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We're going to keep saying, I bet his both have tied that from him back in eighth grade,
and he just takes it off and hangs it up nicely.
You know, it's funny is the first time I had ever tied a tie.
It was when I was going to an interview right after I got done detailing for Exeter Subaru,
when I started my detail business.
I started with them not detailing as an employee with the contractor,
and I was going for a job interview,
and I was dropping off the last car and going straight there,
and I was all stressed out about a tie in the sales.
me and just said, hey, come here.
And he showed me how to tie a tie, you know.
So that's when I learned, but I can only do the Windsor.
You know, I don't know all the other fancy ones.
I don't know how to do a bow tie, none of that stuff.
Is that a full Windsor or a half-wins?
Oh, stop it.
Is there such a thing?
Yes, there is.
I'd wrap it around twice up through the back and down the front.
So is that a pole or a half, Dawn.
You seem like an officianto?
Just wrap it around twice?
That's neither.
What do you mean?
You just go wrap around twice and up and down?
Yeah, so I take it like this, I wrap it, I wrap it twice,
come up through the middle and pull down through the front,
and then adjust it from there.
Is it not even a Windsor? What is it?
Do you know what it is?
It's just a slip mat, a double slit.
Double slip.
Oh, so could you actually tie a rope like this?
Don't see why you couldn't.
Oh.
Why, what's a Windsor?
I thought this was a Windsor, so I don't even know anything, though.
Is it a fancier?
A Windsor, is you come across the front or on the back,
and then from the front, you go behind and now it around,
and what that does is that gives you the nice V and balances that.
I'm sure there's a YouTube for it.
Yeah, well, when you go into Google search, how to,
I think it's, for a while there was the first thing that were auto-populated for popular searches.
Now it's a couple down, it's a tie-a-tie.
Yeah.
No, my dad taught me when I was about,
six years old.
Yeah, it's funny, I was, shoot, I was probably, who would I have been that, that time, 18, I know, 20, 21.
By 1st, 2026, skip around, and we're going to go straight to you, because I know we're holding.
Martha, I call you, and Jeremy did it, to talk to us about community power.
We were all given an article last week that talked about the New Hampshire Public Utilities Commission,
allowing the big utility company.
to push off some of their costs, not push off, but not give rate payers a true bill
and defer the costs for later, but they didn't allow community power to do that same thing.
So I feel that that's dirty pool. It's almost like they were artificially lowering the
other power rates and not community power?
Well, I did some digging today, and I was not aware of what you just said.
However, I didn't learn some stuff that was kind of interesting.
I basically asked the question how much of Ebersource's rates have been influenced by the creation.
The answer surprised me, and it said, I said,
little to not.
To elaborate, the utilities basically got screwed in that, as you probably know,
they cannot control what they charge for the product.
They can only control what they charge for the delivery of the product.
Okay, the charge of the product is regulated.
Everybody's paying the same.
It's all in the delivery.
Now, if you look at...
If you look at, just skip down to number two.
The PUC changed how the utilities buy the product.
It used to be they would negotiate a contract in six-month chunks.
Now, a portion of that recently got changed to something that they called, they had to buy on the daily spot market, which
which is kind of dicey, and that those prices were set by the regulators, and the
regulators really missed the mark in terms of what the price was going to be.
So since they instituted this policy, the utilities ran a deficit of $50 million in what they were able to collect.
You say the utilities?
Eversource and Unitil and all the statewide.
Okay.
Supposedly, Eversource is on the hook for $38 million.
Now, the only way, as the system was, the only way they could recoup that is through their delivery charges.
So, I mean, the reason Eversource's rates went down wasn't because of some
something nefarious and that they were trying to undercut community power, that was the hand they were dealt with this new methodology of coming up with the price.
Does that make sense?
Makes more sense than what I was thinking.
Yeah.
So what community power and the other utilities want to do is they're basically saying, look, we're in this boat because
public utility commission put them in that boat, and they don't feel that they should be, you know, get stuck for the entire bill,
and they want to spread it out across the various entities, including community power.
Does that, does that make sense?
Mm-hmm.
Well, and we were just given the new rates for community power coming up, right?
coming up, right? Did you receive that email?
I did not see that email, but according to my research, which is my, I did this with AI with Gemini.
And they have the CPC's rate at 14.6 kilowatts per hour against Eversource's default of 11.3 cents.
So keep in mind that, you know, community power had to build up their reserves and then that they had that unexpected bump in the road where they got that with a fairly significant bill, that they're still, I guess, trying to recoup on that, too.
So, I mean, those are two factors that should go away eventually.
But as far as...
Are you pulling up that email?
Yeah.
So the community power was...
setting their fall rate, which is different than the current rate.
So the current rate will be against Eversource is 11.
Their rate will be set between 14.7 and 15.3.
Ever source is going to set their rates too.
But I thought that I heard that...
I was 141.
Yeah, I was going to say, I saw a post on...
I saw a post about this and I thought it was that 14.009
in August, on August 1.
So I don't remember seeing, Jeremy, but I can say it's for sure.
I mean, is that going to bring them back to, you know, where the market should be,
or is that going to bring them back to where the market plus what they need to recoup?
Well, and so that's the thing for Eversource.
I thought I had heard this, and maybe I'm incorrect on this.
I think we need to follow up and probably get some more information on us.
