Commission Meeting June 19, 2026

Speakers are labeled SPEAKER_N. This transcript is machine-generated.

Recording

car pool.
>> Awesome. Thank you.
>> Good morning. Probably
the Ed and the commission to order. Um
we can start just going around the room
roll call your name and the editing
you're representing
Rochester
>> Mr. Jane Dober,
>> Steve Stansel, Leefield,
>> Tom Barington,
>> Don Rosfield,
>> Kate Bazard, Middleton, John Casper,
Lee,
>> Steve Brown,
>> Marshall.
>> Hey, good morning. I'm John New
representing Milton Mark Richardson.
Mike Ninsky Summersworth
>> Lindsay Williams
>> Mike Leuro
>> Mike Pauli SRP
SRBC executive director
>> start and online please
>> um let's start with commissioners uh
Glenn
>> Glenn Gris old Noddingham He's
on
>> Joe. Joe Rochester
>> in the room. Since John is on hold here,
I know John is from Middleton. Um and
then uh from dees Jack
Good morning, Jack Wade. Hampshire. Yes.
Um,
Michael Miller,
uh, Natalie.
>> Good morning, Natalie. Gemma, SRPC,
and Megan.
>> Good morning, everyone.
Hello.
Yes ma'am.
>> Okay.
>> So the wishious round table updates from
your town some areas of interest.
And just as an aside, June 26, we
celebrate
project that's been a number of years in
the making and it's finally coming to
aion
close on the um wershed
conservation eman
southwestern part of lake. So over 500
acres will be added to the roster
>> and so virtually except for one small
silver of land which is uh being tested
lake is under lining conservation e so
it's a big chunk
over a mile of shor line is being
protected directly by this one uh
cell acquisition so I feel good that as
community, you know, stepped up. We we
contributed funds that we were able to.
Uh the conservation commission stepped
up with 175,000. So, a lot of different
pockets step forward to make this whole
project work.
>> Over 2 million
funds were required.
>> Wow.
>> So, it's all happening. Can
>> I ask a question? Was that the purchase
of the land and the mainland or Yes.
just like to remind everyone I'm putting
on my New Dampshire hat um that if you
have any buildings that you want to be
weatherized the time uh NH saves is
really really helpful all the time but
right now especially if you're in
Unatville or New Hampshire Electric
Co-op territories they really are
looking for projects as fast as possible
weatherize make it cheaper to pay for
your heat and your cooling and make your
buildings more comfortable. Please
reject.
>> Uh at Wednesday night's uh planning
board meeting, we had a conceptual
presentation made for our new library.
Quite a deal, long overdue. So, uh going
to be interesting to see how you find.
One other thing, um, building on just in
summer's work, um, we, uh, we applied
for a brick grant, a FEMA brick grant
the other day in the internal deadline,
uh, for a storm water improvements
project in the city, kind of more in the
urban part, downtown part, and we were
able to uh, at least qualify for the
grant. It's competitive, etc., But we
used our current hazardous mitigation
plan and as kind of a reference point
and then we built it the project was
also in our one of our CIP years. So it
was it was referenced and documented
that way. So we'll see how we go.
Jen and her staff assisted us uh in a
pre-application phase couple months back
and we were then selected to apply. So,
>> um, on the topic of libraries, the Dober
Public Library will be opening next
Friday. Um, reopening after, um, very
large renovation, so it's very exciting.
Um, they're doing kind of an open house.
Um, so new to come. Um, and there will
be construction downtown. They're
building two more pedestrian um bumpouts
for series.
>> And the
>> just a comment for Mark, as you go
through your library renovations, uh we
can set you up with a new librarian. And
you know, we're fresh into the game of
new libraries and so on. This is working
really well, but like any construction
project, the things hindsight you might
do differently. So you're invited to
take advantage of us recently.
>> Wonderfully energy.
>> Yeah, it's it's renovating the old
building and adding an addition to make
it significantly larger and
kind of kind of remain with that open
concept type thing that we've had at
least in the original library. And it it
you know with elevators and
accessibility and all of that it's been
long overdue.
So it's going to be cool.
>> Can you hear me?
Nope. Can't hear me.
We can't hear you. Can you hear us?
>> Can you hear me? No. Oh, okay. Okay. Two
things
>> for Middleton. Number one is our uh
watershed management implement our
implementation plan on our first major
project is near completion. Uh that was
a big project. uh should be completed
next week and um stra the the commit the
commission has done an excellent job in
managing that um and that's a big
project. Number two, uh unrelated to
uh Middleton, but related to
uh the area, the watershed, the Ghanic
Dam, which is under removal by dees and
a variety of other organization is well
underway and um I was there on Thursday,
yesterday, Wednesday, Wednesday, sorry.
and um that is moving very well. The
lower dam is uh 2/3 done. They'll start
working on the upper dam in the fall or
late summer. And that's a big project uh
to remove the dams, the upper dam and
the lower dam at the Ghanic Dam or the
GI Mill in Rochester.
