Pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands.

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

Thank you.

Thank you.

I will introduce the board to my far left is Councillor Schmalia.

Good evening.

His right is Councillor Sweeney.

Good evening.

To his right.

Right.

It's Councillor.

You're on the left.

To his right is the Vice Chair.

Good evening.

Counselor Hatch.

To my immediate right is the Secretary, Councillor Whitrow.

Good evening.

To her right is Councillor Pellatea.

Evening, Sale.

To his right is Councillor Wright.

Hello, say and to her right is town manager Joe Devine.

Good evening.

Good evening.

Okay, meeting minutes.

First, I would like to move that we seal the minutes from the non-public tonight, number two and number three under RSA 91A32C.

Second.

I have a motion by Councillor Withrow.

Second by Councillor Hatch.

All those in favor?

Abstaining.

Council Bryant is abstaining.

Thank you.

Okay.

I would move the minutes from October 15, 2025, non-public session.

Second.

I have a motion by Councillor Withrow.

Second by Councillor Bryant.

Any discussion?

All those in favor.

Unanimous.

I would move the minutes from October 20th, 2025, non-public session number one.

Second.

I have a motion and a second by Councillor Bryant.

All those in favor?

I abstain.

And Councillor Hatch is abstaining.

Thank you.

I will move the minutes from October 20th, 2025, non-public session number two.

Second.

Second by Councillor Bryant.

All those in favor.

Abstaining.

Councilor Hatch is abstaining.

Thank you.

I move the minutes from October 15th, 2025 public session.

Second.

I have a motion and a second by Councillor Bryant.

Any discussion?

All in favor.

Unanimous.

And lastly, I would move October 20th, 2025 public session.

Second.

I have a motion second by Councillor Bryant.

All those in favor?

Abstaining.

Councillor Hatch is abstaining.

Thank you.

There's no chairman comments.

Consent agenda.

Council Bryant.

Madam Chair, at this time I would move to approve the November 3rd, 2025 consent agenda.

Second.

I have a motion and a second by Councillor Hatch.

Any discussion?

All those in favor?

Unanimous.

Additions and requests.

I have a one public request.

Mr.

Kimpton.

State your name and your address when you come up to the podium, please.

Thank you.

My name is Peter Kempton, five Apollo Way.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I rise in a little bit of disappointment, as you may recall or saw in the last uh town council meeting.

I asked this council to schedule a discussion to reconsider the March 24th decision to leave our empty State House seat open for 19 months.

I spoke specifically about the obvious issue of taxation without representation, as well as the oddity of elected officials deciding the people's representatives rather than the other way around.

But I don't see that on your agenda for this evening.

I'm disappointed because tomorrow is election day in so many parts across our country, including here in New Hampshire in Colas District 5, which will be holding a special election tomorrow.

It seems that other towns in New Hampshire value full representation in the State House, but not here in Salem.

We don't do that.

And I'm growing a bit cynical.

Wondering if there isn't a deliberate effort to run out the clock until the window closes under state law, and we can no longer fill that open seat.

I don't want to believe that that's the plan, but it's starting to look that way.

So I'd ask the town council address my reasonable requests to discuss the need for a special election to fill that empty seat.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay.

Is Creighton here?

Yes.

He is.

He is here.

Mr.

Devine.

Um so next on the agenda is going to be recognized the October employee of the month.

I don't think this employee really needs an introduction.

I think we're all pretty familiar with him.

Um we see him around town.

He works on multiple boards and committees.

Like to invite Crane to come on up to the board.

Our creator is our community value and program manager.

Um he's helped guide major planning initiatives like the Depot Village Plan, uh, the recreation master plan.

He's known for strong ideas and initiatives.

He's also kind of stepped into the Salem's web guru, improving our websites, boosting transparency through the town hall times and social media, and then leading public outreach for the community choice irrigation program.

So, congratulations to Creighton.

Thank you.

Yeah, Creighton.

Congratulations.

Well deserved, Craig.

I know.

Thank you.

You do a great job.

Thank you.

Thanks.

Great.

It's wonderful.

Good job.

Are we doing a picture?

Are we doing a photo?

We're doing a photo.

Photo up.

Come on back.

Yeah, it's getting kind of crowded.

Kind of crowded back in.

Further and further.

Well, you're gonna be hidden behind him now.

That's all right, though.

I don't mind.

Thank you.

Yeah, they want to push us right on the wall.

Oh my god!

Very nice.

Well deserved.

Very well deserved.

All right.

Let me see.

Where am I?

Okay.

Mr.

Devine.

So next on your agenda is me a first read waiver.

This is me for resolution uh 2025-35, which is from the community development department, which is the expansion and renown renaming of the economic revitalization zones.

In your packet is a memo from community program manager Crane Rubaker regarding these three ERZs.

And I'll turn it over to Crane to talk more about this.

Good evening, uh Madam Chairman, members of the council.

So the economic development committee has met over the past several months uh looking at the economic revitalization zone program.

This is a program uh through the New Hampshire Business of Department Department of Business and Economic Affairs.

Salem has four ERZ zones.

These basically allow any businesses within those zones to apply to this program.

And it would uh if they do certain if they receive certain uh criteria in terms of job creation or uh capital investment into their business, uh they can get business tax reductions through this program.

Uh no property taxes incentives are a part of this program, so no city or school or any taxes for property taxes are affected by this, but this would allow those businesses to apply to this program.

So in the EDC's look at our different ERCs, we looked at uh the what we're proposing to call the mixed-use commercial ERZ that includes uh the Tuscan village, the depot, and then we're proposing to add the parcels at the Mallet Rockingham Park into that ERZ, as well as there's uh exit two ERZ along I-93 uh with all the businesses over there, and we're looking at expanding that to include the uh areas primarily zoned residential or sorry, uh commercial industrial uh between South Policy Street and the east side of 93, and then uh including in the Northeastern Boulevard ERZ, uh including 11 Northeastern uh as a part of the nine northeastern boulevard ERZ, as well as a parcel on Brookdale Road, uh, and all the renaming and expansions, and there's a map in your packet uh for that proposal.

So happy to answer any questions about this program.

Any questions?

Okay, Council Hatch.

