Good evening, Salem and welcome to the October 20th, 2025 town council meeting.

Please join us in the Pledge of Allegiance.

I'd like to be able to do that.

One nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you.

Take this opportunity to introduce the board.

To my far left is Councillor Stomalia.

Good evening.

To his right is Council Sweeney.

Good evening.

To his right is Councillor Betancourt.

Good evening.

To his right is Councillor Bob Bryant.

That was special.

To my immediate right.

Councillor Whitrow.

Good evening.

To her right is Council Pellatea.

Good evening, Salem.

To his right is Councillor Wright.

Hello, Salem.

To her right is Town Manager Joe Devine.

Good evening.

Okay.

Super.

I will entertain meeting minutes.

All right.

First, I would move that we seal tonight's non-public meeting under RSA 91A 32L for the reason it is determined that divulgence of this information likely would affect adversely the reputation of any person other than a member of this board or render a proposed action ineffective.

Second.

The motion by Council Withrow, a second by Councillor Bryant.

All those in favor?

Unanimous.

I would move the October 6, 2025, non-public meeting number one.

Second.

The motion by Councillor Withraw, seconded by Councillor Bryant.

All those in favor?

Unanimous.

Wait a minute.

I have one, I'm sorry, seven to one abstention.

Council Betoncourt is abstaining.

Good.

Yep.

I will move October 6, 2025, non-public session number two.

Second.

I have a motion by Councillor Witherrow, a second by Council Bryant.

All those in favor?

One abstain.

Are you in favor of that when you were here for that one?

No, I think I got it reversed.

That's okay.

I'll abstain on both of them.

You got y'all did a great job, though.

I know that.

Councillor Bettencourt is abstaining.

I would move October 6th, 2025, non-public session number two B.

Second.

I have a motion by Councillor Withrow, a second by Councillor Bryant.

All those in favor.

This is October 6th.

That was here.

Unanimous.

Fixed.

I would move October 1st, 2025, public session.

Second.

I have a motion and a second by Councillor Bryant.

All those in favor?

Unanimous.

I would move October 6th, 2025, public session.

Second.

I have a motion, a second by Councillor Bryant.

All those in favor?

Unanimous.

And lastly, I would move October 8th, 2025 public session.

Second.

I have a motion and a second by Council Bryant.

All those in favor.

I have seven in favor.

And Council Sweeney's abstaining.

Wonderful.

There are no chairman comments.

Consent agenda.

Madam Chair, at this time I move to approve the October 20th, 2025 consent agenda.

Second.

I have a council.

I have a motion by Councillor Bryant, a second by Councillor Stramalia.

All those in favor.

Unanimous.

Additions in a request by public or council by vote.

So I have a list here.

First on the list is Peter Kempton.

Mr.

Kempton, come on down.

You have three minutes to address the board.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I rise tonight with three requests of this council as it makes decisions that impact the citizens of Salem.

First, the easiest to identify and resolve.

I was disturbed to read in the news last week that a member of this council, Councillor Sweeney, was both fined and issued a cease and desist order by the New Hampshire Attorney General's office for months of noncompliance with campaign financing laws from the state.

Secondly, I have been a resident of New Hampshire for decades, and I moved to Salem in February only to learn I will not be getting my full representation in the State House.

I'll be fully taxed by the state.

But as a citizen of Salem, I will not have corresponding full representation in the State House.

And the reason why is that holding a special election for the vacant seat was determined too expensive and unnecessary by all but one member of this group.

Thank you, Councillor Wright.

I gotta say I'm unaccustomed to public officials deciding our election results rather than election dissolved results determining our public officials.

It's also a genuinely disturbing argument that elections are too expensive.

And what I was told in an online forum by a member of this council, Councillor Hatch, is that the only remedy for the situation is for me to sue the town.

That's an egregious statement on behalf of the council and our town government.

It's pretty hostile to residents and the democratic process, not to mention potentially expensive for the town to litigate.

And I don't want to sue the town.

I just want equal representation.

So it asked that in the next meeting, this council will schedule a discussion to reconsider your decision of March 24th and call an election for the open seat.

Lastly, I'm alarmed to read in your agenda that tonight you'll be discussing whether public charity expenditures should be up to public vote.

But I don't see a corresponding review or audit of business tax collections and incentive expenditures.

That approach seems blind to the two sides of managing a budget.

Revenue is equally as important as managing costs.

And before we consider sharpening our pencils on citizens who are already struggling, let's take a look at the commercial side of things, which has had plenty of tax relief over the decades.

Because I don't think another NURIA is going to do much to help a family struggling with catastrophic child care expenses, nor the explosive cost of groceries to our disabled and senior citizens.

We are pricing them into hunger.

So I'd ask that the council take a look at the revenues from some of our most prosperous business partners.

Are we getting our full share of revenues from the casinos?

We're supposed to receive 10 days revenue proceeds per year, roughly 100,000 per quarter.

But in the three months since they're opening, shouldn't we be seeing more than the 44,000 from the mall casino?

That's what Councillor Hatch is reporting.

It should work out to 100,000 per quarter.

So I would ask, Madam Chair, that the council table tonight's agenda item on discussion on policy and procedures of town funding of outside human service agencies until a reciprocal discussion on policy and procedures for tax collection review from commercial operations in Salem is researched, prepared, and simultaneously included on the same meeting agenda.

In summary, I would ask this council to address these three items.

First, the issue of one of its members breaking the law.

Secondly, that you call an election to fully represent the people of Salem, who elected you to your positions.

And third, that you'll also examine revenue streams from tax incentivized businesses while reviewing the policies and procedures of public charities.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay.

The next name is Donalie Lozo.

And you're from Nashua, is that right?

Yes, ma'am.

Thank you.

You have three minutes to address the uh council.

Thank you.

Um as you mentioned, my name is John Lee Lozo.

I serve as a CEO of Southern New Hampshire Services, which currently we're doing business here as the community action partnership, Hillsborough and Rockingham County.

So thank you, Madam Chair, members of the council for giving me an opportunity tonight.

I'm here because I my staff visited you on October 8th, as you may recall.