And uh so it was attended by about 35
different people from different
organizations. It was a a good tour.
That's it.
>> Thanks online.
>> Okay, Michael, I've got one one thing.
>> Sorry. Um Lindsay, you can remind me
when is Nebby Park opening?
>> I was just starting to look for that.
It's early July. Let me see.
>> Keep it. Yes. Abby Park is the public
park in the downtown waterfront uh uh
development site and that is I mean it's
really is open now for the public but
there's a grand opening in early July
>> July 14th.
>> July 14.
>> It is spectacular. We just went by and
vote yesterday.
>> Yeah.
>> And or day before rather and saw it from
the water. It's like wow.
>> Yeah. It it's turned out very well.
Oh, on the dam subject, um, the 108
Oyster River dam in Durham has begun the
deatering process. That's also slated
for removal over the course of summer
and the water levels have been drawn
down considerably
stream.
a lot of issues with neighbors and
people obviously with the concerns with
the
>> the animals and such that are in there
but longterm process that
>> that's it for the round table. Um want
to everybody's had a chance to review
the minutes if there's any questions on
the minutes from May
or any additions or modifications to
suggest
Hearing
none, someone want to make a motion to
accept the minutes as presented or may.
>> All in favor?
>> I
to do a roll call. Oh, sorry. Sorry. Got
that. Sorry. Yes. Roll call.
Go ahead.
>> Yes.
Steve Stansel
>> abstain.
Can you hide?
>> John Ross.
>> Kazard. Yes.
>> Jordan Casper.
>> Marshall Goldberg.
>> John Newton. Yes.
>> Mike Pinsky. Yes.
>> Lindsay Williams. Yes.
>> Mike Stain.
>> Hey, online. Uh Glenn.
Glenn Griswald. I
>> um next uh John
>> John John Mullen Middleton I
>> Joe Rochester abstain
[clears throat]
>> Ian McDermott I uh from do sorry
and
It's I'm back. you.
folks
online see.
>> Wait. So public hearing.
>> Yes. You'll just open the public
hearing.
>> Do a little presentation. So this will
formally open a public hearing on the
comprehensive economic development
strategy for the next five years.
So
throughout the room are some printed
copies of the uh final draft set. I did
ask
um are some final draft copies. Uh also
we posted online when uh the packet went
out last week this final draft as well
that incorporates some of the comments
that we've received.
I do just want to take a few minutes to
go through some public comments that we
received and how we addressed them in
the draft. Um but just as kind of a
reminder of when our public comment
period was open and how we gathered
comments. Um we posted the initial draft
May 7th. Uh, so a day early, so it was
open for 31 days. Um, but May 8th
through June 7th was our formal 30-day
public comment period. We gave a
presentation to you all at the last
commission meeting where we solicited
some comments from you. We presented to
our strategy committee during their main
meeting
to gather some comments from them. And
we also did a meeting with some of our
partners to gather comments and then we
received some uh public comments via
email as well. Um so we prepared the
public comment law which is at the end
of this document
today is the adoption hearing where we
are going through these comments and um
you will consider adopting the plan.
Um so we received uh a quick number of
public comments both from you all from
our strategy committee and from members
of the public. Um but I do just want to
walk through um what we received. So,
uh, for folks who can see the screen,
the green items highlighted up there are
things that we were able to incorporate
and address the plan. The yellow items
are things that uh, we are not
addressing for this document, but we're
considering addressing them in a user
document along with the rationale. Um,
is kind of the catchall area, which I'll
explain as we go through each comment or
not.
So we received comments about the aging
population um cost of elder care impact
on the economy and social security. We
were able to um implement a uh age
friendliness section into the draft in
the healthy and vibrant communities to
address a lot of this. Um and we were
also to incorporate additional
discussion into the workforce section as
well. Um the impacts to social security
is a little bit beyond the scope of this
set but it is something that we may
consider addressing in a future draft.
Um we received comments about um housing
development and local developers that we
weren't able to find data on um at this
time but we were able to um provide some
discussion
that there isn't really too much
non-local development happening in New
Hampshire. Most is based in New Most
developers are based in New Hampshire
but we will look uh for some data
sources um to support this discussion in
future sense. um some comments about
more discussion in the distress uh
regarding distressed communities which
we were able to incorporate um into the
distressed areas section of the SS. We
did receive a comment um after last
meeting about the vision statement um
about it being too long. We did go back
to our strategy committee at their May
29th meeting and shared this feedback
with them and they had some discussion
um amongst themselves and with us and
they decided to um retain the vision
statement and recommended that it stayed
the same. Um so we did not make any
changes to it um for uh this final draft
here.
