Good evening, Stealman.

Welcome to the March 16th, 2026 town council meeting.

Would you please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance?

I pledge 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.

You can have a little clip to hold it over.

Introducing the board members to my far left is Councillor Betancourt.

Good evening.

To his right is Councillor Stramalia.

Good evening.

To his right is Councillor Pellatea.

Good evening, Salem.

To his right is Councillor Sweeney.

Good evening.

To his right is the Vice Chair, Jeff Hatch.

To my immediate right is the Secretary, Lisa Whitrow.

Good evening.

To her right is Councillor Bryant.

Good evening.

And to his right is Councillor Wright.

Hello, Salem.

And at the end of the table to the right is Town Manager Joe Devine.

Good evening.

Good evening.

We're gonna go forgo.

Oh, meeting minutes.

I would move that we approve March 2nd, 2026 public session.

Second.

I have a motion second by Councillor Bryant.

All those in favor.

I have staying eight in favor, one abstention.

Bonnie Wright is abstaining.

Thank you.

Chairman comments.

There are none.

Approve the consent agenda.

Council Bryant.

Madam Chair, at this time I move to approve the March 16, 2026 consent agenda.

Second.

I have a motion and a second by Councillor Stomalia.

All those in favor?

Unanimous.

Okay.

Additions or requests in the public.

There are none, correct?

Correct.

Okay.

Town council organization.

Election of town council members.

So uh do you want to give you a little spiel about the bylaws state?

Do we we I don't think we really need to?

I don't think so.

Okay.

Yeah.

So do I have a motion?

Councillor Hatch.

Madam Chair, I'd like to go ahead and make the motion that we elect Councillor Bryant as the chair with uh councillor Sweeney as the vice chair and counselor with remaining secretary, please.

Second.

I have a motion and a second by councillor Pellateer.

Are there any other nominations?

Seeing none, all those in favor?

Unanimous.

You can change your spots, people.

Thank you very much.

I stay still.

You stay still as right.

Wait, wait, wait.

Yeah.

If I don't kill Lisa, because I don't lights.

Lights are not as intense.

All right.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Great.

And there we go.

Oh, I got the gavel.

You do have the gavel.

Yeah.

Fantastic.

First, let me thank you for the uh confidence to do this one more time.

I appreciate it.

And uh we hope to stay as transparent and forward thinking as possible over the next uh twelve months.

So with that being said, since we're not gonna do that, we're gonna go to the next item on the list, which is review and discuss council appointments and boards and committees and commissions.

So in the past in the past, Lisa Rus told us what we needed to do.

Um we all need somebody who does that, Bob.

I know.

Hey, I'm not knocking it, baby.

Let me tell you.

Excuse me.

Everybody's got them.

Yeah.

Okay.

Fantastic.

I'm glad you're all ahead of the game.

I'll take a look at those and make sure that uh everybody's gonna get what they're looking at.

Let me just take a look real quick, see if there's any overlaps.

I've not submitted mine yet, Mr.

Chairman.

I will before I leave.

Yeah, Barney's name's on her.

Oh, Paul.

Okay.

Yeah, you can tell by who.

Yeah.

I wanted to make sure.

Last year, I think somebody forgot a name.

Okay.

I've never seen so many people put no next to budget committee.

Um, no, you're trying to tell me something.

They don't like me right now.

So you haven't got yours in yet.

Jeff.

I did not mind.

I'll just uh be at the mercy of the chair.

Okay.

Mr.

Chairman, I'll submit mine before I leave.

Yeah.

Uh like I said, I'll go through them.

I'll send an email over to Joe, and Joe will send it out to everybody.

I'm sure you'll all get your first choice and all that kind of thing.

So I'm not worried about it at this time.

Uh next up.

Just um as one the economic development committee, the EDC.

Yeah.

They have a request right now.

We have two town council reps on that committee.

Uh they're looking to either reduce it down to one and have an alternate or add another citizen because right now they have an even number and they want to have an odd number.

Okay.

For that purpose.

Does anybody want to step down to be an alternate or do you want to or does anybody do we don't have anybody from the EDAC that you have right now councillor Sweeney and Councilor Wright are their two representatives to EDC.

Okay.

So did you want to say something, Bunny?

No, just I want to stay on.

You want to stay on.

And you want to stay on.

There you go.

I can also find another citizen if you want to do that.

We can we can go that route too.

Is it either way?

We just want to be able to have an odd number.

Seats already.

Yeah, I I don't think there's any pressing votes.

Okay.

Fantastic.

Thank you.

Take care of it.

Got that done.

That's how it was originally, and then it flipped.

Perfect.

Okay, under 6C.

Are we uh the review discuss town council policy documents and town council bylaws?

Are we doing anything with that this evening?

If the council has any amendments, anybody has any amendments?

Has anybody read anything that disturbs them about the bylaws at this point?

And we're good to move on with the same ones.

Oh, that'd be fantastic.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

We I move that the town council hereby votes to reaffirm the town council bylaws as printed.

Second.

I'm gonna take that as a uh second from Keith.

