Ballot voting in Grafton for Town Meeting and the Mascoma Valley Regional School District will take place Tuesday, March 14, from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. at the Grafton Fire and Ambulance Station.
Grafton
They will also elect a dozen town officers, four to contested seats.
The articles include requests for $40,000 for paving roads, $35,000 for the Highway Department Capital Reserve Fund and $30,000 for the Bridge Capital Reserve Fund.
A bridge on Cherry Hill Road that is on the state Department of Transportation’s “red list” will be replaced this year or next, said Selectboard Chairman Leon Dugan. The money for the highway department would be set aside in case “something comes up” with the town’s aging equipment.
The warrant also includes two petitioned articles.
One asks whether the Selectboard should create a committee to study the pros and cons of hiring a part-time town administrator. The group would present its findings at a public hearing sometime this year and, if merited, place on the 2018 warrant an article appropriating funding to support the hire.
At Grafton’s deliberative session last month, supporters said finding appropriate people to run for political office is difficult. Adding a town administrator would lighten the Selectboard’s load and make serving on the board more attractive to professionals, they said.
But Dugan doesn’t think the addition is necessary. Funding the part-time position would likely cost $30,000 to $40,000, he said in a phone interview.
The Selectboard’s full-time administrative assistant, Sue Smith, is very knowledgeable and does “a fantastic job,” he said. “She takes the work off of us.”
A second petitioned article seeks to increase the library’s budget by $7,735. The only moneyed article not recommended by the Selectboard and Budget Committee, it had originally asked for $11,735 but was amended during the deliberative session.
The initial article would be “a little bit shocking for the community,” Deb Clough, library director, who introduced the amendment, said in a phone interview. “We don’t want to alienate the town.”
Research by the library’s trustees showed that Grafton Library’s $14,000 budget is well below those of libraries offering comparable services in New Hampshire towns with similar populations and median incomes, Clough said. “We’re asking to be somewhere in the middle.”
The increase would enable the library to adequately fund the rising cost of internet services, purchase new books and media, and increase employee wages, according to the ballot. It also would ensure compliance with state and federal regulations.
The library director and assistant director, both part time, each work more hours than they are paid for, “which they consider to be volunteer time,” said Adam Franz, the library’s board chairman. Legally, employees must be paid for the hours they work.
At $11.75 an hour, the director position pays less than assistants at the dump or the deputy town clerk, Franz said. The increase would bring the library director’s rate to $15, and the assistant director’s from $10.75 to $13.50 an hour.
Clough, a retired Grafton postmaster, said she has no immediate departure plans, but when she does step down, she wants the job to be “appealing enough that somebody wants it.”
The increase would also expand the director’s position from 12 hours to 15 a week.
“You have to have time to do stuff when you’re not open and busy,” said Clough, who is paid for the 12 hours a week the library is open. “I should not have to work 10 to 20 hours extra a week for nothing. … I’ve been committed to it, but there’s a fairness (issue).”
Her seven-year tenure has been characterized by efforts to modernize the library, which now has internet access, computers and a digitized catalog.
“We’ve tried to really make the library a real community resource and a center, and I think we’ve achieved a lot of that,” with usage growing four or five fold, and then plateauing, said Clough, who expects usage to remain the same unless the library expands its hours.
Ed Grinley, chairman of the budget committee, said demand for library services doesn’t merit the requested increase.
“The way they calculate how many people use the library, we do not agree with,” Grinley said. Excluding patronage by volunteers, employees and trustees, library “usage has dropped.”
Space also is an issue, he said. “They are operating in a very small building, and they want more books. … Where are they going to put all these books?”
Dugan said he and some of the other Selectboard members think the increase is too steep for one year. He also disputes the reported disparity between Grafton’s library and similar libraries in the state.
“All the reports they gave us seemed to be kind of skewed in their favor,” leaving off towns such as Danbury, “because they didn’t favor them on their report,” he said. “It’s a little bit frustrating on our end.”
Clough said Danbury’s library is open fewer hours than Grafton’s and are “getting their feet under them,” having recently hired a new library director and started a friends group. “They are at that process that we were at seven years ago.”
Grafton Public Library is expected to be moved to, or rebuilt on property on the corner of Library Road and Route 4, land that was donated to serve as its new home.
A survey asking residents about various possiblities for the project, and other library-related topics, was expected to be mailed this week.
“We want to tackle this (funding) problem before we go into future building plans,” Clough said.
The town’s proposed operating budget represents an increase of about $57,000 over last year, reflecting increases in the cost of health, disability, liability and unemployment insurance.
The current tax rate is $26.14 per $1,000 of assessed value, or $6,535 on a house valued at $250,000. It’s not yet clear what the projected tax rate would be under the proposed spending plan.
Dugan is being challenged by Dianne Burrington, Dennis McKean and Maureen O’Reilly in a four-way race for his three-year seat. Russell Gover and Jennie Joyce are vying for a two-year term. Joyce, a former Selectboard member, was appointed to replace John Sullivan after he resigned last fall.
Tabitha Smith is challenging incumbent Bonnie Haubrich for a three-year term as tax collector.
Margaret “Peg” Emslie and incumbent Dorothy Campbell are once again vying for treasurer. It’s currently a one-year position, but a warrant article asks whether it should be expanded to three years, starting with the treasurer elected at the 2018 Town Meeting.
Aimee Caruso can be reached at acaruso@vnews.com or 603-727-3210.