Um, we did receive several comments
about various uh grammatical and
spelling adjustments throughout. Did not
list them out here. Um, it would have
been a little tedious, but those were
all addressed. Um, we did uh receive
some uh another comment we received was
regarding u is there data about
grandparents moving closer to
grandchildren to provide child care? Um,
we're not able to come across any robust
data sets to incorporate that at this
time.
Some people need to
transportation into the draft. Um, and
we did uh incorporate a subsection into
address that and discuss its important
um intersections with economic
development region. The same thing with
a um intentional section on tourism and
its impact on our economy and we were
able to incorporate that into the
document as well.
um received a comment about um
adding an action item to our preliminary
action plan regarding
looking into other strategic plans that
are uh in process or adopted in our
region that uh are not conducted by us
but are conducted by other organizations
to ensure that we kind of aligning with
our efforts throughout the region. So we
added that in. That comment came from
one of our strategy committee members.
We work in um uh kind of the uh public
uh social services space. So they were
uh hoping that we could ensure that we
have alignment amongst all of our
different efforts.
We did receive uh so now we're getting
some comments that came in beyond um our
meetings with you all.
Um several of these comments were about
clarifications in various sections like
the economic development capacity
section um listing out the tracks that
are considered distressed in the
economic um distress or the distress
areas section. Um we received some
comments about housing
data on restricted units in the region
development. Um that is a interesting uh
kind of comment that we were able to
discuss internally. Uh the data is not
that available for the number of
incomerestricted units throughout the
region. Um there is a point in time data
point in our latest RHNA from a few
years ago, but we are going to be
working with New Hampshire housing to
see if we can gather some additional
data because we do think that this was
an important discussion for the housing
section um that we could maybe
incorporate in a future sense once we do
get that data. Um we did also receive
some uh regarding like business
information
section um to track self-employment
um numbers and sole proprietorships um
when discussing kind of the workforce
and the breakdown of employment within
the region. That's something that we are
um going to incorporate in a future
sense. Um
and then we did also receive a little
bit of feedback as well and some
comments regarding um providing
comparisons to those numbers to the
national context. So once we do gather
those numbers in a future sense we will
provide those comparisons.
>> This is our last slide. Um we did
receive a couple of comments adding
asking for additional details regarding
um school enrollment and its impact the
labor force in the future um childcare
capacity in the region and the impact
for the workforce um which we were able
to um clarify in our language. We did uh
one another comment regarding
clarification of a specific action item
related to a regional partner database.
This is something that was pulled
forward from a past SS. Um so we were
able to add a little bit more language
in the table at the end provide some
clarity there. And then we did receive
one comment about um providing some
additional descriptions or ration for
how uh for the different action items in
the preliminary action plan. Um and
that's something that we are going to
address when we work with our strategies
fall to create the final plan for this
preliminary one that's in this set.
So those are the that's kind of a
summary of the comments that we
received. The full log is at the very
end of the sets. Um
but this is really just kind of a copy.
Yeah.
and observations. Well, this is great
data and the fact that you had a broad
sweep of all these entities to comment
on that I think speaks well for not only
the report but DC in general. So that's
a kudo. So good for that. Um these
things also tend to have a leg. So for
last report issued by Rachel two months
ago or something like that
that's now made its way around Bington
and Straford the political scene people
have it's getting a little dogeared and
going from place to place some people
online but most people like the hot
coffee but it's informing the
discussions and the debates are being
held little town people stepping up to
be a candidate for one office or
another, they're referring back to that
as their own talking points. So, it has
links. So, that has an impact.
>> Thank you. Um
something before I forget that's beyond
the sets but related to the data
snapshot. I don't know if we announced
that the
>> three weeks ago.
>> Um but in in addition to or sitting
alongside the data snapshot, the data
team, so Rachel and the others, we um
specific community profiles that are
like the PDF of Bington of Milton of all
of our communities in the region that
have all of the data about that
community in one place. We completed
those two weeks ago.
Um and those are now posted on our
website too that can help support local
discussions as well. Yeah.
of
the things I'm excited about from the
strategy committee right was the
recommendation to see where this aligns
or doesn't align with other strategies
and and it got me wondering if SRPC
I guess the discussion like I'd love
your feedback but also the could be kind
of that a convenor for those different
strategic planners so that regularly
they're getting together to seeing where
there's opportunities to collaborate or
align. Um, and I feel like if you could
bring people together for those
conversations, maybe there could be some
synergies we could take advantage of or
see where we might be tripping over each
other and watching.
>> Do do you think you have?
So our uh future work with our strategy
committee is going to be one identifying
partners that can support the
implementation of all the action items,
but then also trying to identify um who
are the players um as well. There's a
lot of things that run with our strategy
committee, but there's also a lot more.
So we're hoping to to lean on their
expertise to help fill in our gaps.
Members of the public that might happen
to be on
close the public hearing I think. Oh,
>> um just a thought in terms of future
data. Um I know that you had said that
there's a single point for um income
restriction units, but we could probably
incorporate voucher numbers instead.
