Loudon voters have put forth three petitioned articles on the warrant, which Select Board Chairman Roger Maxfield expects these items to get a lot of attention on Saturday.
The first is a change to the veteran’s tax credit. It would allow any person, or their spouse, who served for at least 90 days of active duty to apply for the $500 credit. Maxfield said the town already has a veteran’s credit, but this could open it up to more people. He added that the town currently exempts about $150,000 for all its various credits, but this could increase it by an estimated 10% to 20%.
The next petition article would ask the Merrimack Valley School Board to create a study committee to look at the opportunities and liabilities of the Town of Loudon withdrawing from the district. The committee would be tasked to file a report with the Board of Education in 180 days.
The last petition article asks the town to exclusively use paper ballots and hand-counts in elections instead of ballot-counting machines. Similar articles have appeared on warrants in a dozen New Hampshire towns including Milton and Windham, but as of Thursday, none have adopted the measure. Hopkinton voters will consider a similar question Saturday.
Budget: The proposed operating budget for the town is $5.29 million, an increase of $183,956 from last year. Maxfield said increased fuel costs, as well as small increases across all town departments included in the budget, contribute to the rise.
Maxfield said the town brings in about $2.7 million in revenue, so property taxes only have to cover about half of the operating expenses.
“Our tax rate is one of the lowest in Merrimack County,” Maxfield said.
He said he thought the total tax rate of just over $19 per thousand assessed property value (town portion was $4.43 in 2021) was pretty good for a town of over 5,000 people.
Noteworthy articles: While Maxfield said he recommended all items on the warrant put forth by the town, the two other members of the select board, Jeff Miller and John Storrs, voted not to recommend articles that would purchase a dump truck with capital reserve funds (a similar article didn’t pass last year), repaving and maintenance of Piper Hill Road, and changing the library collection trust funds purpose from just books to a wider definition of library materials.
The board did recommend repaving Clough Hill Road, purchasing a fire vehicle with money from an expendable trust fund, purchasing two cardiac defibrillators, purchasing a police cruiser with capital reserve funds, and appropriating money to various capital reserve and expendable trust funds.
Ballot results: On Tuesday, there was just one contested race for the three-year term as a library trustee; Adriana Andrian won with 220 votes to Naquisha Bourget’s 169.
Zoning amendments 1 through 8 passed, including one that adds “Light Pollution” to the town codes. Amendment 9 failed. The planning board had not recommended it, because even if passed it would be unenforceable due to discrepancies with the tax map lot number.
A ballot measure for the library to retain money from income-generating equipment was approved.
When and where: The meeting will be held Saturday, March 12 at 9 a.m. at Loudon Elementary School.