donation from the Walker lecture
series for this purpose.
>> Council Horn.
>> I just want to show my appreciation for
expanding to the Canal Street Riverfront
Park. I've spent a lot of time at the
left music down there. It's fun to go
have a picnic with my daughter, go over,
grab an ice cream, and there's been some
really great music. So, just really
thankful for that.
>> Pleased to see it, too.
>> All right. Any further discussion?
>> All right. All those in favor, please
signify by saying I.
>> Opposed? No. The eyes have it. The
motion passes by the necessary twothirds
majority. Madam, city clerk, item 31.
exemption for the city of conquered
>> Councelor Curts.
>> Thank you. So, I'd just like to um state
some appreciation for the assessing
department um both for um really taking
a close look at this um and also I'm I I
appreciate that they're keeping the door
open to make adjustments if necessary,
but also that it seems um they have been
very accurate in the estimates that
they've offered this community. Um, and
I know we did receive some testimony
from individuals in the community who
really rely on this and they appreciated
uh, excuse me, they expressed great
appreciation for the elderly exemption
um, and the way that it has allowed them
to remain in the community in previous
years. So, I just wanted to extend
gratitude to staff for their hard work
on this.
>> Any other councelor Curts?
>> Schultz.
>> Schultz. [laughter]
>> I don't know what this means, Mr. Mayor.
Sorry.
>> You have been doing so well for many
months. I don't I think you owe me a
steak dinner.
>> I do.
>> Um, [laughter] relax.
>> I don't know what other jokes to make,
but I'll leave it at that.
>> I'll even throw in a cocktail if it's
your [laughter]
>> only in the social district. Um
I I just wanted to also I attended one
of the meetings um but as a citizen and
I realized as I'm sitting there that the
roughly 100 people that apply actively
for this exemption that get 100%
exemption. I'm related to them. I gain
no benefit uh from this whatsoever. I am
just shocked that it's such a low number
and I do believe it's at least double
that that would qualify possibly triple
that. And so if we as counselors and
elected officials can help get the word
out that folks still have time to um I
believe do that exemption process that
we should encourage folks to do so
because uh why leave it to just the 100
or so people when it could be more than
Thank you,
>> I just would point out that there's also
the veterans,
um, the disabled, the blind, solar.
There are many exceptions. So, if you go
on the assessing website, all your
applications are right there.
favor uh of the motion, please signify
by saying I
>> opposed. No.
>> Eyes have it. Madam City clerk, item 31,
I'm sorry, item 32. It is a report from
the director of assessing recommending
the city manager to be authorized to
enter into a payment in l of taxes
agreement between the city of conquered
and brier hydro associates.
>> Councelor Todd.
>> Just a quick acknowledgement of another
example of the great value Panakook
brings to the city. [laughter]
>> I was surprised you didn't say anything
about the summer concerts.
>> Oh, that's I'm saving that for my other
comment.
>> Oh, okay. All right. All right. Any any
other discussion? Right. Ready for the
vote. All those in favor, please signify
>> Oppos? No. Eyes have it. The mo the
motion passes. Madam city clerk, item
33.
>> It is a discretionary preservation
easement renewal request for property
located at 102 Little Pond Road owned by
the Sylvia Miscoco Trust. Move approval.
I'll just say briefly that while I was
on the board of the New Hampshire
Preservation Alliance, uh preservation,
barn preservation was uh was one of the
priorities. We're losing many more barns
uh in historic barns in New England and
in New Hampshire than uh than we should
and this program uh this state program
is one of the tools we have to preserve
them. So, I'm glad to see that we are
supporting this effort as a city.
>> All those in favor of the motion, please
>> I. I
>> Eyes have it. The motion passes. This
brings us to the report section of our
meeting. Uh I believe Mr. Acting City
Manager, we have item 34, uh a report on
White Park Pond restoration.
>> We do. And I would like to ask Mr. Gil
to come up and uh present this report.
Welcome,
>> Mayor, members, city council. Um,
Garrison Beck is also here. He is our
wetlands uh specialist from BHB who's
helped us through the um application
process for the pond. So, if there's any
technical questions, he is better suited
than I am. Um back in uh June is also um
we wrote a report that you accepted that
we would go back to the state to see if
they would um allow us to uh hydro rake
the pond versus a fuel dredge. Fuel
dredge was significantly more dollars.
I'm happy to report that the state has
come back and said that is an allowable
and a good use of um
to get the pond back to where it needs
to be. Um, so in the the CIP there was
$200,000 in this year's budget that
you've approved pending coming back for
a discussion and final approval with
you. Um, so it's in CIP51.
>> Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Gil. Uh, any
questions for Mr. Gil?
>> Brown.
>> Yes. Um, we can dredge this, but there's
no guarantee that it will eradicate the
lotus seed because it has a lifespan of
like or um dormcancy period, right, of
13 years. It can just kind of sit there.
So, this is something that we could be
doing over and over again. Is that
right?
>> Um, even with a full dredge, there's no
guarantee that you would get rid of um
all the seeds. That's that's what
garrison's here. So, I mean, even if we
spent 700 to a million dollars, there's
no guarantees that we're going to get
>> Um, so part of it is, and he's here to
he's educated us, part of it is if it's
um if you guys approve it is um
continuation on our staff to make sure
when we see a plant um early on that we
have to um basically go in there and our
waiters and remove it. Um there will be
um some process on our staff to make
sure if we see anything to to get it
follow up. Yes. I I thought that uh in
previous council meetings we had talked
about hydro raking was less than
$20,000. It was like $15,000.