Yeah, there's there's a few different
data sources. I think the challenge is
is that they're the data that exists for
subsidized. It's by like who holds it.
So like you've got New Hampshire Housing
has theirs, HUD has theirs, but it's
hard to ali align those and not double
count um between data sources.
My thought was just pulling it straight
from housing authorities rather than
>> that's yeah that's another they're only
going to capture the like the units that
they may check. does. Yeah.
>> And one other thing I do just want to
bring up, I forgot to at the beginning
um
photos um to the public in the sense and
the photos that you see um incorporated
in the document um taken to some of
those um submissions that we received
from folks from our communities and then
also um some photos that we were able to
um use from the business
state. So, it's a nice mix of more
professional photog.
So have a motion to adopt the Senate as
we presented at today.
Second.
>> Okay. So I have to go around just name
and I or not.
>> Uh Rick Haley. I
>> Steve Stansel. I
>> town. I John Brook.
>> Dazard. I casper. I
>> Steve Brown. I Marshall Blberg. I
>> votes yes.
I
>> Mike Babinsky. I
>> Lindsay Williams. I
>> Mike Leman. I
>> And on screen, Glenn.
>> Glenn Grisald. I
>> uh John Mullen. Hi
dry
>> Keian McDermott. Hi.
>> Wonderful. Thank you.
That example
very nice work on behalf of you all
together and everyone participated.
Thank you all
for the business items for school year
2027 budget presentation and adoption.
Um and just asked Jen if she would just
very briefly as interested to them to
just give a quick update on the status
of 2026.
>> Okay. The status of 2026.
Um
to to be glib 2026 is the shame of my
tenure. Um so we had a very difficult
year this year. um we had uh uh several
leads of absence that made it very
difficult for us to um hit our targets
to draw down against the various sources
of revenue that we have. Um and in turn
with leads of absence also comes a
bumped up overhead or indirect rate. Um,
so we hit our low in January with
approximately
um we were operating at approximately a
$90,000 deficit in January. Um, as of
the end of May, we are down to
48,000 for our deficit. um we'll still
recoup a little bit more um for the end
of June, but I'm expecting you know
somewhere between a loss of 30,000 to
40,000 for fiscal 25th. Um so not our
finest year. Um but we did have several
different extenduating circumstances
that made it very challenging. Um, so
wanted to kind of start the budget with
that kind of where we're at today and
what we are trying to aim for uh in the
future. So just give me one second to um
navigate away from Mike's presentation
to use um the budget as it is in your
PDF packet. And I'm going to second to
scroll and then I will share my screen
for those folks online.
and just as a disclaimer for the folks
online
the resolution of this here in the room
for the people in the room is terrible
to actually read what is on the screen
but they do have folks do have it in
front of them. Uh and for those of you
online I can't actually read what is on
screen too. So I hope that I am pointing
to the correct place uh as I am going
through and talking. Um so with that in
mind um one of the things that you will
start with here is that looking at next
year we have uh about well just shy of
100,000 less in projected in revenue and
expenses for next year than we had in
this year's budget. Um so we'll start
there. So we're next year budget is
looking down. It's down a little bit
from this year but we are balanced. So
that is the important part um to to keep
in mind. Um so just kind of reference
that here. Um essentially presenting a
break even budget. Um so I'm going to
scroll over. Um actually I'll just pause
here on um you know what the proportion
of those funding sources looks like. Uh
and our transportation programs or
metropolitan planning organization that
represents um just shy of a third of our
funding.
uh funding from state agencies such as
uh the primary ones that we have direct
funding from are uh Department of
Environmental Services, uh Community
Development Finance Authority, and um
Homeland Security and Emergency
Management. Those represent about 12% of
our budget. uh municipal and other
nonprofit agreements, primarily
municipal agreements are about a quarter
of our budget and other federal agencies
is another quarter of our budget. And
you'll see dues there. Dues is only 7%
of our budget. Uh I will note though
that about 75% of dues goes towards
matching federal programs where 50% of
dues goes directly to matching um that
federal transportation program. Uh when
you look at our budget, the commodity
that we sell to our communities and
those that we work with, it's our our
labor. It is our personnel time. Um and
so as as such our personnel represents
uh almost twothirds of our budget. Uh
the other overhead pieces um equipment,
communications, other fixed expenses,
administrative expenses there, that's
only about 7% of our budget.
contracted work represents just shy of a
third of our budget
because not everything is that we
naturally do in house and we do have
things that we pass through um to other
other agencies and organizations.
Okay. So looking at revenue um our our
dues dollars are up a little bit on the
revenue side. This is a factor of two
things. one is just uh that that natural
annual increase by that per capita not
per capita um uh CPI uh as well as we
going into uh fiscal 27 this will be the
first year that we will have all 18
communities in the region joining us as
dues paying communities. So very very
excited. Uh when I first started here we
had four communities that were not due
to pay. So, super thrilled that we've
been able to demonstrate our value and
importance to communities in the region.