And then on October 15th, you also had a discussion about the agency.

What I'm concerned about, and what I'd like to clarify is my salary.

At the first meeting, um you raised the issue that it looked like the three of us in the top positions, excuse me, the CEO, the CFO, and the COO all received more than a million dollars in salaries.

That was $500,000 in salaries.

But at the October 8th meeting, it was at the October 15th meeting, it was 500,000.

Um I just want to clarify both meeting minutes because I'm concerned about it.

So the 990 that was in our packet uh shows our salaries collectively, the three of us, you're correct, are just under 500,000.

But I wanted to put it in perspective.

I mean, one of the problems sometimes from our view is that nonprofits aren't seen as a business.

We're seen as less than, and we should be doing less with less.

Um, and as Maureen Borgard, the CEO of Easter SEALs often says, nonprofit is a tax status, not a business model.

So our agency and myself in particular are responsible for more than $55 million, over 300 employees, over 60 programs, all that we have to deliver with 32 audits.

Um and so I know when you look at the paperwork, it can be a little overwhelming between the audit and the 990.

But when you put it in perspective of for the social service agency, we um the other question that came up was how much we received from the state in funding.

And Katie gave the right number, but we also receive our majority of our funding, 47 million, is from the federal government.

So between the two of them, that's where we are.

Our salaries in that context are just 1.01%.

If you add in the other entities that you see in the audit, but not in the 990, because we have two separate ones.

It's over 55 million.

And then therefore our salaries equate to point eight nine percent.

Um and so when you carry that much responsibility, I think it's important to put it in context.

Uh in addition, the 990 requires that we have our board of directors do a competitive salary analysis of like agencies with similar budgets, similar staff, that sort of thing.

My agency does that every year with my performance review.

So I just wanted to make sure, because I would be concerned sitting in your seat instead of this seat, if it just looked like it was really out of balance.

So I just wanted to bring that to your attention.

And of course, some of you may be familiar with um uh we s we serve just under 1,300 Salem residents uh in the year that you're looking at.

So our $10,000 request is about just under eight cents a person.

We run the only food pantry here in Salem.

Um so I think that that's important too.

Um and we leverage, I know there's uh Cindy's diaper food pantry, I think it's a small organization, but we leveraged eight hundred and forty-two thousand dollars here to your community, and I think that that's important as well.

So I just wanted to, you know, here's what I'm worried about.

People being concerned about that, but also you being concerned about it.

But I'm also really concerned about, let's say a few years from now with AI where it is.

And somebody's looking up my name or my agency, and they come up with hey, a million dollars or 500,000.

I I, you know, my husband might call you and say, Where's the Where'd the money go?

But I I'm just saying that I worry about the times, and I would appreciate it if you look back at those minutes and you know, if you can't amend them because what was said was said, if you could add a note that just points out Yeah.

I mean, obviously, my uh my comments were written with regards to financial stuff that was shown, and I and I add those up, and to me that you know I said that's a lot of money.

It is a lot of money.

It absolutely is a lot of money.

You know, but obviously I appreciate you saying $842,000 to this community.

These are the things that we want to know.

These are the those are the exact stuff that we wanted to know about what are the services our people are getting.

So I appreciate that very much.

Oh, you're very welcome.

We're happy to do it.

I mean, we've served Rockingham County, I mean Hillsboro County since 1965, Rockingham community since 2011.

So that's why we changed our name so people don't get lost on who we really are.

So thank you for your time tonight.

I appreciate any corrections you can make.

Thank you so much.

I appreciate it.

Okay.

Next up, John DeMayo.

Uh hi, I'm here to address the council today.

Um, just about the intersection on Tyler and Butler Street in Salem.

It's a very dangerous intersection.

Um, and actually twice in the last eight days.

There have been issues at it, including 4 p.m.

today.

Uh I actually heard a screeching, um, ran over to the window and saw someone almost hit the stop sign again today coming down butler on to Tyler.

Um I believe they did tap another car that was stopped at the stop sign.

So there should be a police log.

Police did show up today.

Um, and then eight days ago, someone came down butler.

I guess maybe didn't see that it's they're supposed to turn there and just completely went through the stop sign.

Stop sign has had to be replaced twice in the five years I lived here, so we're on our third stop sign in five years.

We're also on our second fire hydrant in five years.

Um I have a list of incidents, January 7th, 2022.

Fire hydrant was hit and replaced.

I felt bad for this person, they still had dealer plates on their car.

Um February 19th, 2022, uh, around midnight, someone very similar um to what happened today.

Um they actually went fully through my yard um and actually ended up parked into a tree.

Um that person had to be med flighted out uh, I believe to Lawrence General and then to uh Mass General in Boston.

Uh and I can only imagine the cost that the town incurred with that having happened at midnight, emergency personnel, um, police officers showing up, probably on call Friday at a midnight, and the accident reenactment crew being there until about 2 30 in the morning.

So sure that was really heavy cost for the town.

Um that's just three.

Oh, and then November 1st, 2022, um, a young driver on their way to their shift at market basket.

Um I think they took that turn too fast and they rolled their SUV right into my lawn.

Um police obviously showed up for that one as well.

Um everyone that I've talked to that lives, I would probably say three, four houses vicinity of me has similar sentiments that they've tried to bring it up.

Um I have an elderly neighbor that's lived there for 25 years and has said they brought it up before.

People have brought it up before the town's never done anything.

Um it's also deeply concerning that this intersection is two-tenths of a mile from Barron School.

So anyone with school-age kids is not letting their kids walk to that school, which is only less than a quarter mile away.

And yeah, everyone that I've talked to in my neighborhood, it's an issue, it's never been addressed.

Um, the people across the street from me right on Tyler.

Um, he won't he won't back out of his driveway.

He turns around every time, and he'll only pull out facing forward.

Um so if the town could take a look at this, um, I'm not really sure what the proper channel is to go through, other than this.

I've tried calling town hall multiple times.

I've tried talking to the public department of public works.

Uh, I've tried talking to the police department to see how I get a traffic study done.

Um, but I'd imagine two more stop signs or a traffic study is probably uh a lot more cost effective than replacing the stop signs, replacing the fire hydrants, um, an accident reenactment crew at 2 a.m.

