After voicing concerns about concentrating too much power in the hands of a few taxpayers, Boscawen residents decided not to allow the town’s select board to buy or sell property – but granted the conservation commission the power to purchase interests in land outside the town’s boundaries.
Select Board member Matt Burdick argued at Boscawen’s annual town meeting that permitting the select board to sell property would let the town offload unused properties, like the Torrent Station, the Old Police Station and the 1913 Library.
“They’re basically just costing the taxpayers money. If we did this through these steps we could alleviate some of those issues,” Burdick said. Under the proposed article, any sales would have passed through the Conservation Commission and Planning Board before the select board voted.
Most residents were unconvinced and argued that the select board shouldn’t have the power to make real estate decisions on behalf of all the town’s citizens.
“I want you to have the flexibility, but the flexibility is that you bring it to us,” said Mason Donovan. “This is why we have this town meeting,” he said.
Planning Board member Loren Martin said that she didn’t want that kind of power. “Right now if the board wants to buy or sell land, it needs to bring it to the voters of the town,” Martin said. “Why would we want to take it from a larger body and put it solely in the hands of a few people?”
Boscawen residents voted to let the Conservation Commission buy or sell interests in land outside the town’s borders so that the town could purchase the Walker Pond Dam from Webster for a perfunctory $1.
Last year, Boscawen purchased two shorefront parcels of land on Walker Pond totaling 75 acres from the Penacook-Boscawen Water Precinct. A sunset view of the pond appears on the cover of the 2021 town report.
Conservation Commissioner Mark Kaplan said that the move would allow the town to own and maintain the dam, preventing the pond from becoming a stream. “It’s beautiful, it’s a really special place,” Kaplan said.
Boscawen approved tax exemptions for wind-powered turbines and wood-heating energy systems, and voted down a $10,000 appropriation to assess the need for renovations at the old town hall meeting room.
Residents also approved a $4.6 million budget, with higher spending in the police and streets department making up the bulk of the 7% increase over last year’s operating budget. Mike Fisher spoke in opposition to the higher spending, citing Gov. Chris Sununu.
“I just have a quote from the Governor’s state of the state, “if your town is not lowering your property taxes at town meeting, go to town meeting and fight it,’” Fisher said. “We haven’t gone down, we haven’t for a long time…with Covid relief and all that, we didn’t go down, we went up.”
Select Board Chair Lorrie Carey pushed back on Sununu’s comments, arguing that the town had taken on higher costs for education and retirement contributions that had been downshifted by the state in recent years. “I’m very disappointed that the governor would make a comment like that,” Carey said.
The meeting opened with a standing ovation for previous town administrator Alan Hardy, who was recognized in the dedication to the 2021 town report.