Um, so then on the municipal and
nonprofit side, there's been two
different sets of of things in here. Um,
we have some contracts that are annual
things that we provide on a regular
basis to our community. So, we have five
different municipalities uh for which we
provide contract and planning services.
And so you'll see those here as a
year-to-year
uh fairly consistent. We also have a
couple communities uh from whom we
provide tax map update services too. Um
so you'll see those continuing in here
um year and year. Uh and then on the the
remainder of the things that we have on
the municipal and nonprofit side,
they're oneoff different projects or
contracts that we might work on for a
community such as a master plan chapter
or some other planning project that a
community might have. Um and I will note
that all of these are confirmed revenue
sources. Um like you'll see under
Summerssworth, it's got a a chapter TBD.
It is a confirmed project. Uh the
dollars are there. We are confirmed. We
just need to finish the contract and uh
the city needs to tell us decide which
chapter that they want to do. They've
got one. I've suggested another. We'll
see what we pay. Um so
um okay, moving on to the federal agency
portion um of the revenue. our economic
development district uh funding that is
a consistent $70,000 that we receive
each year from the economic development
administration. Um that's Mike anatomy
in the sense that you just saw here
today um that that those dollars
support. Um we also from the
Environmental Protection Agency or EPA
we have a brownfields assessment
program. uh this has a corresponding
pass through uh where we have contracted
with nomless engineering that provides
the services. We provide some
administrative support to the program
and connection between the communities.
I will just plug this one program here
because we are entering the final 15
months of it and we've got dollars to
draw down. Uh if in your community you
have a property that uh is of importance
to you uh but it is potentially not
being redeveloped or it's sitting there
vacant because of known contamination or
even perceived contamination weeks to go
in and do the environmental assessments
and help with some redevelopment
planning. So take advantage of us and
our money that we have there. Um the
third item I will mention here um under
federal revenue we have a grant from um
the US department of housing and urban
development. This particular grant we
have we are the prime uh recipient of it
and we have funding for the other eight
regional planning commissions under this
grant where all nine regional planning
commissions have been working at
updating their regional plan. I know
you've heard from Mike and Mark Colin um
and others about updates to those
planning documents and you'll be hearing
more in the next few months um as well.
Uh we are going into the final year of
that funding source but again I will
note that a lot of this is passed
through to the other eight planning
commissions. Um and you'll see similar
on um the expense side um for that.
>> Jen, do we get income from uh by
managing the money for the other Yes, we
get more money out of that grant than
they get because we kept a sli an extra
slice uh for our administrative costs to
do that work. Yep. Oh, please. So, it's
judging the the others and and doing
like because we have to then in turn do
our fiscal our fiduciary responsibility
of monitoring and making sure that
they're properly administering their
award. Um so um okay on the state
agreements um we have a a several
different things uh here on the state
agreement side uh the coastal grant and
I I'll know I was and how I present to
the budget here a little bit remiss this
is an annual grant but each year gets a
new contract number so you're not seeing
fiscal 26 because it was on a separate
line and said it had no dollars in this
year and that row was hidden in the
budget when I printed it so explanation
I Mount Rope. Um but so typically uh
that postal grant that first line there
this is an annual award that we receive
from the Department of Environmental
Services. It is typically $15,000 to
work with the five communities that are
in our region that also fall within the
coastal zone. Um the um those dollars
come from uh Noah and their funding
cycle has shifted. So you're seeing here
this year uh a gap of six months because
our funding cycle we're going to go uh
July through December without funding
under that program and that contract is
going to be shifting to an annual
contract from January through December.
So you're only seeing half of that um
that program here this year. Uh I know
it's a small one compared to some of
these others. Uh we have several
different uh programs that we've been
working on um to to develop with with
dees that are kind of coming online um
this year. Um we have John can tell you
all about work we've done in Middleton
on their wershed management plan. We
also completed a wershed management plan
in um in Milton for the Milton three
ponds and now we're going to be starting
um or have been working on them. But
this is a a larger chunk of funding
that's going to come in to help support
uh wershed management plan for Bow Lake
in um Strawford. Uh I will note we have
one speculative item here within uh the
Department of Environmental Services
funding and it is indicated in italics.
Uh here it is a coastal resilience
grant. These grant applications were
just due uh a week ago today. We
submitted two grant applications. Uh if
we received both of those, the net
funding to SRBC did one of them hasn't
passed through would be about $30,000.
So this is only factoring receiving one
of the two. It is a highly probable
there are only the only communities that
are eligible for that funding source are
those that fall within the coastal zone.
