Weare deliberative session previews questions of employee retention, equipment purchases

The warrant article proposing pay increases for members of Weare’s fire department had already spawned an amendment and avid discussion when Bill Anderson stepped up to the microphone.

If residents approve the article on voting day in March, firefighters could secure raises based on the success of their performance reviews, a benefit offered by most fire departments in adjacent towns, but that perk won’t be available to other town employees.

In view of a previous amendment that omitted merit-based raises for other town employees, some residents decried extending such compensation only to firefighters as “unfair.”

But for Anderson, who’s lived in Weare for over 30 years and sits on the town’s finance committee, hand-wringing over a proposal with such a minimal tax impact — an average of $4 a year — made little sense.

“I will give up Dunkin’ Donuts once a year to support the fire department,” Anderson said.

In Weare, questions of personnel compensation and equipment purchases dominated the town’s Saturday deliberative session. The town’s proposed budget totals $9.6 million, which represents a $385,331 increase over the default budget and a $632,000 increase over last year’s budget. With a tax impact of $4.05, the proposed budget would cost the average property taxpayer $1,620 a year, given a home valued at $400,000.

The proposed budget takes into account increases to property insurance liability, measures related to contracts and payroll, including promotions for Department of Public Works and transfer station personnel, and trash disposal, according to members of the board of selectmen.

Among those increases is a $3,000 incentive for on-call snow plows: $1,500 at the start of plow season and, depending on attendance, $1,500 at the end. In total, these would amount to $50,000.

Currently, the town offers a $300 bonus, compensation town leaders say pales in comparison to the demands of the job. During the past storm, employees with the Highway Department worked 36 consecutive hours to clear roads, according to Selectman Jack Dearborn.

In November, the town returned $385,000 to taxpayers to offset the tax burden. By deciding not to absorb that surplus, the town deferred considerable expenses, including pressing maintenance costs, such as new tires for fire trucks and other emergency vehicles.

That windfall should not be interpreted as a sign that the town was “rolling in money,” said Dearborn. Rather, “we were managing this down to the penny, and we were sub-optimizing the town in the process of doing that.”

Last year’s proposed budget of $9.1 million did not pass; over the last ten years, the town has passed just four proposed budgets.

Responding to concerns about the preferential treatment of firefighters, Fire Chief Mark Roarick laid out an internal deficiency rarely placed on public display: In the past year, Weare’s fire department has lost four employees, and two others are expected to leave by the end of February.

The department, he said, has essentially become “a training department for other departments to take people over to the next level.”

It takes the department, on average, six months to hire a new employee, and once they’re onboard, outfitting new employees with turnout gear, specialized masks and other necessary personal protective equipment requires several thousand dollars.

Of the five warrant articles the town’s finance committee declined to recommend to voters, two were related to personnel: article 18, which would promote the assistant director of the library to a full-time employee, and article 19, which would do the same for the Highway Department employee.

An attempt to amend article 15, which relates to the purchase of a new Chevrolet Tahoe police pursuit vehicle, was withdrawn and the question will appear as written on the ballot. The amendment would have zeroed the tax impact of the amendment, drawing a majority of funds from the town’s unassigned fund balance, a move Finance Administrator Beth Rouse said would jeopardize the town’s safety net.

According to Rouse, the town’s unassigned fund balance currently holds $1.5 million, an amount that cannot dip below 5% of the town’s general annual expenditures, the minimum recommended by the state’s Department of Revenue Administration.

Discussions of town employees provided cause for celebration at the deliberative session, too. After 30 years as town administrator, Naomi Bolton resigned her position in December.

Benji Knapp, chairman of the board of selectmen, lauded Bolton’s longevity as town administrator.

Bolton has “done every job there is to do,” Knapp said, including working as interim town administrator past her retirement to facilitate the town meeting process and allow the town enough time to find her replacement. “I’m sure this isn’t that last time we’ll ask for your help at town meeting.”

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