Good evening, everybody.

We'll start the uh council meeting, city council meeting for today, November twenty-fourth, twenty twenty-five.

And I'll ask the Madam Clerk to give us a roll call.

Oh, gosh.

I looked at the call of the order.

I called the order.

Let's have a let's have a pledge of allegiance.

And I'll ask Councillor Felch to lead us in the pledge of allegiance.

Councillor Cheney.

Here.

Councillor Susie.

Here.

Counselor Hoffman.

Councillor Haynes.

Here.

Councillor Bugger.

Here.

Councillor Falch?

Here.

Mayor St.

Clair.

Here.

Tonight, and uh the staff in attendance.

We have uh excuse me, the city manager Kirby and uh Glenn Smith, our uh Finance Director, and Katie Garn Garno is our uh I messed it up again.

Katie Gargan.

It's a medical problem, and someday would run sure.

Our great Madame Clerk.

I have two more shots at that, Katie, and then afterwards.

And also in attendance, we have uh counselor elect uh city council elect uh John Hilbert, and back there somewhere is uh Councilor elect Mike Content.

Thank you.

Okay, now why why I've got her attention way in the back, I'd like to call uh Sammy O'Connor up.

I have a I have a check for her.

Yeah, we don't know about this.

That's right.

This is uh a check for five thousand dollars from the city council in the city uh for the Santa Village.

Christmas village, Christmas village.

Santa will be a Christmas village.

So there you go, thank you.

Yeah, thank you no for the city.

Well, very nice.

I'll pass this around to everybody and uh look forward to that opens when December 3rd.

Fourth.

December 4th, okay, great.

All right, thank you.

Thank you.

Yeah, looking and I see that Mayor Elect boards has just joined us out there too.

Okay.

So I'll look for a uh acceptance of the minutes from the previous meetings.

Meeting.

So moved.

So moved, seconded by uh Steve Bogart.

All in favor?

No problems six zip.

Thank you.

Okay, we have one consent and action item temporary 8A temporary traffic order 2025-21, the Santa Shuffle 5K race.

Anybody like to speak on that?

Go ahead if you want to.

Yeah, it's it's an event for the children's auction.

They do it every year.

Um that's a great event.

Anybody that's interested in walking or running, uh be glad to have you aboard and donate to the children's auction.

I wish I could do that.

I could try.

Okay.

Okay, any other discussion?

No, okay.

I'll uh move to approve the temporary traffic order 2025-21 for the Santa Shuffle 5K race to be held on November 29th, 25, 2025, as presented.

So moved.

Okay.

Made by uh Councilor Phelps, seconded by Councillor Hans.

All in favor.

Six zip.

Thank you.

Now we go to number nine.

Uh citizens' comments for Matt is not on the agenda.

If you'd like to comment on a matter not on tonight's agenda, please feel free.

Hello, I'm Diane B.

Lockwood, and I live on Stratford Street in Ward 2.

And um these are just some concerns.

I don't require any reply tonight or any definite action.

Um safety.

Um bicycles on sidewalks, motorized scooters on sidewalks, e-bikes.

I think we need a refresher course or public service announcements need to happen on bicycle etiquette or the rules of the road.

I've had numerous close calls with bicycles, e-bat, e-bike or scooter riders, and they're not just uh unhoused people.

These are regular good old boys and girls, you know, from teenagers to adults.

And uh I don't want to sound like a uh anti-cyclist or cyclist hater.

I used to ride my bike when I lived on Pleasant Street.

I'd ride it down Lakeshore Road to Med Source Technologies, and my husband would uh ride along with me for the fun of it because he was retired.

But anyway, and I'm just um and I think our society would be improved if more people biked instead of driving cars.

I'm more than happy to share the road with cyclists, giving them a wide berth and driving with patients.

I'm just fearful of having to be vigilant for watching for them on sidewalks, which I believe the last time I checked was reserved for pedestrians.

And um and also just aside note the story on WBZ out of Austin tonight.

Uh there was a young teenager killed because he ran his bike, an e-bike into the side of a truck.

And sometimes the bicyclist are hit because it's maybe the driver's fault.

But um there's something with e-bikes.

I think they're looking at uh how to classify them, you know.

And also, number two, uh, I want a noise ordinance in Lacodia for loud vehicles.

At first I thought it was just me.

I do live on a busy intersection, but then I heard from others, young and old alike, uh, with the same complaints.

But I heard a rumor that Manchester has a vehicle now noise ordinance, and so maybe the powers can uh the B can consult with them or get some ideas, or maybe you already have some ideas, but uh that's my concern.

That's all I want to say tonight.

Thank you.

Well I'm I'm gonna I'm gonna respond to both of those if I may.

Yes.

Um with regards to the bicycles, that's a problem that we all believe me, if you use the sidewalk.

So you come out of a business door, and it's by the grace of God you're not run over by somebody that just happens to be to the punch.

Uh and I know there's a bill that's being filed uh down in Concord to reclassify some of these bicycles, uh especially the ones that do 40, 50 miles an hour.

And and you'll come up, you'll come up alongside them or they'll pass you in traffic uh with no headlights or no cause for concern or anything.

But uh that that is something I know that uh when the police are walking to be downtown, they they speak to people like that, although that problem does seem to disappear when they're standing there too.

Yeah, sometimes I thought I noticed maybe some improvement that as far as the loud noise, um you know, as a motorcyclist, that's always been the bane of my existence was when people I have a theory why people do that, not only with motorcycles, but with cars.

A lot of them I think just have uh well, I won't go there, but they just uh have uh problems, let's say.

So they like to call attention to themselves or look at me or whatever it is.

So it is a problem, and I and I'm pretty sure there is there is a ordinance, I believe, a sound.

Excuse me.

We've had the discussion about vehicles, but there's never been anything locked in on vehicles.

Yeah, but we do have a standard noise ordinary.

It's very hard, it's very hard.

They may have that down in Manchester, but I'd love to see the conviction rate on it.

Uh it's a very hard thing to set up, test, and then prove.

Although sometimes they're so loud, because you're on Main Street, and there's two or three cars they come by pretty much daily, and I they love it because it echoes off the buildings.

Yeah.

So it's it's is it's obnoxious for sure.

So a lot of people feel your pain, and I'm sure that the uh police will do whatever they can.

And I'm kind of used to the motorcycles.

They don't seem to be the problem.

It's those motorcycle, those uh machine gun Kelly cars.

Yeah, uh, you know who I'm talking about.

And we had a bill in Conkin on that too, and I think it went away for some unknown reason.

Because we live free and die in New Hampshire.

Maybe of deafness.

A lot of people pay a rent.

All right.

Well, thank you very much.

Is there anybody else with any commentary that matters not in agenda?

Did I see somebody want to come up?

No.

Okay.

Thank you very much.

We'll move on now to no interviews tonight.

No nominations, communications, probably it.

We'll go right down to the mayor's report.

Jeez, I get to talk again.

Uh there was a letter in the paper, I don't remember who wrote it, but I was um a little confused.

