Colleen, would you lead us, please?

And to the republic for which it stands one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all of it.

Thank you.

Good evening.

I'm going to introduce my board members to my far left is Councillor Stramalia.

Good evening.

His right is Councillor Sweeney.

Good evening.

To his right is Council Bryant.

Good evening.

To his right is the uh my vice chair, Jeff Hatch.

Hi Sayon.

To my immediate right is Councillor Whitrow, who was our secretary.

Good evening.

Here right is Councillor Pelletia.

Good evening, Silver.

To his right is Councillor Wright.

Hello, Sailor.

To her right is assistant town manager, Carly Mayo.

Good evening.

Good evening.

Okay, meeting minutes.

Okay.

First, I would like to seal the minutes from our non-public tonight under RSA 91A32D and A.

Second.

I have a motion by Councillor Withrow, a second by Counselor Wright.

All those in favor?

Unanimous.

And then I would move the minutes.

Public session from February 2nd, 2026.

Second.

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

All those in favor.

I have seven.

One, two, people, if I say seven.

She was eight.

Yep, seven.

And one abstinent abstaining, which would be Councillor Wright.

She was absent.

There's no chairman comments.

Consent agenda.

Council Bryant.

Madam Chair, at this time I move to approve the February 9th, 2026.

Consent agenda.

Second.

I have a motion and second by Council Stramalia.

Any comments?

All those in favor?

Unanimous.

Public comment.

I have one public comment.

Mr.

Harvey Glenn.

Come on up, Howie.

Join the fray.

Careful that step.

I just haven't seen you in a long time, so I thought I'd come down.

I doubt you missed us, Ron.

APA, I'm here representing APA tonight.

The Allington Pond Protective Association was started in 1974 by myself and a couple of other people.

Fifty years later, I'm still a president.

So I gotta be I gotta do it.

And I like to try to get something done in a timely fashion.

And so far it all works.

We deal with Department of Public Works.

It's everything goes.

Well, it's important to everybody.

Um one of the big reasons is because it's it's a water supply for the town.

From uh when do we do that?

October to May.

We supply all the water for the town of sale.

But yet we can't get any of it at our house.

We're giving the water away, and nobody will allow the water line to go on.

We had uh move the water line before a few years back.

We bought it brought it down to the new fire station when that was built, but it didn't go any further.

Hello.

So I'd like to see some kind of uh uh get together and put some time down to get this water line down.

The water line is still there, and and it's some people use it, some people don't, you know.

Nobody was they they didn't have to tie in, they didn't want to, but there's a lot of people that want to tie in, and they don't have the option to do that.

And you're you know what happens when Beverly says that and the work that's done on the lake.

We've always supported.

We donate money.

Uh Roy Sauronson was real good at it.

He knew how to do it.

Yes, he did.

And uh we this gentleman over here, Mr.

Amaron.

I don't know if I brought the check tonight, but we put the check down the town hall the other day.

So yes I did.

But we're we're willing to do whatever we have to do to keep the quality of the water.

There's a lot of problems up there with runoff and all and and nobody wants to do anything about it.

But I I don't know how many more years I can do this, but I'd like to get something started.

And so I just thought we'd come down tonight because it was gonna talk about uh the work we're gonna do this summer.

And uh we do we do all the work that we get for the summer, but then we do almost double that and we just keep going.

So we try to keep the water.

We're trying to get rid of the cyanobacteria.

We're hoping the the winter we've had this year that once this goes away, the cyanobacteria goes with it.

We have a very good chance of that.

Mm-hmm.

But then we gotta do more work on it because otherwise it'll be right back.

So if we could get some kind of a group together to see if we can do something, I know not this year, it's gonna be in the next year, uh, that we could do we could do it.

The water lines up there and it stops at the fire station.

It was supposed to go down to the end of the road, but they decided not to do it.

So if you can help us out, I'd appreciate it.

Super, I'm sure that Ms.

Mayle will re you know, have a discussion with the town manager and we'll get something moving.

Good.

Mr.

Glenn, yeah.

Thank you.

Absolutely.

Some consideration there.

Thank you.

Okay.

Oh, interview session.

So next on your agenda, um, you do have an interview session for appointments to the recreation advisory committee.

There are currently two vacancies on the rec advisory committee.

One term expires in April 2027 and the other in April 2028.

Uh the town received applications from residents, Alyssa Um Cadillac and Joanne Parcellin.

Um I believe that Alyssa and Joanne won't be here this evening.

The council would like to ask them any questions.

Super cool.

Why don't uh why doesn't Alyssa come up first?

I would say afternoon.

It's been a very long time.

