By Patrick Adrian
Staff Writer
This article has been corrected to reflect the fact that the municipal tax rate will be $15.17 per $1,000 of assessed property value, not $15.72.
CLAREMONT — The Claremont City Council ended their budget work on Wednesday by approving a 2022 fiscal year operating budget of $17.85 million, with $11.58 million to be raised through taxes.
The budget is level-funded and will set the municipal tax rate at $15.17 per $1,000 of assessed property value, equivalent to about $2,275 on a $150,000 home.
Prior to approval, the council restored funding to two reserves that were briefly considered for elimination: $50,000 to the city reserve for retirement liabilities and $5,000 to a fire department reserve for the maintenance and replacement of traffic signals.
The council elected to transfer the $55,000 from the road paving budget, placing the final paving budget at $745,950.
The council had made road paving a central priority for this new fiscal year, which officially began today on Thursday, July 1. The council initially set a budget target of $750,000 for road projects, though in early June the council raised that bar to $1 million.
After combing through department line-items, City Manager Ed Morris found savings to increase paving funding to approximately $800,000.
Councilors, however, conveyed concerns about defunding the retirement liability contribution, which financial experts recommend be maintained at a certain level, and the traffic light reserve.
“Knowing that we will be taking on another traffic signal on Broad Street through the [downtown renovation] project, I’m not comfortable decreasing that fund,” Councilor Nick Koloski said.
Morris has previously said he anticipates additional revenues in the new fiscal year from either the New Hampshire Room and Meals Tax or the American Rescue Plan (ARP), or will find additional city cost reductions to increase the paving funding.
“I understood what the council’s goals are on this and we will continue to work on this,” Morris told the council. “This [past] year we were able to move some money around within the departments and we’ll more broadly at some other departments this [new] year and see if we can still hit that million dollar goal.”
The council approved $40,000 in funding to hire a part-time zoning administrator for the Planning and Economic Development Department.
Initially, the council had sought a part-time grant administrator position to help increase the city’s volume of grant awards. But the position’s focus changed to zoning after consulting Planning and Economic Development Director Nancy Merrill regarding the department’s greatest needs.
The position was initially meant to assist the city’s project manager, who works on projects across all departments, Merrill explained. The city is currently looking to fill the project manager position following the departure of former project manager Tom Krebs.
However, Merrill said, the best way to support the department, and also allow employees more time to focus on grant writing, would be a zoning specialist.
“Having a zoning administrator with the technical know-how to handle the daily calls coming in about everything from chickens and ducks to home businesses, every single one of those takes time to address,” Merrill said. “It’s just a lot of time and it’s often local customers doing local projects.”
Contrary to initial projections about the pandemic, the city’s planning and development department has been incredibly busy handling a number of new commercial projects, Merrill said.
“And it’s all great stuff,” Merrill said. “I’m not complaining. We need to be busy in order for the city to do well. It’s just that, with the day to day phone calls, we get backed up and are not calling back people or resolving issues as quickly as we should.”
Initially the council vote to fund the position was tied 4 to 4. After further discussion, Councilor Andrew O’Hearne changed his vote in favor of the position, at least for this year to see its effectiveness.
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