There were sh I believe it was a lady, she was complaining about that people couldn't see the Laconia the city budget.

And Kirk or uh the clerk can confirm this, but if somebody wants to see the city budget, they can simply go to the library.

I think there's a hard copy over there, Glenn.

Yeah.

There is, okay.

Library, city hall, and online.

And it's online.

Yep.

And if and if somebody has this is beautiful transparency.

If somebody wants to come in uh and and speak to the city manager uh if he's free, then they can uh or make an appointment, and if they have questions about the budget, it's right there.

Yep, certainly come.

I mean, certainly if you want to come see me, that'd be great.

The the copy of it is at um in the clerk's office if they just wanted to copy they can make a copy um for a small fee per pages.

Um but yeah, obviously any time somebody wants to have a they want to have a meeting to talk about, I'd be more than happy to.

And the other comment from the same letter writer was why are we paving city streets or state streets or state roads?

And they referred to South Main Street, and the reality is that South Main Street is a city street.

Uh it's labeled by the state as State Route 106, uh, but that's in the urban compact, and just like US three that goes along Weirs Boulevard, that's in the Urban Compact.

We're responsible for the road, we pave it, we plow it, uh, we maintain it.

And uh so there's no secret there.

And again, if you have any confusion at all about any of this stuff, please reach out to City Hall.

They can help you with that.

Or you can ask me why, whether I'm in office or not.

I most of us know the answers to that stuff.

It's no big secret.

I want to remind everybody that uh the Christmas parade is on the 29th.

Actually, that's next Saturday.

This coming Saturday.

And that starts at five o'clock and it begins by Parks and Rec, the building there.

Is that where it begins?

Or somewhere in the street.

But they also have an event going on most of the day with food trucks and activities downtown.

Yeah, downtown has a lot going on.

Canal Street has food trucks.

Um there's something going on here at City Hall in the in the uh Bel Knott Mill side that they're doing, plus the parade.

So there's a lot going on.

Okay.

And Christmas Village again will be starting on December 4th.

That that's a lot of a lot of fun for everybody there.

So that's pretty much all I have to on my comments tonight.

We'll move along now.

Council comments.

Anyone in the council?

Councilor Hoffman.

Yeah, I have a few things.

Um I point out we still haven't had a public works committee meeting about the situation on Short Drive, Holman Street, Lynwood.

Um we still haven't resolved the issue at the end of Pleasant Street either.

Um then I wanted to talk about the the homeless forum we had 12 days ago.

Um it was well attended and interesting.

Um I think there's there's probably a broader conversation about the the role of local government in this issue, and you know, we've all heard it a hundred times.

This is a multi-pronged problem that needs a multi-pronged solution and all that.

But what struck me listening to to people talk at the forum was that I think there are some things that that are our responsibility to handle.

I think we need to at least address this from a public health perspective.

Um I think it's clear that we need more places for people to drop off trash.

We need some kind of citywide needle disposal program.

Um I think it is incumbent on us to try to get these things off of the street and where they belong.

Um and if there's a problem with people uh defecating in front of businesses downtown, I think that's our problem too.

I think then it's we're obligated to maybe provide someplace where people can go to the bathroom.

Um I mean, this isn't a solution to the whole problem, but I think there are things that it is clearly our responsibility to start to address.

Um for the residences, for the businesses.

I'd like to see us do something about these things.

Are you recommending that goes to a committee of some sort on the I guess that's what we do here?

Sure.

On what on what on which things uh you mentioned several.

I guess probably one of the most important ones might be uh place to go to the bathroom.

I think it's pretty important.

I think I think these are all three of these things are important.

If I guess to elaborate, if it's gonna cost us tens of thousands of dollars to clean up you know an encampment, and if we're just gonna keep moving them around, then would it not be more responsible to give them some place to throw their trash away in the first place?

It would probably be cheaper than cleaning it up after the fact.

I don't know what committee deals with that, but yeah, I mean if you're if you're impressed on one, I would say um usually the government operation ordinances for the ordinance side, but this is government operations, so I I would think that it's gonna end up in that direction if you wanted it to go somewhere.

We used to have the either that or public works because you also got the streets that you mentioned that would be public works.

And we can always bring them into the mix if if we need if if that was what was requested, and uh what is the favor or pleasure?

That's up to you guys.

Well, Eric, I believe you are on the public works.

I prefer public works because I'm on that committee.

Right.

And that's fine.

I mean, that that's my doom.

It's fine.

Yeah, and if it needs to go to government ops after that, that's fine.

Okay.

Anything else?

Nope, thank you.

Thank you.

Anybody else?

Council Cheney.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

I uh uh the fire chief will be up here shortly, and I have several things that he will address that I want to have an opportunity to speak to at that time.

The three things I'd asked the city manager to look into is I watched I I watched uh a uh near accident in front of Elm Street School with all the cars parked there waiting to go in.

One person had set out just a little bit.

Another car refused to give way, so he kept coming.

He clipped the mayor, the mirror.

He missed the car going the other direction by inches at best.

Uh so I'd asked the the manager if he'd talked to the schools again and asked that they come back to the council with a proposal sooner rather than later before somebody gets hurt out there.

Do they have a detail up there?

It seems to be such I've heard this before.

They've gone up, uh they put signs up.

Uh I've talked to the chief about it.

Uh they have done it.

It goes away.

And then the minute they arrive and see there's no cruisers sitting there, it it's uh it balloons up again.

And wasn't there something done with a parking lot there to accommodate this?

Or there was.

They tried a little, but it's not enough.

I mean, the the length of the line was from the driveway all the way to the other end of the school property.

And uh I'm um sooner or later somebody's gonna get hurt seriously there.

Uh beyond that, it's a traffic hazard, just vehicles having problems.

So why don't we pull the ticket book out and issue a couple of things?

Steve.

Steve, can you can you speak, please?

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Why don't we pull the ticket book out and issue some $300 tickets for for creating a traffic hazard and and maybe that will encourage someone from Wolton Park and the road?

Well, we're gonna have to put them in the bushes to do it because when they're there, nothing is nothing goes on.

The minute the officers leave, then the line starts.

I I hear what you're saying, and I'll talk to the chief tomorrow about that idea.

But uh because you know what's gonna happen as soon as someone gets hurt, it's gonna be our fault.

Yeah.

Well, that's why I bring it up now, so that we can work on it.

I think we need to get the school department to fix the idea we had about coming in from the back.

Uh uh Bond Peach.

That came up during the capital.

Council of Hoffman.

Thank you.

That came up during the Capital Improvement Committee meetings, right?

That several departments wanted funding for that issue, and there was a plan.

What's the timeline on actually taking a plan and implementing that?

And that's why I asked for a report.

I'm asking that the manager let us know.

Uh I hope he can talk to the schools as well as our committees and whatever.

Uh they do have funds.

Um, so maybe we ought to ask them to help out.

Anyway, so the Elm Street School.

The second item, Mr.

