Weare’s annual town meeting began Saturday with a lengthy debate about the town’s proposed operating budget, with several taxpayers concerned about why there was a surplus left over from the year before.
“What did not get done or accomplished with the budget last year?” said Frank Campana, a longtime Weare resident. “The select board ended the year with an over $450,000 surplus.”
The surplus is about 6% of the proposed budget for next year 0f $7.46 million. Select Board Member Ricky Hipper said money won’t be leftover in future years, as there were unprecedented challenges over the last year.
“Much of that was from salaries of people that had left,” Hipper said. “What we compromised last year, probably not much at all. With the short staffing and the restructuring, what we did was make ends meet. Because our employee base, which is great, they made it work. With those vacancies filled restructured, etc., we’re not going to have that surplus this year.”
Coming after the controversial school board session on Wednesday, Saturday’s relatively drama-free public deliberative session spanned five hours and included discussion on the surplus, as well as various warrant articles proposing the purchasing of vehicles for the local fire department, police force and highway department. However, lack of transparency quickly became a theme in the meeting as Campana and others thought some of the articles the select board were presenting lacked clarity, and left open for interpretation as to where money could be allocated.
Residents proposed amendments to multiple articles, with the most contentious one on an article to purchase a police cruiser for $71,013. The amendment stated that $40,000 of that would be withdrawn from the town’s unreserved fund balance to lessen the burden on Weare taxpayers but it was shot down by a vote of 26-24.
Several Weare residents also stressed that the raising the wages of town employees was important to keep valuable workers.
Concerning an article to raise each existing employees’ hourly wage by one dollar, Janeen Lentsch, the chairwoman of the Parks and Recreation Commission, emphasized that her employees receive an initial wage of $8 per hour.
An amendment was proposed to raise the minimum wage to $9, on top of the dollar increase for existing employees, and was unanimously approved.
“That is not a livable wage or enough to buy a home in this town,” Luther Drake, John Stark School District Moderator and Weare resident said. “I know we’re talking about kids in some of these instances, but they could be making more than this at Dunkin Donuts or anywhere else. We need to incentivize them more.”
The meeting concluded with discussion on an article proposing the re-implementation of an ethics committee in Weare, as it had been previously abolished in 2014 due to a lack of public interest in serving on the committee. Re-establishing the committee was suggested to the board multiple times in recent years, so they included it on the warrant, much to the liking of citizens present at the meeting.
The committee’s purpose is to promote the town’s code of ethics, which was implemented in 2005, along with serving as another check and balance to the select board, in company with the state government.
The article didn’t have language describing how the committee would be reintegrated back into the town’s governing structure, so an amendment was proposed with clarification on how members would be appointed, siting that they would be elected officials.
The amendment passed with only two people opposing it.
Weare residents will be able to vote on these issues on March 8 from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. as Election Day will take place in Weare Middle School Gymnasium.