>> That's harvesting. Um the past what
we've been doing for the past five years
to control the lotus plant is
mechanically harvest. That's when the
machine comes in and just kind of cuts
the top six to eight inches off. Um,
hydro raking is, and Harrison can
probably do a better job explaining it
to me, but it's it's a back hole on a
barge that goes down and gets all
sediments up and gets all the root zones
and everything. It's a little bit more
aggressive.
>> Now, this is um is this this is
increasing the depth from 3 feet to 10
feet or this is not?
>> That keeps the same [clears throat]
depth. Okay.
>> Yeah, keeps the same depth.
>> The depth averages I think is between
four and six feet. right now. Back in
the 80s, it was over 10 feet and that
half of the dredge um did lower it
brought in a lot of fill to about five
feet.
>> Any other questions? Councelor Foot.
>> Thank you, your honor. Um could you
explain why uh you didn't pursue or
maybe you did a chemical alternative to
to kill this plant off versus what
you're doing?
I'm going to date myself now. I think it
was probably 10 or 12 years ago. We um
used chem we did a chemical spray um and
it was not well received at all by the
community. Um so we um
went this way and I think it was also a
better way to remove the seed bankank
was to remove the material.
I'm also happy to speak to that. Um, one
of the concerns with the chemical
treatment is all that pond material will
die in place and that could prompt algae
blooms if you have all that decomposting
material in the pond remaining in the
pond. So, by removing the the mass of
the plant material from the pond, um
it's less chemically intensive and
removing that plant material doesn't
um wouldn't spur potential algae blooms
or other unintended consequences.
>> C foot,
>> great response. Thank you,
>> Cass Brown. And Mr. Gil, would you
please pull your microphone a little
closer to you? I can hear you, but I'm
sure people at home can. Thank you.
>> I have residents asking about the smell,
and it looks like on page five, you're
talking about um dredging and then it
needs to sit on site to dewater
um before being transported off site.
So, is there going to be an excessive
smell with this?
>> Um if approved, we're doing it hopefully
in late September when it's cooler. Um,
but you do have a large biomass that
need to dewater. There will be some
smell.
>> Follow.
>> Did we do this uh maybe 10 years ago?
Because I remember a mound um out where
the new playground is an enormous mound
because my kids were playing on it and
they were about it was about 10 years
ago.
>> Um
>> it was dredged and it was it had the
lotus seeds. Yeah, it was pretty it was
gross and it was huge.
>> I think that was the first time um I
don't think the lotus plant was there. I
think we tried to dredge it um for ice
skating. Um but it was up where the the
playground and the splash pad was. It
was a large material.
>> Yes. And was that follow that was high
was that hydro raking?
>> No, that was with a backhoe trying to
remove some of the growth.
>> Good memory. Any other questions for Mr.
Gil or uh sorry, Mr.
>> I have a question for Mr. Lebron.
>> I'm sorry.
>> All right.
>> Um I believe that there's 500,000 of uh
funds for CIP51 that was approved but
not bonded. Is that correct?
>> Is this relevant council? Is this
relevant to
>> Well, I'm just concerned that it's, you
know, we're this is now $700,000
for White Park that is going to be
dedicated.
>> So, you don't want to spend money in
your neighborhood park?
>> It's a lot of money.
>> It is.
>> Yeah. [clears throat]
>> Are we ready for the vote?
>> There's no vote.
>> I don't have a
>> It's just a report.
>> Uh, no. No. I'm sorry. I I I'm I'm
seeking a motion to authorize staff
>> to hydro rake
>> the pond in White Park.
>> So moved. Second.
>> Moved and seconded. All right. All in
>> Eyes have it.
>> Thank you, gentlemen.
>> Uh next report is item 35.
[clears throat] This is report uh from
the UNH sustainability fellow on the
citywide tree canopy assessment.
Beth Fence Marker will join us and make
the presentation.
>> Thank you. Thank you.
>> Good evening, Mayor and City Counselors.
Um while Danielle sets up, I'll just
give an introduction. So, this is our
fifth year with a fellow from the UNH
sustainability institute. Um previous
years, she they've done greenhouse gas
emission projects. Um worked on
community [clears throat] power. Uh, one
of the recommendations that came out of
the last greenhouse gas project was to
get a better understanding of what the
citywide canopy was and what our um,
natural resources were. So, our project
this year was a mapping project um, an
assessment of the citywide um, tree
canopy assess assessment, excuse me, the
citywide tree canopy and looking at
different ways to quantify that and what
the benefits are to the city. Um, so
I'll I'll pass it over. This is Danielle
Melius. She just graduated from UNH and
she's on her way to Toronto in a couple
weeks where she'll be pursuing her
master's degree at the University of
Toronto. Um, she's done an amazing job
and I'm really proud of her. So, I'm sad
she's leaving us.
