The Manchester Board of Mayor and Aldermen was in session last night. Before the meeting, the Committee on Administration tackled a number of outstanding revenue proposals from city departments. Big ticket times went down in flames as the panel voted to receive and file a proposed resident or head tax of ten dollars and
Chairman Craig
the so called bag and tag initiative. Those two measures were projected to produce three million dollars in revenue for the coming budget. The committee recommended adopting a proposed boat registration fee and increasing a variety of smaller fees here and there. We’ve chronicled their actions on the entire list in our Live Forum Blog at Girard at Large dot com so you can see just what fees made the cut and which one’s didn’t. Before any fee is enacted or killed, the full Board of Aldermen has to take final action. Committees only recommend.
Levasseur: Still “winning”
With respect to the Right to Know proposal, the committee voted to table the measure. Ward Two Alderman Ron Ludwig said it was a lot to digest in a short period of time and seemed to have unresolved questions about what the city could legally do. I, your Humble Host, Guardian of the Public’s Right to Know, was allowed to speak briefly and raise issues with the proposed policy. We’ll share them later this morning. Chairman Joyce Craig asked if I’d submit them in writing, which I will of course do despite our good friend Alderman at-Large Joe Kelly Levasseur telling me after the meeting not to bother because the cake is already baked on this one and it’s going to be another big win for him over me like the court case we just fought over the issue. All I can say, Joe, is I certainly hope you get another big win like that.
The committee also extended the street vendor pilot program in the Civic Center Protection Zone pending additional information and recommendations from city staff and had a lengthy discussion over the assessment of user fees to sports leagues that use Gill Stadium.
The Board of Aldermen itself heard from a number of horse owners and riding enthusiasts who questioned and objected to the proposed ban on riding on Manchester Water Works land surround Lake Massabesic. They said there was no
Polluted by horse poop?
scientific or other reason why horseback riding should be banished from the grounds noting in most cases, they’re miles from the lake. There was a lot of science tossed around the room and criticism of the Water Works’ assertion that horseback riding was bad for the watershed. Basically, they all said “prove it because it doesn’t exist.” The board also received a presentation on the coming Manchester Marathon, which doesn’t seem to be bad for the environment and looks good for the economy.
News from our own backyard continues after this.
Another Manchester department head came forward to say that if the board doesn’t restore severance funding, layoffs are likely to start in July. Public Works Director Kevin Sheppard said the
Sheppard: Layoffs looming
increase proposed in the mayor’s budget fell almost three hundred seventy five thousand dollars short of what they need to maintain their status quo, which includes fourteen vacant and unfunded positions and twenty vacant but funded but not allowed to fill due to a hiring freeze positions. There are two hundred forty two workers on the job. Sheppard said the department’s expecting about twenty retirements at a cost of over seven hundred thousand in unfunded severance, which his budget can’t handle. He’s looking for another one point one million to be added to the budget. He also said that being unable to fill vacancies has hobbled everything from their snow removal efforts to their ability to repair roads. Where he’d normally have five crews repairing roads, he’s only got two working. He said with the available personnel, he might be able to resurface seven to ten miles of road this season, same as last year, and that he couldn’t spend all the money he has to do road work, which touched off a discussion about contracting that work out or hiring more people to do it in house. It was entertaining to watch Alderman at-Large Joe Kelly Levasseur press department officials on revenue ideas over and over again only for them to respond with we’re out of ideas and the big one we have, the Administration Committee received and filed. We’ve linked to our live forum blog of the meetings for your convenience.
One revenue that won’t be coming to the city in this year’s budget is the promised sharing of the increased revenue from the proposed twenty three percent increase in the state’s gas tax. If the hike, which just cleared a joint meeting of
23% gas tax hike on the way
the House Pubic Works and Ways and Means committees, goes into effect, the city may see around a quarter of a million dollars in two thousand sixteen. House Republican Leader Gene Chandler of Bartlett said that won’t be the only disappointing thing communities get out of this bill if it passes, noting that a mere four million dollars, that won’t be required for road work, is expected to go back to cities and towns, with the bulk of it going to the I Ninety Three expansion, which is already getting Fifty million dollars in funding in the state’s ten year highway plan. We’ve posted Chandlers assessment of the bill with this newscast at Girard at Large dot com.
Parents, students, and teachers at Central High will gather tonight between six and seven thirty to meet the two
Central: New principal to be chosen
finalists in the search for a new principal. The field of thirty three applicants has been whittled by the process down to Cheri Towle, Principal of Mount View High School in Thorndike, Maine and John Vaccarezza Associate Dean of Students at Pinkerton Academy in Derry. The public is welcomed to attend their community interview and provide feedback to the district before the final choice is made. We’ve posted the district’s release containing their biographies with this newscast at Girard at Large dot com.
That’s news from our own backyard, Girard at Large hour ___ is straight ahead.
