The 2014 Andover Town Meeting convened on March 11 in the AE/MS gym at 7 PM. Because Articles 1 through 5 were on the ballot during voting from 11 AM to 7 PM, the meeting started by addressing Article 6.

Article 6: $1,000,000 bond for road and bridge work. A 2/3 vote by secret ballot is required for the article to pass. Selectman Vicky Mishcon: It’s all about economy of scale. “How can we get more work done for less money?” Currently, interest rates are low and the cost of oil-based projects is going up. We have many road and bridge projects that need to get done, and they each get bigger if you delay getting to them.

It would take $158,000 for seven years to pay off the bond. That’s about how much we spend every year on road projects. We don’t have to get everything done in one year with a bond, so finish coats can come later.

The Selectmen plan to hire a Clerk of the Works so all these projects wouldn’t overwhelm the Road Agent. Each project would be put out to bid.

Andy Guptill said that he’s still undecided. But he pointed out that if we continue with our maintenance program the way it is, we might as well burn this million dollars, because after seven years, we’ll be back to where we are.

Dennis Fenton said he doesn’t believe the Town should float a bond. He presented a very detailed alternative plan with a lot of facts and figures. He continued by saying that drainage and ditching shouldn’t be included in the bond.

If the bond doesn’t pass, there is over $400,000 available in the current budget and in capital reserve funds. That would take care of most projects, and the rest could be taken care of with the unexpended fund balance and by dealing with the remaining projects in 2015. So all the projects could be complete in two years, with no bond and without paying for the bond for the next seven years.

Selectman Jim Danforth: We have to be ready to fix the Lawrence Street bridge in the next 12 years. The ditching is not maintenance ditching, it’s project ditching associated with fixing the roads so they’ll last.

Jeff Newcomb: I hope you’ll vote against this. We’ve heard a lot about bundling and mobilization, but the lowest mobilization cost doesn’t always get the job, and even the state didn’t bundle some of the projects they did here in Andover. Even after spending $50,000 on the red-listed bridges, they’ll still be substandard bridges, so how long before they come back on the red-list again?

Jeff Miller: Our highway crew built a small bridge on Elbow Pond Road with no engineering and no mobilization costs. A lot of things could be done more simply in-house. I urge you to vote no on this article.

Chuck Keyser: You should be talking to some of the smaller companies. You should do more research.

Selectman Duncan Coolidge: We would definitely put these out to bid to everyone and get the best possible deal for the town.

Bill Keyser thinks the money would be wasted because the Selectmen don’t really know yet what these projects would cost.

Brad Hardie asked what’s the plan for after we’ve spent all the bond money.

Jim Danforth: We’ll still be doing the maintenance plan that Road Agent Jon Champagne has been advocating for years. In the past, we have not spent the money on maintenance. This is about changing that system so we can fix the problems and have the money to do the maintenance. We’ve tried to be very prudent.

Janet Moore: I say vote for this article.

Ed Becker: How much is our share of the eventual replacement of the Lawrence Street bridge?

Duncan Coolidge: The only estimate we have so far is $1.2 million.

Alan Hanscom: The reason the two state projects done in town weren’t bundled is that they were very different types of projects. Paving costs have about tripled since 1994.

Paul Currier: I appreciate the work the Selectmen have put in, and I appreciate the work Dennis Fenton has put into his alternative plan. I wonder if we aren’t trying to compare apples and oranges. It may be prudent to adjourn the meeting and reconvene later so we can compare oranges to oranges. I personally support the bond and catching up with our road projects.

Andy Guptill: We have to have a maintenance plan before we spend a million dollars.

Alex Bernhard: We have a concensus that there’s a need. We have a plan from the Selectmen. If we walk away tonight without passing that plan, it’s not clear how the need will get met. I suggest that we put our confidence in the people we elected, recognizing that the plan is not perfect and can be improved, but we’ve put in place the solution to the problem, instead of avoiding it.

Duncan: I would encourage people to get involved in this process early. Don’t wait until Town Meeting, don’t wait until a week before Town Meeting. Get involved in the process all the way along. We need participation of everybody in town to make the kind of progress we need to make. And everyone has something to offer.

[It was announced much later in the meeting that Article 6 failed on a secret ballot with 80 yes and 96 no.]