>> Thank you, Beth. It's a pleasure to meet
you all. I've met some of you uh
throughout the summer, but it's really
great to be here. I know it's at the end
of the night so I'll make it a little
brief but we um as Beth mentioned we our
goal was to map the canopy which we were
able to do which we found that around
60% of conquered is covered by tree
canopy which as someone from Connecticut
I would not think that Hartford and New
Haven could compare to that. Um we also
found that there was there
unsurprisingly has been a a decrease in
the amount of tree canopy cover since
1985.
Um, but we still have about 30,000 uh
acres of tree canopy throughout the city
of conquered. Um, with about 35% of that
canopy being on public land and the rest
of it being on private land, which is
important to mention as we could plant a
tree everywhere we can as part of the
city of conquered, but eventually we'd
run out of space and it would be up to
the private property owners to put their
hand in the game and to plant their own
trees. But the goal of this project was
to also provide resources for people who
want to plant more trees, whether it be
they don't know how to what trees to
plant. They don't know where they could
plant them. Um, educating people on the
advantages of planting native species
over um non-native or invasive ones. We
also looked at different risk and
benefits that comes with tree canopies,
whether that be with um decreasing the
amount of flood risk or lowering the
amount of urban heat island or urban
heat temperatures. um planting in areas
that are are when it comes to the entire
landscape permeability um planting in
areas that are not as permeable to the
wildlife because those are the
[clears throat] areas that you'll you're
more likely to see those wildlife
vehicle vehicle collisions as animals
have to leave their can their forests to
to um sorry to uh move to different
areas through the wildlife corridors
that we all know we have in the city of
conquered. So um by taking these
different benefits we were able to look
at it as an analysis by ward and with
that we were able to prioritize
different benefits. We can look at them
all in general or we could say we um we
want to plant uh for the most cooling
benefits. We want to plant for the most
flood uh for the most uh air quality
benefits or noise pollution. Um and we
were a we also found that there was an
increase in the in the surface
temperature. So possibly that could be a
great way to start of trying to decrease
the amount of heat that the pavement or
the city urban areas are releasing.
So as many of you know this could anyone
could use this project whether that be
someone who just wants to see what of
conquered is canopy uh which areas have
seen canopy loss and maybe what are
those causes. Um it could be for the
residents who want cooler temperatures.
it gets hotter and hotter every year and
our air conditioning bills go up and up
and up and I I know I'd want to save
some money on that. um they can the
wildlife of course can benefit by in
increasing the landscape permeability
along with other cities can use this as
a framework to map their own tree
canopies because as Beth said and a lot
of the I worked in a group of greenhouse
gas emissions fellows and many of them
were seeing the exact same issue that we
had seen previously with the fact that
they were lacking the information on the
tree canopy which as many of you
probably assume provides a lot of
benefits when it comes to greenhouse gas
emissions. We also saw um being able to
use a platform called iTree Canopy, we
were able to figure out that there is
$18.4 million worth of total annual
annual benefits just in conquered tree
canopy, which is amazing. And um while I
only had a while I only had a summer to
do this um thankfully this um project
can be used in the future whether it be
figuring out what types of trees or what
sorry what size trees can you plant
within a certain area because you can
figure out where what areas are
plantable and then you have to figure
out well they have to be a certain
distance from the road or fire hydrants
or power poles. Um, and by taking
certain radius of buffers, you can see
which size of each you can put within an
area, whether that be on the sides of
streets or in someone's lawn if that's
what they're interested in.
Um, [clears throat]
sorry. And we can also start with this
recommendations because obviously I
spent my summer doing this virtually. Um
and with this project we can take people
who are in the field forestry members
who could do this on the ground research
and make this classification and this
data even more um robust and accurate
because again you can only do so much
from imagery that again our most recent
one was 2023. So with this could it can
be a really great starting point for
possible future analysis of the urban
tree canopy and to make and for the
future priority planting of where we
should plant more trees for the most
benefit. So part of the main part of my
um project was this dashboard which
anyone with a screen would be able to
access um they'd be able to zoom in zoom
out. The left side being the citywide ca
the citywide sorry the citywide
information and the right side being
ward. Um if we zoom in you have to let
it load a little bit. Um but once it's
making me look bad.
>> Wow.
>> This is once you zoom in you're able to
see a more detailed. It's of course not
perfect because no ortho imagery or maps
are perfect especially when you only
have virtual or online data. But we can
also look at it on the ward scale which
would involve us. Um this is the the uh
priority planting of the darker the
color the the first um the higher the
priority for planting. And anyone who
wants to learn about their ward can go
and click on a ward and it'll give
once it'll load the specific information
for each ward. Um along with looking at
the different layers there's a lot more
when it comes. We have the canopy when
it comes to urban versus rural, private
versus public. Um we can look at the
possible areas of planting. Uh the
historic canopy areas that have gained
or lost canopies since 1985. We can look
at the urban heat island which includes
data from 2013. Um and overall it just
provides a place for anyone whether or
not you're uh working for the city of
conquered or just someone who lives
there and wants to learn more about the
nature that they're surrounded. We'll
also be able to provide links to places
where they could figure out when where
to start when it comes to planting more
trees or those other resources with
encouraging people to plant those native
plant species and to plant pollinator
gardens to to just um sorry to benefit
them and the rest of the city of
>> Is this all your work?
>> Is this dashboard your work?
