Special Town Meeting in the Town Hall.

This meeting is to discuss Article 17 concerning the purchase of the police cruiser and capital reserve fund and to legitimize the budget. This is required because the State of New Hampshire “disallowed” the amended article which voters approached, claiming that it changed the intent of the article. As a result of this disallowment, the entire budget is no longer considered legitimate, and must be re-approved.

Selectmen’s meeting will continue in the Town Office after town meeting.

Calling all Nelson Farmers, Gardeners, and others interested in Agriculture:

Your Planning Board is sponsoring a public meeting to explore a proposed Town Agricultural Commission. The meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, July 6, 2010, at 7:00 pm at the Town Hall. Refreshments will be provided.

Featured speakers at this meeting will be Amanda Costello, District Manager of the Cheshire County Conservation District, and Jeff Littleton, Conservation Ecologist with Moosewood Ecological Services.

The purpose of this meeting is to introduce Nelson residents, most particularly farmers, to the concepts and benefits of a Town Agricultural Commission, and to discuss if Nelson should pursue organizing an Agricultural Commission by warrant article at the 2011 Town Meeting.

An Agricultural Commission is a non-regulatory entity, recognized by the town, which provides a voice for the agricultural community, a resource for mediation, and a link to assistance providers. The Commission works cooperatively with other Town boards to ensure that the interests of farmers are better understood and considered in the decision-making process. An Agricultural Commission may serve as a local voice for the interests of farmers, provide a source of information on pending legislation which might have an impact on farming activities, and help support the important place of agriculture in our community and larger society.

If you have any questions, please contact:

David Voymas, chairperson
Nelson Planning Board

603-847-3137

When mail is addressed to one or more of the addresses below, it is forwarded to the individual(s) who can best respond. In some cases this may be a board chair, or in other cases it may go directly to the town office, where a determination will be made as to who should receive it. One value to this new process is that when town officials change, the email address can remain the same, but it is forwarded to the new town official.

Individuals who have been regularly corresponding with any town officials at previously established email addresses should make note of the new addresses, as the old ones will eventually be phased out.

Please remember that many town officials are volunteers, and the administrative staff and paid officials work only part time. Therefore you should not expect an immediate reply when sending email.

The addresses are:

The Town Office               admin@townofnelson.com

The Board of Selectmen        selectmen@townofnelson.com

Conservations Commission        conservation@townofnelson.com

Fire Department             firechief@townofnelson.com

Library                   library@townofnelson.com

Planning Board                planningboard@townofnelson.com

Police                    police@ townofnelson.com

Tax Collector                taxcollector@townofnelson.com

Town Clerk               townclerk@townofnelson.com

Zoning Board of Adjustment         zoningboard@townofnelson.com

Please make note of this (this information is also published on the left sidebar of this web site).

The purpose of this hearing is to update the townspeople on the status of the former Geddes property.

Supervisors of the checklist will be in session on Tuesday, June 1, from 7 to 9 p.m., at the town offices in the Brick Schoolhouse, to register new voters and make any other changes or additions to the voter checklist. This is the last opportunity to change party affiliation before the September primary election.

Supervisors of the Checklist will meet at the Brick Schoolhouse at 7 p.m. to add new voters to the checklist.

Since this is a new process, there is some getting used to it, but in general the various boards will attempt to post the minutes in a timely fashion after each meeting. Please note that minutes from meetings are generally approved at the next meeting, so the most recent minutes are considered to be pending approval.

If you have questions about meeting minutes, please stop by the town office during business hours.

• The Town’s consideration of purchasing The Chapel by the Lake
• A committee to study renovations to the Town Hall
• Posting of the former Geddes property

The first thing we would like to do is to thank the Chapel by the Lake Committee that with the guidance of Lew Derby who put them together, worked at looking into the feasibility of the town purchasing the Chapel by the Lake Church.

The Church contacted the Selectmen last fall advising they were interested in selling the property and wanted to give the town the first right of refusal. The Selectmen at that point contacted Lew to see if he would chair a committee to look into this. He agreed and assembled a group, which represented as many areas of town as possible. The group’s members were;
John Bunce, Joy Birdsey – Smith, Rick Church, Maury Collins, Sandy Ferguson, Leonard Fraser, Marion Fraser, Phil Hamilton, Hope Lothrop, Betsy Street, Karen Tolman and Bert Wingerson
The Selectmen instructed the group to look at all avenues and options while looking into the property.