Um, all that overtime that was probably paid for, rightfully should have been.

Um, and furthermore, it is I would say only a matter of time before something really bad happens.

And I believe also in 2009 I was looking up doing some research.

Um, there was a fatal accident um right next to that intersection, actually close to my yard.

Um so if I need to provide photos or um police reports, I'm sure I can get my hands on them and submit them.

Um I'm just hoping someone on the council can please advise me what to do next.

Well, that would be the town manager.

Okay.

I'm happy to work with staff to look into it to see what we can do.

So that's what we'll that's what he'll do.

I'll look into it, and I'm sure you'll be in touch with Mr.

Mayo.

Yep.

Is this contact if I want to?

I didn't give his address.

I have his address.

33 Butler Street.

Yep.

Uh, do you need any more confident contact info for me or anything?

Um, yeah, I'll come get it from you.

Great.

That'd be fantastic.

Thank you, Mr.

DeMayo.

Thank you.

All right.

Bring right along.

New business.

All right.

Well, we've got away for Joe.

Go in number seven, guys.

Well, that's gonna be Donna.

Right.

Yep.

Number six.

Number seven, article six, right?

Right.

Um, uh, so under new business, we're gonna start with the consider proposed amendments for the town charter for 2026 town meeting.

Um, this is just basically for the council to hear them, um, get some input before we have a public hearing, which won't happen probably until the first meeting in December.

But we just want to get these in front of you guys so you can kind of see and make sure you have any feedback.

We're hearing it.

Um, so we're gonna start with the ethics committee.

Good evening.

Good morning.

I'm honest.

I am chairman of the ethics committee.

Thank you.

I appreciate that.

Um, our committee, we have five members of the committee, uh, two of whom uh Donald Laranger and Kevin Breen were members of the charter commission, so they are heavily invested in getting it right.

Uh the other two members of our committee are uh our lawyers, Mary Beth Stramaga and uh Tony Conte.

So the five of us put our heads together and have uh proposed two amendments to the charter.

One is to correct a mistake from last year.

Uh you'll recall uh the provision uh concerning the use of influence was not properly posted on the uh the warrant.

So what was adopted was not complete.

So rather than just adding the additional language, uh we came up with a uh more comprehensive um policy having to do with the use of influence.

Uh so this is the language that uh we have proposed uh so that uh elected and appointed officials won't be able to use their position to benefit or to be a detriment to somebody.

So uh this is the language that we are uh presenting for your review.

The second one has to do with ethics training.

Uh you'll recall that the charter requires the ethics committee to provide training, but it doesn't require members to participate in training.

Uh we provided it, we went to each of the various committees at one of their regular meetings.

So most people, like 95% of them got the training because they attended one of their regular meetings.

Uh the uh language that we're proposing makes uh attendance at training uh mandatory for everybody every year.

Um we uh plan to do it in person as we always have uh to provide it at a regular meeting.

Uh but what do you do about the people who are appointed midterm?

Uh so the language that we have uh provided allows us uh uh allows those who don't uh participate in the in-person training to uh watch the video uh because we have uh recorded the presentation that we made to the town council, so that's available on the website uh and all the slides that go along with it.

So the language would allow them to do that.

It would be for every year, uh everybody.

And if they don't do it, it becomes a violation.

Um the ethics committee would have to look at that.

So these are the two proposals uh that we have for your review, and I'll answer any questions.

Questions?

No questions?

Councilor Hatchett emailed one to us earlier today.

Okay.

Um he wanted to know um does this include ethics training that's given outside of Salem?

For example, an elected official saying they've received it either at the state level or the county level.

Would they have to still be required to go through the Salem one?

Uh you can see that the ethics training uh in a non-town capacity doesn't satisfy the requirement.

Our rules are different than the rules for every other organization.

Yeah.

Council Bettencourt.

Thank you.

So just a quick question.

If there's going to be an opportunity for people to satisfy the requirement by watching a video or watching perhaps the rerun of the meeting in which you presented, do they just attest that they did it?

What that okay?

I talked to Councillor Hatch about this, and he says, How are you going to prove it?

Uh we're going to use the honor system.

We asked them to uh sign something that they that they did it.

Makes sense to me.

And if I if I could just add to that too, we we actually also asked uh the assistant town manager and uh Creighton if it would be possible for us to sort of verify whether anybody had been on the website in that period of time and we can look and see.

It does it won't let it won't allow us to see who, yeah, but it will at least allow us to see has anybody been on in that time where they said they watched.

So the language is such that if in the future we have the technology to track who actually completed all the things like they do with the school district.

Um the language would allow for that without any further changes to the charter.

Very good.

Council Bryant.

Why couldn't there just be a quiz at the end that you know you get the results of?

So you you know, let's say a 70 or an 80 passes and you ask 10 questions.

And then you would have that, you would have that because once you're done with it, you click it, it automatically goes somewhere.

And you could see that somebody actually did the training and got the grade that they need that they understand what they were reading.

In order to be fair, yes, go ahead.

In order to be fair, we'd have to test everybody.

We'd have to give everybody a test, even the people who attended live.

I think what we could look into, and I don't know Joe if this is even possible on the website, if there's something that they could where they could, you know, we could make a check box on the website where it says I've you know I've I've completed this.

I I don't I mean, technologically I know it's possible.

I just don't know if the town has the technology.

The website has the ability to do forms, so it's something we can look at.

Definitely counselor with the question.

We didn't consider giving them a test.

So 42 years of taking ethics training.

I know I have to take a look at the same thing.

I'm good.

I take test two.

Somebody who can't pass is in trouble anyway.

Counselor with row.

Um obviously you're gonna be able to keep track of who's in the meetings when you're doing this.

Oh yeah.

Are you gonna be keeping a list of people who weren't in the meeting so you know who to follow up with?

So that's I'm sorry, that's on the ethics committee.

That's not like a town manager thing.

Okay.

No, we've we've been doing that all along.

Okay, okay.

Thank you.

Any other questions or comments?

Thank you very much.

Okay, thank you.

