By Patrick Adrian
Staff Writer
NEWPORT — Two Newport residents, Keith Savery and Bert Spaulding Sr., are running as candidates for a seat on the Newport Selectboard next term to replace Vice-Chair Todd Fratzel, who has decided not to seek reelection.
Newport Selectboard Chair Jeff Kessler announced at the town deliberation meeting on Tuesday that Fratzel, who has served on the board for nine years, will be stepping down after his term expires on June 30.
“He is going to be missed by the board members and by the community at large,” Kessler told the public.
Fratzel, a father of two, told The Eagle Times that he wants to take a break from service to spend more time with his family but hopes to rejoin the selectboard at a future point.
“I really appreciate all the support in the last nine years from the community in town,” Fratzel said. “It really has been a privilege. It’s been such a great experience and this is a great community to serve in.”
Spaulding, a former Newport Selectman, currently serves on the Newport School Board after running unopposed in the March Election. He also serves on the town Budget Advisory Committee.
Town holds deliberation for 2021 warrant
Approximately 30 residents and town officials convened in the Towle School gymnasium for the 2021 deliberative session, where officials presented and explained 13 articles that voters will consider next month.
The meeting ran smoothly and concluded in only 45 minutes with hardly any questions from the public about any of the articles.
The articles include a proposed town operating budget of $11 million for fiscal year 2022, two bond requests totalling $2 million to fund infrastructure projects, a collective bargaining agreement with the Department of Public Works (DPW) employees, and several articles requesting smaller appropriations of $100,000 or less.
The proposed operating budget, if approved, would have an anticipated tax impact of $11.79 per $1,000 of assessed property, a reduction of 14 cents to the tax rate by itself or a 10-cent reduction to the rate if all articles pass.
In the proposals, the selectboard focused considerably on creating reserves to help fund future vehicle replacements, such as fire engines, ambulances and public works trucks, Kessler said. The proposed operating budget would appropriate $220,000 total from the current year budget surplus to establish two vehicle replacement reserves: $130,000 for a future fire engine and $90,000 toward a highway truck.
Kessler said the town anticipates the next fire engine replacement in three years.
“Instead of financing it and paying interest we’re putting aside money today so there’s less of a burden on taxpayers when it’s time to purchase the engine,” Kessler said.
In a separate warrant article, the town is seeking $60,000 to place in a capital reserve for a future ambulance.
Newport owns three ambulances and purchased its newest one less than two months ago, according to Kessler. But the town typically schedules a new ambulance purchase every four years and the process takes between 12 to 18 months to custom-order an ambulance.
One article, a proposed collective bargaining agreement with employees in the Newport Public Works Department, would actually produce a budget reduction of $31,541 in its first year due to a negotiated agreement with the union to change to a less expensive employee insurance plan.
The proposed contract estimates a slight increase of $11,000 in the second and third years of the agreement.
One article is seeking a bond of $1.3 million to begin replacing the town’s aged or failing water mains, over a third of which are at least a century old and at the end of their operating ife. The project will not have an impact on the tax rate since only residents connected to the town water system assume the cost of those upgrades. The cost impact would be a projected increase of 70 cents per 1,000 gallons.
A second bond request of $700,500 would be used to complete a number of needed road upgrades next year. There would be no tax impact from this proposal because the requested amount is in lieu of what the town would budget over the next three years to complete these projects.
By acquiring a bond, the town will be able to complete all three roads in one year rather than three, Fratzel said.
The total interest on the bond, when calculating today’s historically low interest rates, would be approximately $21,000.
The town vote on the warrant will be at the Towle School on Tuesday, May 11, with polls opening at 8 a.m. and closing at 7 p.m.
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