Allenstown News : voting

Few changes made to town, school ballots

Hooksett Editor — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 20:07:00 GMT

BY LAUREN SAUSSER

Allenstown voters will consider accepting a proposed $5.3 million town operating budget on the warrant March 10. Exactly 100 registered voters who attended the Jan. 31 deliberative session of Town Meeting rejected a proposed amendment that would have cut the bottom line of that budget by $250,000.

This budget represents an approximate 4 percent increase over the current year’s budget. Board of Selectmen Chairman Thomas Gilligan reminded the group that although times are tough, the departments still need adequate funding to function properly.

“What some people forget at these meetings is that we are all taxpayers, too,” Gilligan said. “We know it hurts.”

The town warrant this year will include 21 other articles as well as the proposed operating budget, including a proposal to finance $1.55 million in improvements for the wastewater treatment facility over a 10-year period. The cost of this project, if approved, would be equally shared with the town of Pembroke.

School
Later that afternoon, about twice as many residents participated in the school district’s deliberative session, several of whom praised school administrators for proposing a 2009-10 operating budget only $14,488 more than the default budget.

A proposed amendment to cut the bottom line of that proposed operating budget by another $150,000 failed.

The proposed budget, as it will appear on the ballot, represents a 1.5 percent increase over the current year’s approved budget.

“We’ve tried to be fiscally responsible to the taxpayers,” said Tom Irzyk, chairman of the School Board.

Only one article on the proposed warrant was amended during the session. Attendees voted in favor of increasing a deposit to the district’s building maintenance fund from $10,000 to $25,000 from any operating budget surplus that may exist at the end of the current school year.

$1.5 M bond will let towns gain capacity without overhaul of plant

Hooksett Editor — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 19:52:00 GMT

BY GINGER KOZLOWSKI

It’s a tough year to ask anyone to spend money, but Allenstown sewer commissioners are hoping voters will find investing some money in a new process at the wastewater treatment plant will benefit them all in the long run.

Commissioners Dana Clement and James Rodger are proposing a $1,550,000 bond to finance a new process at the plant which will increase capacity by about 1,200 hookups, allowing both Pembroke and Allenstown to move ahead with commercial development. Such development said Rodger, would help hold down the tax rate in the long run.

While Allenstown voters must approve and be responsible for the $1.5 million bond, Pembroke would share half that cost and be allowed half the hookups.

The new process While Rodger and Clement both say a new plant needs to be built, they realize the cost is beyond Allenstown’s reach. Instead, they are proposing to install equipment that would allow a “Biomag” process to be used. This process uses iron ore powder, which attaches to solids in the wastewater and makes them sink fast.

“It’s nowhere near the upgrade we do need, but it will give us a few more years, maybe 10 or 15 years,” said Rodger. “For us, the most cost effective way is to do the whole plant.”

Rodger said there are other bottlenecks, such as the capacity of the headworks, the room where all the wasterwater from both towns first comes in. “We’re almost at capacity in that headworks area,” he said. “In fact, this process could give us more capacity if we could expand the headworks.”

The cost Just what this proposal will cost taxpayers depends on a few things. With no help at all, the $1.5 million bond would add an estimated 42 cents to the tax rate, said Clement. Each year of the 10-year bond, the rate would decrease, to 29 cents on the rate by year 10.

With a possible 20 percent grant, that cost is reduced to 34 cents in the first year and 23 cents in the last year.

For the owner of a $200,000 home, that translates to $84 extra in the tax bill in the first year on the bond.

Rodger also pointed out that the federal government’s stimulus bill could reduce the cost by as much as 80 or 90 percent, but the town would have to approve the bond in the first place to be eligible for such help.

What’s in it for me?

Rodger said voters need to look at the long-term benefit to the town as a whole to understand the need for the bond. Those already hooked up to the system may feel no one else needs to be hooked up, and those on septic systems may say they don’t want to pay for a system they don’t use.

“The question is whether the citizens would like to see further development occur in Allenstown,” said Rodger.

He points out that Pembroke has a lower tax rate than Allenstown due to more commercial development.

“They have brand new fire department, police department, library.. They’re ahed of the curve. They developed that whole (Route) 106. So they’ve got a lot of things going for them,” he said. “It seems like Allenstown is a little bit behind the curve. We’re stuck with the plant, and tha’s why we have to pay the bond. But we don’t have commercial development.”