No, was it was it Jeff?

Okay.

No, it's all right.

I got it.

Well so I get I think that's the document where the revised came before the intro the the order of the one of the documents we're working on tonight has the order incorrect.

We'll figure out which one it is.

Okay.

At this time I have a motion and seconded by Mr.

Hatch to uh move the town council bylaws is printed.

All those in favor?

Aye.

That is nine to zero.

Next, non-public meeting requests and uh rules of procedure.

Anyone have any changes or anything to that?

Everybody knows how that process works.

You've all been here long enough.

I'll take a motion.

Mr.

Sweeney, please.

Mr.

Chairman, at this time I move that the town council hereby votes to reaffirm the non-public meeting requests and rules of procedure as printed.

Second second.

Motion's been made and seconded by uh Miss Stacy.

Hearing no further discussion, all those in favor.

All set with that.

Moving on to number seven, second read and adoption.

Mr.

Town Manager, Joe.

This will be for resolution 2026-07, which is the policy on attendance for boards, committees, and commissions at your last meeting.

This would be a second reading.

If you have any questions, the assistant manager is here to answer them.

If not, move forward.

Anyone have any questions with regards to the discussion on policies of attendance for boards, committees, and commissions?

Don't have any.

I'll take a motion from Mr.

Sweeney.

Mr.

Chairman, at this time I move we formally adopt resolution number 2026 07, establish and adopt appointed boards and committees attendance policy as follows.

Whereas the Salem Town Council has the authority to establish policies and procedures for the town of Salem, New Hampshire, and whereas the Charter of the Town of Salem, New Hampshire authorizes the town council to appoint members to the Conservation Commission, Communication Committee, Economic Development Committee, Recreation Advisory Committee, Historic District Commission, and other administrative boards and committees as may be established by the town council if necessary.

And whereas the Salem Town Council intends that all boards and committees appointed by the council conduct business effectively, maintain quorum, and uphold their responsibilities to the residents of Salem through cons consistent and active participation by appointed members.

Now therefore, be it resolved by the Salem Town Council that the Salem Town Council hereby adopts the appointed board and committees attendance policy.

Second motion been made by Mr.

Sweeney and seconded by Miss Stacy.

Any further David?

Just a quick point.

I want to thank uh Bianca Carlson, who's a member of the planning board who uh went on social media for a good purpose uh earlier today and posted a whole bunch of open positions, including on a number of the boards that we just discussed that are open.

So for citizens who want to get involved, there are a lot of opportunities to do so, and hopefully people will take advantage of that.

Thank you, Mr.

Betancourt.

Anybody else?

Not hearing any.

All those in favor.

Nine to zero.

It's too hot, man.

First read.

Mr.

Tom Manager.

Thank you.

So this will be on resolution 20 uh 20 2026-08, which is the proposed establishment finance committee.

Uh if you remember back in February, we brought forward a finance committee bylaws and policy and memo, kind of drafting what we thought it should look like.

After listening to feedback from the council, a couple of the feedback we received was reduced it to three members, not really have them participate in any other committees, specifically around finance, like CIP, things like that.

Um so we've taken those, we've made those modifications, and we're proposing that we move forward with the finance committee.

I'm happy to answer any questions that the council has at this time on it.

Questions, Mr.

Hatch.

Okay.

Uh considering what the vote outcome was, and as far as the uh last charter amendment would concerning the budget committee, I guess my question is what is going to be the value of this committee?

Because I'm not sure what it's going to do.

Is it just another cog in the wheel or is it going to be something that's going to be productive?

So my I guess my thinking is we know then that they're going to get the budget before us.

Yep.

Is that better than that budget coming to us earlier and us spending more time with it?

Why couldn't we do both?

I'm asking.

I mean, I I want to make sure that we're going to get value out of setting up this committee.

I think I think from a town that's the uh town's perception.

The major um benefit to this is typically the budget committee is looking year to year.

They're not looking, they're not forecasting, they're not looking forward at future impacts and how things are moving forward.

They're they're in that budget year, and that's how they're concentrating.

I think the idea with this finance committee, uh, working in conjunction with the town council as one of their advisory committees, is when you guys establish what you go on for a goal, let's say for a budget increase, they're driving towards that.

And they're also going to be taking into consideration while they may not be on CIP or they may not be on when we're talking about long-term planning, we're gonna be talking to them about that, saying, you know, this is our five-year staffing plan, this is what it looks like, and this is why we're making it look like this.

So I think my hope is is that this committee is gonna drive more of the forecasting and the future planning of the town as opposed to just living in that one budget year.

Okay.

Miss Withrow.

I'd like to think that they're also gonna be involved a little bit more hands-on early on with the town manager or through departments or however that gets structured so that they can have more intimate knowledge with each line item rather than a budget committee just having general knowledge and slashing, they'll have more intricate knowledge and they can cut early if they feel it's it's wasteful spending or leave it as is or whatever.

But I'd like them to be more involved early on, more in depth.

The entire left side would like to speak.

We'll start with you, Mr.