Wonderful.

Thank you.

Thank you.

That was easy.

No problem.

Sorry about the state.

Big time.

Okay.

You're next, right?

Mr.

Devine.

Uh so the next proposed charter amendment is going to be coming from the Conservation Commission.

Um, assistant town manager Colleen Mayu is here to speak to this one.

Good evening.

Good evening.

I'm filling in for Creighton on this one.

So what this boils down to is in 2024, the um charter was amended to modify the number of alternates to the Conservation Commission.

Um, but still required that they be um staggered on on staggered three-year terms and that alternates you could not replace or one term, no more than one term could expire in a year.

The math of five alternates and three years staggered terms, and you can't have more than one expire in a year just doesn't work.

So this is just clean up language that is just going to match the the vacancies with the number of alternates on the commission.

Very good.

Questions?

Comments?

Thank you.

Thank you.

And the final one is going to be coming from the finance department under the audit.

Um, as of right now, we are required to change our audit firm every three years.

Um we are finding that there is actually a higher cost to that.

Auto firms typically don't start making money until their third year, so we're being purposely bid high because of this, because they know they're gonna lose a contract after three years.

So we're proposing that basically we have the ability to stay with the same audit firm, but we would have the we'd have to switch teams every three years, so the same people would not be auditing us.

Uh, the firms that we use uh right now have multiple, multiple, multiple teams, and they would be able to put all new people looking at our financial statements.

So that's what we're proposing to get um basically better rates as we're bidding these out through the RP process.

The only the only comment I'm gonna have about that is I obviously don't want us in you know infinito having the same audit company because if there's issues, um there could be real issues.

Okay, and and so you know I I understand what you want to do, but I I think there needs to be a drop-dead term of how many times you can renew with the same audit company.

I just think it's business sense.

Okay, so I I don't know how you want to handle that, but I just I just think that that would be the proper way to move forward.

We can definitely do that.

Okay.

Any other questions or concerns?

All set?

Okay, moving right along.

Uh so next on the agenda is gonna be the discussion on policies and procedures for town funding of outside human service agencies.

Uh, this was an agenda item put on by the council.

So um I did provide a memo to the council um in regards to this, and I'd be happy to answer any questions, but I'll turn it over to the council for discussion.

Okay.

Questions, concerns?

This is a council item.

Counselor with so I know that there were two topics.

I mean, there were many topics, there were two that were outstanding from our last discussion.

Um, one being that we were looking to form a subcommittee.

Um I know I did see an email that you sent out that you had some concerns and you want the staff to be able to handle it, which I don't want to overstep overstep bounds with the staff.

That is your job.

But we do have our own concerns too.

So I think that if we still form the subcommittee, I would think that if we start my opinion, of course I'm just one member here.

We kind of have a meeting, discuss what our concerns, what our desires are, and they yes, the staff would have however many meetings, and then we would meet.

It this would be a goal for me.

That way we could both you can understand the staff could understand our concerns, we can understand the issues with maybe some of our concerns, and then from there take it and move it forward.

So I would still move that we have the subcommittee formed.

Okay.

And I know that um I don't know if anybody has any other comments or or want to add to that.

I mean, um, we're looking at the possibility I know that uh Jeff Hatch has said he'd like to serve.

Lisa uh Withrow has said she wanted to serve, and I believe Council Sweeney.

I don't know if anybody else, I can't have more than I can't have more than four.

Anybody else want to take a stab?

Barney.

You did hear Paul.

So I Paul said I know.

I know that Paul said, but I I mean, obviously, um, I'm thinking I'd like to give Barney the opportunity to serve on that.

If you don't mind, Paul.

I'm sorry, I would think it's I do enough.

Um what did you say?

I said I do enough.

I'm happy to step off.

Okay.

So that's that's fine.

So Barney.

The town is proposing that they go out to other towns to find out what their process is for this.

Would it make sense to get that information before the subcommittee starts meeting?

Who's I think that makes a lot of sense.

Sure.

I think we're gonna have opinions.

Sorry.

Yeah, we're gonna have opinions regardless of what though that feedback is.

I I don't think more information is ever bad, so I would suggest we do both.

I would suggest we meet, discuss our concerns, and then we have that information.

How can it hurt to have to double up on it?

And it's not like we have to end a meeting with done.

So we can uh I I would I think there's gonna I would assume there's gonna be multiple meetings.

Uh this is not gonna be a one and done.

There's no way it's gonna be a one and done.

But is this Mr.

Devine?

Is this something that you you were looking to go to other communities to see?

Well I or the county, because we have the Yep.

I I was gonna look at other municipal municipalities, whether it be government organizations through the county, just to see how they handle it.

I can give you an example.

There was actually just a recent article in the Eagle Tribune, Londonderry.

They actually hold a um people submit their applications and they have interview processes, and that's how they decide how they're gonna give out their community.

The council essentially sits a pot of money that says this is how much we're gonna give, and then they interview everybody, and then they say, Okay, we're gonna give this organization this, we're gonna give that organization that, and that's how they do it.

So I think it's just good to be able to see how other people do it.

Um I can tell you my time at Henneker, everyone had to go on the warrant.

We didn't do any in the operating budget.

They all were automatically placed on the warrant and let the voters decide.

So I think it's just good to see how all these other communities are actually handling the same thing because this is not a Salem issue, this is a issue everywhere.

So thank you, Council Withrow.

If you were to do the, you know, this is how much money we're gonna donate.

Can't anybody still do a warrant article on top of that?

I certainly could.

Okay.

Right.

Council Bettencourt.

So I just wanted to clarify.

I didn't mean to suggest that getting all of that information should be a prereq prerequisite in order to meet, but I do think it'd be very helpful because I think one of the things, and we talked a little bit about this last week that I think would be helpful is looking at how the other towns structure their application.

Because what you don't want is a big data dump with spreadsheets all over the place, and you're like, okay, what is the context?

What am I supposed to get out of this big stack of spreadsheets and numbers here as opposed to more targeted and direct questions that get to the heart of some of what was raised over the past couple of weeks that we've discussed this?

I think looking at those applications would have uh a lot of potential value.