Um Clayton, uh first of all, uh I never even knew these things really existed until our friend Mr.

Kimpton back there brought it to my attention.

So I'm gonna ask you a question.

The ERZs.

I know this is the it's all it's tracked by the state, it's all state money, it's not town money.

But do we track any of that at all?

Because some of these businesses, if we offer tax credits and things like that, maybe getting both.

And I think we should know who's getting what out of which programs and when they may qualify for both, but maybe we want to adjust the criteria if they're getting money from somewhere else, also.

So we're tracking this.

Um, so when they go to apply for the program, they have to get a letter from the town.

Um, since I've been here, which is about two and a half years, we've only gotten one letter of interest, and it was a business in Tuscan Village that's applied for this program.

Uh so and once it's awarded, are we notified what they're awarded?

Um, I don't I haven't been directly notified, but that's something we can definitely talk about with the state, and we can provide it.

Yeah, because I I think that may come into play if it's within that other zone that we give tracks tax credits for that no one's ever used.

I you know, I think we should know that.

It's to me, it's just like two different parts, but we should know who's drawn from the two different parts.

Because what we give them may be affected by what they're already getting.

Yep.

We can certainly track that.

Any other questions, concerns?

Council Bryan.

Madam Chair, I move at this time that the Salem Town Council hereby adopts resolution number 2025-35 and further to waive the requirement for a second reading.

This resolution shall take effect upon its passage as follows.

Whereas the state of New Hampshire has an economic development tool entitled the Economic Revitalization Zones, ERZs in various commercial and industrial areas of municipalities whereby businesses can apply and receive credit for their state business taxes if they expand and create jobs or make capital improvements eligible for the program.

And whereas the town of Salem has four ERZs, of which three are currently desired desired to be renamed and expanded after consultation with the new state of New Hampshire and Salem Economic Development Committee, whereas the Salem Economic Development Committee unanimously recommended to the town council the proposed renaming and expansions of the three listed below ERZs at their October 21st, 2025 meeting.

Now therefore, be it resolved by the Salem Town Council that the Salem Town Council hereby adopts and request to the state of New Hampshire the following changes to Salem's ERZs.

Renaming of the three ERZs for simplicity, updated accuracy, and clarity.

Mixed use commercial ERZ, formerly known as the Depot Intersection Northwest and Tuscan Village, I-93 Corridor ERZ, formerly the West Side I-93 Exit 2, and the Northeast Boulevard, Northeastern Boulevard ERZ, formerly uh Cisco and Salah Celestica plant and the nine uh Northeastern Boulevard building.

Expansion of the misuse the mixed use commercial ERZ to include parsels that comprise the mall of the Rockenham Park.

Expansion of the I-93 Corridor ERZ to include parcels between New Hampshire Route 97 to the north, South Policy to the east, I-93 to the west, and New Hampshire Route 38 to the south, with parcels that are primarily zone commercial slash industrial B, an expansion of Northeastern Boulevard ERZ to include 11 Northeastern Boulevard and 39 Brookdale Road.

Second.

I have a motion and a second by Council Sweeney.

Any discussion?

All those in favor?

Unanimous.

Thank you, Clayton.

Moving right along.

New business.

Okay.

Oh, Mr.

Devine.

Uh, next on the agenda, I'm going to invite uh municipal services director Wayne Emerald to come up and introduce an Eagle Scout candidate who's looking to do his project in the Pine Grove Cemetery.

Good evening, everybody.

Um, I know you've seen the agenda item on the uh on on the agenda for tonight from uh John uh Tomaselli uh who would like to do an EagleSpot project at the Pine Grove Cemetery.

So he reached out to me a few months ago with this project.

We uh brought it to two to staff who we see to very well.

We've had conversations with John and Pat regarding the project, and we fully support this.

So John's here to answer any questions if you have.

Johnny Hello, Salem Town Council.

My name is John Thomas Ellie.

I'm an Eagle Scout, and I'm here to sell your approval for my Eagle Scout project.

And since the town of Salem is the beneficiary, my project is to raise and clean military graves, or I'm sorry, not graves, military markers at Pine Grove Cemetery, and to make them ground level, and it's gonna cost zero like it's not gonna cost anything, it's completely funded by us.

And if you have any questions, I'm here to answer them.

Council Hatch.

Uh the the only question I have is uh you're saying it's not gonna cost us any money, so are we expecting to hear from fundraisers or you have money already?

It's already everything.

Yeah, yeah, everything's already all set.

I have all the material and everything.

Wow.

Fantastic.

Very nice.

I was thinking I was gonna have to write a check.

I know.

You can.

Well, thanks.

Any questions or comments?

Thank you.

Thank you.

Yeah, thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, thank you.

Counselor Bryant.

Madam Chair, at this time I move to the town council, approves the project presented by Eagle Scout candidate John Thomaselli to restore the veterans memorial military markers at Pine Grove Cemetery.

And further that the project will be overseen by the municipal services department.

Second.

I have a motion and a second by counselor.

Any discussion?

Seeing none, all those in favor?

Unanimous.

Thank you very much.

That's gonna be wonderful.

Thank you.

We appreciate it very much.

Mr.

Devine.

Next on the agenda is going to be a public hearing.

And this is to accept $50,475 from the New Hampshire Department of Justice Violence Against Women Act formula grant program for continued funding of the victim witness advocate.

Okay.

I'm gonna open the public hearing.

Including a member in your packet is a member from Police Chief Joe Dolan, who's here to speak to this grant.

Thank you, Mr.

Manager.

Good evening, Madam Chair, members of the council.

My name is Joel Dolan.

It's my honor to serve as your chief of police.

I'm also a town resident.

And I stand before you tonight to once again uh present the victim witness advocate grant.

Uh and if you let me indulge you for a second, I would like to just uh highlight some of the work that the victim witness advocate has done uh since this became a full-time position in 2023.

Uh since 2023 uh to current, she's assisted four hundred uh two hundred and thirty-one uh victims of domestic violence have been counseled, 26 victims of sexual assault crimes, 21 victims of assault, 33 victims of stalking, 12 victims of criminal threatening, and 33 other crimes that she's assisted victims of.

And to include and aside from counseling all of those victims, she's spent 232 days uh in court over the last two years.