I thought that Eversource was told that they could not charge everyone for their deficit,
that they can't go out and put that into the supply side,
or the distribution side, they can only recoup that through their rate,
which made me to Don's point.
Not the distribution.
That's the PUC's problem.
Right, where they're going to say everybody's rates got to make up for that.
And I thought that the PUC, that's what I'm saying is I thought that that was said that if Unitil has a deficit,
unitill customers have to pay that deficit.
If Eversource has their $30 million deficit, Eversource customers have to pay that deficit.
Because the fact of the minimum.
matter is Eversource customers and UNITIL customers benefited on the other church to begin with.
It only goes to the customers that they have that are responsible to pay that deficit and the company itself.
Not everybody has to pay it, pay their deficit.
And I think that's, Eversource would like that.
And so with UNICEFIL, they would like everybody to be pitching in to pay down this $50 million deficit that exists.
but I think we probably should find out a little more information on that to find out,
because I thought I had read it, and it's not on these pages that we have here,
that Eversource was going to have to take care of it on their part on their own,
and so was Unitail.
They were not allowed to put it into the distribution side.
Those charges could not go against the distribution side,
because if they are allowed to put it on the distribution side,
then everybody pays for it because
even if you're buying your power from community power of New Hampshire,
Eversource is still your distribution network.
Yeah.
So they shouldn't be able to do that.
We'd have to follow up on that.
Well, and the other question when it comes to is,
let's say we switch over to community power
effective 1 July.
Right.
The deficit
from Eversource, does that follow us?
Are we going to get a bill from Eversource
saying, oh, the power you got in April, May, June,
that you still owe us for...
That's a legitimate question, you know,
but on the other hand...
I think it's only going forward.
So they have to set their power rates
for the cost of the power
plus whatever they're going to assess for their
deficit. I think that's how that
has to be set. So to go forward, they can't claw back.
And what could also be a result is
if they're, if they bring the price up too high, too fast,
they're going to lose more customers.
Correct.
I mean, there are already 200,000 customers enrolled in CPC.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Okay.
So is, maybe just for a little more clarification,
should we still get a couple of answers out of Andrew?
I think so.
And, you know, one of the things is,
is, is it?
in our agreement and everything we everything that was done for us joining community
power was that we wouldn't launch until we're cheap,
it's cheaper than every source is default rating.
But I thought it was an appropriate time to call you in and not call you in, but ask you to
come and talk about this and just so that, you know, we're all still watching it, we're
still monitoring, we're still watching community power, we just got their numbers, so
let's see whatever source.
comes to that and, you know, as Brandon said, you know, to be honest, if this meeting
was yesterday, like I had a conversation with Jeremy yesterday, and I don't know, I mean,
everything that I've told you, I've learned today, when I took the position, it was with my
understanding that it was just to, you know, be a go-between as the process.
continued, and I guess because we haven't actually like the switch on it, I guess it is technically
it is still continuing, even though the town has voted to, so anything I can do, you know,
let me know, you know where I live.
All right. Well, when we have, as Brandon said, you know, have Andrew Hatt come back in,
when he does come, we'll certainly invite you at the same time, so you're getting the same information we are at that time.
Okay.
Yeah, thank you for your research through Don.
that, you know, there's a lot of, it's pretty hard to navigate what's going on, especially at a public utilities commission.
I mean, it's, yeah, you know, how they came up with the number that they did, I mean, who knows, you know,
but, you know, the utilities, they put the utilities in a very awkward position.
Badly for utilities, but this time I'll consider it.
I tend not to.
Well, again,
Thank you for someone to see at us, and we'll certainly be talking more about community power in the very near future as we start to hear what every source and community power, where they stack up.
Because, you know, to Chris's point, you know, we say when this whole thing came out.
Yeah.
When you're cheaper, we'll go with him.
Yeah.
But.
And there's quite a gap here, right?
Yeah.
Okay.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thanks, all.
You're welcome.
Open, close?
You can close a little bit.
They're doing dancing, so thank you.
So, um, we close the non-public minute approval, June 17th.
Um, yeah, uh, motion to approve the minutes is written for June 17th.
All in favor?
Aye.
Aye.
Uh, I'll make another motion that we approve the manifest and the amount of $123,069.
$49.49,876 for June the 11th and $195,8.706 for June the 18th.
All in favor?
Hi.
Hi.
I got the wrong meeting pulled up because those are not the manifests that I'm looking at.
Is that the July 1 meeting, but these are not the manifest.
I'm going off the agenda.
Yeah.
Well, maybe they add up to that.
They probably have.
Right.
Those are the highlights.
Those are the heavy hitters.
Yeah, anything over 10.
I was informed that facility use, North Star AME, Zion Church, they, I don't mind talking about this and getting an idea which way was going on this, but they did not fill out the proper form.
They want to use the Old Town Hall and the Grove, I guess they have enough.
It's like a barbecue and back-to-school giveaway for stuff.
school supplies, I think. It's like a community. Yep. But what I'll say, Jeremy,
is I'm not opposed to them using that, and I would say put it on the, on the calendar. That's the
date that they're asking for, but I think we should wait until they come in with the proper
form so that we can sign the...
Sorry through the...
Okay. Sign the form.
But, um, fit over 50, you've got a series of dates, right?
Yeah.
September.
October, November, December, make updates, July 14th.