So it is likely that we will receive at
least one of the two. Um
to the University of New Hampshire as a
funding source. Uh UNH the prep the
Piscatico region estimaries program has
been a very active um funer. We have
three projects uh under their prep
grants that are winding down September.
on Tuesday, they just had their next
deadline for their next round of funding
applications and we submitted or were
part of four different proposals um that
went in there. I think in total the
value of the four different proposals
that we put in was somewhere in the in
the realm of probably just shy of
$100,000. The total um funding that is
available under that that uh opportunity
is a h 100,000. we will not get all
four. Um so this factors in and this is
the other speculative item here is this
25,000. it is safe to assume that we
will get at least one of the four um
which would be you know and that puts
that 25,000 um in a very realistic step
and I'll note that this year actually
the has least speculation in the budget
because we always know that there will
be things that will come throughout the
year. Um so in terms terms of being
solid I think the most solid we've been
um in quite some time in what we're kind
of speculating for revenue. Um last
couple things I will mention is
community development finance authority.
We've been continuing to do some work on
administering community development
block grants. Um, and we also currently
have a grant from uh CDFA to work on
helping municipalities
uh implement changes to their uh
ordinances and regulations to be more uh
childcare friendly and compliant with um
recent changes to state statute. You may
have heard from Natalie. Uh she's been
sending out different communications to
advertise this uh funding opportunity
and ability for SRBC to work with your
community.
Uh last two things I will mention here.
Uh on the revenue side, hazard
mitigation planning. Every year we tend
to have at least a couple hazard
mitigation plans. We have three that are
in the queue. Um and have been already
going through the contracting process
for this upcoming year. Um so we will be
working with Summerssworth, Rollinsford,
and New Durham um to update their hazard
mitigation plans. And then lastly, the
last line here um is uh UPWP. That's our
unifor unified planning work program.
That is our large contract under the
metropolitan planning organization. That
is our transportation dollars that flow
from uh US DOT to New Hampshire's DOT uh
and to the regions. Uh this is the
funding that we have to support all of
our transportation planning programs.
Um, and I will just note that um, we
have a bit more coming that we expect in
fiscal 27 than we uh, had budgeted in
this current fiscal year. Uh, so this
it's a two-year contract. This year was
the first year of the contract. So we
know we've got so many to draw down and
we're carrying forward a little bit
extra um, that we cannot draw down this
year into next year. So it's a a higher
higher amount here next year on the road
side.
Um, I don't even have my email open and
I don't know why this these things keep
popping up that's really annoying.
Okay, on the expense side um uh and this
part is a little bit faster because it's
not really there's not that much um on
the expense side. So, as I said, the
number one thing is our personnel costs.
Um, if you look and compare last year to
this year, it's almost level. um
staff are getting some sort of increase.
I will will mention that. Um so there
are a couple things happening here. We
have um a couple positions that will be
uh that are transitioning from from one
person to another uh lower seniority
levels. So there's a a decrease there.
Uh and then we've also have a staff
person who is a temporary special
projects. Uh the projects that she has
been working on are winding down in
September. So, I don't have additional
hours for her, but she's on reserve so
that if we did receive any additional
contracts, we could um ramp up and be
responsive to additional requests beyond
what is here in the budget, but that
revenue and thus that staff time is not
included here. So with those two
decreases um to the salary line that
frees up some space to allow for um
modest uh increases for staff based upon
performance and range from 1 and a half
to 3%.
Um I will also note the other bigger
change is health insurance. Uh and I
think we all know the state of the
health insurance market these days and
not Yeah. So
isn't it
>> exactly?
>> So scrolling down or or looking at the
other items um the other portions of our
expense lines generally stay fairly
fairly constant. You'll see some things
where you um such as like our traffic
count supplies is down. This year, this
current fiscal year, we had to replace
all of our traffic counters, something
that's paid for by VOTC. So, we had a
bigger chunk um in our fiscal 26 for uh
traffic count supplies and we're down to
just our usual consumables for that
program that we need to replace every
every year. um in fiscal 27
um computers and peripherals. We had
several computers that died on us this
year. Um and we had to replace more
computers in fiscal 26 than we would
have wanted to. We're down to a normal
computer replacement rate. Knock on
wood. Hopefully in fiscal 27. Um
generally our communications to fixed
expenses are more or less the same. I
will just know and we we owe our our
insurance provider a question on why on
earth did our property and liability
insurance built up 50%.
Um and then just concluding uh with the
outsource contracts. I am not going to
go through each of these individually
but overall what you can see here is the
that difference in fiscal 26 to fiscal
27. It really comes down to outsourced
contracts revenue that we have in in
fiscal 26 that was going to pass
through. we don't have as much pass
through expenses occurring in fiscal 27
and that's the real big difference um
from fiscal 26 to 27 the budget
>> that is yeah
>> questions comments
>> I have two nitpicky things um the
postage and delivery states the
Yeah, but the stamps costs are going up.
We anticipate we don't ever actually hit
that total. Oh, okay. Yeah, it's we've
just kept it pretty flat for quite some
Um and then that was the same travel
line. Um the again, we don't usually hit
the travel line um that total amount.