>> Yes. Outstanding.
>> This is incredible. I'm sorry to
interrupt you, but needed to take a
breath.
>> Yeah, [laughter] sorry.
>> This is incredible work.
>> Just incredible and incredibly has such
potential to be useful for the city.
>> Yeah,
>> that is awesome.
>> But yeah, that's pretty much it. So I'm
hoping that this can be a platform for
the possibly the future fellows, the
future forestry members to build off of
it to make it to improve it better than
because this is my first time doing this
as well. So people to build off of it to
make improvements and to be able to take
it because the only platform that I use
that you have to pay for is RGS Pro. And
if you there's free alternatives that if
someone who has a large amount and wants
to map their own canopy, they could do
that easily online with the pro provided
uh information methodology which I'm
also writing.
>> Beth, is this going to be available on
the city?
>> Yes. So um Yep. So, we're meeting with
Amy Willlet, the um acting GIS
coordinator, tomorrow morning just to
figure out how to get all the data over
to the city system. It'll be up on our
website. Um we have conquered.govtes
where we currently have most of our tree
information. We'll be updating that with
all of Danielle's research. Um I will
say that we she presented to the rest of
the fellows last week and a lot of the
other m municipalities were very
jealous. um they really like this
project and um we'll be sharing this out
with the other communities that were
part of the New England Municipal
Sustainability Network. Um her
methodology so this can be replicated in
other places across New England.
>> I'm sorry I monopolize things because I
was so impressed other questions.
Council Todd,
>> thank you your honor. Yeah, I just uh I
I certainly agree with everything that
the mayor said. Uh it's very impressive
and it looks like it's going to be
really useful. Um, and I also really
appreciate the way it was done because,
you know, dividing it by wards is very
helpful to all of us because we can, you
know, focus on a par one. I'm in the red
zone there. So, I'm I'm especially going
to be interested once it's up and
running to be able to look at that more
closely and then try to figure out ways
to engage with the public so that they
can become uh, you know, more
knowledgeable of what the potential is.
And I know that Miss Fenceer will help
you with that also. always.
>> Uh so uh just just a quick comment which
is um also uh I don't really have a
question I guess uh because you answered
my question when where is it going to be
available to us uh but just uh thank you
for doing the work that you do. I think
it's really valuable work. I wish you
all the best of luck in the future and
thank you for your work here helping the
city with this project. Very much
appreciate it.
>> Thank you. It's my absolute pleasure. I
had a wonderful summer.
>> Yes. This is incredible. As a member of
the tree committee I love this. Now,
you'd said that it it you're using data
from 1985 up until what period? Like
there were just 255 trees cut down this
year. Is that reflected on this?
>> Um the most recent data we have is until
2023.
>> Any other comments or questions?
>> Actually, follow up.
>> Yes. Uh will this do is this something
that you have to manually update?
>> Yes. Okay.
>> Um as Beth mentioned, I will make sure
they have access to everything and but
many of the stuff is very easily
updatable with web maps or um web
dashboards. So all you have to do is
update one thing and it'll update the
rest.
>> Awesome. Thank you so much.
>> Can I just Oh, sorry.
>> All right. Well, thank you so so much.
I'm sorry.
>> I do not want to take away from Danielle
at all. I just want to remind us that
this very minuscule investment for this
fellowship is something we took out of
our budget and will not have access to
next year.
>> It's a point well.
>> Can I just add one more comment? Yeah.
>> I just want to make sure it's unders. So
she went through a color analysis to
make sure that um this was accessible
for all. So there was the color
blindness test that was done. So some of
the I said why is it green and pink? and
she said, "Well, because of the way the
colors are viewed in the different
grade." So, I just want to put that out
there that is meeting our accessibility
requirements for color.
>> Um, what is the what is the investment
um for the sustainability fellow? What
do we what do we pay to get this
incredible person and product?
>> So, last year we the past five years we
paid $4,000 per year. Um, but UNH
changed the structure of the program.
So, it was it's going to be a lot more
expensive in the future. Um, that we
were able to get additional funding this
past year to help us cover the change
the program last year. So, we have
Danielle this summer. Um, we had I had
started conversations with other
organizations that potentially they
could sponsor a fellow for the city. Um,
>> and there there are organizations out
there that could potentially we could do
>> Uh, what is the total cost? Like you
said, there's going to be an increase.
How much is that?
>> Last year it increased to 12,000.
>> Wow. Well, yeah, that makes sense. Thank
>> That's great. I have one more question.
Do you have any relatives in the clergy?
>> I I know other Melases and it's a very
unusual name. So,
>> just curious folks that I traped around
Nicaragua with. So,
>> yeah.
>> Well, thank you. Thank you so much. I'll
entertain a motion to accept the report.
>> So moved.
>> Moved and seconded. All in favor?
>> I have the accept. The report is
accepted.
[applause]
>> This takes us uh to consideration of
items pulled from the consent calendar.
Madam city clerk, item 22. This was
pulled from the consent agenda by
councelor Kredovvic and councelor Brown.
It's a report from the Beaver Meadow
Director of Operations recommending
approval of proposed 2027 Beaver Meadow
Golf Course rate structures as
recommended by the Golf Course Advisory
Committee at their July 9th, 2026
meeting.