Paul, I'll just, I'll make a motion to approve
Rec Committee, Federal, 50, and Rec Committee,
Pilates. Tuesdays, Thursdays, July, through December.
Second day. All in favor?
We already need the community's power.
Chris, you want to talk about the 250th celebration?
Sure.
So this Friday, July.
July 3rd, 9 a M. Old Town Hall. We'll have a gathering.
Anybody interested is welcome to join us.
Out in front of Old Town Hall, we'll read the preamble to the Declaration of Independence.
We'll also showcase our Liberty Tree.
Yep. The dedication of our Liberty Tree, which is a American Helm Tree, though small,
is doing well.
It is.
And the gentleman at
at the Liberty Tree Society said that that tree will grow quite large over time
and give a nice sheet.
By the next 250?
What's the status?
What's the status of our replacement?
So they offered us another tree.
They did offer us another tree.
Martha went out there, picked out the one she would like to see brought to us.
The gentleman she spoke to from Liberty Tree Society said he was not there when the tree we did receive was harvested and assigned to us.
He was really disappointed with the tree that we got.
So they do want to make that right with the Liberty Tree Society offering to give us an additional tree.
We would not take that one up. We would leave that one where it is.
And then we would need to figure out the tree.
to figure out the trucking of it.
So there is an aspect that we would need to figure out trucking and then we were talking about
also where do we plant that American home.
I have been asked about, you know, are we going to dig up the tree or cut it down or whatever?
And to that I say no, we're going to leave it exactly where it is.
But let's start thinking about some place else to put the new tree.
Yeah, I mean, there's that.
definitely some, we've had a lot of trees taken down here because of the ash, the emerald ash borer
has taken out some of the ash trees around here.
We lost a tree out on Fox Point.
Yep.
We could just lose a maple across the way during the storms there.
So there's definitely some places we could place it.
There's also some places in the historic district if we wanted to go down by the parsnage or whatever.
We have some areas where we can look at placing another tree.
placing another tree for sure, but the recommendation is to leave the existing American element where it is.
Good. It will grow. So we'll have complimentary breakfast to follow with some coffee, some water or juice as well.
And that will kick off at 9 a.m. I wouldn't expect it to take much longer than an hour of time for people.
I know it's going to be a hot day, so we don't want to be out there baking in the sun all day.
It'd be pretty quick event.
a very big tree to see so take it all in pretty quickly. I think the sentiment will be
loud and proud, Chris, much beyond the shadow of the Liver Yelm.
Purchase of the old Dover Road property. Any discussion on that?
Is there any way to me that brings up to speed? I know that it was executed. I don't know
the funds have been received or that.
We have enough to date on today.
All I got is the email from Eric saying that
it's been executed, whatever that means,
and that funds should be coming to the town.
I can certainly get all the details and give you guys an update.
Thanks.
I'm just glad that that project is moving forward.
That's been a long time coming.
Jeremy, you want to talk to us about the new
to us about the Newington School pedestrian culvert bridge?
Yeah, sure.
So I've been talking to a contractor to see when we can get that on the schedule.
We've actually had a decent amount of rain this year.
And the area it's located, it does cross over a wet area.
That's why the bridge was originally there, right?
So that area is going to be the last one to dry out.
We are shooting for the second or third week of July.
July and we do not want it to interfere with the soccer camp, right?
That's taken place now.
Soccer camp will move August 3rd through the 7th.
August 3rd to the 7th.
It's about a two-day job.
So I do not suspect those will conflict and I'm very hopeful that that will be done before
soccer camp.
So I reached out a few times and like I said, I get it's a wet area.
It's tougher to work in there and wet conditions.
So we are certainly looking forward to get it done, hopefully, in the next few weeks.
So I just want to give a quick update and let's know that.
That's a culver with gravels?
Yeah, and it's, yeah, and more like a land bridge.
So no, you know, metal or wood materials, it's going to be very natural, very low maintenance.
So ultimately a culver pipe with some stone for drainage.
And then ultimately like a land bridge.
And then we'll just figure out what kind of the final touches are on it.
You know, it would be nice if it was like a little gray.
grassy berm, you know, that could just be mowed over, or maybe we do some type of, you know, grass on the sides, right, for stability, for erosion, right?
But then maybe like a gravel pathway or something.
So when we get down to the final touches, definitely bounce it off you guys to see what you think of.
What is, what are the initial estimates for the culvert?
About four or five grand to do the, to do the project.
Yeah.
And maybe a little less.
Where are we taking that out of?
So we could take that.
So we could take that.
that out of, you know, our culverts from highway.
We could take it out of contracted services.
There will be some money for it.
This is nothing that we necessarily planned on doing, but something that, you know,
you guys felt strongly about getting done and get it accomplished.
So we do have some funds that we can use for this project.
Okay.
I think we should also go back to course of a global league.
We're doing the project, yes, but we should also go back to course of the global league and ask them.
Then let's ask the Brazilian soccer camp to pony up something.
to pony up some money too?
You could.
I don't know the Brazilian soccer camp is actually happening
because they need 15 people signed up and there's two.
Oh, perfect.
So, but I'm just saying the little league has been used in our fields for years.
Yeah.
Brazilian United has not come here before.
But I'm, I feel friendly that we own it.
We should maintain it and I don't think we should have
we should ask anybody who comes to pay a percentage of what it takes.
