BY DARRELL HALEN

A proposed operating budget of roughly $11 million, money for capital improvements, new tax exemptions and other requests will be subject to discussion and debate at Windham’s town deliberative session.

The meeting, which will be held Saturday, Feb. 10, at Golden Brook School, begins at 9 a.m.
The largest funding request on the town warrant is the selectmen’s’ proposed operating budget of $11,097,059.

If voters reject it when they go to the polls in March, officials will have to spend within a default budget – the current budget along with certain adjustments – of $10,834,304.

Spending is expected to increase roughly 6.7 percent if the proposed budget and all money warrant articles, as currently written, are approved by voters in March.

Some of the increases in the budget include a 25 percent rise in health insurance premiums, a 3.5 percent cost of living adjustment for workers, step increases for some employees, upgrading the police prosecutor, recreation coordinator, and a highway department laborer to full-time status, and increased costs for road maintenance.

Through other warrant articles, voters are being asked to approve spending :

• $104,860 for increased economic benefits to the police union by ratifying a fact finder’s report.

• $75,000 for a used tractor for the transfer station.

• $54,080 for transfer/disposal trailer for the transfer/recycling department.

• $89,250 to build a small garage for the police department.

• $65,000 to repair Engine 3, a fire department truck.

• $50,000 for renovations to the Bartley House, an administrative office located across from Town Hall.

The town is considering building a new salt shed on town-owned land on Route 111. Currently, the construction of a salt shed on that parcel is prohibited because of the land’s proximity to an aquifer.

Voters are being asked if they want to lift that ban.

They are also being asked if the want to add $120,000 to a salt shed/highway capital reserve fund,

and if they want to spend $15,000 for a salt shed/highway garage engineering and feasibility study.

A pair of articles, each having no tax impact, relate to Searles School and Chapel, which the town owns.

Voters are being asked if they approve pulling $12,000 from a revenue fund to pay for marketing and maintenance costs, and using $12,544 from the fund to make payment on a loan for renovations and repairs.

For several years, there’s been a proposal to add bicycle paths on Lowell Road using state and local funds. Voters are being asked if the want to spend $85,000 toward the project.

Voters will consider spending $104,800 for engineering design plans to replace the Castle Hill Road Bridge, which crosses Beaver Brook at the Windham-Pelham border. The town’s 20 percent share will be paid for by a developer. The state would fund the remaining 80 percent.

The total cost is estimated at nearly $635,000. The state would provide 80 percent of the cost.

Local officials hope to renovate and improve the old train depot at Depot Road.

Selectmen are asking for approval to spend $13,000 to develop engineering and design plans. The total project cost is estimated at $210,000, with the town picking up $52,000 of that amount.

Three warrant articles deal with exemptions and credits. Selectmen are asking voters to approve modified exemptions for residents age 65 and older.

Proposed exemptions are $160,000 for residents up to age 75; $190,000 for those up to 80; and a full exemption for those 80 and older. Persons must meet certain criteria to qualify.

Selectmen are asking voters to approve a $160,000 exemption for the disabled and to raise the Veterans Tax Credit from $250 to $500.

Voters are being asked to authorize selectmen to enter into an option to lease agreement with the Windham Housing Authority for 10 acres at the rear of town’s municipal complex for $1. Land will be used by the authority to develop elderly housing. Authorization will continue for five years.

The warrant also includes several articles submitted by citizen petition. These include articles calling for the creation of a seven-member budget committee; asking officials at the national and local level to address climate change; and a proposal to change the amount of current use funds that go into a conservation land fund from 100 percent to 80 percent.