>> Moved and seconded. Discussion.
>> Thank you, your honor. Um, members of
the council, the proposed rate structure
is expected to generate approximately
$91,000 in additional revenue for the
2728 season. You'll recall during our
budget discussions that the projected
revenue over expenses for fiscal year
2026 was more than double what it was
the year prior. That number for fiscal
year 2025 was roughly $124,000.
While we've not closed our fiscal year
yet on 26, the gain is substantial. Now,
consider an additional $91,000 above
this in some. This is exactly the
trajectory that we have wanted our golf
course to be on while we are looking to
open up our new uh clubhouse in the
fall. At the same time, our rates remain
competitive. The juniors continue to
have significant opportunities to
participate. We're growing the game of
golf for women and attracting golfers
away from our competitors. The question
is not simply whether any individual
rate has increased, but more importantly
if the overall rate structure is
reasonable, competitive, affordable, and
financially responsible.
Our daily fees um some of the daily fee
increases are higher than the rate of
inflation. However, the appropriate
comparison is to the local market.
Beaver metal remains competitive with
the area courses.
The uh season passholder rates, most
proposed increases are modest. They're
roughly two to 3%. These increases are
at or below the current rate of
inflation. The junior passholder rate
remains unchanged at $450.
junior golfers and youth participation
is such an important part of Beaver
Meadow Golf Course and we need to look
beyond the numbers of our junior season
passholders which we have seen in
decline over this past year but we also
think we have a very specific
identifiable reason for that which is
the Bank of America youth oncourse
program it's performed exceptionally
well and we've been able to see the
benefits of that this summer what this
program does and we learned about this
last year is a youth on course pays $5
for a round of nine holes of golf and
Bank of America picks up the other $8
for the cost of that round. Basically,
what we've done is found an affordable
way to involve juniors in the game of
golf and we see that it's working. A
reminder that our revenue also comes
from the driving range, the cart
rentals, simulator league, and rentals
in the winter and our tournaments,
especially from our local nonprofit
organizations who are able to fund raise
for their support of their mission
throughout the year. And so I would ask
you in supporting the recommendation
from the Gulf Advisory Board that every
year looks at these rates very
thoughtfully and very mindful of what
this impact is to the city and to our
city taxpayers. Thank you.
>> Thank you, councelor. Councelor Brown.
>> Yes. Thank you for um asking people to
consider this impact on taxpayers
because the council should remember that
the golf fund continues to have a
substantial reliance on taxpayers.
The current debt service for just this
year for capital projects on taxpayers
is $764,000.
That's just on taxpayers. $764,000
this year. That's more than a match for
the skate house. That's more than
renovating a pool. That is just for the
golf course. And these projects, we are
in debt until 2046.
So these rates do not meet those costs.
The users are not funding these costs.
The debt service goes until 2046.
And there are multiple um discounted and
complementaryary
memberships that are happening. There
are employees that are that are able to
play there. The New Hampshire Golf
Association continues to use the course
for free. Um and there were 400 rounds
that were donated to um other
organizations for marketing purposes. We
have seen nothing that talks about the
return on investment. If we were to have
charged for those 400 rounds that is a
value between 14,000 and 38,000 this
council I think it was just last month
they we paid $22,000
from savings for a backflow pretor. So
this is money that we are leaving on the
table. I have not seen. We should have
the information a return on investment
for all of these deeply discounted
rates. Uh the
let's see the Yeah, I just um I'm
astounded that we continue to pour so
much money into the golf course when we
have a uh public information officer
that we are not using. We are giving
away golf for marketing purposes. Uh
this is this cost is then going on to
taxpayers. It's not being recouped.
These rates we can hold off and we can
say to the Gulf Advisory Committee, come
back and have rates that will cover the
cost. This is a special revenue fund.
The water and wastewater are enterprise
funds. The rates for those are going up.
They're going up 9%
20% next year because the users are
paying those rates. The golf fund should
be the same. If we are seeing steep
increases to pay for water and
wastewater, there is no reason why the
golf fund cannot have the users fund
their own course.
>> Councelor Horn.
>> Um maybe Mr. Luran. The golf carts seem
to be the only category that didn't have
any increase. Was there a reasoning
behind that particular?
>> We had a substantial increase last year.
If you recall, um we were at the end of
our contract with the uh rental fleet
for the carts. Um and the cost of that
rental fleet was going up substantially.
So we increased that pricing
considerably last year in order to uh
support the additional cost for that uh
lease payment. So we thought that this
year and this was discussed at the um
golf advisory committee this year. It
made sense to hold that rate steady
because of the substantial increase last
year and then take a look at it again
next year to look at the rate
projections as we go forward.
>> Other discussion ready for the
[clears throat] vote. All those in favor
of the motion as presented, please
>> I no. I
>> The motion uh is adopted. Motion passes.
Uh madam city clerk, item 23.
It is a resolution rescending Oh, excuse
me. It was pulled from consent by
council Brown. It's a resolution
rescending the appropriation of the sum
of $434,334.50
in various community development block
grant and grant donations projects to
include $8,725
$25.82 82 in community development block
grant fund and $425,6869
in the grants and donations fund.
Rescending the acceptance of $434,334.50
in various community development grant
and grants and donations funds including
$8,725.82
82 in community development block grant
fund and $425,6868
in the grants and donations fund
retroactive to June 30th.
