By ARCHIE MOUNTAIN
NEWPORT — There’s plenty of good reading in the 2017 Newport Town Report released Monday evening.
For starters, the 56 pages needed to publish 100 percent of Newport’s updated property appraisals is a good starting point. Keep in mind, however, there’s a lot of good reading on those pages, especially if you want to find out what your neighbor’s property is assessed at.
That occurs every five years when Newport undergoes a townwide reappraisal as required by the State.
There’s also much more on the other 159 pages worth reading.
Larry Cote of the Newport Historical Society came up with 46 pictures of buildings in the town’s center along with information on each one. That layout covers 12 pages.
Cote’s effort allows Newporters to quickly learn a lot about the historic past of their community. And it’s fun stuff to check out.
Of course, 215 pages do come with a price. The inside back page cover was blank.
Town Clerk Liselle Dufort got that information Tuesday afternoon from the printer, Gnomon Copy of Hanover.
The 800 copies cost $7,368 or $9.21 per report. Each one weighed 1 pound, 9 ounces.
The 2016 Town Report totaled 136 pages.
The 2017 publication may be the largest Town Report ever for Newporters to enjoy. And consider the size. It wasn’t too many years ago that each report was half the size.
And it may be the most complete and very best Town Report ever for Newport.
Unfortunately, the New Hampshire Municipal Association no longer has a contest to pick the best Town Report in the state, according to Dufort.
The 800 Town Reports printed over the past two years has gone down in numbers from previous years. The reports are available at the Town Office between the hours of 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday.
The hours spent by department heads and others in preparing copy for the Town Report is extensive.
Dufort said she reminded department heads of their reports in October and November and started getting them in mid-January. She then proofreads all of them three or four times to make any necessary corrections.
The final information usually heads to the printer the week after the Deliberative Session and this year’s deadline was April 6.
The bottom line in the budget quickly reveals how much Newport has grown since the previous revaluation in 2012 when the total including utilities was $417,094,678. The 2017 total was $431,562,529.
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