Moderator Dan Coolidge then called for discussion of Article 12, which also required a ballot vote, so the meeting could vote by secret ballot on both Article 6 and Article 12 at the same time.

Article 12: $25,000 loan to purchase a police cruiser. A 2/3 vote by secret ballot is required for the article to pass.

Andy Guptill: Will we be able to postpone the next purchase of a cruiser so we can get back on schedule?

Selectman Jim Danforth: Our metric for replacing a cruiser every eight years has failed us – the cruisers are getting too old and costing too much to maintain by the time they’re eight years old..

Andover Police Chief Glenn Laramie: We’ve bought two 4WD vehicles, which we really needed, and that took some money out of the police cruiser fund.

When we started budgeting ahead for cruisers, we were running one shift a day. Now we’re running two, two and a half shifts a day. We’re fortunate we don’t have to buy a cruiser every year, like some communities, but we need to get back on the plan we were on.

We got behind because we needed to buy 4WD vehicles. This plan will put us back on track, and we’ll save money on maintenance because we’ll have newer vehicles.

Bill Keyser. I fail to see why a town this size needs three or four cruisers. Most towns this size have one or no more than two. I don’t ever recall the town financing a vehicle. Is doing the road construction details economically feasible?

Greg Stetson: There’s over $20,000 in the police detail revolving fund. Could we use that?

Glenn Laramie: The Town can’t touch that account – it’s just for Andover Police Department to use, with the Board of Selectmen’s approval, for equipment so I don’t have to ask Town Meeting for the money. There are rifles that need to be replaced and other major purchases coming.

Jim Danforth: We use the oldest cruiser for road construction detail work, and use the detail work to help keep our part-time officers busy and make the part-time job attractive to skilled law enforcement people.

[It was announced much later in the meeting that Article 12 passed on a secret ballot with 118 yes and 57 no.]

The moderator sent the meeting attendees to the polls to vote on Article 6 and Article 12. While that was happening, the meeting recognized:

• Bryant Adams, who passed away in 2013 after many years of tending to the Highland Lake Dam

• Pat Cutter, who is stepping down from long service with the Cemetery Trustees

• Irene Jewett, who is stepping down from long service with the Supervisors of the Checklist

• Don Gould, who is stepping down from long service with the Planning Board

• Vicky Mishcon, who is stepping down after two terms on the Board of Selectmen

After the polls closed, the meeting continued with Article 7.

Article 7: $1,384,331 for the Town Budget.

Andy Guptill: Single-stream recycling is costing us $28,000 per year, but we’re not budgeting enough. We’re also not budgeting enough for our Road Agent.

Cemetery Trustee Robin Boynton: The cemetery line item is about $2,000 short of what we need to meet our obligations this year. She moved to add $2,000 to the cemetery line item of the budget. The motion passed on a voice vote.

Ed Becker: The school district spends less than the Town spends on audit fees. Have we looked into why that is and whether we can save money?

Town Administrator Marj Roy: I’ve talked to several different audit firms, and they tell me that auditing a town is harder than auditing a school because of the many tests that must be done on a town’s revenue streams. The school gets its money mostly from taxes. The Town has many different revenue streams, and they must audit each one.

Ed Becker: Why do we need to spend $18,000 on computers this year?

Marj: That money is not completely on computers. It also includes software support. We’ve checked, and the company we’re using is competitive and provides great service. We did check with several other companies.

Ed Becker: How do you pick which organizations to support under Health and Welfare? Why is Lake Sunapee VNA included but not Franklin VNA?

Budget Committee member Arch Weathers: When we have our public hearing of the Andover Budget Committee, we look forward to people coming and making suggestions.

Ed moved to remove Council On Aging and Lake Sunapee Regional Visiting Nurse Association donations.

Budget Committee member Jim Delaney: Both organizations help our seniors out and don’t charge them.

Marj: Both are funded in a large part by the municipalities they serve. COA provided over 11,000 miles in rides to Andover seniors. LSRVNA provided 1,745 hours of nursing therapy and in-home care for Andover residents, much of it non-billable. Three Andover residents received hospice visits.

Toby Locke: I urge you not to take this money out of this fund. These elderly people have supported the town for 60, 70 years – it’s time for us to give a little back. “I hate my tax bill, but something like that I don’t mind paying.”

