Newport Votes on Budget, Contracts

Voting on the Newport municipal warrant will be from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Tuesday, May 9, at the Newport Opera House.

Newport — Voters here will choose among three candidates for two Selectboard seats and weigh in on a $10 million budget proposal as well as contracts for police and public works employee during all-day balloting on Tuesday.

In the only contested race, incumbents Bill Wilmot and David Hoyt are being challenged by former Newport High School Principal Barry Connell for two, three-year seats on the board.

Wilmot retired several years ago as deputy chief of police in Claremont and continues to work part-time for the department as its accreditation and grants administrator, which he also does for a few other police departments. Hoyt is a retired Newport chief of police.

The proposed $10 million budget represents a $483,000, or 5 percent, increase from this year’s but with higher non-tax revenues requires $129,000 more in the amount to be raised by taxes.

Finance Director Paul Brown had said previously that health insurance and retirement costs throughout the budget and raises for non-union employees account for some of the increase, along with maintenance for computer hardware and software and a lease for breathing masks for the fire department.

A four-year contract with the police union carries an increase of $2,400 in the first year and the public works union contract, also four years, is valued around $13,500 in year one.

Also on the warrant are three articles placing money in communications, sewer and recreation facilities capital reserve funds.

A 60 percent majority is needed to approve a $720,000 appropriation for the Coon Brook Road Bridge project, of which $576,000 would come from a state bridge aid grant and the balance, $144,000, from either a 10-year or 20-year bond. The first-year bond payment would not be until 2019-20 and have a tax impact of 3 to 4 cents per $1,000 of assessed valuation, Brown said at the deliberative session in April.

Voters will also decide whether to double the town’s contribution to the Southwestern Community Services’ public bus to $10,000 and give West Central Behavioral Services $5,000 for the mental health services it provides to residents, which for the year ending on June 30, 2016, was 280, according to the nonprofit.

If all requested appropriations pass, the town tax rate would increase an estimated 25 cents to $11.51 per $1,000 of assessed valuation and add about $38 in town taxes to a home assessed at $150,000.

Patrick O’Grady can be reached at pogclmt@gmail.com.