Online Services

Pay Online
Online Vehicle Registration Renewal Online Property Tax, Water & Sewer payments Online Dog License Renewals Vital Record Request E-Reg Estimates
GIS & Property Database

View of Carroll from Sugarloaf

Minutes of Town Board Meetings

Search Minutes of Town Board Meetings

2024 Select Board Archives

Older Archives

Minutes of Budget Public Hearing, 1/9/2018

January 18th, 2018

Carroll Board of Selectmen
Budget Public Hearing
Meeting Minutes
January 9, 2018


“These minutes of the Town of Carroll Select Board have been recorded by its Secretary. Though believed to be accurate and correct they are subject to additions, deletions and corrections by the Select Board at its next meeting when the Board votes its final approval of the minutes. They are being made available at this time to conform to the requirements of New Hampshire RSA 91-A:2.”

Minutes recorded by Maryclare H. Quigley, Secretary

Board members present: Brian Mycko, Paul Bussiere, David Scalley

Members of the public present: Patricia Mycko, Wayne Mycko, Imre Szauter, Jeremy Oleson, Rena Vecchio, John Trammell, Tadd Bailey

Chairman Mycko opened the Public Hearing for the Proposed 2018 Operating Budget at 6:30 p.m.

Pledge of Allegiance

Chairman Mycko read the Warrant Article for the Operating Budget and pointed out the amount of $1,938,044 is a correction due to a typo from that which was read at the Selectmen’s Meeting the previous evening. Because of the change, the Board took a re-vote on their recommendation and the result was 3 yes to 0 no.

Chairman Mycko then said the Default Budget amount is a correction from the previous meeting at $1,907,563 from $1,877,869.

Lastly, the Warrant Article for North Country Home Health should have been $2,065, not the $1,797 shown previously. It was stated the correct amounts had been inserted before the meeting last night but unfortunately the wrong group of articles was copied for the Selectmen. The revote to recommend was 1 yes, 1 no, 1 abstention. Selectman Bussiere said he feels they are all great charities but he also feels people should donate on their own and we shouldn’t be forcing people to contribute through taxes. Chairman Mycko said he feels similarly and that he abstained from voting as he works for them.

The remaining Warrant Articles were reviewed and Rena Vecchio asked about that for $18,000 for resurface certain roads. She said she wondered what happened to the plan that was supposed to have been worked on to get pricing for redoing all of the roads. Selectman Bussiere said all departments had been asked during the year to keep things low because of the unexpected legal costs, so this was put aside temporarily.


Chairman Mycko moved on to the Operating Budget and advised that he would read the total for each department, but if anyone had any questions, they should feel free to bring them up at any time. Election & Registration increase was questioned and it was noted there are several more elections in 2018 than the one in 2017. It was also noted the ballot counting machine has to be certified before each election, which again affects the budget depending on number of elections.

As the Chairman read through the amounts of the budgets, it was stated that both the Planning Board and the Zoning Board of Adjustment showed large increases in their Legal lines of $21,000 and $19,000 respectively, because of issues in 2017 that are ongoing in 2018.

Fire Chief Jeremy Oleson wondered about other departments getting raises that weren’t across the boards or otherwise determined. Selectman Scalley referred to the prior year when the Board asked department heads to survey wages in the area as well as revising the Employee Manual and said he thought they had come up with a good package. He also said a year ago, the Police Chief was the only one cut for keeping that position more in line with other town wages. Chief Trammell said he was trying to keep his department competitive with the area as many other towns are down officers and are looking. Chief Oleson said he feels people running the town should observe what’s around for pay scales, as it is a leadership responsibility. He said he did mention during his presentations that wages would be up to the Board. He said he also believes that many don’t know what it takes to run a department. The Chairman said he really doesn’t know what they do or how to compare; however, he does know that they do many different jobs/things, etc. more than their titles would imply. He said he would like to sit down with Chief Oleson before budget season next year and work on this. Selectman Bussiere said if he feels someone is lower than should be, they need to talk before Deliberative Session. Selectman Scalley asked if they should add a line for a third fulltime employee for his department. Chief Oleson said that may be something to put on the agenda to discuss during the year.

Town Officers: 82,614
Election & Registration: 9,975
Financial Administration: 116,370
Property Assessing: 8,000
Legal: 17,000
Personnel Administration: 307,178
Planning Board: 52,645
Board of Adjustment: 33,301
Gen. Gov’t. Buildings: 96,660
Cemeteries: 4,301
Insurance: 56,000
Other Gen. Gov’t: 357
Police Department: 315,045
FD Ambulance: 132,667
Fire Department: 132,068
Property Inspections: 29,500
Emergency Management: 2,504
Highway Department: 106,505
Street Lighting: 27,291
Solid Waste Disposal: 110,938
Sewage Disposal: 750
Public Assistance: 5,875
Parks & Recreation: 21,207
Library: 14,970
Patriotic Purposes: 1,000
Chamber of Commerce: 11,400
Conservation Commission: 425
Debt Service Long Term Notes: 86,575
Personnel Admin-Water: 26,570
Water Distrib. & Treatment: 128,353

TOTAL $1,938,044

The Board noted the 2018 operating budget is about $60,000 higher than the 2017 budget.

The Default Budget of $1,907,563 was reviewed and it was noted this is the 2017 budget with certain adjustments required by previous action of the Town or by law; i.e. contracts or one-time
appropriations.

Anticipated revenues were reviewed. It was explained that these are based on actual current year revenues, but that it’s still a bit of a guessing game as to how much money will be brought in. Selectman Bussiere talked about some departments being self-sustaining, perhaps such as Planning and Zoning Boards which would probably mean a change in the fee schedules. Rena Vecchio said these boards are not set up to make money as Zoning is an appeals board and we couldn’t set fees high enough for Planning. This brought the mention of charging Impact Fees with just a very brief discussion. It was stated that inspections are mostly for safety issues with the Code Enforcement Officer carrying out the enforcement.

As there was no further discussion, Chairman Mycko made a Motion to: Close the Budget Public Hearing. Selectman Bussiere seconded and it passed unanimously. Chairman Mycko declared it closed at 7:35 p.m.