Sweeney.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

And really, just briefly, I do think looking at the results from last year's budget that passed by 150 votes, last week's budget that passed by 43 votes, having more eyes on it to the council with those point that can then speak authoratively to the budget to the public will be helpful when it comes to actually explaining what we're doing, what's driving the impacts.

I think that it's just gonna be helpful to have non-town counselors with the really intimate knowledge of the of the budget that can talk with their neighbors and and friends.

Mr.

Pellatea.

All right, thank you.

I'm not gonna repeat what the rest of the council already said, though, but in addition to something like that, I like I'd like to see this uh finance committee not only be advisory to uh the council uh but be an advisory being open and trans trans uh transparent transparent to the public as well, whether they uh transparent to the public or the us the council trans uh as transparent to the public as to what the advisory advised us of.

Therefore, when it goes to when this goes to the budget committee for the for their consideration, they know firsthand they've got three eyes on it.

They've got the town manager, they get the advisory committee, they get the council committee.

Now see what you can do, and see if they're worthy.

This is still uh available.

Got it, thank you, Mr.

Bettencourt.

So just to build off kind of what everybody said at this point very briefly, you know.

Ironically enough, as the board sits here today, there are a number of us who have had budget committee experience.

Bob, you and I, for example, some others as well.

I know a number of you have been representatives to the budget committee, either as a selectman or as a town councillor, but there's not always a guarantee that that will be the case that that we'll have as a as a town council that experience.

So I think having more hands on deck is is helpful.

The other thing not to be forgotten, we've talked a lot about the budget piece, and of course, that's the predominant focus, but can't forget about the fee schedule discussion that we've been having over and over and over again the past couple of years, getting them involved with that.

I think would be very helpful.

So that if there's a line item that's either way underspent or way overspent, we're not sitting here when we get the budget and saying what happened here.

You know, now sometimes we merge lines and that explains one thing or another, but they'll be able to keep an eye on that on a more regular basis to be able to help.

Uh to the town manager's point, you know, when we and we've done this the past couple of years, and I think it's been a good thing.

You know, when we give the town manager a targeted tax rate, you know, that group can help him figure out how to make that work.

And so I think a little extra support uh for him is is a potential benefit.

Improving transparency, I think is important.

Um, I'd think the most important thing, because there was some confusion and discussion about this uh over the course of of the winter, is we want to clearly I think delineate who owns the budget at what point in the process as we go along and so when it's presented to the the voters at deliberate session, for example, they know whose product this is when it goes on to the ballot, you know what the process has been.

So I think all I think there's an opportunity here to not only do a better job on how we monitor uh the financial situation of the budget, but also for education, helping the voters of the town understand this.

You know, 40 something votes to pass the town budgets is close as I've seen in a very very long time.

And so I think we have to appreciate that and try to get more people into the conversation.

Okay, Mr.

Tremalia.

She might faint.

Um, is the finance committee just doing the municipal side or in the school department or just us?

Yeah, just us.

We can't compel the schools to do anything.

I was just curious.

Yes, motion.

Mr.

Sweeney.

Mr.

Chairman, at this time I move that the Salem Town Council hereby recognizes March 16th, 2026 as the first reading for consideration of resolution number 202608 to establish an advisory finance committee and adopt the finance committee policy as recommended.

We hereby recommend a second reading be scheduled for April 6, 2026.

Second.

Seconded by Miss Stacey.

Anything further?

All those in favor.

Nine to zero.

I think the only thing maybe left on that is probably just uh come up with some idea of how to qualify people for it.

I know I don't think we want um necessarily, you know, all finance people or all correct CPAs or whatever.

I think there's and uh if you in the policies it does spell that out okay on desired qualifications, it's it's not all or nothing.

It's it'd be whether it be business, whether it be public administration or whether it be the finance side.

Yep.

So fantastic.

Yeah.

All right.

Again, moving on to number nine, police department.

Mr.

Devine.

So this is gonna be a public hearing to accept $38,000 or 40 cents from the New Hampshire Department of Safety for mode mobile data terminals and equipment.

Uh, you have a memo in your packet from police chief dolin, who is here to speak to that as well.

And we're gonna open the public meeting.

Thank you, Mr.

Manager.

Good evening.

Congratulations, Mr.

Chair, and all of you who won your re-election.

Looking forward to working with you again for the upcoming season.

Uh I stand before you tonight.

So it's actually uh an amendment to a grant you already approved, uh I believe late last year for the highway safety grant.

Uh that original amount was $21,200.

Uh this is an additional $38,097 and 40 cents.

Uh it will allow us to replace four uh mobile data terminals, MDTs in our frontline vehicles that are coming up to their end of life, uh, four docking stations for those, and we'll actually be able to replace all of our uh in-car printers as well as our in-car barcode scanners.

And I'd be happy to answer any questions you may have on this grant.

Questions for the chief.

Mr.

Hatch.

Uh, Chief, is this uh going to result in probably or maybe future down the road of any subscription fees or maintenance fees on this equipment?

No, we've had these for many years.