Good evening.

Tell me what you'd like.

Tell us a little bit about yourself.

Well, tell tell everybody about yourself.

I have your resume here, so I know about you.

And we spoke at town meeting.

Yep.

Um so my name is Alyssa Cadillac.

I'm a resident here in Salem and have been for um just about two years now, so relatively new to the area in terms of living here, but not new to the area in itself.

Um I've actually been a recreation manager for 36 years, I want to say at the city of Cambridge, give or take a couple of years.

Um that in has included over the course of um developing a master swim program um at the Cambridge Recreation Department, which didn't exist prior, running um being a CPR lifeguard instructor, first A D, all of all of those certifications, um and running a swim program for kids, which please don't ask me to do again um if at all possible, but uh if I need to I would.

Um so I worked for the city of Cambridge for that long.

I've also um and that's been I've been a part-time seasonal for the city of Cambridge for 36 years.

I have been a full-time employee at the city of Boston um for 32 years.

And in that capacity, I've also worked on a lot of the things that I looked at the recreation advisory committee and it deals with master plans and organization, and I I actually one of the first things I did when I moved here was engage in the master plan in the surveys and the listening sessions, um, because recreation is something that's important both to me and to my family.

I see what the impact it has on both our youth and our seniors and all the ages in between um on development and making sure that our community, and I do view this as my community now, um has access to all of those resources.

And so, you know, just thinking about I do a lot of um project management, I do a lot of SWOT analysis.

I'm an instructor designer for education and instruction or design educational.

I was a high school social studies teacher, um, which I would do again over teaching kindergarten and running a master's and running a children's swim program, just putting that out there again.

Um but um but I teach co um coalition building, which a lot of what I think the recreation department um or advisory committee does is bring all different voices together, and one of the things that I sit on another advisory committee, which is the Massachusetts Governor's Advisory for Safety and Health, where I've been um a member of that for I want to say over 15 years and part of bringing uh actually a state plan to um Massachusetts for public sector workers.

So that's a very quick and dirty bio, and I'm happy to answer any questions about anything.

Any questions, Paul?

Uh Pelletia.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I was very when I read your your application, I was very interested when you said you want to learn more about the Milville Lake.

Absolutely.

Well, I know it's I know it's a priority.

And it's the priority.

Now I heard in the last uh when I watched the last uh recreation meeting that there was mentioned because I put a lot of a lot of empathy in in cleaning that beach up and especially moving that memorial that's in the that's in the woods out where the public can see it.

I mean, like I said, it's a dead that was a darn shame that it was stuck in the woods all that time.

Yeah, and so they they mentioned possible using some of the impact fees uh to to pay for that if this payment is due for that.

So that'd be a great that'd be great interesting.

I'd be watching every single meeting in that about that progress.

But thank you.

Thank you for joining.

Yeah, I mean one of the things that we did when we explored moving here was um was to learn more about the recreation areas in here in the rail trail and Millville and and looking there and seeing what the potential could be is really something, and again, seeing in the master plan that it's a priority is is pretty exciting.

So the only question I have, Alyssa is do you have a preference?

There's two positions, one's April 20, you know, expires April 27th or April 28th.

Do you have a preference?

Um nope.

I mean, I don't plan on moving out of Salem, so um for me I like consistency, and if if I have an opportunity to to sit in this position, um I'd like to be able to see and work on impact longer.

So I guess yes, I do thinking about it, have a preference.

I'd probably um the the longer of the tur two terms, but again, I am open to whatever the recommendation of the council is.

Wonderful.

Anything else?

Let's listen to it.

Yeah, let's wait, yeah.

Thank you.

Thank you very much for your time.

Thank you.

Joanne.

Why don't you come on up?

Welcome.

Thanks.

She's Carnegie Hall.

I'm on a recorder in the fifth grade.

That's great.

I'm Joanne.

Would you like me to tell you a little bit about myself?

It's gonna be about this.

That's okay.

Uh Mary, mother of three.

We've uh lived in Salem for five years.

I'm newly retired and want to give back to the community.

I do have some experience.

That much.

Uh uh I've worked in everything from uh I was a activities um director at the Linfield Senior Center in Ames.

Uh no.

That was in Linfield.

Um I was a flight attendant for a little bit.

I was a preschool uh para.

So uh yeah, and then I just retired from hospitality.

So I was a manager of a restaurant, a lead bartender, uh I I helped coordinate the seafestival of trees at Blue Ocean.

So I have a little bit of knowledge in a lot of little things, but I think my strength is collaboration.

I love working with people.

I love getting my hands dirty and and getting from you know a brainstorm to an actual to see it to fruition.