Lynn Baker: VNA is keeping people in their homes instead of in the Merrimack County Nursing home. It’s an invaluable service.

Mark Stetson, Richard Brewster, Donna McCabe also spoke against the amendment, which failed.

Ed made a motion to add money to support Franklin VNA.

Moderator Dan Coolidge advised it would not be a legal vote because it hasn’t been noticed or discussed. You can’t add items to the budget, you can only amend items. And you can’t amend a subtotal.

There was no second to the motion to add money to support Franklin VNA..

Toby: Why did the Emergency Medical Service spend so little on supplies compared to its 2013 budget?

John Kinney, president of Andover Emergency Medical Services: We didn’t do our annual inventory on time, and that was my fault.

Jeff Miller: For years we have overspent winter equipment rental. He moved that line item be raised by $50,000 to compensate for this rough winter. The motion failed on a voice vote.

Selectman Jim Danforth moved to increase the annual pay for members of the Board of Selectmen from $1,500 to $3,000 to help keep them from going “out of pocket” as individuals.

Bill Keyser: If anybody’s being a Selectman for the money, they’re doing it for the wrong reason. It’s to do something for the town. $1,500 is ample. The motion failed.

Article 7 (with the cemetery line item increased by $2,000) passed unanimously.

The moderator deferred discussion of Article 8 until the results of the secret ballot votes are known. Article 8 will be moot if Article 6 passes.

Article 9: Much confusion ensued over the two different versions of Article 9, one in the 2013 Andover Town Report and the other on the official warrant signed by the Board of Selectmen and posted. The former would put $200,000 in the Bridge Captial Reserve fund; the latter would create a new Lawrence Street Bridge fund with the $200,000.

It was moved to table Article 9 until the confusion could be resolved.

Dennis Fenton: I think it’s a great suggestion to table this. It’s something that’s got to be done. But I think people would feel a lot better if they knew it were going into a dedicated fund for the Lawrence Street Bridge.

Arch Weathers: Would not setting aside this money this year put us $200,000 shy of raising the matching funds the federal bridge aid requires?

Ed Becker: We need about $1.2 million in matching funds in about 12 years, so if we go ahead and delay this, we’ve still got 11 years to get to $1.2 million, and we only need six years to do it at $200,000 per year.

The motion to table Article 9 failed. Article 9 as printed in the 2013 Andover Town Report passed. The meeting voted to restrict reconsideration on Article 9. It voted to restrict reconsideration on Article 7..

The vote on Article 6 was announced, failing with 80 yes and 96 no. The meeting voted to restrict reconsideration of Article 6.

The vote on Article 12 was announced, passing with 118 yes and 57 no. The meeting voted to restrict reconsideration of Article 12.

The meeting backtracked to Article 8, now relevant because Article 6 failed.

Article 8: $150,000 to the Highway Project Capital Reserve Fund. Article 8 passed unanimously with no discussion.

Article 10: $25,000 to the Bridge Capital Reserve Fund. After clarifying that this amount was still appropriate given the discussion over Article 9 and the Lawrence Street bridge, Article 10 passed unanimously.

Article 11: $10,000 to the Revaluation Capital Reserve Fund. Article 11 passed unanimously with no discussion.

Article 13: $7,000 to the Police Cruiser Capital Reserve Fund. Article 13 was moot because Article 12 passed.

Article 14: $25,000 to the Ambulance Capital Reserve Fund.

EMS president John Kinney: We had anticipated replacing the ambulance in 2014 or 2015. At this point, it’s going strong and we’re staying on top of our preventive maintenance. Our fingers are crossed for getting another two years out of the current ambulance. Current replacement cost for an empty ambulance into which we could move our gear is about $175,000. My understanding is that we have $50,000 in this fund. The $25,000 in this article will bring the fund up to $75,000.

Article 14 passed unanimously.

Article 15: $10,000 to the Highway Equipment Capital Reserve Fund.

Road Agent Jon Champagne: This article is to replace the grader at some point. It’s a 2006 and is in excellent shape, but it will need to be replaced someday.

Article 15 passed unanimously.

Article 16. $10,000 to the Transfer Station Capital Reserve Fund.

Selectman Duncan Coolidge: If we ever go back to non-single-stream recycling, we’re going to need money to replace the decrepit equipment that has been used to compress recyclables.