That's all I got.

Thanks.

Anyone else?

Not seeing any, I'll take a motion.

Mr.

Sweeney.

Mr.

Chairman, at this time I move in accordance with RSA 3195 B that the town council accepts with gratitude a grant in the amount of thirty-eight thousand ninety-seven dollars and forty cents from the state of New Hampshire Office of Highway Safety to purchase four mobile data terminals and accompanying equipment for the police department and further to authorize the town manager to sign any and all documents necessary to effectuate this grant.

Second seconded by Miss Withrow.

Anything further?

Not seeing any hands at this time.

All those in favor.

90.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Close the hearing.

Oh, that's right.

I get to hit it again.

The meeting is now closed for that, and we'll move on to the town manager's report and questions from the council.

Great.

So I just wanted to open up, uh, just talk about uh town meeting results real quickly, just to kind of see where we were at.

Um again, I want to thank everybody who did come out and vote and anybody who helped and participated, it's greatly appreciated.

Um, you know, these programs and what we're trying to do in Salem, this is what helps makes us thrive and really makes this a great place to live for the residents.

So we just want to thank everybody for their support.

So approximately 3,400 ballots were cast.

Uh, we have approximately 21,000 registered voters in Salem, which is a 17% voter turnout uh for this municipal election.

Just again, so you can this is the 2025 tax rate.

I just want to spell it out again just so people understand.

It's eighteen dollars and sixteen cents.

Um, of that, 56% is from the Salem School District, 32% is from the town of Salem, 8% is state education, and then 4% goes to Rockingham County.

So that's kind of how it breaks out for everybody.

So just on the municipal side of things, that's all I'm gonna talk about.

Um, for the tax rate impact, uh, all monetary warrant articles were passed on Tuesday.

Uh, the new estimated municipal tax rate is six dollars and seventeen cents.

That's a 27 cent increase, uh, which is essentially 4.58% increase from 2025.

Just so people have an understanding, I've heard a lot of conversation about our budget being up.

Um, actually, our budget was down this year.

The 2025 operating budget was just over 63 million dollars.

In 2026, our operating budget is 61 million dollars.

So we have a decrease of about 1.3 million dollars, which is a decrease of 2.2 percent.

Um this does not include any of our enterprise funds, so this is looking just at the tax rate implications, does not include water or sewer in this.

This is just that piece.

This also does not include any warrant articles.

This is the straight operating budget as voted on at the town meeting.

So people must be asking themselves if our tax rate, if our spending went down, why is our tax rate up?

And I think that's a common question.

So our operating budget did decrease, but ultimately our revenues also decreased, which is what made our tax rate increase.

So even though we brought spending down because on the revenue side, it also came down, it did result in that increase.

Primarily, when we look at the revenue side of things, if you look in 2025, we budgeted just over 29 million dollars in revenues.

In 2026, we're budgeting just over 25 million.

So that's a decrease of 3.7 million dollars, which is 13 percent.

Majority of that decrease is gonna be when we used for um when we use fund balance to purchase that engine, is where a lot of that is living.

That's 2.3 million dollars of a revenue that we no longer have, which is causing that decrease.

Um, and I think this, you know, this is an unintended quant consequence of our charter, is what this really comes down to.

If you remember prior to our charter, an article like this would have been a standalone warrant article by itself, it would not have been inside the operating budget.

The voters would have voted on approving purchases tower truck, and it would have been offset by the fund balance, which would have had a zero dollar tax impact.

Because it's included in the operating budget, that's why we're seeing these weird numbers and these decreases.

This is also why people see such an increase when we look at the default budget.

It's not because we're increasing our spending, it's because these other articles are now being lumped within our operating budget, and this is the consequence of it.

So, you know, when you're looking at that 3.7, you know 2.3 was used to purchase that that tower truck.

That's a big chunk of it right there.

So that brought us down, but that brought the revenue down, which is what's causing that tax rate to still increase.

If we hadn't put this inside the operating budget, there would have been a true operating budget deficit that we didn't see this year.

So again, just the final thoughts.

I just think people need to remember, you know, the operating budget, it's voter approved.

Um, the warrant articles are voter approved, and obviously the school district budget also has an impact that and that is what makes up the final tax rate impact.

It's not just the town, it's not just the school, it's a combination of all of it.

So I just wanted to touch a pace that real quickly, and then we'll go into the regular town manager report.

Miss Withrow.

Can Mr.

Town Manager you mind if I ask you?

Sure.

I don't know if it's more of a comment.

Because there's such a difference between the default and the actual budget.

It they don't under people, a lot of people don't understand the offsets.

They just see the the giant difference and they want to save the money, right?

So I don't know how, but we need to find a way to better explain, get the message out, something because it's not accurate representation of what's happening, and we need to find a way to make that a people will.

I don't disagree.

And we're actually going to be working with uh DRA because if we've looked at other towns and how they s use what verbiage they use on the warrant and see if there's ways we can change it to make it so people understand better, you know, than just the six million dollar difference between a default budget and operating budget.