So, it's something that generally is
safe for us to keep. Um, but we'll look
at our, you know, we do periodically
look at our actuals and if we need to
bump it, we
haven't needed to budget for a couple
years. And then my other question is on
the revenue sheets, the first column is
FY2027
adopted mid year and assuming that's 26.
Thank you. That is 26. Um, and that
would be I got a little overzealous in
replacing my TW my 26s and 27s when I
rec
have any questions or comments
for the expenses
27. Um in several places you have that
the actuals were different than the um
adopted in your budget. Would be handy
to have what that um projected was what
the actual was so we can compare that to
know for say 1300 things like that if
that line could be added.
>> Yeah. And if there are executives
fitting you know
I'll share
>> you know what I can give you my I have a
print out of where we are as of May.
This is I can give you
>> Yeah, I will say the executive committee
each month sees um monthly updates on
where we are budget versus actual.
I'd be happy to provide that to anyone
else at any point.
You okay with that, John?
>> Fine. Thank you.
>> No more questions or comments. Take a
motion to recommend adop or to adopt the
seven budget as presented.
Like to make a motion. So second
>> so going around the room please
>> yes
>> John Roth of saying
>> Bazard yes Casper yes
>> Steve Brown yes
>> Marshall Gold Yes.
>> John D. Yes.
>> Mark Richardson. Yes.
>> Mike Rman. Yes.
>> And commissioners on screen. Glenn.
>> Glenn Grisald. Yes.
>> Uh John.
>> John Nolan. Yes.
>> Joe.
Joe. Yes.
Ian McDermott. Yes.
just as a fine load on the budget. Um,
executive committee did discuss this in
much bigger length this morning and one
of the things that we wanted just to ask
a request for all of you as a homework
item. think about we had discussion
about what other sources of revenue
could be
um you're bringing revenue that's not
tied to grant money that has caps in
terming the indirect cost it's the
indirect cost is a big part of it so
it's money that would just be from
visible presentation
educational sessions any other services
that we
It's my
here. Um so think about that if you
would over the course and future meeting
if not July next after that we like to
get some feedback on that. Anybody can
offer any suggestions or ideas in terms
of other revenue sources?
>> Just to add to that, you know, looking
to have, you know, savings, you know,
account that we can even out that
>> hopefully we try and be able to get to a
point where we can help find this more
than just a balanced budget.
Thank you.
>> You mentioned the indirects. What is our
actual indirect versus what are the
grants providing if there's a difference
there?
>> There we go. So there's no there it's
there is difference. Um so we go through
every two to three years and we have to
negotiate our indirect rate. Um the
federal agency that we have to work with
is Department of Interior. they are
contracted on behalf of the economic
development administration uh who is our
federal uh cognitive agency. Um so every
couple years we negotiate with
department of career they set our rate
based upon our audited financials of
what is the percentage of our indirect
costs as a percent of our uh direct
salaries our billable salaries. Um and
so there's always a there's always a lag
in that as well. So we're currently
operating at 117%
but our audited indirect rate from a
couple years ago which our rate was set
is 112. And that's part of what is um
contributing to this year's operating
loss is that we are not fully able to
recoup our um our overhead costs. And so
I will also note that our indirect cost
rate it includes all fringe plus um
overhead
by
goes by.
to the black officers and members of the
executive committee for 27. And the last
page in your packet has a slate of
composed officers and
members of the executive committee. This
was scripted through seeking volunteers.
Um and we can also entertain motions
from the floor for additional
nominations ifbody would like to do so.
John Duke makes a motion to approve the
state of officers and will executives as
presented.
>> Second.
>> Thank you.
>> Cel
Brookfield. Okay. Bizarre Middleton,
yes. John Casper, yes.
>> Steve Brown, yes.
>> Marshall Goldberg, Brookfield, yes.
>> Yes. Mark,
yes.
>> Mike Leavinsky, yes.
>> Williams, yes.
>> Mike Leman, yes.
>> Glenn Griswald. Abstain.
>> John uh
>> John Mullen. Yes.
Joe
>> Joe Woodro. Yes.
>> And
Ken McDermott. Yes.
>> 27 meeting schedule.
>> 27 meeting schedule. Yes. your meeting
schedule is uh for the upcoming fiscal
year starting in July is including put
in your packet. I will note though,
don't forget next Thursday evening is
our annual meeting. I hope that we will
be seeing you there. We are looking
forward to to it. We've got um three
state agency commissioners joining us.
We have um Robert Scott from the
Department of Environmental Services. Uh
Lucy, I have to find out before next
Thursday if it's Lang or Lynch. Um Lang,
>> okay. Uh who is the uh recently
appointed commissioner from the
Department of Business and Economic
Affairs. Uh and we have De Rodri who is
uh at Department of Transportation. Uh
so we're really looking forward to
having over three commissioners join us
um from state agencies. So it should be
a pretty pretty exciting uh
conversation.
um Steve Peshi who many of you know uh
he is a policy committee member uh who
represents UNH and their Wildcat transit
system here. Um for those who don't know
Steve uh Steve was
ages ago um here at SRBC and was the
assistant director here at SRBC uh at
one point. So yeah, so some fun fun
history there. Um, so Steve is going to
be facilitating and is so enthusiastic.