Article 16 passed unanimously.

Article 17: $6,000 to a new Town Buildings Expendable Trust Fund.

Toby Locke asked how many Town buildings are involved, and the answer was that this fund is specifically for the Town Hall building.

Article 17 passed unanimously.

Article 18: $2,000 to a new Forest Fire Emergency Labor Expendable Trust Fund.

Forest Fire Warden Steve Barton: The state only reimburses 50% on the cost of fighting forest fires, so this new fund would help if we had a forest fire in Andover.

Budget Committee member Mary Anne Levesque moved the amount be amended to $3,000. The motion passed, and Article 18 passed unanimously as amended.

Article 19: Authorize the Selectmen to sell two properties taken by tax deed.

Toby Locke: Does the Town take all the funds from the sale?

Selectman Jim Danforth: We only take the taxes due, plus fees to the Town.

Mark Stetson: If the Town has held the property for three or more years, then the Town can keep all the money. If they sell it within three years, then they can only keep taxes and fees.

Jim Danforth: For one of the two properties, the Town has held it for at least 20 years and has no idea where the former owner is, so the money would all go to the town.

Article 19 passed unanimously.

Article 20: $1,200 to continue the streetlights on Flaghole Road, and to continue that street lighting indefinitely. (Submitted by petition.)

Petitioner Wood Sutton: The Board of Selectmen decided to turn off the streetlights on Flaghole Road, but the neighborhood is entirely against it. We met with the selectmen, but the meeting was adversarial. So I’m asking you to support our neighborhood as we would support you.

Budget Committee member Arch Weathers: The Budget Committee held a special public hearing about this petitioned warrant article, as required by law. No petitioners were present. The Selectmen said that the safety services didn’t have an issue with turning out the lights, so we voted not to recommend the warrant article.

Selectman Duncan Coolidge: The issue was also reviewed by the Road Agent and the police, fire, and rescue departments, and their opinion was that the lights weren’t necessary.

Mark Stetson: I notice that the streetlight budget item (in Article 7, passed earlier) is the same this year as last year. Does that mean that we’ve already appropriated the money for those lights. The answer was that it does mean that.

Selectman Vicky Mishcon: It was recommended that we turn of half of our 33 streetlights. We looked at a number of criteria, and if a streetlight didn’t meet the criteria, we deemed it unnecessary. A resident always has the option to pay $14 a month privately to keep the streetlight on. Once the lights are removed, we’ll reduce the budget line item.

Ed Becker made a motion to delete the $1,200 appropriation from Article 20 and have it just continue the streetlights on Flaghole Road.

Lynn Baker: I would vote no. This is just messing with the energy audit. We’re trying to save money. I’m not sure we have an obligation as a town to put streetlights up where people just want them. It has to be a dangerous intersection.

Amendment passes on a show of hands, deleting the $1,200 appropriation and changing the article to just continue the streetlights on Flaghole Road.

Jeff Dickinson: We did an audit and determined that these lights served no public purpose, so these people are asking for streetlights at the end of their driveways to be paid for by all of us. We’re here tonight to appropriate for public purposes, not for private benefit, so I would encourage you all to oppose this article.

John Thompson: I’ve plowed that road for years and have been extremely happen to have those lights there. None of them are in people’s driveways. They are all at intersections or along the roadway.

Robin Boynton: When these lights were installed, the Town fathers felt they were necessary. I urge you to vote in favor of this article.

Donna McCabe: Could the people on Flaghole Road pay for the lights themselves?

Selectman Jim Danforth: We created a written policy about streetlights so we could treat everyone the same. We consulted all our safety services, and scored their responses according to our policy. We’re trying to be fair to everyone.

Wood Sutton: None of the safety services said to turn out these lights. They just said, “We don’t object” – there’s a big difference. These lights have been there for 70 years. To go against the wishes of an entire neighborhood isn’t fair and isn’t the way the town should be operated.

Article 20 as amended failed on a show of hands.

Article 21. Semi-annual tax billing.

Toby Locke: I urge you to keep it the way it’s been.

Moderator Dan Coolidge: The Town Counsel wrote me that his opinion is that “this article is invalid and of no effect.” He also notes that it seems to confuse semi-annual billing (which the Selectmen control) with quarterly billing (which Town Meeting controls). The article could be amended to ask the Selectmen to go to annual billing, in which case it would be merely advisory.