You know, can we can we get in that warrant article?

What is the actual tax rate impact?

So people can actually see this.

What is the actual increase as opposed to just seeing these large numbers and people just assume that we're increasing the budget by six million dollars when that's not the case.

So adding in the offset, I'm sorry, adding in the offsets so that the defaults plus the offsets, that's actually what the default will be, at least something.

But it's not such a huge default.

And it's unfortunate we do do voters' guides that we we put and a lot were not taken this year.

We we received a lot back, meaning people didn't grab them when they were at the polling locations, which is disappointing too because obviously it has the war the question there, but it also does have that explanation.

A lot of what we can't put on the warrant is inside that language, so people have a better understanding.

And there was a not a lot that were not taken.

Ms.

Wright.

Relying on day of election doesn't work.

People make them decisions up well before that, hopefully.

And and I I don't disagree.

I can tell you that, you know, I held outreach at the senior center, I held outreach at the town hall, and unfortunately, people just don't come.

Yeah.

You know, we're doing it after hours.

We're we're trying to accommodate everybody, everybody we can.

And you know, as the old saying goes, I can I can't make a bring a horse to water, I can't make a drink.

I can't I can put the information out there.

I can't make people come and absorb it.

You know, we try to do everything we can.

We try to get it out there.

We have to be careful because we can't electioneer either.

So we have to get it's completely fact-based on what we're putting out there.

Um but that we we tr we try.

I will say we definitely do try to get the information out there to people.

Mr.

Betancourt.

So I think Lisa's point is really well taken, which is it's an education exercise because unfortunately, when the default budget is being calculated, it is a state law formulation.

It's a calculation that you put numbers into it spits out the number, and that's what you have to live with.

So it is about explaining the actual meaning behind those numbers.

So you're spot on about that.

And Joe, I'll say that if you can figure out how to beat the lawyers and get this stuff written more straightforward so that people can understand it more clearly.

We should make a town manager of the year.

You can figure that out.

I'll tell you.

I really appreciated that presentation.

I think the other piece of it too, and granted it was in the budget, but the impact of the bonds, you know, I think people forget sometimes that the way we structure these bonds, and we do it for a specific reason so that the taxpayers aren't getting crushed in any single year, and we structure them the way we do, but they don't go away.

I mean, those obligations carry on from year to year to year.

And so that's built in there too.

So people need to understand the town overwhelmingly and rightly said we need a new police station.

Great.

I'm glad we finally got it done.

But the way it's structured, you got to account for that.

You've got to pay your bills at the end of the day on that.

Um with regard to the election, the only non kind of financial thing I was curious about is did we get any feedback from voters on the new polling locations?

I did not hear anything.

It doesn't mean that people didn't comment on it, but I did not hear.

I heard complaints from Barron about parking, some some certain things like that.

Um but a lot of that has to do with snowpack as well.

I think that maybe, you know, we could have if if we deal with a snowy winter again next year, maybe offering DPW's loader to go over and push back snow banks to open up the parking lots a little bit more, things like that might help.

We're not gonna get that many more parking spots, but at least we can try to assist a little bit with things like that.

The biggest concern I had was just voters showing up to their to you know traditional polling location and being confused.

And it sounds like there was not a lot of that, which indicates to me that the town did a good job of sending out those notices so that people by and large knew where to go.

I there was there was a little confusion, I believe, on the Lawrence Road side and a couple just because one side of the street was one location, the other side is a different location.

And I believe the po I don't want to say the post somehow some of those mailings may have got crossed, I believe as well.

It was I did hear that as well.

Okay.

All set.

Ms.

Wright?

When I went in to vote at Woodbury, there was a reporter coming out and he stopped to talk with me, and he said he heard from multiple people that they were really, really mad because they didn't know they went to senior center and didn't know to go to Woodbury.

Yeah, I guess uh if if I might.

Uh some of the stuff I heard was about the postcards we sent out.

Were they marked resident or were they marked with a name?

I have to I'm not a hundred percent sure on that.

It's general mailing, so it probably says resident, is my assumption.

When I get something at my house that doesn't address me personally, I have a tendency to and I knew that the Fisk wasn't affected, so and you need to turn the report in, by the way.

Did you do that?

I emailed I text emailed it that day.

There was two postcards that went out as well.

There's the general mailing from the town that reminds people of the election.

And then there was the one that basically the moderator and that the election staff sent out letting people know of the polling locations changes.

So there was two actual mailings that went out.

Okay.

I don't mean well.

There was some confusion with regards to those.

Anybody else?

Okay.

Moving on.

We need a uh done.

Oh, you're not done.

I'm not done.

No.

That was I just want to do a quick budget the uh the town meeting recap.

So um, so we want to make people aware.

So we've been talking about the Rockingham Park flyover.

Uh construction is scheduled to begin April 1st, and it's gonna run through November 13th.

The flyover will be closed during this time.

So it's not gonna be operationable.

It will open back up though after November 13th, so it'll be up for the holiday season.

There will be work that's going to occur again in 27, but it will not be closed, it'll just be lane reductions.