So uh as you can see, the position has is very warranted and she has been very busy uh assisting the victims of crime in Salem.

And if this year, uh years passed, the victim grant has been capped at $30,000 award.

Uh this year we are happy to announce that uh we each if if accepted by the council tonight, uh we stand to uh be awarded $50,475, so an increase of $20,475 from previous years.

I'll be happy to answer any questions you may have.

Any questions Council Bryant?

Madam Chair, I move in accordance with RSA 31CO and 95B, that the Salem Town Council accepts with gratitude a grant in the amount of $50,475 from the New Hampshire Department of Justice as part of the Violence Against Women Act formula grant to fund the victim witness advocate position and further to authorize the town manager to sign any and all documents necessary to finalize the acceptance of this grant.

Second, I have a motion and a second by counselor Wright.

Any discussion?

All those in favor?

Unanimous.

Thank you.

Thank you, Chief.

Mr.

Devine.

Uh next on the agenda is going to be from the finance department, and that's going to be to present the 2024 audit.

I would invite uh finance director Nicole McGee to come to introduce um CBIZ's.

I should have asked the public if they want anybody wanted to speak before.

I'm sorry, Miss McGee.

I don't see anybody, so I'm gonna close the public hearing.

Thank you.

Thank you.

My apologies.

Thank you.

Uh thank you for having me.

My name is Nicole McGee.

I'm the finance director here for Salem.

And I'm going to turn this presentation over to C.

Biz, our audit partner, Scott McIntyre is here to present the 2024 financial statement audit.

Thank you, Nicole.

Madam Chairperson, members of the council, thanks very much for the invitation to come in tonight and review our audit of your 1231 24 financial statements.

Um my objective here tonight is not to walk through all three documents, and I'll talk about the three documents in a second, but just to give you a broad overview of the process and most importantly the results of the audit.

Um I in your packages would be three reports.

Uh one would be what we call the governance letter.

The second, the largest of the documents would be your basic financial statements, and the third is generally referred to as a single audit report.

I'll talk about each of those very, very quickly.

First, the governance letter.

Uh that's uh that's really uh that that term comes from the professional standards that require us to write a letter to you.

It's the the standards say those that we are to communicate with those charged with governance.

So my profession has just called it the governance letter.

This is where, in my opinion, this is where all the good stuff resides.

We're not talking numbers here or anything like that, but in that letter, it tells you that what we did in accordance with the two different sets of auditing standards that we followed.

Uh and we found that there were no significant, there was no need to make any significant audited entries as a result of our work.

Uh there were no disagreements in how to apply generally accepted accounting principles between the town and our our firm.

It talks about estimates in there.

There is a communication in there that tells you that we performed a non-audit service.

We helped Nicole, like we do for virtually all of our governmental clients to pull the document together as a non-audit service, but again, our professional standards require that we point that out.

So that governance letter really just gives you a snapshot of uh uh how the audit went.

And I guess the best way I can categorize it is it went very well when we came in here.

We found the books and records to be in good working order.

Key accounts were reconciled on a regular and timely basis.

Then you go to your financial statements, which is the thicker of the two documents.

In my opinion, the highlight in there is is our opinion on your financial statements.

It's nothing new.

It's what is known as a clean or an unmodified opinion.

In other words, based on the auditing standards that we followed.

Uh there were two sets of standards that are outlined in there.

In our opinion, your financial statements are materially fairly presented in accordance with GAAP or generally accepted accounting principles for local governments here in uh in the United States.

Following that is your MDNA.

It's a group management discussion and analysis, a great resource to go back to at a later point in time.

And then there's really really two sets of statements in your in your basic financial statements.

I refer to them as the long-term perspective and the short-term perspective.

On the long-term perspective, we don't, I don't typically talk about the long-term perspective financial statements too much, other than to point out uh we don't think any conversation about a local government's financial statements would be complete without mentioning your your pension liability and your OPEB.

OPEP being other post-employment benefits, that would be retiree health care.

There's pages and pages of footnotes in there that that could that will explain them, and I can speak um about each of those liabilities if the if the town council wants me to get into detail on that.

Uh, really the the key assumptions uh that go into estimating those liabilities really haven't changed from from the prior year.

This the the New Hampshire retirement system is using the same discount rate, which is really the key, key assumption that goes into estimating that liability.

They've been using it now at least four years, possibly even even five, and it's uh a discount rate of 6.7 percent.

Um on the OPEB liability, you have a small trust putting a few dollars in there on each of the last couple of years, so you're required to use a significantly lower discount rate of about four percent.

Then you come to the what I call the the short-term financial statements, your general fund.

This is where basically this is the first place that almost all readers of your financial statements are going to turn.

And if you're if you want to make a note, print page 16 is really the general fund or the governmental funds balance sheet.

First column of numbers is your general fund, third number up from the bottom.

I say that I've said that for years and years.

First column of numbers, third number up from the bottom is your unassigned fund balance.

Uh that's just thought of as your um residual after, you know, the sub you know, subtract all liabilities from all of your assets, and then you have different classifications of fund balances that are all explained in your footnot.

The unassigned has no constraints on it, if you will.

And as of the end of last calendar year, had about a 17 million dollar balance, up about 2.6 million dollars from from the year before.

Uh so it shows a healthy increase in that key account balance.

Um I would point out that um I think no surprise to anybody here, uh given your calendar year end and your tax billing and collections uh uh strike structure in the cycle where you collect almost in arrears.

It's probably very important for an organization like Salem to have uh a fund balance of uh of that you have.

It provides liquidity and cash flow when you collect taxes, 50 percent of your taxes basically in June 1st and then December December 1st.

So beyond that, if you're following it's uh page 22 is the enterprise funds.

I focus almost all solely, I go straight to the cash flow statement.

In there it shows that um the key indicator is that there is ample cash provided by operations, plus your you know, water and sewer assessment revenue to cover your operating costs and debt service.

That's very well highlighted on your statement of cash flows.

Really, that's the key indicator for for an enterprise fund.

The last document that I'll I'll speak about, then I'll try to answer any questions that you may have.

And if you'd like me to get into more detail, I can is the single audit report.

There's really two reports in there.

When I say a single audit report, that's as a recipient in an organization that expends federal monies.

