NEWPORT — A $11.9 million town budget is among the 19 articles with appropriations on the Town Meeting warrant that can be amended at Tuesday’s annual deliberative session.
The overall budget includes a general fund budget of $9.3 million, which represents an increase of about $535,000, or 6%, from the current year.
The remaining $2.6 million for the water, sewer and airport budgets are funded entirely by user fees.
Among the main drivers of the budget increase are health insurance, property and liability insurance, welfare assistance, raises for non-contractual employees and the second year of approved union contracts for police and public works employees, Town Manager Kyle Harris said.
In addition, the town made several information technology improvements the past year including upgrades to servers and there is an additional annual cost to maintain the systems spread across the departments, Harris said.
“This is a very tight budget,” Newport Finance Director Ronna Archambault said. “There really is no fat in it.”
If approved during all-day balloting on May 12, the budget would increase the town property tax rate an estimated 18 cents per $1,000 of assessed valuation, adding $45 in annual town taxes on a property assessed at $250,000.
After voters defeated the proposed budget two years ago and the default budget was implemented, town officials agreed to move some appropriations out of the budget and place them in individual warrant articles, Harris said.
“We took that approach coming off the default budget (2024) and it was very successful,” Harris said. “It gives voters the opportunity to prioritize what their needs are.”
Last year, voters approved 17 of the 21 appropriations on the warrant.
Among the approved appropriations last year was $200,000 for paving, but this year voters will be asked to establish a road and sidewalk capital reserve fund and appropriate $300,000 toward it.
“We thought it would be better to start a reserve fund and build that up,” Harris said.
Another article voters approved last year was $200,000 for two, full-time firefighters. The article this year is for $210,000, but only $140,000 will be raised through taxes and the balance, $70,000, will come from the town’s surplus fund.
Town officials are trying to maintain eight, full-time firefighters, but have only six currently, Harris said. The operating budget includes a 6.4% increase in the starting salary for firefighters, bringing it to $26.50 an hour.
“We are really struggling with recruitment and we hope this will make us more competitive,” Harris said.
Besides the budget, there is another $1.5 million in separate appropriations but not all of them require tax dollars. Several are requests for capital reserve funds.
Others include $200,000 for a lease/purchase for a sidewalk plow with $47,148 paid with a grant; $217,900 for a new loader with $62,000 paid with a grant and money from a capital reserve fund; $100,000 for the ambulance capital reserve fund; $65,000 for a recreation bus with $11,630 coming from a recreation reserve fund; and petitioned articles of $31,000 for a teen services library assistant at Richards Library and $15,000 for the Sullivan County bus service.
Voters will also be asked to expand the Downtown Historic District. The proposed district would be from the north side of the Sugar River at the bridge on Main Street and run north to the small common. To the east it would go from the river, behind the Salt hill Pub, briefly along Central Street, then cross behind the town offices to Sunapee Street. From there, the border continues westerly past the rotary at the little common, just north of Depot Street and over to a point near Ash Street. It then goes south, crosses West Street and continues to the edge of the Sugar River near the bridge.
The town’s historic district ordinance states goals include preserving and protecting the town’s heritage, which reflects its “cultural, social, economic, political and architectural history and to conserve property values in the district.
Jim Burroughs, the Board of Selectmen representative for the Newport Heritage and Monuments & Memorials Commission, which oversees the historic district, said expanding the district will help further the commission’s goals.
“There are a lot of historic buildings on the outside edge of the current district,” Burroughs said about the reason the commission is looking to expand it. “It will bring more historic buildings (including the Nettleton House, home to the historical society museum) into the district and help us preserve more of the downtown.”
He said the district is now “odd-shaped,” as it includes all the buildings along the eastern side of Main Street from the Sugar River to the Little Common, but does not have the same boundaries on the western side of the street.
Renovations and other work done on buildings in the district are subject to review by the commission, but property owners can pursue tax credits and other state and federal incentives available to buildings designated as historic, which can defray some costs
The deliberative session will begin at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, April 7 at the community center on Meadow Road. Voting on the warrant and election of town officers is Tuesday, May 12 from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. at the community center.
Patrick O’Grady can be reached at pogclmt@gmail.com.