In the end they came back with the recommendation not to pursue the property, as they did not feel it would be in the interest of the Town to own it. A copy of the report is available at the Town office.

Again we would like to thank them for all their efforts.

On the same sort of topic, if you were at this years Town Meeting you will recall we informed the townspeople that we would form a committee formed to bring a proposal to next years Town Meeting on what to do with the poor condition of the Town Hall. That process will be starting soon and we have a good feeling that this process will give us hope that we will begin some sort of renovation project to our Town Hall. We will post updates as they become available.

The last topic we want to share with you is the posting of the former Geddes property. We have heard from some of you that you would like to go there and hike the property or just put your feet in the water.

The Selectmen at this point in time are going to keep the property posted for no trespassing. The reason we are doing this is to legally keep people off the property which we do not want there. We have already seen an increase in littering from people going there and dumping beer cans and other trash. As the days get longer and warmer we expect that this type of traffic will do nothing but increase. By keeping it posted our Police Department can occasionally check the property and to show a continued presence to discourage people from going there. We understand that some of you in the community think we should not do this and open it to the public, but at this point we are
asking for your patience to see how this all works out. Nelson is lucky to have numerous places for us to hike and enjoy the outdoors without using this piece of property.

In closing we hope that you find this form of communication useful and we can keep you informed of some of the things that are going on. As always if you want to come and talk to us please contact Joan to get on the agenda.

Thanks for your support!

Mike, Margaret and Warren

Here are the results of voting at Town Meeting. Y = Yes, the article passed. (U) means that it passed unanimously. N means it did not pass. Passed Over means that the town voted not to consider the article.

ARTICLES OF A GENERAL NATURE

1. To choose necessary Town Officers for the year ensuing. (see Election Results)

2. To see if the Town will vote to raise and appropriate the sum of $286,600. Y (U)

to be raised by taxes. This is to defray Town charges for the year ensuing. The Selectmen recommend this appropriation. Y (U)

3. To see if the Town will vote to raise and appropriate the sum of $30,150 for support of the town library.  (In 2009 the appropriation was $30,329). 
$19,570 to be raised by taxes
$10,580 income from library memorial fund and other sources.  Y (U)

4. To see if the Town will vote to raise and appropriate the sum of $3,478 for support of social service agencies which provide assistance to Nelson residents.  The agencies chosen to receive funds are:  Home Health Care ($550), Monadnock Family Services ($828), The Keene Community Kitchen, Inc. ($1,500) and Southwestern Community Services ($600). The Selectmen recommend these appropriations.  (In 2009, these same agencies received contributions from the town in the amount of $3426). Y (U)

5. To see if the Town will vote to appropriate the sum of $10,000 to be added to the Town Buildings Capital Reserve Fund.  No withdrawals may be made from the fund except by vote of the town.  The selectmen recommend this appropriation. The fund balance on 12/31/2009 was $52,954.46.  Selectmen recommend this article. Y (U)

6. To see if the Town will vote to raise and appropriate the sum of $5,000 to repair the gate pillars and reset and repair the monuments in Section 1 of the Nelson Cemetery. Y (U)

7. To see if the Town will vote to raise and appropriate the sum of $7,985 to do a professional audit for this year. This was suggested by the Department of Revenue. Y (U)

8. To see if the Town will vote to raise and appropriate the sum of $2,000 to be added to the Milfoil Prevention and Treatment Expendable Trust Fund.  The Selectmen recommend this article.  The fund balance as of 12/31/2009 was $12,334.24. Y (U)

9. To see if the Town will vote to raise and appropriate the sum of $680.40 used for hazardous waste collections for 2010 consisting of 12 collection dates.  The Selectmen recommend this article.  Y (U)

ARTICLES DEALING WITH SERVICE AND PROTECTION

10. To see if the Town will vote to raise and appropriate the sum of $11,242 as subsidy for ambulance service for the ensuing year, it being understood that residents will still be charged for individual calls.  (The appropriation for 2009 was $8,787).  The Selectmen recommend this article. Y (U)

11. To see if the Town will vote to raise and appropriate the sum of $14,250 for the proper expenses of the Fire Department and Rescue Squad. (The 2009 appropriation was $15,000). Y (U)

12. To see if the Town will vote to raise and appropriate the sum of $500 for the purpose of fighting forest fires. This sum to come from reimbursement from the NH State Fire Warden and no amount will be raised through taxation. The Department of Revenue Administration recommends this method of accounting so as not to impact the Fire Department’s operating budget. Y (U)