But the complete closure of the flyover is going to run from April 1st through November 13th.

Um, so we want to make people aware of that.

Um, it's gonna it's up on our website.

DOT's been talking about it, but I just wanted to again put that plug out there.

Miss Daisy.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

I just hope that you uh really put the information in the air.

It can't go past November 13th.

We have made it very clear it needs to be open for the holiday shopping season.

That is our adamant exactly because it'll be mayhem.

Thank you.

Did you have something?

That was that was the same one.

Yeah, it was the same question.

Yeah, everybody thought the same thing at the same time.

So I just want to take a minute to uh recognize school reading officer Joey Futus.

Um Officer De Fudas was recognized as the New Hampshire juvenile police officer SRO of the year for the state of New Hampshire.

So I just want to congratulate him too uh for this.

Um he was recognized for outstanding dedication to the Woodbury School community, uh building positive relationships with students and staff, and then his commitments to student safety and mentorship.

Uh, just so people are aware, um, we have an economic development uh breakfast being hosted by the Southern New Hampshire Chamber of Commerce.

It's gonna be at the Birchwood Vineyards and Derry.

Um I'm gonna be actually one of the presenters at it.

We're talking about what's going on in Salem.

Um Wyndham will be there, Plastow, Pelham, there's a bunch of surrounding communities all gonna be in attendance uh just to kind of talk about what's happening with uh economic development in the area.

Uh Easter Egg hunt in partnership with the granite united church and friends of the Salem Reconna be March 28th at Hedgehog Park from 10 to 12 30.

Uh so if you want to come out, be great for people to come out.

Let's see, you can pre-register.

Uh kids fishing derby is a little bit more in advance, but May 2nd, it's gonna be 8 30 to 11 30.

That's put on by the rotary.

Um that's also at Hedgehog Park begins at 8 30.

Town Forest Cleanup Day is gonna be May 30th.

So you can come out and join the conservation commission in this.

Uh starts at 9 a.m.

at the town forest.

And then the community gardens is gonna be open again this year uh at Hawkins Farm.

So if people want to have a plot to be able to plant that, they can.

Um they can reach out to the uh Salem Rec as well for that.

That's crazy.

And then finally, we're gonna be starting our liquor, our litter cleanup.

Liquor.

Liquor cleanup.

Liquor cleanup?

All right, no, yeah.

I'll take donations.

So our litter cleanup will start April 6th.

Um again, people can sign up through municipal services.

There is information on our website.

Uh the blue bags will be available.

We can assign locations, things like that.

Over the past six years, again, we've collected almost 38,000 pounds of roadside litter um around the town.

Now that hopefully we're finishing up with the snow, we'll be able to get it looking nice again.

Uh, the only other thing I don't have in here, I just wanted to mention uh the town where we're taking a little like a March Madness pool type going on, and what we're doing is we're looking at different locations within town and having residents vote on different whether it be like Hedgehog Park, um, you know, Michelle Memorial, things like that, feel the dreams, things like that.

So it's it's just for fun if residents see it out there.

We're just doing a kind of a bracket with different town locations.

Um so feel please feel free to go on and participate in that.

It's on our Facebook page.

Happy to answer any other questions that the council might have.

Questions for the town manager, Mr.

Pelletia, I saw you first.

I just wanted I just wanted another comment and then congratulate the police department for winning the hockey game up in Manchester the other day.

And uh figured Salem Police has been a was a part of that as well.

And it was for a very worthy cause.

Thank you.

Mr.

Sweeney, did you have something?

Yes, thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

Thanks, Shaw.

I know it's on your radar.

Um, I know counselors, we've had text messages and conversations about it.

Obviously, there was a viral video that went out this weekend of a fight that broke out at the uh at a restaurant in town.

Yep.

Um I just wanted to uh not really have a conversation back and forth, but just kind of ask what are our game, what's our game plan is to sort of curtail this activity, try to what are we doing?

What's our response?

I I can tell you, and the chief is here, but I can tell you the police department is all over it.

Um you have to remember in 2025 we responded to Tuscan over 1700 times.

That was our call volume for one year for this location.

Um I can tell you that the business in question, they have hired a detail for Fridays and Saturday nights because they want to have more of a presence there.

And I can tell you the police department is currently working with the Tuscan security team.

In the past, their security team has taken more of a community service, customer service approach, I guess is how I would describe it.

Where if you think of the mall, they take more of an actual security presence.

They're looking to transition to that.

It's kind of the the talk I'm hearing from the chief, but I'll let you answer any.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Chief going to Chief of Police.

Uh thank you for the question, uh, Consul Sweeney.

Uh we are on it.

This is something we started working on a month ago.

Uh we've been dealing it, it's just not that.

There's several locations that just have turned into congregation points.

Um and we understand that there's quality of life issues in in the area, and we have been taking a proactive approach to kind of quell those, certainly with the warm weather coming, whether we believe it or not, get uh it's coming, uh thankfully after this winter.

But um as the manager said, it is our single it large busiest single site call volume generator in town.