And that's that's it.

And you have time on your hands.

And you have time on the hands, right?

Hey, record.

Do you have any questions for me?

Any questions?

Do you oh boy?

I know nothing.

Oh, the master.

Easy.

Easy LT.

No, of course.

According to your your uh application, which we would you do have experience that interests me.

Oh you have you have been you have uh we don't have a surf side restaurant, but we but we do have a depot that's going to have a maybe a concession stand, maybe food trucks.

Absolutely, sir safe uh gotta be music involved in that somewhere along the way.

I know I'm all I know.

I because I worked every Friday and Saturday night.

I couldn't go to the field of dreams and see all the bands that I know.

So that's where your recreation experience will fall.

Absolutely.

I'm I'm thrilled.

I just am thrilled to be here.

I thank you for your consideration.

And uh do you have a preference, Joanne, as well?

Does it matter?

Yeah, I'm here.

I'm here for the long run.

Wonderful.

Thank you.

Appreciate it.

Thank you.

My pleasure.

Council Bryant.

Madam Chair, at this time.

I'm gonna put them both in one if you don't mind.

That's fine.

Uh I would nominate and uh make the recommendation to bring both candidates on to the uh recreation advisory board, Alyssa Cadillac and Joanne Parsulin.

And I would recommend Alyssa for the 2028 and Joanne for the 2027 position.

I have a motion and a second by Councillor Withrow.

Any discussion?

All those in favor?

Unanimous.

Congratulations, ladies, and thank you for your volunteer.

Thank you.

Welcome aboard.

Very much.

Thank you.

We have a meeting this Thursday night across the street at 60.

I don't I don't think so.

They don't meet virtually.

But you'll let them know.

You know, this is kind of short notice.

We let them know what the meeting is.

Yeah, it's kind of short notice.

So we have nobody there.

Let them have a breather.

Um next we have the employee of the month recognition.

I'm excited to um uh say the employee of the month is for February is Ashley Andrews, a dispatcher at the PD.

I'd like to invite Chief Dolan up to introduce Ashley.

Thank you, Carleen.

Good evening, Madam Chair, members of the council.

My name is Joel Dolan.

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

Uh and I'm also honored to stand here again and uh once again recognize a member of the Salem Police Department as your town employee of the month.

I think it just exemplifies the quality in the caliber of employees that we have uh working there now, and it's uh my honor to be their chief.

Ashley's always polite and courteous to all of her colleagues.

She is generally pleasant to be around.

She demonstrates exceptional communication skills when interacting with members of the public who contact the police department, maintaining a calm, professional, and respectful demeanor, regardless of how challenging a call may be.

Ashley has proven to be an outstanding team member and collaborator.

She is frequently the go-to person when training new hires and willingly takes on projects that ensure departmental information remains current, organized, and easily accessible.

Her exceptional work on the Warrants Project is a prime example of her attention to detail and commitment to accuracy.

While the department has extensive background information, it does not always have everything necessary to complete a task or find information necessary for officers.

Ashley has been creative in the way in which she can find information, not readily available to officers.

She's also been involved in assisting the department and choosing its next software to streamline and make the department more efficient.

Ashley's dedication was especially evident during a recent major event in town while off-duty and at home with her family.

She proactively called in to offer assistance and ultimately reported to work on her own time.

Her actions and short calls were handled effectively, and officers were informed and supported, highlighting her commitment to both the department and her colleagues.

She regularly adjusts her schedule to cover shifts when the department is shorthanded and to assist colleagues when needed.

Most notably, she excels at managing multiple responsibilities, simultaneously seamlessly transitioning between tasks while remaining effective and efficient.

This adaptability is essential to her role, and Ashley consistently exceeds expectations.

Congratulations.

Congratulations.

Thank you.

Congratulations.

Thank you very much.

Wonderful.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Smail you.

Next on the agenda, the fire department.

We have the swearing in of a new dispatcher.

Um, Fire Chief Craig Lemere is here.

Congratulations, Ashley.

Madam Chair, members of the council.

My name is Craig Lamaire, and I'm honored to serve as Salem's Fire Chief.

Thank you for allowing us to take a few moments again this evening to welcome to formally welcome our newest full-time fire alarm operator who started with us in September.

We are excited to introduce him to you and the community that he now serves.

Mr.

Cameron McNally is badge 278 and from Hudson, New Hampshire.

Prior to Salem Fire, Cameron has been working at the Parkland Medical Center as an emergency department technician.

He's also working as a per Diem EMT for Stewart's Ambulance Service.

Although he did not have experience as a dispatcher, Cameron quickly learned the job and was released from training on December 7th, 2025.