Uh, you are required to have what is commonly referred to as a single audit.

Uh and in that report, we are required to issue two two reports.

The first one is required by generally accepted government auditing standards.

That would highlight if we found any uh significant deficiencies or material weaknesses.

The second, and we did not.

Uh the second of the two reports is required by uniform guidance that's put out by the federal government on how to uh uh an internal control structure and how to administer your your your federal grant programs.

Uh we were required, and we selected the ARPA ARPA fund in calendar 24 to test, and our only recommendation is that the person preparing the report online report should have another set of eyes on that report before it is actually submitted to to the portal with the United States Treasury Treasury Department.

It's just having another set of eyes between the general ledger and what is actually uploaded to to the portal from from the Treasury.

Uh that's a super fast, super fast walkthrough of our audit of your financial statements.

I can get into any of those three reports in in more detail uh from our perspective, and I do a lot of these types of meetings.

It's the governance letter that um in my opinion should interest you the most.

I know most people dive to the financial statements, and I understand that, but the government's got governance letter is really where um if we found some really egregious things, that's where it would be outlined in in a written communication, not just here me orally tonight.

So with that, I'll I'll see if there are any questions and I'll do my best to answer them.

Any questions, Council Bryant?

Do you have a copy of the governance letter?

Uh I I I do.

Um can you explain to me what Miss uh interference or whatever in accounting, whatever that statement was, that one statement in there that we've had in there for like two, three, four years or whatever.

That nobody's ever explained.

Um can well can I ask you a question where we say that we identified management override of controls as a risk.

Okay.

All right, good question.

Um I'll first start by telling you that is in every governance letter because professional standards, our professional standards require that we assess that as a risky area.

And so what does that mean?

Because management, you can have a great internal control structure.

Sorry, Nicole, but if Nicole overrides it, it's not gonna work effectively operate.

So that exists in all organizations, and what does that mean?

It means that we, as your auditors, we need to design test work to identify where management could have overridden controls that would lead to a misstatement in your financial statements.

So it's if I may follow up.

So it's not a uh recommendation or a condemnation or whatever of anything that anybody has done, it's something that you just always do.

Well said.

Great, because it's been in there for three or four years, and you know, always had that question, and he's invited back by the way, he made this nice and short.

I know I like it.

Yeah, I like it.

You didn't do any visuals, we don't need them.

Right.

Um you don't want to talk discount rates.

No, we just want everybody in the public to understand we're not going to do that.

Nicole does a fine and outstanding job at what's the point.

Absolutely.

Absolutely.

And that her supervisors have been everything above board, and we're clean as a whistle.

We maintain a three A rating, and we're just happy with that.

I don't need 225 pages to tell me that.

That's really great.

You're pretty much like all my clients, right?

No, I'm not.

I'm a sales guy.

I don't like at all.

Um, I can't do.

Thank you, Mr.

McIntyre.

We appreciate it.

Awesome.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Very well done.

Mr.

Devine.

Great.

Uh so next on the agenda is gonna be back to the community development department, and they're coming in to talk about the depot master plan phasing proposal.

Hello again.

Um so tonight we're talking about the the draft funding/slash phasing plan that the depot village advisory committee recommended.

So we presented to the council the depot master plan uh on August 4th.

Uh, since then the DVAC has met twice, uh, once in September and once on October, to kind of look at the opinion of probable cost, um, which is kind of like the what uh our consultant uh thinks each of these elements of this uh project would cost, uh, and then splitting that up and identifying possible grant opportunities and uh kind of like a timeline uh for recommendation or suggestion.

As you can see, uh we kind of split it up by parcel.

So phase one is is mostly the 80 Main Street, that's the former China Star Law at the corner of Central and Maine.

Uh phase two is the primarily the area in front of the depot chamber building.

Phase three is uh the two ends of uh the uh linear parcels along 28 uh and then phase four uh is the potential uh lease space in connection to the restroom building, and then phase five is the additional parking along 28.

Uh we could go to the next slide.

So uh after discussion with the depot village advisory committee, the phase one improvements again on the China Star lot.

Uh we looked at potential grant opportunities.

The land and water conservation fund is the one that we're most familiar with.

So the timeline for that grant application is it typically opens in the spring for pre-application.

Uh they we submit a pre-application and then the application opens in the fall.

Um the LWCF provides 50-50 uh federal funding for parks and recreation projects up to a million dollars.

So if the town were to apply for a million dollars, uh we could potentially get up to 500,000, and then we would have to match that with certain uh other funds.

So kind of uh the committee recommended uh looking at that in 2026.

Um that process typically takes about a year and a half, two years to get all the state and federal government approvals.

Um looking at the cost estimates uh and potential sources of funding, uh looking at phase one of about 1,059,000, looking at getting if we were to go for that grant, getting a $500,000 L WCF grant using some impact fees uh and donations from the community.

Uh the town also has a $20,000 grant from McKee Foods.

Um it's called the Outdoor Happiness Grant, and that uh funding would be towards uh like the playground or some historical aspect of that towards the depot.

We've already received that.

We received that a couple years ago.

Um so and this would primarily include the existing parking, the landscaping along 80 Main Street, the playground and entry and welcome sign, as well as the restroom and storage building uh for that parcel with the public restrooms uh on the next slide.

Um phase two for potentially 2028, the landscaping in front of uh and the access near the depot chamber building, as well as the caboose or display arcade, uh looking at this for potentially uh community donations, um if there's native plantings of some sort or some relation to uh conservation related, um looking at the conservation commission fund potentially as a source of funding, uh as well as different uh elements here, such as the gazebo, uh the fountain, and maybe the caboose looking at community donations for that uh and this area, which includes the area in front of the depot chamber building as well as the the caboose slash display arcade area uh for about $500,000 looking at 2028 for that.

Phase three is uh the parcels along 28.

I kind of broke out uh these cost estimates to not include the parking just because we're not sure if we will need the parking or not, and making that a little bit flexible.

Um, so if we if we do end up needing the parking sooner, uh we could include that, but as this proposal is written out, um, this is kind of the areas around the parking for the uh parcels along 28.

Again, going for an LWCF grant in late 2028, another year and a half to get all the approvals.