>> That's [laughter]
I I move that we give some oxygen to
>> you poor thing.
>> Yes. I had questions that I was unable
to um reach out to staff regarding um
these. Uh so this is the second year
that we are doing this and I um
recognize in the report it states that
that these
were hanging on from 2007 to 2026.
And I'm wondering why we did not close
out some of these um last year when we
did this. Some of them could have been
closed out last year. There might have
been a variety of reasons that they were
left on the books during that time. Um
but this year we've worked hard in order
to finish cleaning up the uh remaining
items that are um still out there as an
authorization, but um no anticipation of
spending the money or getting any
revenue back from it. So this is not
like we're giving up money. It's just
money that you know really hasn't been
spent and there's not going to be any uh
application for any additional funds for
it.
>> Followup. Are there any So after doing
this kind of cleanup, are there any
other um outstanding
um grants beyond 2026?
>> Uh yeah, you're going to we're going to
have grants all the time. And uh
basically what we do is we're going to
take a look at them each and every year
like we do we've been doing it with the
capital close out for many years. We
haven't been doing it with grant
closeout until last year. Um so this is
going to continue on. you know, we think
we've cleaned up the majority of the
long outstanding items. You know, this
is kind of a housekeeping thing. Um, so
you'll still see additional items come
forward. Um, you know, something that
was approved that were no longer needed.
You know, those will be uh brought
forward in future years for the city
council to take action to deauthorize
that funding so that there's no funds
spent against it when there's no uh
chance of getting the dollars back as
well. So,
>> Mr. Mr. Acting city manager, can I kind
of paraphrase? You tell me whether uh
I'm saying this correctly. The majority
of these funds are funds that have been
granted to us uh on a reimbursement
basis. So, we have to spend the money,
then we go to the federal government,
whoever the granter is, and they pay us
back [clears throat] what we've spent.
And what we're doing here is cleaning
up. Say we had a $300,000 grant, but uh
we only spent $250,000
dollars of it and we're reimbursed the
$250,000 by the federal government.
Well, we still have $50,000 on the book,
but it's not it's not money sitting in
an account in most instances. There are
a couple of instances here where uh
there is money and the recommendation is
to put it into the revolving loan fund
uh which is used for housing purposes uh
and short-term grants or low interest
grants. Correct.
>> You did an amazing job explaining
[laughter] that. I hope during the rest
of my career here I'll be able to learn.
>> As long as you keep buying me coffee.
>> You got it.
>> That's correct. Uh, I had not pulled
item number 24, but I was curious if any
of these could have been applied to item
number 24.
>> Completely different things. This really
doesn't correlate to that.
>> All right. Any other questions?
>> Move. Move the question.
>> Vote. I think we're ready to take the
vote.
>> All those in favor, please signify by
saying I.
>> I. No. Eyes have it. The uh motion is
approved. Motion passes. Uh this brings
us to the comments section. We'll start
this time around with
>> Fair.
>> Got me off guard there. Uh two quick
things. Uh one is uh last I think it was
a week ago tonight out great community
event at Rollins Park attended by a
number of people in in the community and
from afar. So, it was a nice showing by
our public safety people and community
members and the different groups that um
had displays. And then secondly, um it's
my understanding that um Deputy Chief
Steve Mula retired and uh I didn't know
until after the fact and uh he's out
listening to this, which I'm sure he's
probably not. Congratulations. Thank you
for your service and best of luck.
>> Thank you, Council Foot. Council PR.
>> Yes. I hope everyone has an opportunity
to get over to the sunflower festival.
Um it is just an absolutely incredible
um field that is transformed. The
sunflowers are so beautiful. They look
fake. The flowers attract everyone from
all over. I had an opportunity to attend
the dinner and there were there was a
couple who came up from Arlington Mass
and they said that that dinner was
equimed
in New York, Long Island that cost $450.
This one was $130.
So, I hope everyone um has an
opportunity to go to the Sunflower Fest,
see the vendors there. It's it's only
the fourth year, but they have truly
transformed that space. Um, and it's
beautiful. We are the Sunflower City
because of them.
>> Cosa.
>> Yeah, I just have a brief appreciation
for parks and recreation. There's been
really a lot of activity in Rollins
Park. Uh, there's a pollinator festival
that was really wonderful. Obviously,
Jeff Councelor Foot mentioned the
National Night Out which had many people
there. Sunday there was an arts festival
with music which was really wonderful
and then the music in the park and I
know other parks have had music
festivals and so it was really fun to to
use our parks in the summer and have
people come out and enjoy it. So thank
you to all the parks and recreation
team.
>> Council Caleb.
>> Okay, so uh there's an exciting event
this week. Um the Black Heritage Trail
of New Hampshire will be unveiling its
first marker in conquered to honor
baseball player and founding member of
the Sunset League Billy Thompson. um who
was a conquered resident beginning in
1890. Um this event is taking place at
White Park this Wednesday the 12th at 6
PM. Um there's another awesome event
coming up uh Franco Fest um on August
22nd which is uh going to be a
celebration of French and French
diaspora cultures. Um I heard or I saw
online they were the recipient of the
event arts grant this year um which
helped make this cultural celebration uh
free for the public to attend. So
definitely check it out. It's at Kimell
Jenkins. There's food, activities,
music, etc. Um, and let's see, I had a
couple of
words of some words of appreciation. Uh,
so first I want to give a shout out to
our communications professionals at the
city. Um, Stephanie Breton is the
[clears throat] one behind um the uh
city of conquered external
communications and Angelina Zul Zulich
Zulkage.