Ed Becker: All I’m asking is to talk about it at Town Meeting and advise the selectmen of the meeting’s opinion. Ed moved to amend Article 12 as that a yes vote affirms the decision to go to semi-annual tax billing and a no vote asks the Selectmen to reconsider. The amendment passed.

Duncan: It costs $70,000 over 10 years to borrow the money to support annual tax billing. The whole thing is to save money.

Janet Moore: It would be nice to give residents a year’s notice before changing.

Ed: Previous boards have brought it to Town Meeting. Town Meeting voted it down twice before, because it penalizes those among us who can least afford it, which is not fair, and it costs a lot of us money and cash flow, and it’s not going to save anyone in this room any money at all.

He continued: The Selectmen’s presentation was inaccurate because it didn’t include the extra costs of sending out the tax bills, including from the auditors. A lot of Andover residents earn their money seasonally or are elderly, and they may not have half of their taxes come June, and if they don’t, we’re going to penalize them at 12% interest.

Based on $1,000 of budget expense being 75¢ on the tax bill of a $200,000 property, if the Town saves $8,500 per year with semi-annual tax billing, that saves $6.37 on that tax bill. Those who can’t afford to pay twice a year are going to pay $100 in interest. It’s not fair to burden those people with $100 for the rest of you to save $6. I urge you to vote no.

Tax Collector Joanna Sumner: Semi-annual tax billing doesn’t add any labor costs because I’m on salary. Almost two-thirds of people pay their taxes by escrow, so they’re not affected by this. We are one of the very, very few towns around the state that still do annual billing. There are a lot of people in town who are very much in favor of semi-annual tax billing.

Andy Guptill: I support semi-annual tax billing, I just don’t support the way the Selectmen have gone about it. If there were a year’s notice to allow people to get ready… I also think it should have come back to the voters, even though legally the Selectmen can make the decision. That’s not really the best way to do it.

Duncan: We can entertain a lag of a year, if that would make it more acceptable to people.

Article 21 as amended failed, meaning the meeting wants the Selectmen to reconsider.

Article 22: Urging a constitutional amendment to regulate political spending.

Andy Guptill moved an amendment to add “labor and trade unions” as well as corporations as not having constitutional rights.

Janet Moore: Don’t vote for the amendment; unions are not the same as corporations.

The amendment failed.

Dean Barker: Here’s why this has a lot to do with Andover. The spending for this up-coming election cycle is already four times what it was in 2012. How would we in Andover be able to defend ourselves and our local elections against these mountains of money? The Supreme Court lets corporations spend millions of dollars to affect local elections. It’s also pertinent to Andover because we’re in New Hampshire, the first primary state, so it might get the attention of people on the left and on the right who want to run for president.

Article 22 passed unanimously.

Article 23: Any other business.

Howard Wilson spoke against Obamacare and urged everyone to “send your money back.”

Selectman Duncan Coolidge: The property tax rate as a percent of gross income in New Hampshire is second in the nation, almost the highest. But if you look at total state taxes as a percent of gross income, we’re number 48 – almost the lowest.

Constantly trying to cut the budget is probably not the approach we need to take in Andover. We should look at how we can raise more money for the Town by trying to draw in low-impact industry to areas that are satisfactory to everyone in town.  These would provide jobs and tax income. That’s a much more productive way for us to get the things our community really needs rather than constantly trying to cut the budget. The way to help people in town who are really struggling with their tax burden is to bring more business into town.

Don Kaplan: Another idea to make semi-annual tax billing more workable would be to make the June tax bill optional.

Paul Currier: The Planning Board did a survey. The majority of people would agree with Duncan about bringing low-impact businesses to appropriate areas of town. If you think bringing suitable businesses to town is a good idea, I encourage you to participate in the Planning Board process over the coming year or two of brushing up those ideas and doing some changes to our zoning that will make that happen.

A motion to adjourn was defeated.

New Hampshire Representative Mario Ratzki: March 31 is the deadline to enroll for Obamacare.

Pecco Beaufays: Mario helped someone in Andover who’d never had health insurance get it for $40 per month, and now she’s getting the check-ups and care she needs.