Um and the next one to that is the property across the street.

The mall is about a thousand calls less.

Um and that's changed over the years, you know, due to a lot of the brick and mortar shopping changing and and e-commerce.

We uh we don't go to the mall as much as we did, but um having these many calls to a single site is not anything we're not used to, not anything we can't handle.

Uh we we are taking proactive approach.

We will increase patrols in that in that area.

We will have uh uh uh community problem oriented policing team assigned to that area, and we've also worked with several of the vendors because a lot of those are private owned franchises to hire detail specifically.

It's tough to pick uh, you know, this one on Saturday went viral, but we had one about two weeks ago on a Tuesday night.

So it's really tough to pick.

We we we have we don't have the data to say these are uh times when we need to to be there.

So um I I know the officers that work the particularly the four to twelve shift uh have for a while taken upon them to go in and be very proactive in there.

Uh because aside from uh from the fight we saw on Saturday, um there's uh a lot of uh vehicle complaints.

You know, for some reason people they love driving through those canyons of the uh of the buildings and and revving their engines.

Um so it just to generate that that reverberation.

So we we understand that there are there are uh multifaceted issues there.

Uh we are working with Tuscan, we're working with the independent vendors, we're working with our staff, and it's something we we we have been uh proactively building a uh in approach over the last couple last month or so.

Get hands on every way.

I don't know who was first.

Mr.

Hatch.

I'll let her have the last word.

The only thing I I guess what I'm looking for is I'm looking for um are the majority of the calls, or do you have a breakdown, or could you get us a breakdown of the calls being residential area, business area, alcohol related, you know, give us some type of idea of what the focus area should be.

I I can should be able to break that down.

I I don't know specifically if we just track site, we can track locations and then but I'm sure we can break that call down.

Um I'll tell you if we can't break it down with our current system, then uh as you know we're in the process of upgrading our records management system.

We it will have a far more robust uh mechanism to spit out that information and get that back to us.

So I do have to report to this.

Problem we've had with the our current system is is getting the information out, and then that type of breakdown has always been difficult.

So I I can I I can break it down as finite as I possibly can.

I just might not be able to break it down in into every category.

Okay, that's uh yeah, because I think all those categories along with residential resident residents versus visitors, I think that's all gonna affect how you and their security department approach it.

And I can tell you we do work well with them.

Uh if they have problems, they do call us.

If we if we need them, they do come over.

Uh we had a meeting with the with their staff uh probably about two months ago now.

Uh we did tell them to make the recommend change their philosophy from that customer service to, and it might not be what they wanted to, or but uh that the system that there's a flaw in this system right now, or for sure.

One more further.

It's probably gonna steal some one of their thunders.

And so I know we have what's it five patrols in town or five areas that we patrol in town.

Is this area is the Tuscan taken away from one of the rest of the one of those areas?

Are we spending more time in the Tuscan and then losing time out on the road somewhere else?

No, and like I said, we we we're not there any more than we would have been there uh with the racetrack in the in the mall and it's heyday.

Okay.

It it's really no.

It it's it's new to us now and it's new because it's being built and and with social media it things go viral.

Right.

But uh the uh to have uh a single site call volume like that is really nothing new.

This Stacey.

Oh, you also oh, okay.

So a couple things.

J to to piggyback on what counselor Hatch said, because I've lived in this community my entire life.

We've had five routes in this obviously town has grown and grown and grown.

I for one would like to see more cars patrolling in other areas other than just twenty-eight.

Okay, I know you have two, like two cars on twenty-eight.

I very rarely see a the cruiser come by my house, and I'm in North Salem.

But regardless of that, we were sold on the fact that Tuscan was private roads, privately, they're gonna have their own security, they're gonna take care of their own stuff.

And I understand there's always times that you guys have to come in because stuff is criminal, I get it.

But I want to see them take more responsibility for what's going on in Tuscan Village.

Okay.

The other thing is 1700 calls.

We know that we have money that's due to us that has to go to the police and fire, right?

Two million dollars.

So I mean, obviously my my recommendation is we send uh some type of imp you know letter to the powers to be because that money is has been withheld for years now, and we need to have it, especially if we have an increased activity over there by our, you know, police and fire.

That's you know, I just I that's where I stand on this.

I mean, I'm not happy to see 1700.

I'm not happy to see people calling about parking stuff when those are private roads.

He should be taking care of those issues himself, not us, not the town.

Because that that is just pulling and pulling, and I mean I see constantly online people are obviously upset because they feel that we haven't got the tax money from that development that we were promised that we were gonna get to lower everybody's taxes.

So I mean I have I have an ongoing issue here with that with Tuscan Village.

You know, everything's we're opening up the pavilion, the beer pavilion with this, with that.

Well, that's all fine, well and good.

But the bottom line is with that comes more issues with people out there drinking, with the problems with the kids on their skateboards and everything else.

To me, that isn't something that C L and PD should be getting involved with with the kids skateboarding.

That's their problem, not our problem, on their private roads, their private sidewalks.