I mean, 99.9% of the time that land bridge is going to be used by the children of our school.
So I just think it's one of our responsibilities as town.
And if we rent the facility out to Brazilian camp or if we let Portals Little League,
then they get the benefit of the land bridge at the same time.
That's just me.
Brandon.
change.
I'd like to say when it gets them.
Yeah, and as far as far as Little League concerned, too, we could put our heads together.
You know, I spoke with the President of the Force of Little League,
and she's been very susceptible to, you know, we appreciate the hosting
and we talked about the Landberg a little bit.
What else could we maybe do for you?
What other things could we work with you on?
So always an opportunity to work with them in the future on some other projects
or some other stuff, so.
All right.
I think the next one is you too, Jeremy, tree work on Little Bay Road.
Yeah, so I just wanted to let you know.
I know that we specifically talked about that.
Did a little presentation.
I always like to run by the cutting of trees here in town,
especially when they're not necessarily, you know, sick or disease.
These happen to be the location of proximity to the road is the concern.
I did get the, I finally got some estimates that has been a little challenging.
Um, it seems as of lately because I think tree services are really busy and they know that towns always get, you know, multiple bids.
Um, so I just want to jump to that, that slide.
So ultimately, um, had the two bids, it's the, um, there's two trees that are in gross proximity to the road.
And then there is actually, um, a sick tree, um, that is on the town property that is located very close, um, uh, to one of these trees that we're cutting right off
wrote, um, that the property owner had reached out of butter and was concerned.
I did have a tree service look at it.
So that is going to be included.
It's a total of three trees.
Um, and the winning bid came in at 3498, right below 3,500.
The other one was $6,000.
So it's quite a, quite a difference in, uh, in the bids, um, you know,
Berks is a service.
We've worked with quite a bit.
Yep.
And the, uh, the, uh, the good bid on that.
And, um, so how did your tree budget looking?
I haven't spent any of it yet this year.
We always try to hold off and wait, you know, to see what's going to happen.
With that being said, we did talk about reaching out to Ebersource.
I did reach out to Eversource.
There is actually a tree that's right down the street from here that I've kind of had in the back my mind,
and they are going to take care of that for us.
That one has a lot of like woodpecker holes in disease, and that is very close to the power line.
So Arborist went out, totally agreed, and that has been tagged for remorse.
So out of a $10,000 budget, you know, this is going to chew into, by the time, you know,
we have to have a police detail in this one, the crane is going to have to position in the middle of the road in this.
We're probably going to chew up, you know, maybe $4,300 out of a $10,000 budget.
Oh, okay.
New business, we have the rental house update.
Yeah, I just wanted to give you guys an update on this one.
You know, in the approximate four years I've been here, we've, I'm very appreciative of the work we've been able to do
between the Board of Selectmen and the Budget Committee and the residents that have voted on the budgets
to allow us to put some money back into these buildings and do lots of good work.
I just want to kind of highlight the rental a little bit.
It's in a prominent area.
Lots of eyes are on it.
We do rent it.
It is a rental.
So over the years, I've come to you guys with most of this stuff,
you know, we did a combo boiler replacement.
We got the hot water heater out of the basement.
The former tenant had to go down there and relight the pilot.
That's not something that you could expect from all tenants, right?
So we got that out of some wet conditions, some unconditioned space.
We replaced the combo boiler, I believe it was in 24.
Last year, replaced the dishwasher.
There was some exterior wiring issues that had longstanding.
We took care of that.
some short money. And of course, last year, we straight prime, painted, and replaced any
rotten woodwork on the building. And then also kind of in a joint effort with the town, we did work with
the tenants to replace the flooring in there that was overdue. So we've done some really good work
on that building. I kind of wanted to round it out. I don't really know what else is really
could be on the list. So this year we're kind of rounding it out with the walkway replacement.
That was definitely a trip hazard.
And there was a beautiful tree that was kind of more like an ornamental, large,
Arbrivi maybe, was growing into the path.
We didn't want to have to cut that out or cut away at it.
So we're kind of, kind of redesigned that entryway a little bit.
It will come in right under the my budget at $1,500 for that.
So we'll take care of that trip hazard.
We'll get all that cleaned up.
So that is actually...
That is actually super bad.
I drove by the other day.
Oh, really bad.
I can't believe what happened to these things.
Yeah. Yeah. Completely degraded.
You can't walk on it. Definitely a trip hazard.
Must have been so hard to shovel them the wintertime.
You know, the tenants down there are great and they're patient.
And they actually started doing a little bit of replacing them themselves right in front of the steps.
But we got a contractor down there. All the old stuff's been removed. All stone dust is put down.
And about half the blocks are laid. That should be finished up Friday. It's done.
Since I've been here, we have not had the septic pumped. I'm not sure when it was last pumped.
you know, having two tenants in it before that was it maybe four.
I don't think it's heavy use, but it was ready, ready to be done.
So we had it pumped and inspected tank, and the system looks great.
Great feedback from the contractor that pumped the septic.
We get that done. And then kind of to round it all off is getting the exterior siding pressure wash,
which was in my budget, and that will be done on July 7th.
We're in pretty good shape down there.
I think we have some great tenants. I know they're really happy and appreciative to be down there.
They're proud of where they live, and they're very happy with all the work we've done, and I'm happy with it.
Just want me. I'll say that I think you take great care of our town building.
I personally thank you for that.