Cameron has transitioned very well into the new role, and we're happy to have him as part of our team.

Penning Cameron tonight will be Deputy Chief Michael Gallupo.

Very nice.

All right.

Cameron, please raise your right hand and repeat after me.

I state your name.

I Cameron McNally.

Do solemnly and sincerely swear and affirm.

Solemnly and sincerely.

Solemnly and sincerely swear and affirm.

Swear and affirm.

That I will faithfully and impartially.

All the duties incumbent upon me.

All the duties incumbent upon me.

As fire alarm operator.

According to the best of my abilities.

According to the best of my abilities.

Agreeably to the rules, regulations, and orders.

Of the Salem Fire Department.

And to the ordinances and laws.

Of the town of Salem.

In the state of New Hampshire.

So help me God.

Congratulations, Cameron.

Very good.

Very nice.

Congratulations.

Thank you, Dad.

Congratulations.

Congratulations.

Welcome aboard.

Congratulations.

It's about you.

Sure, sure.

Sure.

Bring him on down.

Well we can't fix that tonight.

Thank you.

Come on down there.

Ashley.

Bring the gang down.

Ashley group.

Let's go.

Come on there.

Come on.

Bashful doesn't work anymore.

This is a high school dance.

Let's go.

Everybody down front.

There you go.

There you go.

There you go.

Very nice.

Fantastic.

Very nice.

Thank you all.

Very nice.

Thank you.

Wonderful.

Awesome.

I thought we did some.

Well, that was wonderful.

Okay, Miss Mario.

Two good ones in a row.

Okay.

Um next on your agenda is a first read waiver of resolution 2026-05 Finance Department.

This is requesting the use of 45,000 dollars in police public safety impact fees towards the police station construction bond payment for 2026.

Miss McGee.

Hello.

Uh Nicole McGee, Finance Director here for the town of Salem.

And tonight we're requesting to withdraw 45,000 in uh police public safety impact fees to help offset the bond payment cost in 2026.

Okay.

Council Bryant.

We're ready.

We're ready.

Okay, fantastic.

Madam Chair, at this time I move that the Salem Town Council adopts resolution 2026-05 relating to the use of public safety, a public safety police impact fees towards the 2026 police station construction 2026 bond payment and further waives 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 where has in 2024, the voters authorized warrant article eight, construct new police station bond.

And whereas the bond payment due for 2026 is 2,360,775.

And whereas RSA 674 colon 21 via as invictor C and municipal Salem Municipal Code Section 490-71.

II authorizes the governing body to spend impact fees.

Now therefore be a resolved by the Salem Town Council.

That the Salem Town Council hereby authorizes $45,000 from public safety fee and police impact fees to offset the cost of the police station construction bond due in 2026.

Second.

I have a motion and a second by Councillor Withrow.

Any discussion?

Seeing that all is in favor.

Unanimous.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Moving right along.

Next on your agenda is resolution 202606 municipal services department requests for use of $25,000 from the town facility maintenance and improvement capital reserve for the depot train station furnace replacement.

Um municipal services director Wayne Amarall is here.

Wayne Amerald Department of Public of Municipal Services here for a request of transfer of funds for the train depot for our for furnace emergency repairs.

We had we got notified.

So we're able to pull that off as fast as we can.

It's not a repair that we budget for, as you aware.

We have the emergency funds for a circumstance just like this.

We did ask for 25,000 originally.

We weren't sure exactly what the price was going to be.

But after they did the work, they could not run the air conditioner, obviously, for the cold weather, so they might have to return in the spring and do additional work for the air conditioner compressor for the um for the depot.

So we wanted to keep the fund at 25 withdrawal we need by April May, and then we return all the money back what we don't spend for funds.

Madam Chair, at this time, I move that the Salem Town Council adopts resolution 2026-06 related to the use of town facility maintenance and improvement capital reserve fund towards the cost of replacing the furnace at the depot train station and further waives the requirements for a second reading.

This resolution shall take effect upon its passage as follows.

Whereas the Department of Municipal Services was notified by the tenant of the depot train station that the heating system has malfunctioned and the facility had no heat.

And whereas upon inspection by the town staff and town HVAC vendor, it was discovered that the furnace unit was cracked and no longer oper operational, and with low temperatures of the week below five degrees, it was determined that immediate action was required to restore the heat.

Whereas the Department of Municipal Services immediately authorized the replacement of the HVAC system and entered into an agreement with the town's HVAC vendor to replace as soon as possible.

Now therefore be it resolved by the Salem Town Council.