Rodger said the sewer system benefits everyone in town. “As it is now, we do have system that’s benefiting all citizens in town,” he said. “The school is hooked up to sewer, Town Hall, Bi-Wise, Irving gas.”

The vote The vote on the bond will take place on Election Day, Tuesday, March 10. The bond is Warrant Article 4, and it will require a three-fifths majority to pass.

Allenstown sewer fix is back up for a vote

Hooksett Editor — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 19:36:00 GMT

BY GINGER KOZLOWSKI

Allenstown residents will only have to spend one day approving the ballots for both town and school votes, as the deliberative sessions for both Town Meeting and School District Meeting will take place one after the other on Saturday, Jan. 31.

The deliberative session of Town Meeting will begin at 8:30 a.m. at Allenstown Elementary School. While the deliberative session of School District Meeting has been set for various times over the past two weeks, it would be safest to say it will simply take place once the Town Meeting finishes.

Voting on warrant articles and candidates will take place March 10.

Town
There are 22 articles on the town warrant. The first two are zoning questions, which will not be discussed at the Jan. 31 session. The third refers to those up for election.

Article 4 asks the town for $1,550,000 to finance an increase in the town’s wastewater treatment facility. Half this cost, $775,000 is to be paid by the town of Pembroke, which shares use of the facility. The article states $50,000 would come from fund balance. A three-fifths majority is required for this article to pass, which is recommended by the selectmen and Budget Committee.

Article 5 addresses the town operating budget. The proposed budget comes to $5,338,981. If defeated, a default budget of $5,125,931 would go into effect.

Articles 6 through 19 ask for various amounts to fund capital reserve funds and purchases for police, fire and highway equipment, as well as landfill closure costs and repairs to the Town Hall roof.

Article 20 asks that the road agent become an appointed position, rather than elected.

The final two articles were petitioned. Article 21 asks the town to enact a spending cap for the town and school budgets, setting a maximum annual increase of 2 percent from the previous year’s tax assessment.

Article 22 asks that voters approve a resolution stating that the property tax is unjust and unfair, calls on elected officials to reject the “Pledge,” which promises not to enact sales or income taxes, and to adopt a revenue system that is just and fair.

School
There are five warrant articles to be considered by voters at the deliberative session of School District Meeting.

Article 1 asks for an operating budget of $9,993,048.

Should the article be defeated, the default budget would be set at $9,978,048, a figure that is $144,89 lower than the proposed budget.

Article 2 asks for $41,026 to pay for salary increases agreed to in the collective bargaining agreement between the Allenstown School Board and the Allenstown Paraprofessional Association for the 2009-10 school year.

Article 3 asks for up to $10,000 to be taken from surplus and put in the Building Maintenance Trust Fund. This would not affect the tax rate.

Article 4 askes for up to $10,000 to be taken from surplus and added to the Facilities Acquisition Capital Reserve Fund. This would not affect the tax rate either.

Voting glitch found at Hooksett primary

Hooksett Editor — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 18:44:00 GMT

BY LAUREN SAUSSER

Something went wrong during the state primary in Hooksett Sept. 9, and the New Hampshire Attorney General’s office is determined to get to the bottom of it.

According to three complaints received by the Attorney General’s Office, a number of Hooksett voters who thought they were unaffiliated with a political party were in fact declared as either Republican or Democratic. The computer system used by election officials during the state primary selected the designation based on the political ticket these undeclared voters chose to support during the presidential primary in January.

According to state law, undeclared voters are required to choose either a Republican or a Democratic ballot on primary election days. After indicating which ballot they select, those undeclared voters are also given the opportunity to fill out a short form expressing their desire to revert back to an undeclared status.

Although those forms were apparently filled out by about 150 Hooksett voters on Jan. 15 – the day of the New Hampshire presidential primary – the forms were not processed in the computer system correctly.

As a result, those voters were legally able to cast a ballot on Sept. 9, but they were only allowed to do so with the party they were affiliated with on the presidential primary day. Assistant Attorney General Jim Kennedy said he is not sure exactly how the problems may have occurred, but that his office will follow up with the complaints.

“It’s clear there were some problems,” Kennedy said. “We’ll be looking into it.”

Frank Gray is the local elected official responsible for overseeing the checklist of the registered voters in Hooksett. He processed the change-of-status forms in January and said he believes it was likely a computer error that failed to actually change the status of those voters. “Whether it was human error or computer error, it doesn’t really matter,” Gray said. “What matters is that we fix it.”