Uh this is inclusive of like the food truck area, screening vegetation, um, the uh kind of the switchback and accessible ramp uh and the stairways as well as the the fencing and lighting, uh, but not including the parking for those uh costs, and then the estimated cost of about a million dollars with uh that 50-50 LWCF grant again, using uh additional monies such as impact fees, community donations, uh, and then uh that amount of tax levy and bond.

Uh again, these this is just kind of a conceptual plan.

Uh it's not meant to be a hard and fast plan that things can uh move, but this is just to get an idea of what potential funding opportunities could look like.

Uh for phase four, uh looking at so phases four and five are more conceptual.

The main focus is one through three, and then if four is desired.

So four would be the twelve hundred square foot lease space that had been talked about by the committee uh and included as part of the presentation.

We wanted to separate that out because we weren't sure of any uh when when you put the the federal government funding on that, that kind of uh limits the options for that as a lease space uh due to public access.

So that's kind of up in the air right now, and then for phase five, uh the parking for the parcel uh for the additional parking spaces along 28.

And again, that is um able to be moved if we see a lot of interest at the the veterans plaza, which looks very nice, and there's gonna be a ribbon cutting ceremony uh later this week.

Um, if we see a lot of usage from the community, um maybe we would want to push that up, or if we don't see uh if we the current parking that we do have, if that's not needed until later on, we could push that back.

So happy to answer any questions about this questions.

First of all, I want to thank Drayton for all this great work he's been doing in this uh in the depot uh uh committee.

Um the chairman along with John.

He's uh and the Powell Point is excellent.

The phases uh uh kind of adequate as to the money that's needed for each phase, uh separating it, not giving it a uh a big lump sum uh for any one particular phase except for the very first one, which is that's the ball rolling.

Um so if we can get proper uh funding for this and uh participation from the town and council and this depot area will look fantastic.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Council Bryant, Madam Chair.

Hearing no other discussion, I move at this time that the town council approves the depot village master plan funding phasing plan as presented and recommended by the depot village advisory committee at their October 15th, 2025 meeting.

Second I have a motion and second by council Pellatea.

Any discussion?

Seeing none, all those in favor?

Unanimous, thank you very much.

Off you go, Great.

This is divine.

Uh next on the agenda is going to be to discuss and approve the 2026 default budget.

Put it in your packet as a memo from Finance Directoral Key detailing the 2026 default budget.

Um, as the council is probably aware, we are required to set the default budget prior to the first public hearing of the budget committee, which is why we're coming before you today.

Hello.

Uh so we have prepared the 2026 default budget.

Uh the 2026 default budget in total would be 66 million one twenty-six three oh three.

And the town council proposed 2026 operating budget is 71,000.

Uh sorry, 71,000 away.

71 million eight forty one sixty.

So that's a net change of about five point seven million dollars.

Um, this is primarily due to larger capital projects in the 2026 proposed operating budget.

For example, the Route 11 and Irma Road project and the sidewalk improvement projects are some of those make up some of that that difference.

Um, I can answer any questions that the council may have on the 2026 proposed default budget.

Questions at this time I moved that the Salem Town Council hereby approves the 2026 default budget, inclusive of the operating budget, the water fund and the sewer fund for a total of 66 million one hundred and twenty-six thousand three hundred and three dollars.

Okay.

I have a motion and second by counselor with any discussion?

Seeing no, all those in favor, unanimous big thank you.

Mr.

Divine.

Uh, next on the agenda is gonna be the town manager's report.

Um, so just so everyone is aware.

I I do see some um scuttle butt about it on the Facebook.

Um 2015 uh 2025 final tax rate has been set, it's eighteen dollars and sixteen cents.

Uh the town's total assessed value is uh six billion seven hundred and forty-seven million eight hundred and seven thousand six hundred and ninety-one dollars.

So just to break out for your tax dollar, just so you can kind of see it for the 2025 rate.

As you can see, 56% of every dollar goes to the school, which is ten dollars and seventeen cents, 32% or $5.90, $5.90 will come back to the town of Salem.

A dollar 41 or 8% goes to state education, and 78 cents or 4% goes to Rockingham County.

So just kind of so you can kind of see what that looks like of your total assessed value.

Um, for a $300,000 home, uh $1,770 comes back to the town.

Um, for a $500,000 home, $2,950.

And for a $700,000 home, it's $4,130 to the town.

Just so you kind of get an idea of the department breakdown on how that tax breaks out.

Um 26% is going towards the fire department, 22% goes to police, 13% to municipal services, uh 6% to town hall services, which includes all of the town hall functions.

Um 2% goes to community and human services, and then 1% goes to community development.

The way that breaks out on the dollar, and this is small, so I'm sorry, I'll have to read it out to you.

Um, but out of every hundred dollars you pay in taxes, $25.63 goes to the fire department, $22.12 goes to the police department, $12.76 goes to municipal services, six dollars and thirty-five cents goes to town hall services.

$1.25 goes to community human services and $86 cents goes to community developments.

The remaining balance is things like death services, capital reserve payments, things like that.

Um Route 11 intersection, it has been completed for the initial uh precautionary um changes.

Um there are now delineators put up, and you can see the right-hand turn only assigns.

Um, the PD has been great about enforcement up there.

Uh, we also have signs letting people know.

Um we know people are still making left turns and going straight, so we're trying to curb that behavior the best we can.

But until we actually uh start construction, hopefully next year, uh the roundabout is at least a step to try to curb some of the behavior to help people.

Just want to say town hall was great, they celebrated uh Halloween off Friday.

Um so we had some great costumes.

Just wanted to put that out there for everybody to see.

Um there's a lot of concern with SNAP and with the the funding service funding sources with the federal government.

If you go to our town website, uh Salem and Nature.gov and do uh hashtag food pantries.

You can get in, you can see all the food pantries locally, um, see where you can get services, things like that.

So if you're looking for those resources, they are on the website.

We've also posted this to Facebook as well for people.

Um Hedgehog Parks has some improvements going on as well.

Um as you can see, we've got some nice um sales going up.

There's new charcoal grills and um and um um concrete pads that have gone in.

Um so we're continuing with the improvements.

Um next phase is going to be over where the old concession stand area used to be in the bathrooms.