He's been like jumping in and helping
plan the the panel and everything. So
it's been great. So yeah, so hopefully
see you next Thursday. Uh, your schedule
maintains the same same pattern of
meetings. We continue the third Friday
of the month at 9:00 a.m. Um, those of
you know, executive committee meets at 8
a.m. right beforehand. you're always
welcome to come in and join us unless
we're involved in public. Um but
next week and then again in July. Uh I
will
the same thing. So I will note next year
as a June date when so today you there's
only four staff members here because um
SRPC adopted Junth as an official
holiday. Um, so the majority of our
staff are not working. Megan, Colin,
Mike, and I are the only four people in
the office working today. We kept our
meeting scheduled because scheduling our
quorum is harder than four of us to
reschedule the holiday. Um, so the four
of us are next Friday.
>> So, we might get the same situation this
next year as well.
>> Can we plan ahead now? Make change that
schedule.
>> Um, we we certainly could. Um, would you
all be amendable to us moving the June
meeting up one week?
>> Yeah, that be okay to get ready and
everything.
>> Yeah, we have a full year.
>> I have to do it a week or week sooner.
>> That's okay.
>> And Mike has one week left to make edits
to the annual, but we've got it down to
a system. So,
>> that's a great idea.
>> One week earlier.
All right. So, officially we will change
that from June 18th to June 11th.
We will make that
change official. Um, for those of you
that are new, we do try to schedule a
couple a few field trips each year. Um,
we do we try and do um three of them,
September, December, and February. Uh,
try and organize those to be thematic uh
and be able to leave our windowless
conference room uh go somewhere else uh
in the region, hear from some of the
people that we work with, the
communities that we work with on
different different uh different
projects and and highlight those
partnerships. So, uh we're we're looking
at lining a few different things up. We
have two different possible ideas for
September. South. Both of them should
>> maybe New Hampshire North Coast
>> might be a freight a freight rail
option. Uh
>> we've we've had uh an inquiry. it. We
might we would not be able to take
everyone, but we have had an inquiry
from folks uh and partnering with
Rockingham Planning Commission to um go
on the Gundalows and
do a gondalo tour.
>> Jazz and cheese.
>> I don't know that we would have jazz and
cheese.
>> Arlington has uh the largest solar
installation in the state of New
Hampshire that is currently under
construction. that I know Katrin has
helped uh the town out with as well. Uh
and so that may be done. So we we so
we'll we'll see. We maybe we'll get to
go uh and and see the the solar solar
work in Farmington. So to be determined.
So we have a couple things in the works.
suggestions. If you have something
really exciting in your community that
you'd like to share, um, and host, uh,
let us know and we can we can partner
up.
>> Um, other business, anybody have any
other business?
>> I have a question.
when the uh New Hampshire Co-op uh when
they go and uh
uh chemically treat the
side of the roads for their electricity.
>> Obviously, they have to send a note,
that kind of thing. But is there
anything
that if you're a property owner, you
know, they're coming on your yard and
shooting suicides.
Does anybody have any experience with
that or what you do or what you can do
or what they can't do or
>> I don't know.
>> They just that field on property. You
had they told you ahead of time you had
the ability to say that you didn't want
them to spray some of the telephone
poles in the regions and it that was so
so we said we didn't and ours got
sprayed anyway. So that always works
great but um they did provide that
opportunity for feedback. I will say
when they spray they overspray so it
goes into your grass and all like that
quite a bit and I think they will spray
any of the invasive species whether you
say you don't release spray because
they're
just [clears throat]
something slightly unrelated did, but
we're a public group, so um CO State
Local is having their first um large
not a gala gala. Um and so I'm actively
looking for for folks that might have
something in alignment with that. Um so
if you have any ideas working
potentially, please let me
share some interviews.
>> Yeah. Um so the uh Kyle who uh acts as
town planner planning director um in the
town of Farmington who are sort of the
writing program. Um he has been working
with myself and folks in town over the
last couple of months to uh occasion to
designate a new economic revitaliz
revitalization zone in the town. Um and
as of yesterday that was just approved.
So, um, a southern portion of Route 11
from the Rochester city line, um,
leading up towards downtown, believe it
encompasses close to 20 parcels, um, on
both sides of Route 11, um, are now
eligible. So, any companies that expand
or, uh, any companies that create new
jobs in these areas are eligible for
certain state level business tax um,
um, to promote
If anybody citizen
part of the group that wants to make a
comment [clears throat]
>> we have to do a roll call.
>> Thank you all very much.
Let me know.
told our financial