Gray said he would be looking carefully at the list of registered voters to make sure there will be no hiccups on Election Day in November, when the voter turnout is expected to be much higher than it was during the state primary.

Hooksett Town Clerk Leslie Nepvue, who officially sends Hooksett primary results to the state officials, said at the Hooksett Town Council meeting on Sept. 10 that she doubts it was a computer error that caused the multiple mistakes.

“It is not a software issue,” Nepvue said. “A reasonable person would have tested a few records to make sure.”

For voters who consider themselves independent, the glitch – computer generated or otherwise – threw them for a loop.

Hooksett resident Mary Farwell was one of those independent voters. She asked the town council to address what went wrong.

“I want to know what the town is going to do about the problem,” Farwell said. “I’m just looking for clarification.”

Sewer bond fails in Allenstown

Hooksett Editor — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 19:39:00 GMT

BY JENN McDOWELL

Voters in Allenstown said no to all the proposed monetary issues brought forth on this year’s ballot for the town and school district.

In a to 388-264 vote, Allenstown voters again nixed a $15 million expansion for the Suncook Wastewater Treatement Facility, serving both Allenstown and Pembroke.

At the town’s deliberative session, voters changed the original warrant article to stipulate the expansion would only go through if at least half of the total cost could be defrayed with matching state and federal grants the project qualifies for.

The state Department of Environmental Services put a moratorium on sewer hook-ups in 2002 after several instances in which the plant’s flow exceeded it’s allowed capacity. Since then, development in Pembroke and Allenstown has slowed.

The plans included installing secondary clarifiers which would relieve the exisiting clarifiers of their current capacity and flow problems. Overall sewage capacity would increase from 1 million to 2.1 million gallons per day.

Under the terms of the 20- year bond, Pembroke would pay 52 percent of the total costs and Allenstown 48 percent, based on flow. According to the plans, the new additions to the plant would not be up and running for about 10 years.

Mike Trainque of Hoyle, Tanner and Associates, the engineering firm spearheading the project plans, said the expansion qualifies for a number of grants at various public informations sessions on the issue.

The Allenstown Board of Selectmen would have taken out the bond as soon as 50 percent matching grants are secured. The grant money would decrease Allenstown’s share of the cost to about $3.6 million.

Sewer commissioners have said money from the plant’s septage process, which takes in septage from other towns in a process separate from the plant’s sewage process, would also go toward the expansion.

That fund is also being used for odor control and engineering costs, so commissioners have said they cannot commit to a specific amount that would be devoted to the expansion costs.

The town will go to a default budget for 2008-09 of $4,865,968. A total of 272 voters approved the proposed budget of $5,057,964. The remaining 264 thought it best to take the default.

In the hotly contested race for one open Board of Selectmen seat, Roger Lafleur won with a total of 132 votes, unseating incumbent Selectman Sandy

McKenney.

Chris Roy, the current Road Agent, will go into his second term having gained 369 votes for his seat, more than the other two candidates, James Rodger and David Bouffard, combined.

Allenstown school warrants left unchanged

Hooksett Editor — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 20:13:00 GMT

BY GINGER KOZLOWSKI

With few articles to consider and only 32 registered voters in attendance, the deliberative session of the Allenstown School District Meeting wrapped up in just a half hour.

No changes were made to the wording of any articles, so it will now go to residents to decide whether to follow the recommendations of the School Board or force them to make cuts under a default budget when voting takes place March 11.

The school district operating budget, warrant article 1, asks taxpayers for $9,954,853. If approved, it’s expected to raise the tax rate by $3.20 per $1,000 of property value. Voting no will result in a default budget of $9,838,008, which will still raise the tax rate, but by about $280 per $1,000 of property value.

School Board Chairman Tom Irzyk presented an explanation of the budget figures, pointing out that special education, certified staff, health insurance and other budget lines increased by $781,342.

Warrant Article 2 asks for approval by voters of a collective bargaining agreement between the Allenstown School Board and the Allenstown Paraprofessional Association for a four year-contract. Approval would raise the tax rate by about 20 cents.

Warrant Article 3 asks for $10,000 to be taken from surplus for a building maintenance fund, and Warrant Article 4 asks for $10,000 to be taken from surplus for the Facilities Acquisition Capital Reserve Fund. Neither would affect the tax rate since the money comes from surplus.

Voting will take place on these articles on Tuesday, March 11, at Allenstown Elementary School, from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m.