And I'm gonna say I agree with that because that's exactly when you talk about the community action.

I mean the the stack of information and just the numbers, um, and yeah, it very can be very, very confusing as to what numbers apply to what.

So yeah, I mean obviously that would have to have be part of the application process, and obviously streamlining it.

Because everybody budgets differently.

So the way somebody sets up their budget, you know, gives you one set of information the way somebody else does it, you'd have to interpret how it is that they do it.

Right.

Um questions.

You know, in and uh I think the benefit to the to the organizations, the nonprofits is that they're not having to do a big data dump.

You know, we're not sure what they're going to find persuasive, so just give them everything.

Right.

Instead of having to do that, we can target you know their attention, maybe less work for them in the overall process.

Yeah.

Other questions, comments.

So I uh uh those who are in support of a subcommittee made up of council with counselor Pellatea.

I'm sorry, Council Pelletier and Council Wright, four for four members.

Raise your hands.

Yay, unanimous.

Very good.

Um Council Withrow.

The other one of the other big topics that came up in our last meeting was the three-year rule.

Um, I think the Board of Selectmen put that in in 16 or 17.

17, yeah.

Um obviously you guys know them opposed to that.

I think it should be every voter should know every time what they're voting for.

So I would move that we eliminate the three-year warrant article approval means you're in the budget rule.

Second.

I have a motion by Council Withrow or second by Council Bryan.

Counselor Bettencourt.

So I'm in favor of the motion.

I was never in love with it from the outset.

I I do understand the efficiency motivators behind it, so I appreciate where people were coming from at the time, but philosophically I just didn't like it.

But help me understand.

I think probably the town manager can help me best with this.

So you've been uh you've satisfied the three-year rule, so now you're in the budget automatically.

Do you still have to go through the application process every year as though you would if you were not part of the three-year rule?

They they do submit applications every year with all the quarterly reporting that's required once they've been part of the operating budget.

So every quarter they're reporting their financials to the town.

That's a good that satisfies one of the concerns I have, which is you've satisfied the three-year rule, then for whatever reason the charity goes defunct.

You know, are is the money still being allocated to that charity even though they've gone away.

It sounds like though they may have enjoyed that benefit of the three-year rule, they still have to go through the normal process.

So that's at least encouraging.

Council Stramalia.

Do we know of any other talent that uh like a three-year rule type of thing?

Or the sales the only one that knows it.

I'm not aware of any other communities, but it doesn't mean it doesn't exist.

I'm just not aware of it.

Councillor Wright, I think this is a little premature.

I think we should have some of the um discussion that we're talking about before we make that decision to cut that.

Well, I don't think it's a matter of cutting it out of the budget.

I just think it's a matter of changing the way that we're doing it so that it's not an automatic event after three.

You know what I'm saying?

I think I think that's what the Council Bryant.

Like I had said earlier.

No prior board can tie the hands of this board.

So in reality, Lisa's motion may be germane, but we really don't have to do it because the board of selectmen did it in 2017.

Doesn't mean that we're stuck with it.

So you can do what you want and I'd be voting for it if that's what we need to get rid of it.

But council right.

Um at one point, Mr.

Stromaglia whispered maybe we should consider putting in a warrant article to the public saying these are the six organizations that are part of the budget.

People automatically get added in if they have been approved for three years.

Do you want to continue that process?

That's up to him if he wants to do a warrant article to that effect.

But I no I mean I can't see it.

I mean, again, it's the town council that makes the determination about what's happening with the budget, right?

It and this year's budget.

And in the whole the whole the whole discussion is around transparency.

That's what it's about.

But more importantly, having a select board by the hands of a current board.

That that's the other thing.

That's the issue.

So we're we're just saying we don't want to follow that protocol.

We want to move forward, and that does not mean that these that does not mean that this money is coming out of the budget.

That's not what it means.

It doesn't at all at this juncture.

Whatever this board decides as they move forward, the or the budget committee, you know, that's that's what's gonna happen at that point in time.

You know, but I um I don't think it automatically takes them off the budget.

Council With I think to ease your concern, if we eliminate this rule, it doesn't mean and correct me if I'm wrong, doesn't mean we can't just put the money back in.

So if six charities were in in 25, I think in 26 we could say we're still gonna fund those same charities.

So that would be up to this board.

There's not just a rule that dictates every board going forward.

So it's not like we have to take it out.

It gives us flexibility.

Anything else?

Okay.

We have a motion on the floor.

All those in favor?

Opposed.

Council Wright is opposed.

So thank you.

Okay.

James moving right along.

So next on your agenda is going to be from the municipal services department from the engineering division.

Um to talk about the depot intersection and redevelopment concept plan.

You have a memo from James Danis in your packet.

Um his PowerPoint is not 119 pages long.

So that one is thank you.

We appreciate that.

And this will be the last time you appear.

This for a while in front of us, isn't that right, Mr.

Danis?

This will be the last time I'm uh I'm sitting in front of this board.

Um I'll be the Capital Projects Engineer for the town for about another four days.

And we thank you for all your hard work and your dedication.

Thank you very much.

We really do.

It's been great.

We wish you the best and will indeed.

I legitimately and come into work every single day.

I love my job out loud.

Um and uh it's been uh my genuine pleasure to to be uh an engineer for this town and and do what I've done and and um and just kind of help where I could help.

I genuinely have enjoyed working here in Salem.

Thank you.

So uh on my out.

Um we put together a current revision of the depot master plan, or um we call it it's the uh depot intersection redevelopment consum plan of what it was what it was built as in uh 2011.

Um and we've uh we turned it basically the the depot master plan is what we've termed it.

So Roy brought the draft language to you guys back in January.

Um it was the extra stuff that has happened since 2011.

Um and since uh January we have taken a lot of the we've taken all of that language and we've incor incorporated into the broader document that was originally built in 2011.

And from there, that document was refined and reorganized to the point where um we are um uh dealing with a current document that has it accounts for a lot of the development that's happened, it accounts for um some of the master plans.

The Salem Master Plan was was recently redone.

Um we developed a uh utility ordinance, which is recently done.