For sure. Thank you.
It is noted throughout town how much effort and work you put into.
On pride, you have the buildings.
Yeah.
Thank you.
absolutely all right there they're my buildings right in more ways than one kind of right
so yeah they're they're they're all of our buildings and we want to protect our
investment so all right thank you yep next item we have is the transfer
station update yeah yeah so lots of exciting things going down on the transfer
station we did end up updating the website a while back with some more updated information
in a site map. I've been working closely with both David Badger on some other efficiencies
and some other improvements. One thing that we did want to get completed was the brush grinding.
We had that done. That did not be done in 25, so it was about a year and a half of grinding.
They hauled away 328 tons of grinding material. I did ask them to leave us 40 yards of grinding material. I did ask them to leave us 40 yards of
chips. I thought highway could probably utilize half or maybe three quarters and then we could
have some for the residents. I think we could use some for erosion control, maybe down at some of
the trails on the clock to point. I think all of it is mostly going to benefit the residents
ultimately, but for highway to use and that we don't have to purchase wood chips. So I thought
it'd be good while I got it there. Leave us some. What was a little disappointing was the amount of
stumps. A lot of stumps down there. I was actually told we set the record for the most
stumps, a municipality head mixed into their brush. So it looks like we have about four truckloads
of stumps that have to be removed at about $700 per truckload. And that was an estimate from the
low bid on the grinding. So I wasn't going to bid out the stumps. I assume if they were a little bit on
the grinding, probably a little bit on the stumps. So we do have four loads to take and that's going to be
done over the next couple weeks. I don't know if you guys been to the transfer station recently,
but there was quite the, I mean, they were stacked and there was two piles. That kind of moves into
yard waste improvement. So now that we have a clean slate down there, we have some large
stones, you know, boulders, and I believe we do have kicking around some of those larger concrete blocks
that you would use for maybe like a salt bin. We are going to set up dividers down there at
the transfer station and have it all laid out, you know, leaves, maybe compost,
that's ready to go, compost to be turned over, if people are going to drop off, you know, rocks or stones,
we're going to have all bins so that it's very straightforward with some good signage. I think we can do that
cost effectively with a lot of what we already have for materials down there. There'll be a separate area for
stumps so that we can monitor that, have those pulled, you know, maybe halfway through the year
versus kind of hanging on to them. And then, of course, we'll have the whole brush area.
And this should help keep things separated.
They did find, when it was going through the grinder, they did find a big chunk of concrete,
which is disappointing to find in the brush along with some metal.
They said that, you know, that was a $9,200 grinding job.
If they didn't catch some of that metal that went through and I got some photos of it,
that could have done $20,000 dollars of damage to their equipment on the belt feeder and the teeth.
So they would be less inclined to come back here and provide it.
the service for us. So it's tough. We have one transfer station attendant down there.
A lot of eyes are on the compactor for a lot of reasons. So it just comes down to educating the
residents a little bit. How don't we get so many stumps? I think there was a couple of properties
that were cleared in town. They did some clearing and I think they ended up at the transfer station.
So I don't know if in the future we want to settle a limitation on stumps or maybe it never comes up
again. Could be a one-off thing. We have a lot of, we have a lot of stumps. And they cost money. It's a
different operation. They have to go through a different grinder. They can't process them there.
They have to haul them off and process them back at their facility. And that goes with all. There's
no grinders that will come in and use stumps and brush. It's different equipment. So something to think
about. But yeah, really just having these bins for compost, grass clippings, brush, leaves,
stumps, rocks, and other yardways. So we can keep everything organized, see what's going on.
Yeah, I think that benefits not only the transfer station staff, but the highway department staff, and also the end users, the residents using the transfer station.
How are we doing on the tipping fees up to, you know, we had anticipated with the compact that we would start seeing the savings in the tipping fees.
So I think that we've already seen some savings. I get some exact numbers for you for sure. I think that we've done some additional training with the folks.
that sold us to compactor, some hands-on training with the attendance.
And I know for sure the efficiency has definitely increased.
That was probably getting pulled when there was probably still a third more room.
So they learned that there's like an extra compaction mode that you can use to really ram the stuff.
It adds some PSI to it with some safeties built in.
So it's pretty foolproof.
But they can really give it an extra RAM.
that drops the fullness of that container. Sorry, I'm a loss of words. So we're probably going to get, you know, probably a quarter more on it than we have in the past.
So we should really start to see some efficiencies. Yeah, it's every two and a half, two, two and a half weeks that they ask me that I, that I have it pulled.
Good. I think it's been going really good. Highway has been going down a couple times a week, crushing dumpsters. So you should see the demo can rate drop quite a bit because that's getting
compacted on Thursdays and then again on Mondays.
So I feel like since I first started calling those in, that has dropped.
So, yeah, and that includes metal, demo and metal. We're crushing both.
So, yeah.
For another couple weeks. It would be all right to have, ask to have the finance director come in
and give us kind of a mid-year update. I understand it might be incomplete because of
the situation surrounding Cheryl just retiring recently and Chris take it over.
But it would be good to get on a cadence, first things first.
Second of all, it would be great to hear about the this year's budget.
Sure.
Getting caught up and closed out.
Yeah, specifically the close out.
The close out from last year going into?
Yep.
Yeah, where do you, auditors are up?
Yep.
