LEBANON — City residents asked officials crafting Lebanon’s 2021 budget to prevent layoffs, reopen the municipally run pool and continue funding for a long-awaited library renovation during a public hearing this week.

City Manager Shaun Mulholland last month unveiled a $61.5 million spending plan that would trigger the elimination of three full-time positions, the continued closure of the Lebanon Veterans Memorial Pool and a roughly $1.1 million cut in infrastructure projects next year.

Even with those cuts, the city’s portion of the tax rate would rise by an estimated 3%, amounting to a $78 tax increase for a property valued at $250,000.

But about 20 residents who spoke during a roughly three-hour City Council meeting on Wednesday night said they want councilors to look elsewhere for savings. One position, they argued, is needed to help meet the city’s energy goals, while children and families rely on the pool.

Jonathan Chaffee, a member of the Lebanon Energy Advisory Committee, said he remembers “how agonizingly slowly” the group made progress on some projects before the city created an energy and facilities manager post in 2018.

“I don’t want to go back to those days, which we will if we don’t have professional help,” he said,

The $80,000-a-year energy position is held by Tad Montgomery, who over his two-year tenure has worked on initiatives to turn off some city streetlights and have the remaining ones converted to energy-efficient LEDs, expand the use of solar in Lebanon and bring new car charging stations to the city. It is now on the chopping block, under Mulholland’s budget.

“To break it up among other people who don’t have the training, already have full workloads is not the most cost-effective or efficient w ay to get those tasks done,” argued Joanne Monroe, the Planning Board’s representative to LEAC.

The hearing also saw residents campaign to reopen the pool, which was closed this year because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The city manager’s proposed budget would keep the pool closed another year because of safety concerns, eliminating about $121,000 in spending that would normally go to pay for seasonal staff and other operating expenses.

“Supporting the pool is an investment in our children, it’s an investment in families, it’s an investment in summer jobs for our high school and college students,” said Kim Page whose three children frequent the pool and learned to swim there.

The pool is heavily used by people of all ages, serving as a meet-up for children and adults alike, Page said. It’s also one of the few places that’s solely for Lebanon residents, she said.

“There really isn’t a place that kids can just get on their bike and go to the pool and I know that they’re safe,” she said.

More than 80 residents also penned a letter to the City Council asking for the pool to reopen next year, saying it will help people who are struggling mentally and financially in the pandemic.

The discussion also focused on another community institution, the Lebanon Public Library.

The city’s proposed budget includes $1.7 million to replace the HVAC system, improve its energy usage and implement a new layout at the downtown library.

Resident Meredith Jackson said she uses it at least once a week and asked that the City Council to continue to fund the renovation project.

“It’s time to let that building continue to be a wonderful resource for our community and it obviously needs the renovation,” she said.

Residents also debated a proposal recently put forward by Lebanon activists to halve the city’s $6.3 million police budget by 2022.

Members of the Upper Valley chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America say those funds should instead go toward social service programs, citing Lebanon’s roughly $500,000 human services budget as a target for investment.

Rory Gawler, a DSA member and Lebanon resident, said Wednesday that he doesn’t understand why the City Council is “refusing to acknowledge” the group’s immediate goals, which include restricting overtime and freezing police capital purchases in 2021.

“I am disturbed that councilors who continue to treat the police budget as sacrosanct seem to be too willing to ignore the pleas of their constituents,” he said.

But Lebanon resident Al Patterson, a retired Hanover police officer, urged the council to find other ways to fund social service programs, including soliciting help from neighboring communities.

Patterson went on to say that the DSA proposal amounted to an attack on policing rather than a serious attempt to address Lebanon’s budget problems.

“I think if we were truly serious about reducing our budget, we would look at the fire department, we would look at the police department, we would look at all our agencies,” he said.

City councilors said they intend to take all of the participants’ comments into consideration as they attempt to craft the budget. The Council is scheduled to take a final vote on the spending plan on Wednesday, Dec. 16.

Tim Camerato can be reached at tcamerato@vnews.com or 603-727-3223.