Mayor, is the Elm Street Bridge.

Looks great.

But the new curbing on the if you're going towards the fire station from my house, the curbing on the right is maybe three inches high.

A bicycle could go over it and not crash.

And uh perhaps the city engineer can let us know what we can do to make that better.

I'm just worried.

Um something's gonna happen there.

Well, you worried about a car going over it?

A car, uh anything.

I mean but it how high is it on the other side?

About so high.

Well, that's not gonna stop a car either.

If somebody veers into it, I I understand what you're saying, but the average person veers into the six-inch high or eight-inch high curbing and feels it and goes back.

They're not gonna feel this.

It'll feel like a pothole.

I I spoke with Alan Beadle about that this morning.

Uh, he's gonna talk to the engineer and see what's going on because they also have another coat of pavement to put on there, I believe.

So another coat of pavement as well.

There won't be any curbing.

So, Councilor Felcher, are you saying that Alan Beetle is concerned about the side on the wow trail?

Wild trail isn't that but that's that's where the problem is.

No, that's where it's only three inches not the other side.

Okay, I thought it was the other side.

Thank you.

Yeah, and with bicycles and stuff, it's just very dangerous.

Yeah, something needs to be done.

So I I would ask that the manager and the city engineer let us know at the next meeting what uh what we can do to fix that problem.

Okay, thank you.

We'll get right out there.

Good work.

All right, thank you.

And lastly, uh, Mr.

Mayor, and I've already warned him I'm bringing this up, but um I will hound my replacement about roller coaster road and parade road.

Uh last May we were told we were going in there to clean it out.

Apparently, something went wrong.

Apparently, we're going back to court, apparently, apparently, apparently, but all that crap is still there.

Um so I would ask that the manager advise us next meeting.

Um where we're at and and how how can we get this finished?

I thought you were talking about the intersection for a second.

That too.

Well, that's a state matter.

That's what it's like.

Mr.

Mayor, I'll get the exact dates of when they're going to be out.

So there was an order to have that cleaned up, and the company was refused allowance onto the property.

So we had to go back to court and now to get in a uh contempt to to have it forced through on there.

That has just gone through.

I'll get the exact data when they're gonna be back out.

It'll have to be with law enforcement, all that.

So it's being dealt with through the court.

Um I'll but I will get the exact data when they're when they're heading back out there.

The other issue is uh the Supreme Court gave them a timeline, and that's gonna be two years ago.

Yeah, and that's all under uh a timeline fine system, so that's they're supposed to be fined daily for not allowing us to clean the place up.

And uh I would encourage the council to keep an eye on you know that we don't dismiss the penalty in order to get on the property.

I think we need to get them to pay at least some form or some portion of the court ordered fine.

I mean, it's been at least two years since the New Hampshire Supreme Court ordered him to let us clean the place up.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Okay, thank thank you, Council.

Council Susi.

Yes, thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

The item I'm bringing up is for the council's um here ears, and also for anybody here that's on a county delegation.

Um council Bogars, yourselves, and I see uh uh incoming mayor is here also.

If you if some of you probably have seen that in the Laconia Sun over the last couple of weeks, there's been an ad place for a county delegation meeting on the uh equipment budget for the coming year.

And I see a 7.9 percent inter 7.9 percent increase in the budget.

That's good that could be an end up in uh real devastating to the city of Laconia.

As you know, we're the um we bear most of the county's expenses along with all their nonprofit properties.

So I hope that the delegation looks at that.

I'm gonna try and put some work together as the chairman of the finance committee and build a model of what that 7.9% increase from this county would mean to us.

As you know, last year, after we took care of our obligations for the state, schools, and the county, we only had 1.9 million dollars left in our budget to be able to do anything with.

And everybody's screaming for roads for this, for that, and everything else like that.

We don't have the money.

And the delegation goes ahead and is gonna move ahead on a budget, probably with the next two to three months, Steve.

Would that be true?

Okay.

And very seldom is there anybody really raise a hand there.

I'd be at the next, I'd be excuse me, I'd be at that next meeting on the second.

Okay, but I'm gonna I'm I'm not able to attend for an uh other reasons.

But I I don't want the county to situation.

I realize you guys work hard on your budget, but you've got to realize too, the city of Laconia can only bear so much.

If I'm Mr.

Mayor, Council of Bogar.

What happens on Tuesday is the county commissioners present to the delegation the budget, and the county commissioners are wishfully thinking and asking for seven point whatever percent.

After it's presented to the county commission, there's a six meeting set up with a budget committee, and the budget committee then at that point in time goes through line by line, every line, and and the mayor can confirm this.

We have each department head come up and they justify each line in the budget to us.

And then there's cuts made and stuff like that.

So the actual 7.9 percent that the county commissioners request usually doesn't end up at that number.

It's much less.

So thank you, Steve.

And I'd like to know the dates of those budget meetings because one of the concerns that I have is after the city of Laconia has pretty much all the non the uh uh properties of the Bell Knopf County, which don't pay taxes, and let me finish, please.

Okay.

So the citizens of the City of Laconia are bearing upon them the tax burdens of having all those properties here, okay, and we provide all the services, and then at the same time we bear the highest ratio when it comes to the city taxes, tack the county taxes.

And if you look at the, and I know we all did, we've looked at the charts that council Cheney had put up over the last few years that has gone significantly higher.

And the city of Laconia cannot continue to operate when we only have 1.9 million dollars left in our budget to be able to do some work in the city.

We've got a $34 million road improvement program sitting on our likes.

We've got a new public works situation going on, plus the everyday way of doing business.

I don't understand.

I'm not complaining that you're not doing it properly.

I just want to make sure that you you take into consideration the position you put in the city in.

Well, I think hold on one second.

I think uh you can count on being told when these budget meetings are uh that they're made publicly and and uh I will and their own YouTube.

Well, yeah, but if you if it's always good if somebody can be there in purpose uh in person, that's always good.

Anything else?

And if I may respond.

Um the county taxes are paid.

The only effect that it should have to the city of Laconia is because it's a separate line item on the tax bill.

So they collect the tax rate.

Last year it was like 94 cents per thousand.

So that bill comes, it's issued out through the tax bill.

Okay, when it's paid, it's paid in two lump sums to the city.

The city gets to keep a lot of that for six months, and they can collect the interest off of that for six months.

At the end of the year, the county submits a bill for the exact amount that the tax bill says, okay, and then the city then writes a check for that amount.

It's not a penny more, it's not a penny less, as far as I know.

That is there as a pass through.

All you're doing is the city is not having to fork up any other money whatsoever, other than what was collected on behalf of the county.

That's it.

If I may the interest is not hold on a second.

The interest is not the interest, the city keeps the interest.

That's correct.

But I'll give you one more point, and I'll make this my last comment.

Okay.

That that those taxes collected by the city of Laconia for the county budget is also part of the equation used for setting a tax cap.

And we're sitting under a tax cap that puts handcuffs on our wrists.

I would suggest that you revisit the tax.