Uh the pads getting expanded there, and then the ADA trails will be going in the beginning of next year as well.

Wonderful.

Well council Bryant.

Yeah, well, those umbrellas obviously will come down in the winter time.

They will.

We we put we put them up to make sure that they fit while the contractor was there.

We didn't want them just to hand them to us and then find out there was something wrong with them.

So we did have them install them.

The grills too, that they come out.

Uh the grills come out, the top comes off, yes.

Yeah, just so they don't disappear.

Yep.

Right.

So councilor Hatch.

My question is with the grills.

What are they dumping the used charcoal into?

Are they just leaving them right there?

Well, for next year, because uh again, we're taking them in already, but next year we will have some aluminum trash cans to be able to put the dispose of charcoal wasted.

Yep.

Um, just a reminder we have the ribbon cutting on Wednesday, November 5th from two to three uh for Veterans Plaza.

So if the public wants to come out to this, this is right in the depot intersection, uh, right next to the chamber at that parking lot.

You can park right there or park across the street.

And I'm happy to answer any questions that the council might have.

Questions?

None.

Thank you.

Old business tabled and pending.

Yeah, please.

Madam Chair, at this time I move to re I move to remove from the table discussion on resolution number two zero two five-30 to consider the proposed two thousand and twenty-six town wide fee schedule.

Second, I have a motion, a second by council with all those in favor?

Unanimous.

Welcome back.

Thank you.

Thank you for having me back.

Um, so we are gonna talk again about 2026 proposed fee schedule.

Since the last time that we met, we did uh add another request for a change to the fee schedule, and that is to outside details and how we bill them.

Um we're looking to increase the fees to be more in line with how the new Salem Police Employee Association union would be paying our officers, so we're looking to you know increase the fees to kind of offset those costs.

Um I don't know if we want to go fee by fee and discuss it, or how how would the council like me to go go through this?

No.

Just let's just keep just cruise right along.

I can cruise.

I'm happy to cruise.

All right.

The next one is the labor charges for the municipal services department.

Um they're requesting that the overtime rate be increased from $51 per hour to $56.79 per hour to be more in line with the overtime rates for their foreman.

Next on the list would be utility billing and we are looking to increase the fee for non-payment or noncompliance from 50 to 75 dollars and adding a new fee to restore service after the normal working hours um the the people who work in that department work 7 to 330 after that we pay them over time.

Well counselor with row I just want to make sure I then we discussed this last time but they have the choice.

They don't have to pay they can wait till the next day and not pay that if they choose that's correct they can wait until the next um 7 a.m or if they pay us when my staff are still in there but they the guys have left we can send them an email too saying hey they paid please restore them when you return to work in the morning.

Thank you.

Next is the uh I believe this is just the backflow this is um just clarifying language that it's 25 dollars per additional union uh unit for residential um and then also adding to the fee schedule what we've already been doing in practice for temporary meters that it's um two times I believe it's two times the regular rate and that's just to ensure that we get paid for the the the water um next would be hauler fees for the transfer station that's just trying to increase it to be in line with the contract that we have with waste management because their fees go up every yeah um just so you know that the handout doesn't follow what you what you're doing I don't think we're skipping around we're skipping around here I could be municipal keep going see there's the back flow that's like three pages back yeah there's a lot in the utility billing section especially because we have one yeah with the just not in the same order yeah it's not in the same order where we have sorry yeah I'm on I'm moving fast all right are we all on transfer station now okay so this is the fees that we charge the haulers um for both residential and small business haulers um the waste management contract for uh municipal solid waste is increasing five dollars per ton so we're increased requesting increased fee schedule and then recycling that fee changes every month how much we're charged per ton so I just do my best estimate to get to where I think we will be for 26 uh after that is the health division and that is the fee we discussed last time which is the class G fee increasing it from 780 to a thousand dollars um again the fire department provide me counselor with oh I'm sorry will you go about to explain that thousand dollars yeah I was gonna um just basically they this was one of the fees that they uh want to increase um last time it was increased was in 2013 the hourly rate for the health inspector has increased 19.5 percent since then and also the time doing the locate uh inspections at this location is also increased by about 120 percent so this fee increase will help absorb the cost increase that the town's experience since last time we raised these fee council with so I don't have an issue with it being raised but when we discussed this last time it was an arbitrary number and I I know my argument and I think a couple other members here has been back it up right so if there's a certain amount I forget how many 25 restaurants there is there a price per is it like a price per but you give in a discount because you're in the same location like I understand all the costs went up but are we backing it up because we're not supposed to be making money on this and I'm not saying we are yeah we would not be my guess is we're losing money on it.

Yes.

But if we but there should be a systematic in my opinion there should be a systematic way of how we come up with these prices how many hours are we spending out there what are those hours cost us it should there should be a math equation that can come up with this number.

And last time we were in this meeting that didn't happen.

So I'm asking if that's happened.

As far as I know we have not we did not go back and say we wanted we want to modify this we felt comfortable with the thousand dollars if that's something that you would like us to do is we can I did ask that last year we asked that last so I would so if this is just me like I said I have no problem with this going up but if it's backed up can we address this one fee later can we approve you can put this without this I think the concern that well not a concern but the issue we run into is this food service is for one it's for one place.

It doesn't deal with anybody else across the entire town and so it's always been in place it used to deal with Rockingham Park as well used to be the two locations that had this one class G just through the volume of what they have I don't think the intent if we were to if we and I I don't want to speak for the chief but I you know if we were to inspect every one of those restaurants in those locations and build the way that if each one of them had a license we'd be well over three thousand dollars if they would be paying worth of licensing so I don't I don't know how you want us to calculate that out.

So I don't I don't know how you want us to calculate that out.

I mean, I think that they're trying to say that the two hundred and twenty dollars increase is based off of the fact that 19 and a half percent of his time is increased now by going to all of these locations and the 120 percent time uh hundred twenty excuse me, 120 percent of his time being spent at these locations is longer now.

So we're spending more time there, which is the justification for the two hundred and twenty dollars.

I don't think we're looking to go after each one of have a license for each one of those establishments because the idea was because we're there at one time, we're not coming and going, we're hitting multiple locations all at the same time.