The DVAC committee developed a master plan of the parcels.

Um you know, various developments have been built.

You know, the the um uh the the Vets Plaza was is just about done.

Uh several parcels were built out.

Um and as a result of all that, um I'm gonna just kind of read a direct statement from uh from my m my memo here.

Um the the impetus of the engineering division to develop a revision to the depot intersection redevelopment competent concept plan is in response to the current and future needs of the depot area with sensitivities to continuing with the original intent of a village village center.

Um and I thought that that was uh a pretty good takeoff of what what is shown on the screen right now is the original mission statement to establish a community vision and economic revitalization plan for the depot area, which provides the framework for coordinated land use modifications and transportation improvements.

It's a bit of a mouthful, but um it actually um is very well spoken in that uh the intent here of the original committee was to um develop a functional, pleasing, appealing uh village center um that draws people to the center of Salem.

Um so that was a really good thing to uh to to put into it.

All right, so uh moving into the next uh Joe, if you wouldn't mind that.

Um so that commit I what I wanted to do is I just wanted to kind of go through the original intent of the uh the original document and then kind of add in the the piece that we put in.

Um so the community vision developed by the uh the committee is to work with uh property owners and collaborate with the planning department and develop uh a circulation of land use planning document.

From there, they developed a bunch of guiding principles and anticipated outcomes from those guiding principles to which would help us move forward in planning of the overall area.

All right, next.

Um from there we developed a prolong statement.

Uh that problem statement um had you know three or four core uh items to uh to address traffic congestion, by far the most paramount problem in the depot area.

Um fostering development.

How do we bring people here to Salem and developing uh and invite the community to a village center?

Um the the composite of the three items there is how we brought together and work with developers and landowners to create ultimately the ring rules, which we'll get to in just a second.

All right, moving on.

Um so once the statements were developed and the uh anticipated outcomes were were developed.

Um we developed a series of alternatives back in 2011.

Um and a couple of those were summarily um uh tossed out and um quickly.

Uh one was an overpass option where Main Street would go over the top of Route 28 and touch down on the other side.

You can see the variety of problems with that by developing a village center.

So they stuck with the original of a full-way intersection.

And that's where the depot plan itself was built.

But with each one of these concepts, the most uh important thing to kind of note is that the ring roads themselves are common amongst all three concepts, and that's this is where the ring roads themselves were born.

Um so the next step in that process is to uh come up with the zoning.

Um how you know this is where we're working with uh developers and landowners, you know.

How do we start working with landowners to build this area into the village center that the visions is stating?

Um we want to create a uh a functional and peeling village center again.

Um you can see the outline of the uh the zoning area there.

Um and just uh some quick little bullet points of of what the go the goals were.

You want to uh you know encourage diverse uh diverse uses, you want to you know eliminate, discourage uh any strip uses, um, you know, uh pedestrian circulation, vehicle circulation, um, and rather than read them all there, um they're certainly there to to read.

Um moving on to the next.

All right, so since 2011, what's happened?

I'm not gonna read all this.

Um I'm not even gonna read a piece of this.

Um a lot has happened.

Um we have a whole bunch of developments that have happened with uh various landowners.

And um uh I've already mentioned we have put together the um uh the utility ordinance was developed.

Um the the depot intersection itself is you know the the the centerpiece of this whole concept.

Um we started working getting utilities underground um and um uh we we're just kind of working through each of the pieces.

Um and the biggest thing that I know you know to say here is right down there and big bold letters on the bottom.

The plan's working, you know, what what was originally visioned is working.

Um and it's gonna take some more time.

Moving on.

All right.

Um so what are we what are we gaining from this?

Um we're getting success and standards.

Um this uh this area, while the original plan didn't uh uh pointedly note out a bunch of things, um, but we we are getting some of the intended uh benefits.

We do have our pedestrian circulation and access.

We do have our uh vehicle circulation, a couple of the ring roads themselves are already mostly built or at least laid out.

Um you know, traveling convenience of the ring roads.

People are using the ring roads to get around the depot.

Um, you know, the the Tuscan development itself is a testament of uh the live and work and work and live uh concepts.

Um we are coming up with design standards and parking standards, all part of the uh all part of the uh zoning ordinance itself.

All right, this is a straight up steal from one of Roy's PowerPoints.

Uh this is exactly his slide that he showed you on another project.

So I decided to clip it and take it for my own.

Um this is just identifying um some of the projects and that we've done and what we have to look forward to.

So Joe, this is like a five, this is an automated one.

So go ahead and click that to the next one.

So depot intersection itself.

That's the biggest one we did so far.

Um the next one up was the little piece of Main Street that we did um last year or two years ago at this point.

Um next one up is the Brunella Road.

That one has been put out the bid.

Uh bids came up a bit too high, and we were unable to uh to construct that.

Um we still working through the crossing agreement uh with uh with uh Tuscan and then next one up was the pleasant main intersection.

Um and that one is just about ready to bid.

I'm trying to get that set and square for the guys to just kind of pop it on the shelf and uh and bid when we're ready to bid.

I think that would have been the oh hey uh ring roads, uh the ring roads themselves.

Uh so Northwest Quadrant, we got the Willow Street Ring Road and the Willow Street intersection.

We're working through some concepts now on that, and then the last piece uh would be the church of ring road, which is uh pretty far off in the future.

There's a fair amount of complications with that one.

Um, and then that would also include the reworking of the Millville and uh Main Street intersection, which is actually uh very doable that that that will actually happen, that piece.

All right.

Um this slide is out of place, Joe.

Can we just quickly fast forward past it?

Um so going back to the previous slide from here, Joe.

There we go.

All right, so this is just some of the things that the plan's original plan kind of spoke to it, had some pictures in it, and um so what we did is we took a lot of those pictures and we turned them in the words.

Um so those top two pictures on the left you can see were just directly taken from the original plan.

Um the depot um uh the Vets Plaza uh the top right there.

That's a concept um that um is now basically built, and we're soon to open here very quickly.

You see some utility undergrounding, that was something we did, and then you can kind of see just village center picture.