That the town council has agents to withdraw from the town facility maintenance and improvement capital reserve fund hereby authorizes an expenditure of up to $25,000 to be dispersed for the depot train station furnace replacement.

I am a motion and second by councillor right.

Any discussion?

Seeing that all those in favor, unanimous.

Thank you.

Due to the amount of the grant, a public hearing it hearing is required in accordance in accordance with RSA 3195 B.

I'm going to open the public hearing.

Mr.

Amarillo.

Thank you.

Wayne Emerald, Municipal Services Director again.

As you can tell we've uh we requested uh approval of a $25,000 grant.

Uh a $21,000 925,000 grant from the New Hampshire DES to do our next round of invasive plant removal at uh Allington Mill uh reservoir.

It will be offset it thanks to a gift that we got from APA to help offset the costs, and then we're gonna fund the remaining 20,000 and the water fund.

We did it last year.

I think it was very successful.

Um it's very uh slow process with them pulling out the weeds individually and vacuum them up.

It's pretty cool when you understand what they're doing, but it's it's definitely a value uh to improve the water quality.

Thank you.

Councilor Bryant.

Madam Chair, at this time I move to the Salem Town Council hereby accept with gratitude a grant in the amount of $21,925 from the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services towards the cost of the Allington Mills Aquatic Specific Specifics specifies treatment program to authorize the town manager to sign any and all documents necessary to effectuate this grant and further to accept with gratitude a donation of $1,925 from the Arlington Pond Protective Association for this project.

I have a motion and second by Council Withrow.

Any discussion from the board?

Any discussion from the public?

No.

All those in favor?

Unanimous.

Thank you.

Oh, S Mayo.

Okay.

The next item on your agenda is an update on the municipal building advisory committee from uh finance director Nicole McGee.

Hi, Town Council Nicole McGee.

I am the finance director and luckily enough I'm also the municipal building advisory committee chair.

Um I stop you for a second.

Is her mic on?

Because we can't really hear you.

Oh, sorry.

I know.

No.

Councillor Wright is going to yell at me every meeting she yells at me for not speaking loudly.

Can't hear a thing you're saying.

It is on.

It is green.

It's not okay.

It's not resonating.

I will try and speak much louder.

Thank you.

Uh so Nicole McGee, Finance Director, also the municipal building advisory committee chair.

Uh this update is just to give you guys an update on where we stand as a committee.

Uh first the police station update.

Uh, this picture is an overhead picture as of December uh 16th, 2025, and then the next slide will show you our latest overhead so you can see that they are making great progress on the police station project.

The project is about 99% bought out, and the budget is in very good shape.

The completion date for the project is late summer, early fall, but the police department won't move in right away.

They will need to have a couple weeks where they train.

Um they're gonna need training on the new system, different booking procedures, so they will be in there sometime fall in the fall.

Uh the second story roof is currently being constructed and should be weather tight by the end of February.

The second story story exterior wall is being constructed now and should be done by the end of the week.

The interior framing of the second floor began today.

The mezzanine wall in the outbuilding is complete.

The precast concrete for the outbuilding is to will be delivered and installed the week of February 23rd.

The gun range equipment is being installed.

Action target said to crew from Utah to complete the construction of the range.

Uh mechanical services are being installed on the first and second floor, and the police department staff is working with a furniture consultant, and this is the same consultant who worked with the school district on the high school and the Woodbury project.

Um next, I will give you an update with South Station.

Uh just as a reminder, in 24, the fire department had submitted a new four-phase plan for their stations, and South Station is listed as their number one priority.

This existing facility has a numerous deficiencies that need to be addressed, such as space needs, it is not ADA compliant.

There are health concerns for the employees, such as asbestos throughout the building, and the gear extractor is located on the opposite end of the building from the apparatus bay.

It is not energy efficient, and there they do not have gender-specific restrooms or showers, are some of the major more prominent issues, but there's a lot more issues when within that building.

Uh in April of 25, the town council endorsed tearing down the current station and reconstructing a new building as this option was the least cost less less costly, less risky, and would take a smaller amount of time than a renovation and expansion project.

You may remember that Councillor Pelletier had inquired if the station could be built behind the existing stations to avoid cost of a relocation.

I informed the council back over the summer that it may not be permittable due to wetlands.

The arm fund contribution would be approximately $300,000.

A retaining wall would need to be built as well as a temporary access road, which after construction would then need to be removed in the area restored.

And it would push the building to the back of the site, which is 50% wet, so we ultimately didn't find that this would be a good alternate option.

This past December, the town council approved to start funding the schematic and design development for the next phase of the South Station.