>> Zulik Zulik. Oh, I'm so sorry. I'm so
sorry. Angelita uh runs the general
services communications. Um both are
really such important jobs because they
shape how the public gets information
where they normally are which is you
know social media online all of that. Um
sort of the front line of interactions
for the public and I'm sure that job can
be quite challenging. Um, I love when
they get creative with content and I saw
a great post uh this past week um from
general services about the repair of the
water man on South Stage Street which I
was so looking forward to. I'm so
excited to that that work is um is
completed and it was really cool to see
the video that Angelina posted. Um
>> I find that stuff really interesting and
apparently so do a lot of other people
online. So um keep up the great work
Stephanie and Angelina. Um, and finally,
I would like to acknowledge and thank
the firefighters um, who welcomed myself
and councelor Schultz on a few little
station tours in the last few weeks. Um,
we had the opportunity to tour these
facilities, ask questions, and I know I
I generally learned a lot about these
operations. Um, which is an education
that I know will uh, serve me well in
the future. Um, so council and I went to
station one central, uh, station 7, uh,
the heights, and station five, Manor,
and last, uh, but not certainly not
least will be Broadway. Um,
and one extra shout out to the manor
because when we toured, um, I had just a
couple days prior, uh, been with a
friend who needed EMS transport to the
hospital. Um, and they were the ones who
responded to the call and um, I don't
know when the last time was I was
present for an EMS transport. Maybe
never. Um, and it was a stressful
moment. They came in and they had such a
calming presence and their
professionalism was, you know, not
surprising at all. Um, but very much
appreciated. Um, so thank you. That's
all I got.
Council Curts, Council Schultz.
>> [snorts]
>> the other curts. Just kidding.
[laughter] I don't know. I'm in a snappy
mood today. Um, speaking of
communicators, I want to thank councelor
Caleb for wonderful videos and coverage
of those visits uh at our fire stations.
You do a great job lifting up our city.
Uh, and you do it for free and we
appreciate it. Um, and I also enjoyed my
visits. One more to go. Um, Mr. Philip
Brun, is this your last council meeting
with us?
>> I don't know. Maybe I'm I don't want to
preempt anything the mayor may say, but
since you happen to be a constituent of
mine in W 9, I just wanted to say how
much I've enjoyed working with you in my
short time on the council and um we all
owe you a debt of gratitude for all
you've done for the city and for the
people of Conquered. So, thank you.
>> Here, HERE. [applause]
I know you don't do it for a thanks, but
you got one anyway. Um, I'm also
excited. This is a different kind of
transition to say this, but um, Madame
Clerk and her office have released the
sample ballots for September 8th's uh,
state primary. There are quite a few
primaries in both parties. Um federal uh
all the federal races have primaries in
both parties. There is a wards five,
six, seven, eight. The flotial race has
a Democratic primary. There are quite a
few Republican primaries up and down the
ballot depending on your ward. So please
check out your ballots ahead of time. I
hope all eligible conquered voters will
go and if you aren't registered, you can
register at the polls. Um, and you can
take that time to research the
candidates that will be on the ballot
because there are quite a few uh
primaries on the ballot. And besides,
it's fun to see who all is on on your
what ballot you're going to get. You get
a preview. Um, so thank you to the
clerk's office and madame clerk and for
your volunteers that are supervisor the
checklist, etc. for all the hard work
you do for us since we don't have a city
council meeting before that day. So,
>> Thank you, your honor. I walked out the
door this morning to hold up this book
that the DEIGB committee is reading, but
it's not actually this book. It's called
I Never Thought of It Way. I would
recommend the members of the council,
since I grabbed the wrong book, to grab
the right book. Um it's really a nice
read about how to have difficult
conversations with people that are um
have opposing views on a wide vine range
of things. Uh, one of the things that
struck me and I I run across this in
human resources all the time is, you
know, you're sitting at the water
bubbler and someone will say, "Geez, you
know, somebody keeps stealing all the
toilet paper out of the restroom." And
it's that moment of pause that somebody
has to take toilet paper home because
they can't afford it. And we need to
rethink the way we sometimes have our
conversations. It was really
enlightening. I get to say I finished
the book and I meant to bring it and I I
was a total failure for our committee,
but please don't fail us. Read it with
us. Um it really is a good read. Second,
I wanted to say I did bring this because
Stephanie Breton printed it out for me.
It's uh Golf with a Cop. This is um the
counterpart to Ski with the Cop that we
had over the winter with Ski the Bee.