That's uh you know, that's the depot train building with the Tuscan building, and you got this, you know, the sidewalk crossing and uh pavers and everything, and that just one that's one teeny little spot of the overall area.

Next, all right, standards, you know, architectural light poles, architectural um uh uh signals, um, just something that didn't exist in the plan, it's just something that uh we pushed for something that came through uh with the Tuscan, and that that same concept has been fostered through this whole area.

Um you can see uh a new rendering of the Northeast Quadrant, which kind of shows the the gas station that's there now, um, and then just some ideas of uh you know uh how some building development might occur over a very long period of time.

And then that last uh lower right, that's just a sample of you know uh wider sidewalks, wider concrete sidewalks, and and you know how we're working with uh pedestrians who uh uh on one of those items.

Um next.

All right.

Um so this uh top picture obviously that's the DVAC committees uh rendering of what the all the parcels might look like in the uh Salem Depot area when uh that full build out has happened.

Um you know, again, the the Vets Plaza is already in place.

Uh the depot train building has already been redone.

Um that was done several years ago, and then you just kind of see how these things might just start play out over years.

That bottom image, that's something that I toiled with.

Um that is a uh that's an east-west quarter plan.

Um that's something that um drags two lanes, two through lanes back to the adjacent intersections, Pleasant Street and Millville.

Um that's a means of mitigating some of that east-west traffic, which is currently the the biggest problem.

Um next.

All right, this was the slide that was out of place.

Um so what's missing?

Uh what's missing is um all those pictures and ideas in the original plan that didn't have words.

Um so we decided we're gonna put some words to some of those things.

Uh streetscape standards, uh, screen shape and scanner uh standards, you know, wide concrete sidewalk, architectural lighting, plantings, uh, complete streets concepts.

Utilities discussion.

That was a huge piece that uh goes with the Salem Master Plan as well as the utility ordinance that uh we we developed and and published.

Um updating planning efforts.

Um basically everything that uh the original uh plan said went through all of those uh statements and results and predictions and just made sure all of that information was uh was correct.

Any new developments was dropped on there.

And then of course, the overall focus of this revision of the document is the ring roads themselves.

Um that will take this plan into the future and um you know get the town to a point where this overall plan will come to full realization in X years.

Next um next project up to go.

I just left this.

This is another one of Roy's slides.

I just kind of left it.

Um that's the Pleasant Main Street intersection.

The design is just about done, as I mentioned a minute ago, and um that'll uh that'll take us to our next major project.

That one and or the uh the Brunello Road intersection Route 28 widening.

Um on this particular project, um, we're continuing at the original depot with the other with um the original depot model with uh underground utilities, Liberty Coordination is still ongoing, and the intersection itself, we're hoping to get construction going by 2026, pending uh the um uh the completion of uh the utility underground.

We're hoping to get construction going by 2026, pending uh the um uh the completion of uh the utility underground.

Um what's not shown here again was the Brunello Route 28 widening.

I already mentioned that.

Um so the last um I think Joey, that that's it.

Okay, so the last little bit here is that um is really the direction of the board.

Um being as this is an update to a plan.

Um I believe the board could just act on it.

The original plan was uh brought through uh committee with landowners and uh constituent stakeholders throughout the area.

Um some of that coordination can still happen.

Um I don't believe it's uh it's necessarily required, but uh that that open uh dialogue that we have with a lot of the landowners and and and some of that communication that um uh has happened really since the construction of the depot, acquisition or parcels and that kind of stuff.

Um all of that information, all of those relationships are all established.

Um so it would be nice to probably can you know at a minimum get this document out to those landowners before the board actually accepts it and see if they have any comments.

Sounds great.

Any questions or comments?

Council Pelletier.

Hi, yeah.

Um great job.

Great job of the depot.

The Duke people can't be any nicer than it is right now with all the work you've done, your team has done through the collaboration of the of the council and former board of selectmen that worked out very well.

Um totally tickle pink that we're gonna go to the original direct the original plan with all four corners of buildings up against the sidewalk and all the park in the back here back.

It would still look like downtown Cambridge, I think, rather rather than having a uh still a hometown feeling of this.

Uh but that's I just wanted to collaborate on and thank you guys for doing what you did.

The uh the only I think the only question I had it might have been answered a long time ago has all the street lights well in the depot and down 28.

Have they all been changed to LEDs now?

Is that job all done?

The LED lighting is LED lighting is all done now.

It is all done.

All right, beautiful.

Thank you.

That's all I have.

Questions or comments?

Great job.

Yeah, all right.

Uh thank you, thank you.

James, thanks for the update.

Thank you.

Good luck.

We wish you good luck.

Mr.

Devine.

Uh so next on the agenda is gonna be the town managers report.

Um, so just as a quick recap, we went through our budget meetings for the past couple weeks uh with the council.

I mean, you have approved the 2026 budget to be pushed to the budget committee at this point.

I just want to thank everybody through that process.

Um for those keeping track, the budget committee gave a goal at 2.5 percent, including debt service, is what they would like to see the operating budget come in at.

I am pleased to report that we did hit that goal and hit that target.

In fact, we came in um well under it with a 0.04% decrease uh based off of our estimated tax rate of 590 for 2025.

Um we are coming in at 590 with this current operating budget.

This does not include warrant articles, obviously, um, but for the operating budget uh for the goal that they set, we we we nailed it, which is great.

So I just wanted to pass that on.

Uh budget committee will start their um review of the budget in November.

Uh I just want to remind the residents that we do have a budget page set up if they want to review the budget, look at the presentations, watch the video, it's all on the town's website.

Um, you also can still submit questions if you do have questions on the budget to budget at Salem NH.gov if they're interested and want to have any questions or answers on that.

Um quick final reminder for people about the Salem Community Choice Irrigation Program.

Um, the deadline to opt out is October 31st.

So it's this coming Friday.

Um, or I'm sorry, a week from Friday.

So if you are not interested in switching over to Salem Community Choice to the community power, um, you will have to opt out.

This is an opt-out program, not an opt-in.

So everybody is automatically put in unless they choose not to.

Um again, if you go on our website, right on the homepage, there is a full recording of a presentation that was done to it for a public meeting, allowing kind of telling people what this was all about.

