By Patrick Adrian
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NEWPORT — Although Newport’s Town Common was the center of an uncommon change of scenery for an outdoor budget deliberation Tuesday night, the meeting ran smoothly and in a business-as-usual fashion even with a significant change of scenery.
Despite a state emergency order prohibiting gatherings that exceed 10 people, Newport received permission by the Secretary of State’s office to hold an outdoor public meeting with precautionary restrictions to reduce the risk of spreading the novel coronavirus.
Town Moderator Virginia “Biddy” Irwin, wearing a protective face shield, welcomed approximately 60 Newport residents who attended the meeting, which she called a “most unusual deliberative session.”
To execute the meeting, Newport constructed a tent approximately 4,800 square feet in size on the Town Common, spacious enough to accommodate 100 people with measured spaces of six feet per seat and three walking aisles. To limit capacity, only registered voters and approved department heads were allowed under the tent. Other members of the public could watch the meeting beyond the tent perimeter.
Despite 21 articles on the warrant, the town concluded its business in an hour. There was little public discussion of the articles and no motions to amend a proposal.
The community approved a proposed town operating budget of $10,231,192 for fiscal year 2021, with $5,349,302 to be raised by taxes, and a default budget of $9,890,939. The tax rate of the proposed budget is anticipated to be per $1,000 of assessed value and the anticipated tax rate for the default budget is $11.03 per $1,000 of assessed value. The proposed budget reflects a 2.5% increase in spending from the current year, approximately a 29-cent increase to the tax rate.
Selectboard Chair Jeffrey Kessler said the proposed operating budget maintains current spending levels and adds no new positions. The proposal includes approximately $600,000 in spending to repair several roads, bridges and sidewalks scheduled under the town maintenance plan.
“These projects will never be less expensive and must be done in the name of public safety,” Kessler said.
The budget proposal also includes a contractual 1.57% pay increase for town employees, while shifting the employee’s share of health insurance coverage from 12% to 15%.
The budget also provides a salary increase of 6% for Town Manager Hunter Rieseberg. Kessler said that Rieseberg’s raise is well deserved, considering how much revenue Rieseberg’s administration has brought to Newport through grant awards.
“This year, through his efforts and the encouragement of his staff, [Rieseberg] has brought in over $1 million grants to the town,” Kessler said.
The proposed budget also allocates $3,600 to Richards Free Library, which Kessler said will enable the library to increase its evening operations to three nights per week.
With the deliberative portion complete, the warrant now heads to town voters for approval. Town Voting Day will take place on Tuesday, July 14. For additional precautions, the town’s polling station will be an outside “drive-thru” in the Newport Middle-High School parking lot. Voters will collect their ballot, complete and submit while remaining inside their vehicle. Photo IDs will still be required.
In light of delays caused by the pandemic, the new fiscal year will already be underway when voters approve the town budget.
Irwin said on Monday that the two-week delay will not impact town funding, as approval of a continuing resolution will permit spending prior to the budget’s passage. In an interview on The Steve Smith Show on WCNL Monday, Irwin said that many New Hampshire towns are further behind than Newport in respect to passing a fiscal year 2021 budget.
The bigger challenge though is whether local budgets across the state adequately anticipate the expected revenue shortfalls due to the COVID-19 shutdown, Irwin said.
“I don’t know what the net impact on Newport will be because of the COVID,” Irwin told Smith. “But I can tell you that, with the shortfall in revenues from the state level, the money coming back to communities will be affected.”
Irwin said that the two largest revenue sources — state education adequacy aid and the rooms-and-meals tax — remain uncertain, and the two-month shuttering of restaurants and lodgings, combined with having to reopen at a limited capacity, likely forebode funding challenges ahead for Newport and other communities. Newport has also lost significant revenue from the cancellation of popular and profitable events such as the Apple Pie Crafts, which draws thousands of visitors and patrons each summer.
At the start of the deliberative session, Kessler said that the selectboard opted not to include the proposal of a new community center on the warrant due to the timing. Last year voters rejected the town’s proposal to fund a $6.5 million community center. Kessler said the selectboard still recommends the project but will wait until next year to return a proposal.
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