So they used public safety impact fees and some money that we found in the budget in the 2025 budget to move on to this next phase of design.

So T gas, we we entered into contracts.

T gas will be working on schematic and design development.

GPI has been authorized to begin wetland mapping, civil engineering, permitting, and then Trident will continue as the owner's project manager for the next phase of the South Station project.

So one thing, and some of the counselors were here.

We had there we had a push ceremony back in December of 2023.

Sorry, December 23rd of 25.

And uh, which was I was there and it was I really impressive to see both counselor Bryan and Stromalia push help push the engine into the South Station that was quite a ceremony.

I just watched.

Yeah, Kathy was very happy.

She got she watched.

It was it was quite the I've never seen anything like it.

Um but when I was there, I can't help but always be wearing my MVC chair hat.

And I took these pictures for the council for the town council to see.

What you see here is this one of the two bays of South Station.

You have the ambulance and the new engine.

And if you look, there's not a lot of space there.

There's about maybe two or three feet between the back of the two vehicles and maybe a foot between the front of the engine and the door.

And so I looked at the re-looked at the conceptual design.

There are only two bays on this conceptual design.

And just in talking to people, I've had a lot of people say, why is there only two apparatus bay in the conceptual design?

So at our light last MBAC meeting, I had invited the chief up to ask him, you know, why two bays?

It seems like three bays would make more sense to me, but what the heck do I know I'm not a fire chief?

And so the chief had informed MBAC that when they were initially doing the conceptual design, they costs were getting a little bit higher than they anticipated.

So they had said, well, let's bring the three bay concept down to two bays.

But in retrospect, he said he reflected that three bays would make more sense, and that if we were going to build a new station, it would let's build it for the right size.

Let's build it with three bays.

So one of the things I wanted to ask the council tonight to see if it would be okay.

Again, you've approved this conceptual design, but would it be okay if we explored the option, kind of got a cost perspective of if we added a third bay, what that would be like, or is that something you guys are not interested in us exploring?

This would be the time before we actually get the um schematic design to to say, okay, let's explore that option or not.

I'd like to explore it.

I don't know about the other.

I do.

We're not a problem.

Okay, great.

We will uh we will go forward and have T gas design uh look at what the third bay, if it's feasible, what the cost would be.

Council Swainy.

Thank you, manager.

Can we also make them a little longer too?

It just looks like there might be more space to stretch them out.

We can absolutely have them take a look at that.

Yep.

Uh-huh.

Yeah, that was something that I saw, so I wanted to again bring that forward to the council.

Um so thank you with that.

And let's see, okay, 2026 budget update for MBAC.

So in our August meeting, MBAC submitted 10 projects totaling 312,000 to be considered for the 2026 budget.

The town manager had reduced this request to eight projects totaling 197,000.

The town council kept all the eight projects in your recommended budget.

Thank you very much.

Um, but unfortunately, the budget committee did make that two million dollar reduction to the operating budget.

So Colleen, uh unfortunately, none of our budget requests made it through the uh 2026 budget, but we are um we are still working towards creating a capital plan.

Colin, you want to go to the next one.

Um, so to remind everybody, MBAC's purpose is to create a plan or strategy for the investments for our buildings.

Um, so we are currently actively working on drafting a multi-year plan for maintenance and capital improvements to town facilities more on the capital improvement sides, less on the maintenance.

But one of the things that we did, and I think you've heard me talk about is create what's called a building condition index.

So you guys didn't see the physical version in your packet, but you got to see the electronic version.

And so what it is is there was a subcommittee, a building condition index committee, and we went out throughout the summer and fall and assessed every single building, every single town facility, and we looked at things, you know, mostly the interior needs and wants, exterior needs or wants HVAC, plumbing electrical IT site and structure, and we ranked each building.

We tried to put a very condensed executive summary list for each building so that elected officials can see where our top deficiencies are.

We scored the buildings.

We wanted it to be concise and easy to read, but it's also going to be a tool for us as an MBAC committee to say, okay, we have you know seven buildings that need new roofs within the next five years.

How do we fund this?

How do we do we group it for a better price?

Do we do it in segments?

But it's this we're gonna use this document as a guide to come up with a five, ten-year capital plan for us to recommend to the town council.

Um in the BCI report, we did it for 20 of the town facilities.

We have six buildings that we ranked in good condition, eight in average, five and poor, and one in replacement failure, and that's the Millville rec building.

That's the one that is failure.

Um, and that's my update for you guys.

I'm sorry, I'm not as boisterous and as you know, loud as Roy Sorensen is, but that's what you get when you get a finance person as the M back chair.

Yes, you do.

Any questions of Ms.

McGee.