Okay.

I have.

All right, I have.

Yeah, please.

Go ahead.

No, just okay.

Yeah, let's we I think the point's been made by both counselors.

So counselor Felch, you have some other comments.

Yeah, I'm gonna circle back to good stuff.

Okay, thank you.

Uh so in reference to the parade and all the activities downtown, also the trees that they're setting up down here at the park.

Um, anybody wants any information on any of that stuff?

Um, it's put on by celebrate Laconia.

They have a website, they have a Facebook page, so that's a place to find that out.

I also want to do a shout out to the Elks Club, um Shannon and everybody that they had the Elks Mania this Saturday.

Um they do that for the children's auction.

I'm not sure of the exact figure, but I'm pretty sure they raised over 20,000 for the children's auction.

And of course, the children's auctions coming up quick.

Any information you need on that, children's auction.org.

The celebrate Laconia have a phone number for those people that would like to call because they don't have all the other stuff.

I don't know.

You'd have to look on the website or on the Facebook page.

Of course.

I'm not part of it.

I'm just letting people know.

All right.

Maybe somebody can get word to them, or if they're watching, they can reach out.

Thank you.

Anyone else on the council?

Council comments.

Okay, we'll now go into committee reports.

Anybody have a committee?

Councillor Haynes.

Mr.

Mayor.

Uh government operations uh met on uh Tuesday, the 18th.

Um item one was the uh human relations committee.

Um we um looked at the vision statement and the mission.

We also looked at the policies and procedures.

We had um public testimony in favor of making it a permanent committee.

Um we had no one spoke speak against it at that committee meeting.

Um it was the uh unanimous decision by the committee to send it to um the council for consideration, and uh he also asked the uh city manager to look at it and send it to legal council.

Okay.

Thank you.

Anything else?

So that was the extent of that.

Uh as far as Kratom is concerned, um after a lengthy discussion on committee meeting, uh we discovered that there's no regulation uh about this particular substance period, whether it's statewide, federal wide, F FDA.

Um again, we had public testimony of actual people that came before the committee to speak.

We to speak about its medicinal purposes for them personally.

Uh we also had um six or seven people that took it upon themselves to submit in writing to the count to the committee.

Um we did have uh the city manager brought to our attention that there was um a mother that was very concerned about um her son that uh is addicted to it, but at the point that there is no uh standing uh as far as regulating is concerned statewide or any other.

We found no reason that we wanted to even consider banning it.

So um that was the committee's uh finding that uh we would not recommend it to the council for any action period.

Um the third thing was um social district.

We had a great discussion about that, and we looked at the um RSA, discovering there's a lot more to it than people would think as far as the regulations and the works.

We did have testimony from the public works director uh in regarding that um about traffic and that uh and how that would pertain to it.

City manager offered to uh look at a social district for downtown, a hypothetical thing.

Uh and the committee agreed to uh look at what the city manager would would uh propose to us, so we decided to keep it in committee.

Good idea.

So that is the report of government operations.

Getting back to your second uh topic here, there is one regulation that you have to be 21 years old to purchase that.

18.

18.

We're told 18.

Okay.

I I was told I checked with uh a couple local businesses that sell it and they told me it was 21 that where they enforce 21.

That's fine.

Yeah.

You know, I didn't I didn't want to get into a big discussion about this, but there was a discussion about uh synthetics and um where it should be sold and where it shouldn't be sold.

I guess you can buy it at a gas station or whatever.

Um but uh I think as we move forward uh I think there's gonna be regulations as where it can be sold, uh how it can be dispensed, that type of stuff.

No, it would probably come from the state.

Yeah, that's what we thought.

Yeah.

Okay, thank you.

Anybody else in the uh council have any committee reports?

If I can just add to that, if you go back and look at uh the Sunday morning interview program, I forget the name of it, but they had a doctor from Dartmouth, a uh research scientist doctor who talked about that stuff, and I listening to him, I would suggest to you to you that the state probably will uh come up with some sort of rules because he goes on at length about the additions to it, and it's not actually grown in the Orient.

Uh it's grown here and synthetically enhanced, and he went on and on and on.

You can watch it uh on YouTube.

Um pretty tough.

I think Council, it's close up.

Is that to launch Sunday?

Yes, thank you.

So I say, well, most of the people that spoke about it said that the leaf itself is what they're mostly looking at for medicinal purposes, it's helped them a lot, but they do have a synthetic formula and it can be increased by so much.

That's where the problems at.

Okay.

Any liaison reports?

No, okay.

So now we're on number 19 at citizens' request to comment on the current agenda items.

Is there anyone here that would like to comment on current agenda items?

Okay, seeing none, we'll move on to the city manager's report.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Uh normally I would have the economic uh update at this meeting.

Um, would we get all of our the that data from the federal government with the shutdown?

We weren't able to get that.

So my hope is to either have it at the next meeting, which isn't the normal one, or at the uh I'll do two months at uh when we get to this point next month.

But you do have your Laconia projects update, and I'll say that there's not a whole lot of changes this month.

There's a few updates.

Um you know, when it's coming into this time of year, most things starting to wind down.

Uh we do have the work up on uh the old North Main Street section.

Um has been completed for the season.

They'll be back next uh spring to put the final uh top coat on for the pavement.

Um Mill Street, the pedestrian bridge over here is continuing to go through its uh engineering studies.

Uh remember that was a uh grant funded project that they're working through.

Um, or congressionally direct spending money that they're they're working on.

So that's uh moving through its stuff.

Hilliard Road, um a little bit delayed, but it's still it's still moving forward as we expect.

That's to uh replace the culvert out towards the end of Hilliard Road.

Um just flip it uh Winnipasaki River Basin project.

That letter was sent that you guys approved me sending to uh the Winobasaki River Basin.

Uh I mean to the uh New Hampshire DES, as well as there's an LSR in um from Councilor and Representative Bogart, and I believe it may have been co-sponsored.

I I don't want to say it, but I believe it's been co-sponsored.

Um to try to change the way the the funding formula is done for the Winnipeg Saki River Basin, which uh is gonna be good for all of the 10 communities.

Still touching up some final wears uh rebuilding project, bumpers and um some uh NADA hoists, things like that.

So they're working on that as we come into fall and winter.

Um lastly, I'll just mention on the state school update.

I've been asked a couple of times about the uh the traffic study.

As I said, uh there was a very large traffic study that was done that was that was requested.

Uh we did hire our normal third party um traffic specialist that that we generally do most of our third party work with.

Uh he is just about done his his review, basically took their report and said, does this look right for what we're trying to look at?

And is there any questions that don't seem to be answered that we would want answered out of that?

I said I keep saying a thousand, it was almost 1500 page report.

So uh you know, having him do that has been really important.

Um met with him today, just kind of finalizes the you know.

Did we have any other questions?

And so we should be getting that back from him.

I won't put a timetable on it, but it shouldn't be long.

I would I would think you know, less than a month, I would guess we would have uh something from him on that.

