Plainfield’s annual school district meeting will be held at the Plainfield Elementary School on Friday, March 10, at 6:30 p.m. Ballot voting to elect town and school officers will take place on Tuesday, March 14, from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. in the school gymnasium. Town Meeting will be held there on Saturday, March 18, at 10 a.m. to decide the budget and other warrant articles.
Plainfield
A petition article on this year’s warrant calls for the town to “adopt the Philip Read Memorial Library as the town’s one public library being supported” through taxes. If the article passes, the Meriden Public Library would lose its share of town funding next March.
The town contributes about $70,000 toward operation of the Meriden library, which also shares a director, staff and board of trustees with the Philip Read Memorial Library, according to Town Administrator Stephen Halleran. It is proposing to spend a total of $148,266 on both libraries in 2017. Voters approved merging the two boards that oversee the libraries in 2011.
The annual funding for the Meriden library accounts for about 26 cents per $1,000 of a property’s tax rate, Halleran calculated, which amounts to $65 in taxes for a property assessed at $250,000.
Arguments over the Plainfield libraries have flared in recent months, with Nancy Norwalk, the longtime librarian at Philip Read, saying she was being pushed out of her job prematurely. Norwalk had worked as director of the Philip Read Library for 40 years before becoming associate director last July as part of a transition agreement. That agreement called for her to end her employment and finish her work on several projects on Dec. 31, 2016.
Norwalk and her attorney, Brad Wilder, maintain she hasn’t been given sufficient time to finish her projects.
Diane Rogers, who drafted the article and is on the board of the Friends of Philip Read Memorial Library group, says her proposal to end town funding of the Meriden Library has nothing to do with that dispute but is instead motivated by the fact that the library is underutilized and in need of work.
“I feel the Philip Read Memorial Library, with its special collections and other things is, is more of a true public library, and Plainfield’s tax rate is one of the highest in the Upper Valley,” Rogers said. “I think there are residents in town that find the tax burden pretty heavy.”
She said the Meriden building is in need of upgrades, and residents might not want to pay to bring it into compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
“To me, it’s reasonable to put all of our resources and efforts into one library that will serve everyone in town more than adequately,” Rogers said.
But the town’s library trustees expressed their support for the Meriden library when the warrant article was presented in January.
“From the beginning of 2010 through the end of 2015, circulation at the Meriden library increased by 70 percent,” trustee Suzanne Spencer wrote in a letter to fellow trustees, according to Jan. 23 meeting minutes. “During that same time period, patron visits increased by 27 percent. Community support for the Meriden library is extremely strong and I do not agree with any proposal to close it.”
Plainfield residents will also be asked to approve a $2.2 million 2017 budget at Town Meeting, a 3.6 percent increase over the current year. Halleran said much of that increase was due to fixed costs. Plainfield saw increases in insurance costs, worker’s compensation and payments to the New Hampshire Retirement System, he said.
If the budget and all warrant articles are approved, Halleran estimates the town tax rate will increase 16 cents. For a homeowner with a property valued at $250,000, that would amount to $40 in additional taxes.
The town warrant also includes articles calling for $167,500 to be added to capital reserve funds and $7,000 to be used toward restoration of the stone entryway of the Plainfield Plain Cemetery.
The warrant also includes an article asking voters to approve a property tax exemption to Kimball Union Academy. The article appears on the warrant annually, Halleran said, and allows KUA to forgo about $92,000 in taxes in return for financial aid to students from Plainfield. Although the article dates back more than 25 years, this will be the last time the exemption is offered, he said.
“Declining enrollment at our elementary school, the increasing cost of a private school education and broadening of our tax base was all making the annual vote at Town Meeting a less effective tool for getting large numbers of local kids to consider the private academy,” Halleran wrote recently in his report to the Plain Facts.
The Plainfield School District will ask voters to approve a $6.4 million budget during its annual meeting.
The proposed budget amounts to a 2.4 percent increase for the 2017-18 school year, and is largely caused by increased employee benefit costs, and teacher and administration salaries, according to a fact sheet compiled by the district.
Warrant articles include calls for an additional $30,000 for the replacement of two classroom floors as part of ongoing maintenance and $50,000 to go into the district’s special education reserve fund.
If all school articles are approved, the school tax rate is expected to increase by 33 cents per $1,000 of a property’s assessed value, or an additional $82.50 in taxes for a home valued at $250,000.
On the ballot, voters will decide a two-way race for a Selectboard seat. Incumbent Ron Eberhardt will face off against challenger Mark Horne for the three-year position.
Richard Davidson and Shannon Decker are also vying for an open seat on the Library Trustees, and School Board Chairwoman Katherine Whybrow is running unopposed for another 3-year term.
Tim Camerato can be reached at tcamerato@vnews.com or 603-727-3223.