BY ROD HANSEN
Voters elected Scott Gross and Vivian Blondeau to the board of selectmen Tuesday, March 13, while ejecting incumbent Bruce Hunter from his seat on the board.
The voting also brought disapproval for a 24/7 fire service proposal and a water project for the Lynchville/Danis Park neighborhood, while approval came for the town road plan, the operating budget and tax exemptions for elderly homeowners.
The electorate continued their anti-incumbent streak from last year, awarding Hunter the smallest tally of all the candidates with 438. Candidates Bill Gordon and Tricia Wynne also missed out on their bids, clearing the way for former selectman Blondeau and Gross, who left his seat on the school board to try for a selectman’s spot.
Voters approved the town’s $1.5 million road plan, and also agreed to put that item into future operating budgets.
These were among the many decisions voters made on a ballot rife with big issues and hot topics.
24/7 fire rejected
Voters rejected a 24/7 fire proposal for the second year in a row. This year’s proposal, appearing as Article 21 on the ballot, met with an unfavorable vote of 1,106-1,430.
This item requested $295,438 to hire 10 new full-time firefighters from July 1 through the end of the year. The town voting guide placed the annualized cost of employing 10 new firefighters at $557,335.
A similar effort to expand fire coverage failed last year. That plan called for the hiring of 18 new firefighters.
A fire/EMS committee formed earlier this year produced the recommendations for the warrant article.
Road plan succeeds on two votes
Voters gave the thumbs-up to the town’s $1.5 million road plan by a vote of 1,436-1,030. The plan came to the ballot with a dollar value reduced by $600,000 following a last-minute cut from the board of selectmen.
A second article seeking to make the road plan a permanent part of the town budget passed by a smaller margin of 1,327-1,096. The road plan has appeared as a special warrant article for the past six years.
No water project for Lynchville/Danis Park
A longtime struggle to install a water distribution system in Lynchville/Danis Park ended in rejection, with the bond article earning a vote of 1,490-1,036, falling just 26 votes short of the 1,516 needed to pass.
The article requests a total appropriation of $2.5 million for the design and installation of a water distribution system in Lynchville/Danis Park. Appearing as Article 13 on the ballot, the item called for $1.6 million to be paid in bonds and the remainder through grants and interest. The plan would have had no tax impact on the town as a whole, as the bond would have been paid through user fees. Because it was a bonded project, the article required a 60 percent majority to pass.
Expanded elderly tax relief granted
Voters agreed to raise the amount of money elderly residents and couples can earn and still receive tax exemptions, and also raised the amount of exemptions available to those residents. The item, appearing as
Article 20 on the ballot, passed 1,823-706.
The article lifts eligible income levels for a single person from $18,500 to $35,000, for a married couple from $24,000 to $50,000 and asset levels from $35,000 to $150,000.
Also, the article exempts people from 65 to 75 years old from $45,000 in assessed property value; 75 to 80 years old would gain a $60,000 exemption and residents older than 80 would get $80,000 exemptions.
School district voting
A $33.26 million school operating budget stood up to voter scrutiny this year, along with four special warrant articles also appearing on the ballot.
The school operating budget passed by a narrow 1,292-1,222, marking a $162,496 increase over the default budget.
An article requesting that $300,000 to be added to a capital reserve fund for renovations to Bartlett School also passed, 1,360-1,105. That article has no predicted tax impact, as the money will come from unreserved fund balances at the end of this school year.
Voters approved a new contract with the Goffstown Educational Support Staff Association by a margin of 1,427-1,101. That contract carries 1 percent increases in each of its first two years and 1.5 and 1.25 percent increases in its final years.
The Goffstown Teachers Association five-year contract also earned a positive vote, with a final tally of 1,299-1,232. That agreement includes a 2.25 percent raise in salary each year, which in addition to benefits totals $671,670 in new spending this year.
Passage of the school operating budget and all four special warrant articles would cause the school portion of the tax rate to rise by 39 cents using Gov. John Lynch’s current proposal for state aid, according to Gross. This would put next year’s school portion of the tax rate at $12.74 per $1,000 of assessed value, up from its current $12.35.