So uh that's really the only state school update I have.

Um other than that, everything else is really kind of unchanged, but it's in the packet if you have any questions.

Well, I uh one question I have is with regards to Elm Street, what counselor Cheney brought up.

Is that something that how are they gonna deal with that?

Well, we all have so I mean he's here, so I don't have to send him anything.

He'll go over and take a look at it tomorrow.

We'll get an answer on why it's why it's the way it is, and then we'll you know be able to address it as a as appropriate.

Okay, and the bridge um the railroad bridge up there in Weirs Beach.

I saw that was on here.

Yeah, it's been on there for a long time.

That's still um, we're still a ways away from that uh being anything.

The last thing that we had was uh they had the public uh public hearing, but a charret for it so the public could come out and talk about it.

That was six eight months ago now, if not longer.

Longer uh maybe even longer a year ago.

I mean, it it's been a while.

Um that's state project, so we haven't heard much more update on that.

Okay.

Any other questions?

Councillor Pogart.

Yes, thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Uh there's gonna be a point in time where with this Winnipesaki River Basin uh bill, that as soon as we figure out what committee it's gonna go to, uh it would be advisable if the council in a joint agreement would have a letter written and submitted to the uh committee in support of this.

It would show that the city itself supports the passage of the bill, and as soon as I can find out what committee it comes to uh relay that over to the city manager, and uh that way we could all boom, you know, supply support for it to the committee, showing that the city's on board.

Yeah, I mean if you can wait and if you wanted to, or you could just if you wanted to vote to say, you know, as soon as it comes up.

I've already written the letter that you guys approved to go down this, so it's not gonna be much different.

So if if you guys want to do that, that way I know you know I can just go ahead and move forward.

That's up to you guys.

You recommend we do that now, or you can either do it now, or I can bring you the letter first, and and it's gonna be basically the same letter, but I can bring the letter first to you.

It's uh uh we can do it either way.

It's up to you guys.

Council Bulgaria, I'll look to you for that since it's your bill.

The only thing I'm waiting for, I would support whether we you know vote now or later.

And it's just based on what committee it's going to, so we could direct a lay it letter to that committee in support.

Mr.

Mayor, Council Susi.

You say you don't know what committee it's going to in the state legislature, right?

That's correct.

Okay.

The other thing in there, I see in the more that they were asking for a 94 million dollar bond over the next 10 years.

It looks like it's seems to me like that's the wish list of the sewer operation.

Okay.

And that was kind of put aside and told you guys are you know not doing correctly and go back and come back with something different?

That we're not sure of.

Uh I have not seen that 94 million.

That would yeah, that bond would come before I do believe the public works committee.

Uh, if it was to be done.

Uh I'm not sure where this bill pertains with it.

Maybe West can update us on that question.

I don't I don't have to meet that's a lot of money.

Okay.

Yeah.

You know, I'm looking at my already, and it's so we gotta we've got to push the scale.

We've got to push our delegation to help us with that.

Okay.

Okay.

Well, thank you both.

That's it.

All right, we'll go on to new business style.

Were we gonna vote on that?

Or I thought we were gonna that's up to you.

Yeah, if somebody wants to make a motion that says when the when it's uh, then when I can sum it.

Okay, that motion you want to read your motion and say which is like I can make a motion that as a council we agree to allow the city manager to write the letter to the committee once we figure out what committee it is that we support the uh uh that will reduce our dependent the reduces the rate the rate from five percent to two percent.

I'll second that, which is gonna be a lot of money savings for each of these communities.

Okay, that's been seconded by Council Susi.

Any other commentary?

Okay, all in favor?

Raise your hands.

It's six to nothing.

Thank you, War.

As soon as I find it.

Absolutely, we'll get it get it drafted ahead of time.

All right, now we'll go to uh new business and 21A.

This is assignment and assumption of lease agreement for 15 aviation drive in Guilford.

Uh look to the city of how we get some.

Okay, wonderful.

Yep, this is uh just another transaction.

One hangar owner to see my name is Marv Iverson.

I'm the airport manager at the Laconium Municipal Airport.

Uh and this is a transaction that I've come before the board frequently with.

Um this is an assignment and assumption of lease.

A hangar owner is selling to another party, and uh the party the buyer does not desire a new lease, they uh want to assume the existing lease.

So the it requires the seller to assign the lease to the buyer.

It's an assignment and assumption of lease.

Um I am here to look for authorization from the city council to authorize the city manager to sign this assignment and assumption of lease on behalf of the city of Laconia.

It um was authorized for signature from the vice chair of the Laconey Airport Authority on the November 20th last week.

Uh and the airport authority provided that authorization.

Now it's in the hands of the city to authorize the city manager to sign.

Council Susi had a question.

How long has that lease been in effect already?

All part.

Yeah.

It was in uh I I know when the initial lease uh that was 2003.

And it's a 40-year lease.

For a 40-year lease.

So it's about halfway through.

Right, but that the rate of the lease at that time increases every year according to the December CPI.

Okay, so it has increased.

Yes.

Okay.

Well, the lease, if I may go ahead.

The least value that the least value that you're gonna put it through now, okay.

Would that be the same value if somebody wanted to put a new hanger up with something else to that lease?

Yes, pretty pretty much the same.

We've we've worked to try to level the playing field as much as we can uh for all of the hangar owners so that no one is paying more or less uh notably than others.

Okay, and the least that the new lease or wants to take will just continue on to the end of the 40, the original 40 years, not that's correct.

Okay, thank you.

Any other questions?

Thank you, Marf.

Did you have anything you want to add, Kirk?

No, I'm good.

Okay.

Okay, I'll make the motion if there's no more questions for anybody.

Uh move to approve uh Kurt Biati as Laconia City Manager to sign the lease agreement as presented.

So move.

Uh uh motion by uh councillor Felch, seconded by Councillor Hayes.

Any more questions?

Discussion.

Okay, all in favor.

That's six votes in the affirmative.

Thank you.

And again, thank you, Martha.

He's gone, so that works.

Okay, we'll go to uh 21B.

This is resolution 2025-35, relative to acceptance of an award in the amount of 87,000 from the Department of Safety Homeland Security grant program for the purchase of a SWAT SOU equipment for the Laconia Police Department.

Uh so somebody to speak on that.

Uh no, there's no one here, but this is uh when I talked to PD, this is uh primarily safety equipment, uh helmets, uh the um the vests, the plates, that type of stuff.

It's more of the safety equipment.

They uh they have a shelf life um whether they're used or not.

Um, and uh so this is a grant to replace uh the majority of that equipment.

Um I can get you the exact breakdown for the next meeting if you if you'd like.

Um it's a uh it's a uh grant through uh Homeland Security.

And uh I believe there's uh yeah, there's no uh there's no match on our part.

No cat no cost to the taxpayers of Laconia.

Okay, any other comments.

Okay, I'll move to waiver reading of resolution 2025-35 in its entirety and read by title only.

Look for a motion on that motion by Councillor Felch and seconded by Councillor Bogart.