Um, the presentations up there, and then links to be able to opt out if they choose to is also on the website.

So I would encourage people to go and research that if they aren't familiar with it.

Um so trick-or-treating, just again to kind of remind people is October 31st from 6 to 8.

Um, we encourage participants to be safe when doing it.

Again, residents do not have to participate, obviously.

We just encourage you to turn your light off if you do not want trick-or-treaters.

Um, new this year, the community service department has started a tour of lights called uh Salem Freights.

So this is similar to what we do in Christmas time with this.

Go around and you can look at Christmas lights.

There is a Google map that's published at Salemfrights.com.

You can go on and look at houses that are decorated for Halloween.

Uh as you can go guy and see some spooky um family-friendly stuff, hopefully.

Um trunk or treat is going to be on this Thursday, October 23rd.

It's 5 30 to 7 30 if the public wants to come out.

Again, we encourage people to park over at town hall at the high school or at the courthouse.

There is a uh a walk through the woods, and then you end up at the senior center.

Um last year we had over 50 people there with their trunks open, handing out candy and other goodies.

So come car uh come decorated.

There'll be um a DJ there and uh they'll be doing um prizes for costume contests.

So they're also doing an autism-friendly trunk retreat.

Uh it's gonna be Tuesday, October 28th.

Again, same idea, decorated trunks, but no flashing lights, no loud sounds, things like that.

So if people um are autistic uh or if they don't like that type of thing, they're more than welcome to come to this as well.

It's right at the high school.

Um it's 5 30 to 7 30.

And I just want to give a shout out to the Salem Area Women's Club.

Um, they've done a nice job decorating the front of town hall with flowers uh by the sign and out by the entrance.

Um if you've noticed we're we've got nice new mums, we have corn stalks up for the fall, it looks very nice.

Uh so I just want to thank them.

They gave a thousand dollar donation as well towards the plantings for town hall, which was very generous of them.

Um so just want to thank them again, and I'm happy to answer any questions that the council might have.

Council Stomalia.

Uh the trunk of treat.

Is the bridge between town hall and the calls repaired?

The the bridge is not repaired.

They have to go around.

They have to go around, that is correct.

Council Bettencourt.

I just wanted to highlight the accomplishment that the town manager just mentioned, which is that the operating uh budget for the town 0.04% down.

And though that does not include the warrant articles, it does include the debt service.

Does it?

Which I think is extraordinary given the fact that we're bringing the police station project online in a way that it's starting to hit debt service.

So I know that that was a discussion last year with the budget committee as to how you factor in debt service and all of that this year, not gonna be a problem.

So really really good work by the staff.

We made some adjustments, but really the staff came out of the gate with a very, very good proposal for us to work from.

Absolutely.

Any other questions?

CouncilBryant.

You know what I'm gonna ask you, probably.

Because of the depot presentation, we got where do we stand with the PUC on burying the lines?

We are still waiting for the order from the PUC on Liberty's.

How much longer do we have to wait?

Do you know?

Has the attorney come back and said anything at all?

The PUC still is waiting on their judgment.

Where again we're anticipating them siding with Liberty.

Um based off of previous comments that the PUC made during the depot grounding when they fought it during that process.

Uh the public sales commission kind of did not like that they were passing it on to the utility.

Um, so we're anticipating them going with the utility, siding on that in that way right now, but we're still waiting for that decision.

And those 68-foot poles and uh 52-foot poles running down 28.

Yeah, okay.

Uh, I just noticed on the way in tonight that the flag poles have arrived at the monument and the depot.

So it looks like those will be up soon.

Yep.

Did they did they say something about uh identifying the branches of the service?

Are they gonna put that on the outside of the wall or how do they do that?

I don't believe they're differentiating between any of the branches of service right now.

Um, I think they're trying to make it for it's all veterans.

It was my understanding as of right now.

Um there's two phases to it.

I think that might incorporate it.

I don't know, Councilor Culture.

Council Pelletia.

Yes, along with that note.

The ribbon cutting is scheduled for November 5th at 2 o'clock.

Uh be there early if you'd like to talk to your veterans and uh and again uh communicate with other people.

Actually, the whole community is invited uh to this ribbon cutting, but the American Legion asked me to to announce that they would like to see as many veterans as possible uh line up for this ribbon cutting because this uh plaza is yours.

It's for you, the veterans.

And so they asked me this to announce that to see if we get as many veterans there as possible at the line at the ribbon cutting.

And uh there's plenty of parking, so uh we don't have to worry about that.

Uh yeah, so that's that, and it's looking good.

Yeah, I didn't notice the polls are there today.

I do have I have pictures from start to finish from what it was dirt till today.

Very nice.

Then I will publicize that to uh uh Bobby Gibbs, and uh he's probably gonna do he said he's gonna do a uh uh story on that for the baby.

Okay, nice very nice, very good.

Thank you, madam care.

Any questions or comments?

Not there.

Council Sweeney.

Hey you just want to take a second.

Uh back in February of this year, a political advocacy organization that I serve as the chairman of at the state level received a letter from the Attorney General's office regarding some missing filings from the fall of 2024 general election.

Uh once we received the letter, we promptly filed the missing filings.

I believe the expenditure amount that had gone unfiled was approximately $1,145.

Uh, we got those filings into the state uh back in March, and then we got an additional filing with the Secretary of State's office just due to their computer system uploaded in early April.

Uh last week uh they released letters to a number of candidates and political committees with their decisions being made to it.

Uh they did issue my political advocacy organization a $500 fine uh for the missing filings.

Uh it was the lowest fine that was issued by the Attorney General's office.

I want to thank the Attorney General's office and the Secretary of State's office for being on top of things, uh and I look forward to them enforcing uh other violations that may come up in the future.

Uh, but obviously, very uh transparently uh cooperated with the attorney general's office and made sure that all the filings uh got up once it was noted that they weren't up.

So I just wanted to address that.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Any other questions, comments?

Council Bryant Madam Chair.

At this time, it's my pleasure to adjourn.

Thank you.

I have a motion to second all those in favor.

Unanimous.

Good evening, Salem.