Maybe even, generally, if you have a template that Cheryl used, if we do it first quarter,
She did it. She did me quarterly, right?
She used to, well, we've had it
sometimes monthly, sometimes
quarterly, but we haven't had it
quite sometimes. But a while. Yep, been a while.
I'd say, you feel like since budget seasons.
Just throw him a template for it and say, hey, this is
kind of what we're looking for, what percentage
is left, and that'll give us a really nice,
being that it's midway point of the year, it gives us a nice
feeling for the transfer station
and all these other budgets and how things
are getting spent. A big help.
Yep. And he doesn't have to be
perfect, and give it his first crack.
Yeah, absolutely. It'd be good to get him in here for you guys.
Well, I know at Cheryl's retirement, I mentioned the
monthly and the quarterly breakdowns, and I
saw him taking note of that.
So it's not going to be a surprise to him.
Yep.
Yeah, we went over. I went over some stuff with them too today, some other templates.
This will be his first department head meeting tomorrow,
so we talked about, you know, what the departments look forward to
as far as financial reports that Cheryl always gave,
and if he had anything more to add to it, otherwise we'd be looking
for at least, at the very least, that same template, that same thing.
So, yeah.
And he was all over, it took notes and was jumping right on.
So, good.
And if you ever go back to having a
top bonfire, having those thumps separated,
maybe we could just bring those thumps to the bonfire.
This stumps don't burn well.
Yeah, get anything caught up, it'll burn.
Yeah.
All right.
Legislative alert.
House Bill 340, is that, is that you correct?
Or is that, this is not me, not sure.
Yeah, this is relative to electioneering and
the letter we signed.
Yeah, yeah. So just, you know,
obviously we're watching different house bills and things working through the
legislature these days, and we sent the letter on it.
I think it's the purpose of Mark adding it to the, or us adding it to the agenda.
Yeah, it's kind of let the residents know.
and, you know, let you guys, you know, reach out.
Could I ask you two guys a question?
When you sign electronically,
how do your signatures wind up right on the line,
and my knowledge winds up right through the middle of my name?
Same way we can get into our computers in the evening.
I should serve that up to me.
I'll platter.
I'll have one of you showing me how you sign one time,
because I've tried.
I've tried to sign in I. I've tried to sign in low. It just doesn't work.
It may have to do, honestly, it may have to do it. When you set up things to be Adobe
sign, you have to select where the signing in your box is a little too low or something
like that. We have to see how she's setting it up to say that's what's causing it.
Well, I will say that I do watch it and everything both of you guys sign, it looked
perfect. And everything I signed looks like I'm signing right through the middle of my
name. So yeah, I'll just see how she's centered up.
Oh, I want to get Bob again on this one. Does anybody want to talk about that house bill?
That's just a little electioneering and how it's negative for force thresholds and it adds
beauty, if you will. The language isn't really clear. It imposes fines, individual officials.
If you provide factual information, or we just have this discussion,
us providing any factual information could be seen as electioneering.
Yeah.
So even if we're telling people, this is what you're voting on, that could be seen as electioneering.
And we could be individually fined for that.
So there's some negatives to this bill, which is why we're opposing it,
because we should be able to tell people factual information.
about what they're voting and try to help people understand what they're voting.
Not telling them which way to vote, but being able to provide factual information about what the vote does.
That should be allowed. This bill prevents what's happening and would find us for doing it.
So not a good bill. There's a lot of the bills that are coming through currently that are
very anti-local government.
I took it that this electioneering thing was aimed straight at the New Hampshire Municipal Association.
That's definitely the future of it as well.
Because they recently passed new rules up there about lobbying, and that was aimed straight at the Municipal Association as well.
So, well, I mean, I was glad we all got together and signed a letter to go to the governor saying we were in opposition to that.
But we'll see where she votes on it.
The other thing is, Bob, I would say that if you were to use surveys or questionnaires,
which we've sent out in the town book previously, we've sent out surveys and questionnaires,
that would be considered electioneering.
That would be another thing.
So, I can get feedback from your citizens.
Right.
It's crazy.
You know?
Honestly, in my opinion of 340 as well as 10-10 and 1588.
631, they're all aimed at local government. They are all aimed at trying to handcuff local government.
It's very unfortunate to see the manager house doing that, and we're not getting a lot of ground with it,
but any opposition we can put up we are. Right. Anything else under new business?
Motion that we move into non-public meeting.
I got two things before we do that.
Oh, okay.
Under old business, the tree at the school, I did go over there with the school supporters,
and staked out a place where I thought the tree would look good.
So there's a line of trees, if you're, from where we're sitting,
there's a line of trees that comes up the playground,
and then there's a line of trees that come up the driveway to the tennis courts.
And I thought it would be a nice place to make them.
a box out of the lines right on that corner.
And they liked that spot, too.
They felt we were going to make them tuck it away some way back in the back.
You can see the stakes in the ground, right?
Yeah, yeah.
That's what I just can say.
There is a stake in the ground, and I think they had some sort of a ceremony or dedication
with the principal, Laxhaw, to show them where they were going to plant that.
So if anybody goes by the playground and wants to say,
see where that stake is and that's that's the proposed spot where the tree will be planted.
So I think it'll be great to put some more shade on the playground.
It's not, I made sure that we stayed way away from the skating area.
It's not in...
You know, Bob, I actually learned something today.