All favor six sip, thank you.

Now I'll move a first reading of the resolution 2025-35 relative to acceptance of an award in the amount of 87,000 dollars from the Department of Homeland Security grant program for the purchase of SWAT SOU equipment for the Laconia Police Department.

Look for a motion on that.

Uh Councillor Susi and seconded by Councillor Hoffman.

You had me going on that one.

It's your fault.

Um discussion.

All in favor?

That's six zip.

Thank you very much for it.

Okay, uh move to schedule a public hearing on December 8th, 2025, during the regular city council meeting to gather public import prior to any action being taken.

Look for a motion on that.

Uh moved by counselor Hayes, seconded by Councillor Felch.

All in favor.

That's six zip.

Thank you all very much.

You too, Councilor Hoffman.

It's tough.

Okay, now we go to 21 C.

This is resolution 2025-36 request to use impact fee funds to replace a damaged garage door motor and provide maintenance on the remaining motors at the Laconia at the fire department central station.

Uh yeah, I if you'd like, I have uh Chief Jubert up here for both these next two items if you'd like to hear from him.

Sure, come on up, he's here.

I made him come out at night, so I thought it'd be nice to maybe you can explain how what happened to the motor.

I will do my best.

Uh good evening, everyone.

Um, so uh the motors now are 10 years old, and we had those beautiful garage doors, those bifold doors.

Uh unfortunately, uh to our surprise, one started leaking oil, and we started to go down a rabbit hole.

We found that those motors are no longer manufactured or supported, or nobody really works on them.

Um the warranty were off, and the people that installed them were were hands off now.

We we don't want to touch them.

So we were panicking.

Uh, we worked with our local uh door company to kind of uh try to repair it the best as we possibly could, and it worked for around six months, and then it started leaking oil again, and then another motor started leaking oil.

And primarily it's the most used door openers, so it's the ambulance, which is opening and closing all day long, and then the first two engine out of central.

Uh so we researched all the different opportunities and options, and the only thing that we can really do is buy new motors for those doors.

So this is to uh request to replace the most damaged motor, which is the ambulance, and rotate the other motors based on you so we can prolong your life.

I just have a question.

Uh the people that wiped their hands and said we're not gonna repair these, those are the people that you bought them from.

Uh so I don't really know if we bought them from them or if it was a third party that installed them.

It was a third party that installed them.

Okay, they so they don't see it.

They were bought from they were bought from uh I don't remember the state, it was out west, um installed by a local company, and and and maintenance was done throughout the years, you know, preventative maintenance.

If there was any damages or or problems with them, they they came in to fix, but obviously, as the chief saying, they've just gotten to a point.

This particular uh one or two in particular have just gotten to a point where the the repairs and uh the general maintenance are just beyond uh what they can do.

Any other questions?

No, councillor Cheney.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

I uh in the liaison to fire, and the chief and I have discussed this.

Yeah, my understanding is the repair of the the worst door is 11,000.

So that that total cost is for the replacement of the worst motor, which is the ambulance bay motor, and then it's uh kind of swapping out the motors based on usage so we can prolong their lives.

So the the cost of the actual motor is like $7600.

Okay.

Well, you you and I talked about 11,000 the other day.

What was the additional so the cost of the motor was this the 7600 and the rest was the maintenance to re remove and replace the other motors based on usage?

So we're we're looking at 11,000 for the one door.

Uh my recollection is the motor for a second door would cost us 7,000.

It would be this set like 7600.

Okay.

Uh I personally would like to recommend we consider taking care of both of those.

Um those doors are pretty important to the rest of us.

And uh they're at least 10 years old.

I think maybe a little 2014-15, depending on when they were manufactured.

Would it save money to do them both at once?

That was right to be seeing the obviously at some point, Tom, we're gonna have to replace the the second motor that that's leaking.

Uh the problem that we're gonna run into uh with my impact fees is I only have so many impact fees.

So that would be the challenge.

But again, would it save money to replace them both at once to do all the work at one time?

I I just it would be more it would be more expensive that the total cost for it um in the long run.

It probably would save uh the department and the city money to replace both for them.

That's what I was thinking, maybe.

Councillor Cheney.

Well, I just uh I saw if they're there installing it, and the one next to it needs to be installed if they're there, they're not gonna charge us as much for installation cost, etc.

So I recommend that we approve uh both doors.

Uh some of that money should come from uh the fund, but I think the council should authorize the additional monies.

I I would ask the manager if you think she could find the difference uh to get both done.

Council.

Yeah, we can say so.

What I would do is in the one that you have today, the reason this is like is is because the next agenda item is requesting more impact fees money that's gonna actually we have a plan.

We know that there's not enough money in the impact fees to handle the next thing, but we know where it's coming from within the budget.

So if you go through this um to do your public hearing, you can also make the recommendation uh as the motion that I come back with a funding source for a complete replace of both motors.

Right.

And we can that way the resolution that's we we can make that adjustment.

I I just I just know that now companies charge you as soon as it seems like as soon as they get out of bed, and you know, when they drive to the location or something, it just seems like all these hidden costs come up, not so hidden somewhere.

I just had my refrigerator fixed.

Guy came out and charged me 147 dollars to tell me he was coming back to fix it.

Okay, council Bogart.

How many motors are there?

Uh of that style, excuse me.

Uh two, three five.

Five of that style.

So we can probably anticipate in the future if we replace two, there's gonna be three more on the list at some point in time.

At some point, obviously there's certain doors that get used a lot more than others, and I think by having the company rearrange where those motors are located will prolong their lives.

Um but yes, I would say at some point in time.

That's a reality.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Now the only thing we would be looking at is the additional cost of a second motor.

Because the labor to move the others around would be the same labor as to put a new one it's not gonna be a total 7600 for the site once you start doing the math out.

We'd have to get that exact number, but I was thinking of the same thing.

It's there's gonna be a difference somewhere of maybe three or four thousand, so as opposed to the full 7600, yeah.

And the other thing to think about too is those new motors will have warranties on them.

The new ones, yeah.

Yes.

And do we have you've selected a very good motor?

It's the only motor that will work for those style doors.

So yes.

And it's selected the only motor.

Yes.

A local contractor.

Uh they're out of Manchester.

I'm sure the fire chief does whatever's best for the fire department, which is the best for the city.

So, yeah.

Any other uh questions?

So, what I would recommend is as you go through your motions, your first one's gonna be your standard motion, the second one's gonna be what you have written.

And then I would also just add an addendum to that.

Um stating that you to the second motion that you're identifying that you're requesting I identify funding source for replacing the second motor as well.

Yep.

And cost identifying the uh uh source and total price for replacing the second motor.

That makes sense, Katie, for your typing.

I'll go back to concerns.

Are we on the sixth of motion or we're on the first motion?

We're gonna we're gonna we're gonna put it in it'll be in this.

I'm gonna incorporate it right into that second motion in the third.

Okay, any last shot, anybody?

Okay.