So I mean I'm j that's all I'm gonna say because I just I'm tired of hearing about how much time we're spending over there.

Thank you.

Ms.

Withrow.

So I'm gonna double down on that a little bit.

However, I'm not gonna really direct it at you because I think that you are stepping up and trying to help in an area that you shouldn't have to be, so I'm gonna pivot and I'm gonna say, isn't that something that the town should be working with Tuscan on?

We definitely it can be, yes.

Because I believe it was part of their conditional approval, right?

That they had to maintain the security for the areas.

Now criminal is one thing, but but everything else that's happening is not criminal, and to have our police officers spending so much time there and not on their other routes for the rest of the town is unfair.

And I don't think the pack taxpayers should be paying that much more for that much more direction of issues.

I would agree.

Mr.

Chair.

Thank you, Chief.

I wasn't directing that you, and if you felt that way, I'm sorry.

I did not feel that way at all.

I hope not, because it's my frustration with what with that whole development and everything that you see online and everything that you hear.

So no, it isn't directed, you guys.

I know you guys do a great job.

I know you're working hard.

I get it.

You know, but I you know, my thing is I want to see some relief for you guys.

And we would appreciate that, but it's it's growing pains.

You know, it I think we'll all get there.

It's just uh as long as the pressure's on them.

And not exactly not you.

And we're work we are working with them.

They it is and and they for their venues that do serve alcohol in the in the summer uh w or throughout the year, they do hire details.

Uh they they do increase the amount of details when they have an event there.

Um they are hiring us uh aside from uh you know it it is outside extra work that they uh they are good with that and and they are good to work with.

I just uh in as we've said and I've said tonight, um, I think their model of enforcement um was is has been soft and they need to make a they they need to take corrective actions on that.

I I think I think change just changing that model would go a long way.

Thank you, Chief.

Mr.

Betencourt.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

Uh Chief, with regard to the security that they have in place presently, are they working with you at all around trainings and things of that nature?

And I ask because we had a really nice weather day last Tuesday, election day.

And needless to say, everybody's been itching to get out of the house after a long winter, so everybody was down there.

And there were some kids that were there on their electronic scooters.

So my understanding is there was an incident.

Their security folks approached these kids and said no scooters allowed.

Perfectly reasonable policy.

Those are asking for trouble.

They then told the kids that they were banned from that area for a year for loitering.

Now Kathy's a lawyer.

That's my background.

That ain't the right crime or violation to be hitting these kids with.

Loitering is a totally separate thing.

And you know, banning somebody for a year, especially younger people.

I mean, number one, I think you ought to at least give them the warning.

They don't necessarily pay attention to some of the rules and regs off the bat the way adults are expected to.

But also, who's going to enforce that?

So you know, and again, first day out, I get it, everybody's shaking off the rust.

I'm not judging anybody on that.

But do they work with you to understand how to deal with some of those issues with regard to crowd control and kids with the scooters and the skateboards and all that stuff, such that when they they come forward and say, listen, this kind of conduct is allowed here.

This isn't they actually have a background and understanding of what it is they're they're talking about.

They won't work with us uh on every person they trespass.

Uh we do work closely with them because if they are if they do trust, and they have to be the one to trust past them from their property because it is private property.

So in and then we would be the enforcement mechanism on the back end.

What we we have worked with them and and then if we need someone or we want someone to uh trespass, we would work with them and say we could you trespass them for us.

And that might be an approach we take with a lot of these groups that that are being uh egregious and disorderly.

Um on that one I can say that there was uh probably some miscommunication on on several parts.

Um but it was also uh within 24 or 48 hours, it was quickly rectified, and those parents were notified that's great.

Uh they may have been given some misinformation.

Okay.

Further.

Not seeing anything.

Thank you, Chief.

Thank you.

Appreciate it.

Thank you, Chief.

Thank you.

Miss Wright.

Um you asked me to find the thing that had the error in it, and that was the um 62 um non-public session rules, and it has approved in 25, approved in 24, presented to the town council in 23, then approved by the town council.

The bottom two should be switched.

Flute minor.

Okay.

So I think that's a matter of mark.

We can yeah, we can fix that.

That's not a problem.

We can't.

We approved it as as written, but we do that.

Ms.

Withrow.

Does Maureen not have my form from voting day?

I haven't I don't know.

She asked me she asked me for it because she knows I live up the street from the fiscal, and I said that Lisa inspected the polling location.

Okay, then she might she might not have been.

So she's not a good idea.

So I'll get in touch.

I'll get in touch with it.

Okay, I'll follow.

I can follow up with them.

She may she may not have known to check her email either.

She may not have been looking for it.

I can't, I don't know.

Okay, sure.

But okay.

Okay.

There is nothing else, old business or tabled upcoming meetings or April 6th.

And April 20th.

And I'll entertain a motion.

Mr.

Chairman, this time I move to adjourn.

Okay.

Motion has been made and seconded by Mr.

Stramalia.

All those in favor?

9 0.

We thank you very much for tuning in, Salem.

And we look forward to seeing you again on the 6th.