13. To see if the Town will vote to raise and appropriate the sum of $25,000 to be added to the Fire Equipment Capital Reserve Fund, for the purpose of Fire Apparatus for the fire department. No withdrawals may be made from this Fund except by vote of the Town and upon recommendation of the Fire Chief.  The fund balance as of 12/31/2009 was $131,087.75. The Selectmen recommend this article. Y (U)

14. To see if the Town will vote to raise and appropriate the sum of $1,500 for the proper expenses for Emergency Management.  Y

15. To see if the Town will vote to raise and appropriate the sum of $37,000 for the proper expenses of the Police Department. (The appropriation for 2009 was $37,949). Y

16. To see if the Town will vote to raise and appropriate the sum of $4,000 for the purpose of patrols performed by the Nelson Police Department for the State of NH, Cheshire County, Sheriff’s Office and other authorized municipal entities.  This sum to come from offsetting grants and no amount will be raised through taxation. Y

17. To see if the town will vote to authorize the Select Board to enter into a long-term lease/purchase agreement for a 2010 Ford Expedition in the amount of ($28,861.02), and with payments of ($9,620.34) payable in annual payments over the term of three years. This police cruiser will replace the 1993 Ford Crown Victoria that will be sold, with the proceeds from the sale to go back to the general fund.

The town voted to amend this article to: To raise $10,000 to be added to the 1985 Police Capital Reserve Fund. Y (written ballot 69 Yes / 39 No)

ARTICLES DEALING WITH ROADS

18. To see if the Town will vote to raise and appropriate the sum of $215,000 for the purpose of maintenance of highways and bridges for ensuing year’s budget with $38,753 coming from the Highway Block Grant with the remaining $176,247 to be raised by taxes. Y (U)

19. To see if the Town will vote to raise and appropriate the sum of $20,000 to be added to the Road Equipment Capital Reserve Fund.  It is understood that no withdrawals may be made from this fund for the purchase of road equipment except by vote of the town upon recommendation of the Road Equipment Committee.  The Fund balance on 12/31/2009 was $41,576.29. (The 2009 appropriation was $20,000). Y (U)

20. To see if the Town will vote to discontinue the Salt Barn Capital Reserve Fund and any money left will go to the General Fund. Y

ARTICLES DEALING WITH PLANNING & ZONING

21. To see if the Town will vote to raise and appropriate the sum of $728 for dues to belong to the Southwest Region Planning Commission. ($727 in 2009) Y (U)

OTHER ARTICLES

22. To see if the Town will vote to discontinue the Fire Equipment, Expendable Trust Fund, created in 1979. This fund has a zero balance. 
This is a Warrant Article per request of the Department of Revenue Administration. Y (U)

23. To see if the Town will vote to raise and appropriate the sum of $3,840.00 to be added to the amount appropriated for the salary of the Town Clerk/Tax Collector in Article 2 in order to restore the salary to the amount appropriated for that office in 2006.  (The amount raised in 2006 was $18,306.00). This is a petitioned article. Passed Over

24. To see if the town will rescind the authorization given to the selectmen at the 1994 Town Meeting, article 4 allowing the selectmen to convey title to tax deeded properties.  This authority will revert to majority vote at Town Meeting.This is a petitioned article.  Not recommended by the Selectmen. N

25. To see if the town will direct the selectmen to put a Conservation Easement on tax map parcel 3-15-0 allowing for 1 house to be built not to exceed 5,000 square feet including garage, 1 dock not exceeding 6’x25’, no subdivision, no clear cutting of trees. This Easement will be given to the Harris Center, or similar conservation organization. Exact wording to be worked out by the Selectmen and the receiving organization.
This is a petitioned article.  Not recommended by the Selectmen. N

26. To see if the Town will vote to approve the following resolution to be forwarded to our State Representative(s), our State Senator, the Speaker of the House, and the Senate President. Resolved: The citizens of New Hampshire should be allowed to vote on an amendment to the Hew Hampshire Constitution that defines “Marriage”. This is a petitioned article.  Not recommended by the Selectmen. Passed Over

27. Shall New Hampshire Congressional Delegation be instructed to pursue a new and independent investigation to address thoroughly all of the evidence and unanswered questions related to the events of September 11, 2001?(The record of the vote on this article shall be transmitted by the Town of Nelson to New Hampshire Congressional Delegation.)
This is a petitioned article.  Not recommended by the Selectmen. Passed Over