There's somebody who's a town employee that has a lot of ice-making experience.
You know, if we had been put to use.
If we were to purchase a Zamboni, I think we had...
I don't have...
We have a built-made driver.
I know we got almost 2,000 icings.
Do you get like that special pin for the number of icing?
A guy in the rec department up in Wolfborough was a huge numbers guy.
Track everything.
Anything he could put a number on it and track what he would,
and we would have to log our icings for liability in addition to the ice,
how do we leave it, how many passes, yada, yada, yada, yada.
And he would log all of it.
So when I left there, I was just a handful short of 2,000.
So I'm trying to get it.
hit that 2000. So I fully support. A zambone.
You got to see him coming down, coming down the road, put it on a zambone.
I did go up to the nick in Wolfborough. I worked there for, yeah, that's a nice facility.
One of a nice facility that is. I did some more good. And they're still working on the
pavilion? Is it the pavilion? They have a pavilion, but they're still working on another building. I think I was told that that
that's an indoor soccer.
Oh.
But they've got a beautiful track.
They do, yeah.
They've got four beautiful ball fields.
So just a great facility.
I mowed up there for a little while when I was living up there
for the guy that ran that park and
pretty impressive, you know.
Nice to see a town.
Yeah, very nice to show it.
The other thing I had is
I wanted to discuss it with
you two gentlemen.
Subcom is
putting on quite a
big expansion.
It's a multi-billion dollar facility.
They're putting on
a $300 million
expansion.
The bond to the town
should they not finish
that project that would provide
funds to the town?
The town will be able to use those funds
to either one,
complete the project or
warehouse the project
and turn it back into,
well,
it's ridiculous
because we're never going to do that.
We're never going to turn
that back into fuel.
But anyway,
the bond would be about
$4 million.
So we would be
asking them
for about a $4 million
bond
on a project that
they're 100%
going forward.
They've already got
a building
plan. The project they're doing now
is just the first
of probably about eight projects
to the future. That big, long building
they have, that they do cable
in and they run it out to the ships,
they want to add another one with
another dock. So not only are
they not going to not finish
this thing, but they're going to do
many projects beyond that.
So I'm...
I don't understand about what. It's already to interrupt you.
What does it matter? If that's
they're trying to build a building on
private land?
What does it matter
of us if they finish it or not?
Well,
there's public infrastructure
I did, but...
It's the same thing as, you know,
if we take a bond
from anybody that's building
a building.
Like the bonding
firm, the tear down
of the mall,
right? We took a bond
from them to tear down the mall
in case they just quit,
then we could send somebody
in there to seal it up
and
and make it publicly safe again.
But it's the same,
same type of thing.
But what I'm asking is,
I want to present to the planning board
probably in another week
that I want the bond waived.
And I'm happy with a letter
from the company president saying,
hey, we're going to finish this project.
And trust me.
And we can run it through Eric Mayor
and say, hey,
what's the wording on
a letter from the company president that we need
in lieu of a bond?
Is there a request for that?
No, I'm going to make a request.
No, but from the land or the company?
No, I just think it's ridiculous
that we're asking them for a $4 million bond
for a property that
I know they're going to finish.
And it's got billions right now?
No, it's under development.
No, but I'm sorry.
I mean, it's not like a tear down.
Is there a demolition?
going on to then build?
No, they've got a building, and they're building
two more buildings on the side,
and then they're going to build a huge thing over the top of it.
So even if they stopped
building that,
we could never turn
it back into grassland or anything else.
So to have a bond
to reclaim the property is ridiculous.
To reclaim private property.
I mean, I somewhat agree in a massive
demolition that you,
you need to be able to put up fencing
and you need to be able to encapsulate
whatever it is,
if there's dangerous materials,
or if there's...
Is this the normal process,
the Chick-fil-A bond?
Yep.
We have a bond for Chick-fil-A-A-Lay bond?
I think I,
I think I recommended
waiving Chick-fil-A-A-Bund,
but it was a lot, a lot less.
Granted, it's a lot less
because it's a smaller building,
it's a smaller project.
My point is,
if we're going to wait for one,
you're waiving for all.
Yep.
Yeah, we've kind of been on that.
Well, no.
I mean, if we waive for a company that's well-established in town
and is worth billion, literally billions,
and we're waiving a few million,
now, if somebody comes in the town that's brand new,
we have no history with,
we know nothing about them,
then I would say, you know, proceed with the bond.
But a company that's been here for...
Yeah, my personal opinion is, I would say it's different,
If the company's asking us, can you reduce the bond or waive the bond,
why are we going out to offer something that we don't have to offer?
They haven't officially asked us to waive the bond, but they are hinting at it.
Yeah, I mean, I think to me, still it's different.
It's different if the company says, hey, listen, we've done business here for the next number of years, whatever.
We're asking you to lower the bond by 50%.
I think it's dangerous for us to start dabbling into the,
this and spotting who we choose to have them any bond for or not.
Yeah, and a little bit in that thread.
I mean, we ought to look at changing what the rule is because I think we agree it's ridiculous.
Chris is worried about getting over our skis with picking and choosing,
but the rule that if you're going, I mean, if you're going to build a house on your lot,
you can give us the money so we're going to return it to the grass.
I mean, that's insane.
These guys aren't, I totally agree there's some risk at the town.
level for the demolition at the Fox Run Mall where we may have to step up and it can't just be
out of our pocket. But where these guys are adding a building, what are he talking about?