This is um in association with the
volunteers and friends of the beef, but
more importantly with our police
department so that our youth in our
community can get to know our police
officers and the golf course has set up
some wonderful games for the kids. Um
it's a putting contest, a chipping
contest, a driving range contest. So
none of it is going to impact oncourse
play, but it is um equipment provided
and an opportunity to see how well our
police officers perform with a putter or
a chipper or a driver. And you'll notice
that Bailey, our news dog, is holding a
putter in the poster. It is on August
20th. It's from 4 to 6 PM. So, perfect
time for those after school um after uh
summer programs that the kids can come
and really meet our police officers up
front close and personal and play some
fun games um out on the golf course uh
practice areas. And the last thing I
have is um the Sunflower Festival is an
amazing um event in our city and I think
it's a great opportunity for people to
go and see the last contiguous piece of
agricultural land that we have in
Marramac County. We as the city council,
we're the ones that protected that land
under the Gully Hill Conservation
Committee. And I think that we owe
ourselves um a nice pat on the back for
preserving this land, but also turning
it into something that is um a little
bit more [laughter] healthier for the
soil as we reinvigorate the nitrates
into the soil with the sunflowers and
the lavender. And I can attest per my
granddaughter, they have the biggest
four-leaf clovers along the Marramac
River Greenway Trail that she has ever,
ever seen. So, I strongly recommend that
you go and I can tell you from personal
experience, there are thousands of them.
So, go take the children uh they can
pick fourleaf clover and really have a
fantastic moment making a wish as they
look at our state capital and enjoy our
sunflower festival. Thank you.
>> Thank you, council. Council,
>> I would echo counselors Brown and Kredik
on the sunflower festival. Um, we can
enjoy it through Sunday. And I did track
all of the tickets are sold out for the
dinners, but they do have tickets left
for the Sips and Sunnies event on
Friday, which is New England Bluegrass
Band Trio. You can go in over 21 age 21
plus. And you can enjoy drinks from Pors
and Petals, which is the [clears throat]
conquered based mobile bar that they
have in there, and listen to music, look
at the beautiful sunflowers, and have a
great evening on Friday night.
>> You councelor Todd.
>> Yes. Thank you, your honor. As promised,
I do want to I'm going to actually echo
what Councelor Schloer said and give a
shout out and extra thanks to our
congregate parks and recck department as
well for all their diligent work. Uh,
you know, even throughout the the Fourth
of July, the fireworks, I mean, You're
right, the list goes on and on. Um, and
it's all executed so well. And
specifically, I want to uh just give
another reference to the free parks
concerts at the at our Canal Street
Riverfront Park. Um, these are on on
Wednesday, 6:30 to 8. And uh coming up
on August 12th is Lee and Dr. G. August
26 is Lucas and the guys. And I
specifically also want to uh give a real
uh thanks and gratitude to the Walker,
our friends at the Walker Lecture Fund
for uh their continued support for these
kind of concerts. It's uh it's just
great to be able to, as Councelor Horn
was uh describing, great to be able to
have this available for our community to
go to a concert, go next door, go get an
ice cream or whatever it is and just be
outside and enjoy the free music uh with
a great view of the water as well. So uh
so just uh thank you again to uh to
Walker Lecture. Thanks.
>> Well uh most of what I was going to say
has already been touched upon by others.
U I will however reiterate and encourage
folks to come to White Park uh on
Wednesday uh at 6 uh to uh be present
for the unveiling of the Bill Thompson
marker. his project which is uh very
important to the city I think uh and the
first I hope of several black heritage
trail markers in conquered uh and uh
he's not here right now but I do want to
thank uh uh David Gil parks and rec
director for all the work he put into it
um as well as uh the black heritage
trail of New Hampshire uh for being a
great partner uh and also uh a number of
civic-minded citizens who helped make
this make it happen. I [clears throat]
also do want to say this since this is
your last city council meeting, Mr.
Lebron. Uh I did not bring you a box of
chocolates. Uh but I did bring you uh a
a box of gratitude, a great big heaping
box of gratitude. Uh in my uh now 13
years on city council, uh you have been
a rock of stability, uh a reliable
source of information, uh a master at uh
budget analysis and budget explanation.
Uh you are a big part of why this city
has been successful. Um we have our
moments, we have our challenges and we
always will. uh but you certainly u have
uh done uh sterling service to the city
of new of conquered um and I wish you
well in your retirement. Uh I want to
express my appreciation for you delaying
your retirement so that you could uh be
acting [clears throat] city manager uh
during the city manager sobbatical. Um,
but I know that once uh you shake the
dust off your uh shoes uh or sandals uh
and uh go on to [clears throat] enjoying
your retirement uh you can you'll be
able to look back uh with a great deal
of satisfaction and pride in what you've
achieved here. So, thank you so much.
>> [applause]
>> I do would like I would like to say a
couple things. Uh really run and it's uh
thank you very much for the opportunity
to work for the city of conquered. It's
been great. I've had a great career here
and I really appreciate all the work and
effort that everybody does and I just
want to remember that I want all
everybody remember that there's a 500
people out there that are doing great
work every single day. You know, I get
to sit in that other chair, you know,
once a month. You know, I I get to sit
in my office, you know, I get sit up
here once in a great while. Um, but
there's really, you know, hundreds and
hundreds of other people that are doing
fantastic work and, you know, keep
remembering them and all the work they
do. But I appreciate the opportunity to
work here. Thank you very much.
>> Uh do I have a motion to adjurnn?
>> Moved and seconded. Uh all those in
favor signify by saying I
>> Eyes have it. The meeting is adjourned.