That gave them the opportunity to inspect them all.

So I guess my question is we're talking about licenses versus inspections.

Well, the license the license covers the inspection.

So when you get your license, we're saying we're gonna inspect you two times a year.

Okay.

So that's part of your license, and that's part of the state requirement for us to be a self-inspecting community with a food license.

So what are they paying for?

What are they paying the license?

What's the license they're paying?

The is their health license, their food license.

Is it the thousand dollars or is there a different amount they're paying?

Is my question because if you're telling me that part of their license is for inspections, right now they're paying $780, and that gives you a license for their license, which includes their inspections and everything involved in it.

We're looking to increase it to the $1,000.

Gotcha.

This is the license inspections.

I agree with it.

Yeah.

Absolutely.

So let me get a little down to the fundamentals, right?

So the purpose of fees is what?

Is it to cover our costs?

Is it to get close to covering our costs?

Like to tonight, you said $3,000, and that's the same thing.

But yeah, but I mean that sound honestly that sounds a little bit more rich.

Oh, twice that.

So six thousand dollars that you've just said.

I mean, that's the thing.

And I understand what getting a discount because they're all in one location, you know, it's one person spending, you know, they're not driving all over town.

I understand that.

What's but what's the point of the fees?

Are we supposed to be making up our costs?

Are we supposed to what's the philosophy there?

Because that's gonna help me not feel like this is an arbitrary number.

So I'm not necessarily fighting with the number.

I just want to know the philosophy behind how and why we're getting there.

I I think the concern that we have is if we were to let's just say put a number on there, and I'll use a six thousand dollar mark now, where we're jumping that huge to this to this business.

And so where it hasn't been changed since 2013, we've obviously gone twelve years now without ever touching that fee schedule for that one business.

So we do need to increase it.

I think we know we need to increase it because we're spending more time because the inspections are more in depth, and they're still adding services in within there, which include and as well.

And so I I don't want to speak for the chief again, but that thousand dollar mark, I think it was just they were trying to be reasonable to the company as well, and not saying we're just gonna bring you up six thousand dollars.

And I'm fine with all of that, and I understand, I don't think we should have gone twelve years without increasing this.

That doesn't make any sense because now we're in this position.

Sure.

Where should we be charging four thousand dollars?

I don't know.

You know what I mean?

So I guess my fundamental question is what's the purpose of the fees, and do we have a plan to get it to where we're supposed to be, or are we there?

Right.

Councillor Sweeney.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

So two inspections a year at this property.

How many staff hours?

11 hours.

11 hours each time, or over the course of the year.

We're not charging enough.

Yeah, so it in 2013, um, he was doing five hours at the time.

They've essentially more than doubled, which is the 120% increase of the amount of time it takes him to do the two inspections of all the different food services at that place, uh, Kennedy Lake Park.

Um, so and then we also added in the fact that his hourly rate has increased 19 and a half percent over those 12 years.

So, you know, I did I did math, but it's it's at the end of the day, and then we then we did all right, let's break down every single different food classification and what it would cost if it would they were just an individual, they weren't a class G, and that's where I got the six thousand dollars.

Um that's what it would cost if there were 25, 30 um different establishments and they were all paying their own individual one.

The challenge is there could be other businesses someday that are just like them and they but they may not need 11 hours or they may not, you know.

So that's where I don't know, frankly, if I'm being honest, I'm just trying to like like the town manager said, bring a reasonable increase to assist.

Um, you know, but so basically if if we just did the 19 and a half percent, you're looking at 930 something dollars.

Um, but then if you say, well, it's also twice the amount of work time spent, now you're looking at 1800 something dollars.

So it's it's challenging to really determine what the what the most appropriate fee is there.

We thought a thousand dollars is a reasonable increase, and that's why we brought it.

Council Withwell.

So answer me this if you can.

A class service class A.

Is that one restaurant?

I'm gonna have to ask Mike if that's okay.

Come down because I don't know that.

Okay.

Thank you.

Hello, um, good evening, members of the board, madam chair, town manager.

Um, yes, class A is one uh license.

So how the class is our breaking out basically is by seats.

The um there are a few exceptions, so like food truck is a different class.

In this case, class G is Canada Lake Park, is the only one that's currently operating.

Um the um Rockingham Park was the one that was operated before.

I think I misspoke there.

So Candy Lake Park is the only one that has it now.

Um I understand your concern about whether the numbers are arbitrary or not.

So where I got a thousand was I did the math out per hour was nine twenty-seven.

However, the number of places he's actually inspecting has basically doubled.

So it's roughly 26 individual spots that he has to inspect.

So that's kind of where I came up with that.

That you know, and also looking at it like, you know, everybody is experiencing increased cost.

So does it really make sense to jump that up or are jumping it up 20% basically, and now if we jumped up more, is that fair to them, taking in light of everything that's going on.

Can I ask the other is this the only one that hasn't been updated?

Correct.

That got missed last year when I updated everything else.

And the only other one beyond that is just the yard sales one, just because the um not to change gears too much, but the processing fee outweighs to do it online.

So that's the reason why we just want to give the online free option.

Outside of that, no other ones were missed.

This one was missed because it was unique and only applied to one person.

Thank you.

Follow-up?

Yeah, please.

So I think you guys think I'm fighting this number, and I'm not.

I'm just trying to get some clarification on some things to because I'm not sure not saying it's a bad number, I'm just not sure it's the right number.

And the reason I asked about A is they're paying six hundred dollars, right?

So in that that's one.

So part of my thinking on everything we do is is everybody being treated fairly.

So one business is paying six hundred dollars for one.

They have, I forget what you said.

26, and they're paying now a thousand.

Doesn't seem fair to that first owner, right?

So again, back to the philosophy.

Are we supposed to be covering more of our costs?

You don't want to jump too much at once, it's fine.

If this is the plan for now, what's the plan for the next few years to get them in line with where they should be?

Where should they be?

Yes.

So I'm looking kind of big picture, not so much nitpicking the actual number.

I completely understand that, and thank you.

I appreciate that.

Um, this is also a seasonal business as well, so we're not getting complaints or any issues or any follow-ups during the off season, and that also figured into the cost.