Well, like, don't finish it. Like, what's the matter to me?
Like Walker on South Newington, we took a bond from him because when he built the new house, he's got
the old house, and he said, I will tear that down. Well, if he doesn't tear it down, then
the bond is there for us to tear it down.
So in certain situations, the bond does work.
Or like if you were going to build a house and you poured a foundation and then something catastrophic happened and you go bankrupt.
Well, now there's bond money there that the town can go in and seal off the foundation
so that it doesn't become a hazard.
The kids falling in there or anything else.
So there are certain situations where bonds are appropriate, but in this situation, I...
You're going to end up with the same situation because if they decide to stop building somebody goes over there.
gets hurt. It's the same situation. I think that we've got to look at the bond rules
holistically, look at the bond rules holistically. And the only reason to determine if they're
appropriate or not, I think absent a request from them, and for me, absent a request from them,
one, and two, picking and choosing who we're going to do, who has to pay bonds and who doesn't
is, you know, honestly, honestly, the business has the money more so.
than a resident has the money for a bond.
But the reason I bring it up is because we are the holders of the bond.
Yeah, no, I agree.
We put that money in escrow.
Which we don't covet.
As a board, right?
No, we hate it. We hate it.
And we have asked, and you'll become familiar with this,
we have asked that that escrow account gets scrubbed on a very frequent basis,
and we want people's money returned back to them if a project gets,
finished or whatever. And one of the things we have done, too, is we've reduced bonds.
You know, so as a project, this 50% completed, we've reduced bonds. Now, I know some of our
professional town employees, like our town engineer, Eric, he hates it when we reduce bonds.
I told him. I said, I know you do, but we're going to continue to do that.
I think it's a good policy to, yeah, because we work through that, like, on the shack for,
right, you know, you hit goals and you get a reduction, and, yeah.
So, I'm 100% open to hearing about it, if the, and otherwise, I'd be happy also to take up with your change in the way those things are written,
because I just think it's, I think it's mean in some ways, and I think it's mean in some ways to hold bonds over people's head like that when there was no risk to.
town. Right. And it's this absolutism of, it could be zero, go along to get along.
Well, and the other thing is, they're going to put $4 million into an escrow account,
and it doesn't benefit us one cent. We don't get the interest off the escrow. You know,
the only thing, I mean, and, you know, all of the inspections of the facility, all of the permitting,
all those things, that's all paid for.
not out of the bond, separately.
All the bond does is just sits there.
I get it. My point here is more so
we're absent a request from the developer themselves
or the business entity themselves for a reduction in a bond or an elimination
of a bond. Two, we should probably look at bonds
holistically. And my third point is
if we're holding residential bonds, we certainly should be
holding commercial bonds.
Because the commercial entity has a lot more money than a person building a product residence.
Maybe, in some circumstances, no, but I doubt most homes in Newington have the backing that subcom has.
But the bond is basically concerning the risk.
I get it.
Or the promise, like you said, in order to take down Walker's Barn.
If that's part of his conditions, and he's going to say, hey, here,
this, it will happen.
That's the only way you get to share you.
Otherwise, it never happens.
And then there's no.
And where, we're, yeah.
The guy's sitting there like, hey, take it down.
He's like, no, I don't mind.
Yeah, and that was tough too, because that goes against our zoning, right?
You can't have two lots on one property.
So that was, that was the only way that we could work, you know,
make that work and it's very memorable.
I can understand that, but in a town of 860 residents,
and we have a large commercial, industrial base,
these commercial industrial properties,
have the funding, have the resources.
If we want to look at it holistically, I'm a favor of looking at holistically.
I'm against doing it in a spotting method.
I don't think it's fair to every other business or residential if we're doing it for some, but not for others.
Well, the other thing I would mention is that subcom becoming four million would be,
because it's a function of the total price of the job, not based upon anything realistic, right?
It's a percentage of the job.
So, like, that's not even like a, hey, you get a $25,000 estimate to remove that barn,
so, you know, let's hold on to the 25K and make sure it gets done.
It's a, give me the $4 million.
$4 million.
What is that, what are we going to do?
I know.
I get it.
Should the applicant say, hey, I think that's out of line, I mean, I would completely agree,
in the case by case.
But I do think, in the big picture, we should look at it, too.
Once you get a hold at Eric,
there and have him come and talk to us about bonds,
have him talk to us about the risk, the percentages.
The thing I'd say is I think we need to be careful throwing out dollar values in our public meetings.
Our dollar values were cited in a newspaper article that subcom was not pleased with.
Yeah, that was, I think that came out of a planning board.
Somebody mentioned how much expansion they were doing.
Right, but then I'm going to get cited in the Boris Leckman's meeting, which I don't think we said anything to that effect tonight.
Not, yes.
I mean, I think we need to be cautious with it.
That's all I'm asking for, just because I don't want us to be in the front page of the Herald again and have the local business upset with us.
All right.
That's all I had.
Motion, Chris.
Sure.
Motion to enter non-public meeting under New Hampshire RS891A, A, colon 3.
Section 2, L for legal advice.
Second.
Roll call, Walt.
Mr. Arthmore.
Aye.
Mr. Williams, aye.
We will adjourn from that meeting in the out.
Planning for the meeting in the end of the night.
Adjured to the non-public.