2013 Town Budget Workshops: Part 1

Community Development Department: Selectmen ultimately voted to cut a proposed $6,500 Regional Impact Assessment study from the proposed 2013 budget.

The board disagreed with the need for a study at this time, which Community Development Director Laura Scott said would offer a detailed analysis on how Windham's current busiensses and types of businesses give back to the economy.

Another budget item – $4,500 for the Community Development/Economic website line item, also came under fire from Selectman Ross McLeod, who said that the website funding could be cut out. He said that the revenue generated from the website hasn't come up to where the town thought it would come up to. The board kept that item in the proposed budget.

A decrease is expected for the Regional Planning Commission cost, as Windham wil likely switch from the Rockingham Planning Commission to the Southern N.H. Planning Commission, although that move is not final.

Elections: Simply put, 2013 will see only one election compared to the four that took place in 2013.

The proposed decrease in the budget is just north of $8,000, with one possible change being the manner in which the three Supervisors of the Checklist are paid.

At present, the three elected officials are compensated by the hour, but a change to a $300 stipend could take place starting in 2013. If the current supervisors, who hold their positions for six years, disagree with the change, they could also be grandfathered in.

Historic Commission: Selectman Roger Hohenberger criticizes the slow rise that he said has taken place with this budget given that zero funding was alotted to the department a few years ago.

Hohenberger said that he disagreed with an increase in the proposed budget to $3,000 compared to the $1,000 allocated last year.

The extra funding requested relates to two items. The first involves landscaping services for the cleaning of historic properties.

The second is for the purchase of signage related to a demolition delay ordinance that will go before voters in March. The Town Meeting draft of that ordinance can be found here.

Town Clerk: According to Town Clerk Nicole Merrill, a "substantial" 404.21 percent increase from 2012 is shown in the 2013 proposed budget for her department.

Much of that increase is related to a request for a software upgrade, which she said will increase the efficiency of her department.

She said that at present, her department is switching back and forth between databases, creating a cumbersome process that increases the chances for human error.

She added that the new software system, called ClerkWorks, is used by over 100 town and city clerks.

McLeod called it an investement in the success of Merrill's department, and Assistant Town Administrator Dana Call also supported the $14,300 upgrade.

Cable: A $4,110 increase to the cable budget is specifically related to a salary step raise, increases in state retirement costs and health insurance.

A short discussion took place on the storage of on-demand meetings, which is capped at 500 hours at this time. The department must remove clips of smaller meetings as the datasbase fills, and only about six months can be stored at this time.