So since that you know, business that's operating as a class A is year-round, Canada is only operating for you know about a half a year, so that's something else that we took into consideration as well.

So is there any I'm sorry, one more.

Go ahead.

Is there any long-term plan or is this are we just are we gonna look at this every year, or do you think that next year they should be increased more versus the other one shouldn't?

I think it's a great question.

I personally believe that you know, by looking at this and the fact they're a seasonal business.

I think it's okay to see where this goes as far as track future inspections.

Are they adding more businesses on top of it?

I think like anything, if they're adding more items for us to inspect, then we need to reevaluate it.

But even if they're not, right?

Like they're not in it doesn't seem they're in line with a lot of other businesses.

They seem like they're getting a huge discount.

Not saying they shouldn't for certain logistics, but if they should be more, are we moving towards where they should be?

And I'm trying I'm certainly not picking on canopy like that.

This is I'm looking at budgetary, I'm looking at numbers, and it doesn't seem in line is my my question.

So I'll let it my end of this die there.

But I'd if we want to support this for this year, I will, but you know, six three thousand, six thousand is the first time I've heard that.

Right.

And I'd like to I'd like them to be somewhere closer to in line with the other ones.

Right.

Right.

I think we actually heard twenty-six last time.

But they were a lot, yeah.

Yeah.

So that's that's my thought, and I'll let it die there.

Council Sweeney.

Thank you, madam chair.

I'm sorry for this.

How do we treat the stalls and the restaurants in the mall?

So food court, if they're bouncing from one to one, or is it all separate out?

So those are all separate, they don't fall under a class G because they're not owned by the same person.

Okay.

So that's what makes this real unique, is because they're owned by one business and they're not, you know, some of the places are popcorn stands, right?

So like to but still has to be regulated, still has to be inspected.

So that's the other part, too.

The size of it, because there's a lot of them, but a lot of them are small too.

And then the other part of it is it's a seasonal business, and but we still have to follow up, and then they're only open during that extended period of time.

I think we should just get rid of the category.

Any other questions or comments?

Mr.

Devine.

Just you know, I know we're talking about Canaby, and nothing, nothing's gonna stop an ordinance change at some point if somebody else maybe wanted to get a class G.

So I think we should need to be careful as well when you're looking at the class G to gear it at one specific business.

I I know that's kind of how we're looking at it, but if we had another property owner that oh that had multiple restaurants on the same parcel, nothing could stop them from coming saying, why can't I have a class G and get this afforded the same opportunity?

So, you know, I know we're we're really looking at Canaby at this point as saying this is how many, but I think we need to keep in mind that it's for the total part of it because we don't know what could happen in the future as well.

Maybe we should be looking at how many different things we're inspecting and maybe give it a discounted rate because it's all in one location, but maybe it should be per inspection, and maybe Popcorn stand is a lot less money than on Burger Place.

You know, maybe we should be looking at that.

Time spent.

Councilor Hatch, you have the last word.

Thank you.

Well, to tie in with the town manager saying, we probably need to look at this whole entire category because there is going to be a business that's you know in the old C is automotive.

Those two proposals that's appeared before the planning board, they're gonna be owned by the same group, the same person.

So we probably need to go ahead and take a look at this category and either change it, get rid of it, or do something with it, because you're right.

It's not fair for me to as a restaurant owner to own one establishment.

I have to pay 600 while they're gonna get 26 for a thousand.

That's right.

Then if I own two, it's 1200.

Right.

Yeah, right.

Okay.

Thank you, and thank you.

Class G.

Thank you.

Moving right along.

Further discussion?

No.

No, well, we have other ones that have been changed.

Oh, okay.

Sorry.

Sorry.

Go for it.

Mike kind of stole my thunder here, but the next one is for yard sale fees and uh removing the fee if you do it online because it would cost more to process the fee than to charge it.

And then last but not least is ambulance billing.

Oh, it well, that's one that would change.

Um, this is yes, I'm happy with this.

I'm okay with that.

Okay, 325% of the Medicare rate.

I believe on the actual fee schedule, we tried to put in there's all sorts of different rates for Medicare, so we tried to put in what they were as of the time of us writing this fee schedule, but uh it does, you know, talking to our ambulance billing company, Medicare changes their rates, could change it annually, usually around the end of the year, but they don't always change it every year at the end of the year.

So um again, the the actual fee schedule say 325%, but they do have a cost so that people have a general understanding of what that cost would be.

And then I think last is just adding the unmerger fee to the fee schedule.

It's something we're already charging, it's just not located in the fee schedule.

I want to thank you for in putting the information about the ambulance billing, because that was really, as you know, an issue for me, just having people look at an RSA.

So I I do appreciate that very much.

Thank you.

Okay, call the Bryant.

Madam Chair, seeing no further discussion, I move that the Salem Town Council hereby adopts resolution number 2025-30.

And further to waive the requirement for a second reading, this resolution shall take effect upon its passage as follows.

Whereas section 1.2 of the town charter vests in the town council, the powers of the legislative and governing bodies, and whereas RSA 41 colon 9A 2 allows the governing board to establish an amend fees, provided the provisions of RSA 41 colon 9A1 have been met.

Now, therefore, be it resolved by the Salem Town Council that the Salem Town Council votes to adopt the proposed uh town wide fee schedule effective January 1st, 2026.

I have a motion, second and second by council Shmalia, all those in favor unanimous.

Thank you.

Thank you.

So I have a couple things before we just close out.

I want to remind everybody this Saturday is scouting for food.

So if you didn't get something on your mailbox, you can bring your your donations down to the central fire station, please.

It's very important, especially this year.

Um November 5th is a grand opening of the Veterans Plaza.

Uh November 7th in the morning at Woodbury School 7:30 is a veteran's breakfast.

November 7th in the morning at Woodbury School, 7 30 is a veterans' breakfast.

So anybody who wants to attend, especially the veterans, please show up.

Junior High School.

So upcoming meetings, November 17th, December 1st, and December 15th.

Is there anything else to come before the council?

Seeing none, I will entertain.

Motion to adjourn, Manager.

I have a motion and a second by Councilor Stramalia.

All those in favor?

Or is Councillor Sweeney?

I'm sorry.

All those in favor?

Good evening, Salem.

Thanks, guys.