So I'm gonna move to waive a reading of resolution 2025-36 in its entirety and treat by title only.

Look for a motion.

Well uh motion by uh councillor felch, seconded by councillor Cheney.

All in favor, it's six to nothing.

Thank you.

Now I'm gonna move a first reading of resolution 2025 36 request to use impact fee funds to replace a damaged garage door motor and provide maintenance on the remaining motors at the fire department central station, and also request the city manager for funding source for the cost and replacement of the second motor.

Yep, that works.

Okay.

Uh motion by councillor Cheney, seconded by counselor Felch.

All in favor.

That's six sip.

Thank you very much.

And now I move to schedule a public hearing on December 8th, 2025 during the regular city council meeting if the other public input prior to any action being taken.

Look for motion by councilor Hayes, seconded by Councillor Hoffman.

All in favor, please raise your hands.

That's six to nothing.

Thank you.

Okay.

Now we're gonna go.

This is 21D.

This is resolution 2025-37 request to use impact fees and internal service funds to purchase a used ambulance for the Laconia Fire Department.

Chief.

Uh used from where?

All great questions.

Um we have purchased two new ambulances that are in production.

Unfortunately, their production delivery dates are delayed, and we're kind of at the mercy of the manufacturers and the dealerships, dealerships, excuse me.

And uh it's something that the fire service in general is trying to figure out and deal with.

It's been very, very challenging.

We were hoping that our current fleet of ambulances would last until their delivery, but that's probably not a reality for us.

We have one that is uh that goes out of service at least once once a week.

Uh two out of the three uh have aged out uh and they're experiencing constant issues.

So as a possible solution to make sure and ensure that we have proper ambulance cover ambulance coverage.

I'm bringing this before the body.

Uh the ambulance that we're looking at is from a department up north that does very minimal calls.

Uh the ambulance has 40,000 miles on it.

It comes with the radios, the lights, the radio, uh the uh the stretcher in the back and a load system.

So it pretty much is plug and play.

That stretcher and load system by itself is valued at around 30,000.

Uh the only thing we have to do is swap the numbers on the ambulance and and we'll be operational at that point in time.

Uh my biggest fear is that we're gonna have a catastrophic failure in one of those ambulances, and the city needs to have three ambulances in service at all times.

And you excuse me, you'll be able to keep that use one for future dates, right?

Correct.

No plans to sell it later down the road.

No, what I what I would like to do operationally is take the one that I'm most concerned about and set it aside for emergency purposes only, if anything else has an issue, and then run three, I guess, most ready ambulances to emergency incidents.

Any questions, Councilor Cheney?

I would remind the council that uh the new ambulances combined are gonna cost us close to a million dollars.

So 50, did you say?

55.

Not to exceed 55,000, correct.

55,000 seems like a real bargain to me.

It does.

Particularly on a vehicle that has 40,000 miles on it.

How many miles on your oldest ambulance?

A lot.

I don't know off the top of my head, but yes.

Uh I would remind everybody we bought a used ambulance from Tilt uh from Franklin just a couple of years ago to try and help us get over this time problem, which has nothing to do with the fire department.

It has to do with the contract of building the new ambulances.

So I want to strongly support uh and recommend to the balance of the council that we spend this 54,000 or whatever to get this new ambulance, new to us ambulance uh recognizing we already have one used one in the fleet.

Uh and we have some old ones.

I went up to the Weirs one time and the rear bumper moved up and I know they fixed it, but it they're getting old, and I just think this is you know uh stop gap measure, but it I think that he's done a brilliant job to find this this piece of iron.

Thank you.

Councilor Susi.

Yes, thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

I'm just for the city manager, because I see you've outlined where the money is gonna come from.

And uh the internal service fund is gonna pick up the balance.

It's gonna pick up the balance, but I don't want to get into the habit of replacing vehicles mid-year.

So as the chief and I have talked about, he's gonna pay with whatever you can out of impact fees once that we'll pick up the difference in the internal service fund, but his impact fees moving forward are going to replenish what he what he took out of that.

Um it's not really to take out of it.

It's a it uh it the internal service fund, each department who that uses vehicles pays some money into that's what repairs and replacement of equipment.

DBW fire and police are your biggest by far, but anybody who planning department has a car, so they pay a little bit into internal service fund, and that's factored into how much we're gonna pay into it during the course of the year.

So obviously this is giving the fire department a little bit extra to take care of it.

So I asked the chief that with the expectation that any money that comes out of internal service fund gets replenished um through upcoming impact fee uh assessments that he receives.

The ambulance that you're gonna hold on to, let's say, for it's good to have it for spare pots if something's needed, right?

Well that's not resalable somewhere in the market.

I I wouldn't think so.

No, it's in pretty bad shape.

Someone I just the reason I bring the question up is somebody might ask the question, that's why I was sure it's at it's actually slated to be traded.

That's what was part of the contract with the new ambulances.

So what happens now then?

They still take it the way it is.

They take it the way it is.

Yes.

And we ought to keep it running just long enough.

So I just want to make two comments.

It just I know Chief mentioned this, but ambulances once upon a time were six months.

180 days, start to finish from the day you sign the paperwork to the day it's in your door.

This council wasn't the council that approved those two ambulances.

It was actually two years ago or more.

We're close to like two and a half years ago now that it was ordered.

Um ambulances are where you're looking at about three years.

Fire trucks are hitting the four and five year mark from the day they're ordered.

It's it's unbelievable.

Um so you know, again, this isn't something that we certainly don't choose to.

Chief and I, I want to say debated.

We went back and forth on the merits of doing this and being able to do this outweighed um waiting.

Uh are you pretty sure we can get this and somebody else is not gonna beat you to the punch?

We have a handshake agreement if it if it goes through.

Yes.

Thank you.

I love handshake agreements.

Okay.

Anybody?

I I just want to say if once we finally get the other two ambulances, it'll be nice to have a spare in case something does happen.

We we do need three ambulances, and we're growing.

So thank you, Chief.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thanks.

Okay, I'm gonna move to waiver reading of resolution 2025-37 in its entirety and read by title only.

Look for a motion on that.

Councilor Cheney, seconded by Councillor Hoffman.

All in favor.

That's six in the councillor Susi.

Did you want to vote on that?

Did you vote on that?

Okay, six zero.

Thank you very much.

I'm gonna move a first reading of resolution 2025-37 relative to the request of use to use impact fees in internal service funds to purchase or used ambulance for the Laconia Fire Department.

So a motion, Councilor Felch, seconded by Councillor Haynes.

All in favor.

Six in the affirmative, thank you all.

And lastly, a move to schedule a public hearing on December 8th, 2025 during the regular city council meeting to gather public input prior to any action being taken.

For a motion on that, Councillor Hayes, seconded by Councillor Bogart.

All in favor six, nothing.

Thank you all for that.

Thank you again, Chief.

Okay, now we're at 21.

This is a 2025 second half sewer warrant.

Yep, myself or Katie.

This is the sewer warrant for the non, those who aren't on water.