You're all said on this one.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Miss Mayo, um, next on your agenda is a um discussion on the 2026 default budget.

Again, finance director Nicole McGee.

Thank you guys for having me again.

Uh so uh for this segment, I'll put back on my finance director hat.

Um, just wanted to kind of give you guys but more of the public and understanding about the default budget because you do see um well, let's start with how I always like to talk start talking about the default budget.

The default budget is um by law tells us how to calculate the budget, which is the prior year's operating budget increased or decreased by debt service contracts, other obligations previously incurred and mandated by law, one-time expenditures contained in the operating budget, and salaries and benefits of positions that have been eliminated in the proposed budget.

So, next slide, please.

This slide you've you've seen before, you see the 2026 default budget compared to the 2026 operating budget.

You see a large change, you see a change of you know, just in the general fund alone, 5.3 million dollar difference, and that number really stands out.

It's like wow, how is this possible?

That's a huge number.

And are my taxes really gonna like are we really just overexpending here?

What's what's going on?

Because when we did the budget review, it didn't look like there was five million dollars of excess.

So, what is that?

One of the problems when we look at the default budget like that is we're only seeing one piece of the puzzle when we're looking to calculate our taxes.

The tax rate calculation is the net amount to be raised via taxation divided by the assessed value.

So on the next slide, we'll see that the net next one.

Yep, the net amount to be raised via taxation is your expenditure budget minus your revenues plus the amount that we think we need to raise for abatements and credits, and that's the net amount to be raised via taxation.

So when you see that first slide and we see the five the five million dollars, all we're seeing is the expenditure budget compared to the expenditure budget.

We're not seeing the other pieces that make up what our taxes are going to be, how we're going to be calculated.

So the default budget requires that we reduce the 2025 operating budget by one-time expenditures contained in the operating budget.

You guys will recall some of you were on the charter commission.

One of the things that came out with their charters that people did not want to see many warrant articles on the ballot.

They wanted all the expenditures to be contained within the operating budget.

You know, many years ago, like the when we did the courthouse re roof replacement, that was a separate warrant article.

But the way our charter is now we would have to put that within the operating budget.

So in the 25 operating budget, we had to reduce it things by 10 million dollars in the general fund, about a million dollars in the sewer fund and 210,000 in the water fund budget.

So 11 million dollars of one-time appropriations that were included in the 25 operating budget are not included in the 2026 default budget.

So if we were to compare the 2025 operating budget compared to the 2026 operating budget, you'll actually see that the general fund, and I'm I'm including all warrant articles here, so I'm including you know the road program.

If all the 2026 warrant articles were to pass, so you can really see apples to apples what we're looking at here.

The general fund budget is actually down by a million dollars.

The sewer fund budget is down by you know six hundred thousand, we'll call it, and the water fund budget is a little bit higher in 2026 when you compare it to the 2025 operating budget.

So there really isn't this very large dramatic change.

Um but so you see this and you say, okay, well, if the 25 26 operating budget is going down by a million dollars, why would my tax rate be going up?

That's because the revenue side is also lower.

The 2025 had uh $730,000 of a transfer to offset the Bridge Street Bridge project and $4.9 million dollars in state aid to offset the Bridge Street Bridge project.

Again, if this had been many years ago, we probably would have had Bridge Street Bridge as a separate warrant article, but we don't.

We're putting it all into the operating budget now.

Additionally, in 2025, we used about just shy of six million dollars of unassigned fund balance to offset the tax rate.

And in 2026, we're using $3.2 million.

So our revenues are much are lower in 2026 than they were in 2025.

Um also in 2026, we do have another large capital project that does have a a large revenue offset, which makes our expenditure budget look higher, but we also aren't seeing the revenue side to offset it.

So we have the ERMA route, the Route 11 and Irma Road project in the 2026 budget.

Of this $3.1 million, only $281,000 is funded via taxation.

We're getting on our revenue side of the budget.

We have $2.7 million for state aid and about $120,000, we'll call it $130,000 offset by impact fees.

But you're seeing that in the 2026 proposed budget, that $3.1 million, you don't see it in the 2026 default budget.

Uh the other two, there are two other ones.

We've got a sidewalk gap connection project, that's $1.1 million that's in the 2026 proposed operating budget that will not be in the 2026 default budget.

Again, of this 1.1 million dollars, 220,000 is the funded via taxation, and 880,000 is offset by a grant.

And just a reminder for people who don't live by budgeting in the state of New Hampshire, which I do, so sometimes I forget that other people don't know this.

But the state requires that we gross appropriate.

So what does that mean?