So that's what this is in Katie.

What he said, no.

Um so I have I have a copy of the warrant.

It uh it itemizes out everyone that's being assessed.

It is people that receive just sewer only and have um private water.

Um it's for 177,994 and 64 cents.

The rates go up annually in the spring that was set by the council a few years ago.

And they're gonna go out when the tax bills go out.

And if anybody wants to see a copy of that, they can come down the city hall.

Yeah.

Excellent.

Well, white transparency, beautiful.

Okay.

Um other questions.

Okay.

Well, then we will think is there uh motion on that?

Yes.

There is yeah, there's a motion at the bottom to approve.

Oh, yeah, it's so small.

Okay, I'll move to approve the 20.

Thank you, Kirk.

Uh move to approve the 2025 second half sewer warrant as presented.

Uh that motion is being made by uh council bogert, seconded by counselor Felch.

All in favor.

Thank you.

Six is nothing for that.

Okay, now we are on unfinished business.

22 A.

This is resolution 2025-38 request to expend funds from the downtown TIFF for conceptual design and cost estimate for lighting.

So this was the one that was on your agenda last uh meeting that I asked you to table because we didn't have a resolution attached to it, so I that's why I wanted to bring it up now.

Um this is we have a a um uh a plan in place, uh a study in place to do lighting in the down uh the city hall parking lot, the small parking lot, and out back here.

Uh it's been asked to expand it down to rotary park to add lighting down there.

Um we're looking for additional TIFF money to to pay for that.

It's about a six thousand dollar upgrade to what we're doing, though and they have to go back and update the numbers.

It's been a couple years.

Um so they'll update the total cost for up here and add uh in down there as well.

And if if you choose to do that, we'll get this back to you with uh um with an ability to to get a get a true number for how much it's gonna cost.

Um if you want to discuss it, you'll notice the first thing is to take it off the table.

Yeah, I see that's uh I'm gonna move to take this agenda off the table, this gender item off the table.

Look for a motion that that's uh motioned by uh councillor Felch, seconded by Council Bogart.

All in favor.

Okay, six nothing.

Thank you.

Okay, discussion.

Anybody I just want to say I think this is a great idea.

Um we spoke about it at a TIFF meeting last month.

Uh we have another meeting Wednesday, so I'm sure we'll discuss it again, but I think it's a great idea.

So for the public that hasn't read the TIFF meeting TIFF meeting minutes or uh has talked to any counselors about that.

Will this improve the lighting as it'll light it up more at night?

Or yeah, so this came up a couple of well, it's been a couple years now, but this came up about how do we get more lighting downtown?

Um, especially, you know, you the parking lot out here, even though it's um used primarily for city hall parking and some of the businesses downtown.

A lot of the businesses are used at night.

Um, and when you start, as much as I hate to say this at 4 30 in the afternoon when it becomes dark out.

Um, you know, there's not great lighting.

There is lighting, um, but it's not great.

Uh it also doesn't include some of the riverwalk that we have out back here that you could walk at night and then down into Rotary Park as well.

So we've been talking about this for a couple years of how do we make the lighting better?

Um we know it's not going to be inexpensive to do, uh, but we also know that we need to have a really good uh engineered study done to be able to tell us exactly how that lighting needs to be.

Um, and that's what we're hoping to be able to move forward with here.

Yeah, and I'm pretty sure it'll be LED lighting, so it's gonna be less expensive to operate.

Okay, thank you, Councillor.

Council Bogart.

And if my memory just uploaded it, thank you.

If my memory serves me, these lights are gonna be like the ones we have downtown, so they're matching up.

Yeah, we talked about that be the ugly looking thing.

Yeah, we talked about that to try to match it to the downtown so it it looks like it flows and you know aesthetically nice.

Yep.

Anyone else?

Okay.

Uh move to waive a reading of resolution 2025-30, and it's entirely to read by title only.

Uh move by uh councillor Cheney, seconded by Councillor Hoffman.

All in favor all in favor.

Yep.

Okay, that's okay.

There we go.

Six in the affirmative.

Thank you.

Um the first reading of resolution 2025-38.

Request to expend funds from the downtown TIFF for conceptual design and cost estimate for lighting.

Uh motion move by uh counselor Felch, seconded by Councillor Bogart.

All in favor.

That's six to nothing.

Thank you.

And so now I'll move to schedule a public hearing on December 8th, 2025, during the regular city council meeting to gather public input prior to any action being taken.

Look for a motion on that.

Councillor Hoffman, seconded by councillor Cheney.

All in favor, raise your hands.

Thank you.

At six-nothing.

Thank you all.

And 22B.

This is resolution 2025-31 a resolution relative to authorizing the acceptance of a New Hampshire Department of Safety Homeland Security Competitive Grant in the amount of 55,000 to fund the Laconia Police Department's utilities side-by-side vehicle project.

If you if you'd like this was uh so this was um if you remember this came before you just a couple weeks ago.

We were furnished with incorrect numbers.

So the resolution that you had was for 51,000 acceptance of this grant.

Um the the actual number is 55,000.

So to do this correctly, we need you to do a uh uh basically like the res that last resolution never came forward, and we'll do a public hearing and and uh grant acceptance as we normally would do.

It's the cleanest and uh most correct way to do it.

Councilor Cheney?

I just want to remind the council that we authorized them to buy the vehicle, and they went out and found grant money to pay for it, which I think we should all be thankful for.

Right.

Um he's done a great job of getting grants in it.

We need to get him to teach our others other mr.

Council Bogger.

Uh remind me, was that for one vehicle or two?

The matter was two.

Two sides.

He believes he's gonna be able to do two vehicles for that price.

Yes.

Thank you.

Any other questions or comments?

Okay.

So I'm gonna move to waiver reading of resolution 2025-31 as amended in its entirety and to read by title only.

Move by counselor Cheney, seconded by counselor Felch.

Okay.

Uh all in favor, raise your hands.

That's six in the affirmative.

Thank you.

And now I'm gonna move the first reading of resolution 2025-31 as amended relevant to authorizing the acceptance of a New Hampshire Department of Safety 2025 Homeland Security Competitive Grant in the amount of $55,000 to fund the Laconia Police Department's utilities side-by-side vehicle project.

Uh motion made by uh counselor Susi, seconded by Councilor Hayes.

Any discussion?

All in favor.

That's six, nothing in the affirmative.

Thank you.

And lastly, I move to schedule a public hearing on December 8th, 2025, during the regular city council meeting to gather public input prior to any action being taken.

Look for a motion on that.

Councillor Hayes, seconded by Councillor Seussy.

All in favor, raise your hands.

That's six in the affirmative.

Thank you very much.

I hear I hear wrestling.

This is we saved the last thing to go so they know they can pack up as much for the even the city manager.

The last usually not the most controversial on the case.

This reminds me, this reminds me of being in a classroom in the take a motion to end the council meeting tonight.

Motion by Councillor Cheney, seconded by Councilor Felch.

All in favor.