It means I can't put in the budget only $220,000 for the Lawrence Road and Veterans Memorial Sidewalk Gap.

I have to put in the entire $1.1 million in the expenditure budget, and then I have to put in $880,000 in as a revenue budget.

So you have to put the total dollar amount on both sides of the puzzle.

We also have an $895,000 capital project for the Clough Road Sidewalk Gap connection.

Again, of this $895,000, a little shy of $200,000 is funded via taxation.

The other $716,000 is offset by a grant.

So again, we saw about a $5 million difference.

It's not just these three projects, but for $5 million worth of capital improvements in the 2026 operating budget, which is not in the default budget, the taxpayers fund $680,000 of that, and other financing sources make up the remaining $4.5 million.

So I went through, I tried to calculate the default budget, I tried to look at revenues and how that would shake out.

So the 2026 default budget only, we would have to raise $5.53 via taxation.

And the 2026 proposed operating budget is $5.63.

It's a tax rate difference of $10.

So at a property valued at $500,000, it's $50.

So again, just to for you as you're deciding when you go out to vote, what that impact would be if you have a house at about $500,000, the $50 difference between the proposed operating budget and the default budget.

So in summary, although the expenditure budget for the 2026 default budget is lower by $5.8 million, the revenue offset is also reduced.

And this means that the actual tax rate will not be significantly lower if people vote for if the default budget is voted.

Thank you.

Questions one quick.

Sure.

What the you say in the revenue is lower the well, none of the few.

What caused that?

What's happened?

Mo mainly the use of unassigned fund balance in the 25 budget.

We used a lot of unassigned fund balance to fund one time cap larger projects.

And so we did not use that same amount of unassigned fund balance in 26 budget.

Okay.

Yeah.

Thank you.

Good.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Ms.

Mayo.

Okay.

Um next, you have an update from the municipal services department on winter weather operations.

Wayne Amarall is here to speak to this.

So blowing back in the street.

Well, Mr.

Amarill.

Jeffette Benson's also here to answer any questions we have.

You can tell we've had an interesting winter.

We were hoping for a mild winter this year, and we adjusted the budget, assuming we're going to have a mild winter.

Right after we adjust the budget on the two million dollar reduction by uh the budget committee.

Winter came and it came really angry.

And um and we still have it here.

So I just did a memo, uh just to update where we're asked so far this year.

I don't know if everybody got to take a look at that.

Um towards concerns about you know comparisons between years of the past, 2025, 2002.

Just uh give you a rough idea for uh contracted services this year.

We have a balance of 139,000 out of the new adjusted 235,000 that we have, assuming the budget passes a share uh next month.

In 2025, we had 177,000 remaining in that balance, and in 2024, we had 234.

So you could tell we obviously are having a much uh tougher winter.

These storms have been running the deterrent of these storms are running for days at a time, as you can tell, even though it stopped, we're still treating the ice and the and the icy road.

So I'm assuming we'll be coming to you in the next couple of months looking for some help with the budget um from the reserve account.

Questions?

I want to say they did a great job last storm.

I I uh the I have I can't do anything but praise um that department.

Absolutely, because they I have I feel they do a wonderful job.

I really do.

Thank you.

Council right, I just want to point out that the proposed budget was the same as last year because we've had kind of mild winters for the last few years, and then it got cut because of the two million dollars that the budget committee forced us into cutting.

And also we got another storm coming tomorrow night.

We do, we do.

Thank you.

And I want to just say thank you for for the comments on on the crew because you know they give up a lot.

These storms keep landing on the weekends too and holidays and midweek too, but they're not just Wednesday holiday, just not Wednesdays.

They're happening for like every weekend and they're happening every holiday.

They find every holiday too.

And then we have a whole full crew come in, no one skips, everybody's in.

It's a team effort, so I have to say hats off to the work that they've done.

Absolutely.

Absolutely, thank you.

Any other questions, comments?

Thank you, Mr.

Amerill.

Thank you.

Okay, Ms.

Mayo, town manager's report.

Well, since I have a captive audience, I've got about 40 slides.

I'd like to just a couple of um quick announcements.

Um, just as a reminder, next Monday is um President's Day, February 16th.

Town Hall will be closed, and the 2026 resident survey is now open.

So that's on the town's website.

Um we encourage people to um go to the town website, give us your feedback.

Um we'd love to hear um your um any input you have on on how the town is running right now.

And that's all I have for this evening.

Wonderful.

Anybody any questions or comments for Miss Mayel?

I will uh so our next in the old business or table depending.

Next meetings of March 2nd and March 16th.

Motion to adjourn.

Unanimous.

Good evening.

Thank you.