At the City Council meeting we started out with the annual presentation of the Deborah Bienarz Award. This award is in memoriam to Laconia Police Officer Bienarz, who showed an extreme dedication to helping the youth of Laconia.

We had several nominees for this award and a committee of a City Councilor, a Police Officer and a School Board Member review the nominations to choose the award recipient. It says a lot for our community that we have so many people working with the youth of our city and this year Bill Salta was selected.

Bill has been involved in Laconia Little League for over 2 decades and is an integral part of that organizations efforts. He is also involved with the youth basketball and soccer programs too. Having sat on the committee this year it was a difficult decision to make but all of the members on the committee felt that Bill is deserving of this recognition.

Congratulations Bill.

In other business...

During the City Council meeting there was some discussion about the proposed Methadone Clinic in the Industrial Park. It is amazing how many of you don't realize that this is something that can happen without any say from the public or council.

Jonathan and Carolyn Muller from Old North Main Street was busy from Sunday evening through Monday evening and gathered 72 signatures on a petition, which was presented to the Council and several other residents in the area spoke about their concerns.

Prior to the regular Council meeting we met with our Attorney to discuss what options are available. It is clear that the all of the Councilors, Mayor, City Manager and Planning Director are opposed to this "Change of Use" permit being approved. Unfortunately the law is clear on this that if they meet the requirements of the zoning ordinances then this must be approved. One of our ordinances allows a "Medical Clinic" to be located in the Commercial/Industrial zone.

If Shanna Saunders is backed into a corner and required to approve the change of use there is legal option available to the "abutters that can be affected by this decision", which is everyone living in the North Main Street near Lexington Drive; Old North Main Street; Lexington Drive; Shore Drive; Lynnwood Drive areas. Shanna has determined that this facility meets the definition of a Medical Clinic but upon review it appears that this facility would fit into the classification of a Pharmacy, which is not permitted in the Commercial/Industrial zone.

There will be a Public Hearing and Information Session held during the next regular Council meeting. I encourage everyone to attend and voice their opinions. You should also write letters to the editor in both papers and I would encourage/support anyone that wants to hold a Public Forum to help get the word out.

As always, Please contact me with your comments and we, together can organize against this clinic and hopefully create an atmosphere that the clinic decides not to do business in Laconia.

Now it’s “Where’s the Answers?”

At the Laconia City Council meeting on Monday, March 10^th during the City Manager’s Report item on the agenda there was more discussion about the Belknap County budget and the Public Hearing. This was reported in both the Citizen of Laconia and the Laconia Daily Sun. (click this link to view the March 11^th edition)

If you read these articles you can easily see that nobody on the council feels we received adequate answers to our questions about why the revenues are so short. It is getting quite frustrating for us and, I imagine for others in the county.

If you have read any of the blog debate (Post 1 and Post 2) I am having with Skip Murphy at Granitegrok.com or any of my previous posts or responses (Post 1, Post 2, Response 1, Response 2) on this subject you will know that this is a subject very dear to my heart. The TAXPAYERS can’t afford double digit increases in their taxes and we in Laconia have let it be known by passing the Spending-Tax-Cap. The problem is that this increase at the county level still affects us because even though this increase will not be passed onto the property taxes raised, the city still has to pay the county. This reduces the funds available for operating the city and schools. The county increase (10.417%) is greater than the reported CPI-Urban rate of inflation increase (2.9%) by over 3 ½ times.

My friend Skip has concentrated a lot of his effort on the expenditure side of the equation and I don’t disagree with his assertion that the county expenses should be trimmed and kept in check. My issue is that this problem was stacked on the revenue side of the equation and a lot of the blame has been indirectly placed on HB2.

The reason I see the revenue side of the equation as the most important part of the county budget is that the spending on Medicaid/Medicare programs, especially the Nursing Home, will far outpace any other spending going on in the county budget. These programs are set up as a Federal Cost-Sharing plan requiring either the state or local government to pay 50% of the costs. Skip argues that this is only “account transfer” that is paid by the taxpayers, which is true. The problem is this is the program we were dealt by the feds and the feds don’t care who pays the non-federal share. Thus HB2 comes into play.

Councilor Lipman predicted that in coming years, care for the elderly is not going to carry an annual inflationary factor of less than high single digits. The entire council agreed the city cannot handle those kinds of numbers and stay within the local property tax cap without significantly impacting city services, including schools. Mayor Matt Lahey said “At some point it’s going to go beyond our ability to absorb it,” which I think hits the nail on the head.

As Ed Engler reported in the Laconia Daily Sun:

“The tax cap covers everything passed on through property taxes, including the city’s share of running Belknap County government in general and the Belknap County Nursing Home in particular. And the city’s 20-percent share of that bill for 2008 is going up $164,000 more than is being allowed, proportionally, under the cap. The difference will have to me made up, for fiscal year 2008-2009, out of city and school spending plans and City Manager Eileen Cabanel indicated she will recommend that additional burden be split 50-50 with the School District.”

City Manager Eileen Cabanel stated “We seem to be getting different answers from different people on HB-2” and Mayor Lahey added “We really couldn’t get an answer” to any of the questions we were asking.

The Mayor has spoken with Senator Kathleen Sgambati about this and she volunteered to come to a council meeting to explain the way the bill is supposed to work. Mayor Lahey is going to ask Sen. Sgambati to attend the next council meeting on Monday, March 24^th at 7:30 PM. She will also bring Senator Lou D’Allesandro (D-Manchester) and at least one official for the state Department of Health and Human Services with her.

I would everyone to attend this meeting to show support for our position that costs are being unfairly passed on to the property taxpayers. My feeling is that Mayor Matt Lahey will allow some questions from the public during this debate. If you are unable to attend then I would encourage you to forward any questions you may have to myself, the Mayor or one of the other council members.

LET’S GET THE ANSWERS WE DESERVE!!

Saturday evening I attended the Lou Athanas Free-Throw Fundraising Event at MMS and it was a blast.

We had a good turn-out even though we were missing a few Councilors and School Board members. Margie Kerns from the School Board was the big winner in the challenge. She and Joe Cormier made 29 free-throws out of 50 and Joe asked for a "shoot-out" to determine the overall winner. They each took another 5 shots and, while Joe missed all of his shots Margie made three more.

This is an annual event and I am looking forward to next year's challenge. I will be practicing my shot so I can get better than 50% next time.

Monday night was the first business meeting of the City Council and the agenda was thick. With the holidays, the Christmas Eve meeting and the Inauguration there was a lot of business that ended up being put off until this meeting. We struggled through an agenda that contained 3 Presentations, 10 Consent and Action Items, Committee Reports, Manager’s Report, New Business, Unfinished Business and Council Comments, but accomplished a lot.

The presentations started off on a good note with the presentation of Debra Bieniarz Award for Outstanding Service to the Youth and Children of Laconia to Bert Decormier and Bill Tuttle, who have been involved with Laconia Little League since its beginning. The way they were tricked to attend the meeting was wonderful. City Clerk Ann Kaligian came up with the idea to have them come to the meeting to argue against the MMS construction encroaching on Colby Field in a way that would affect the upcoming Little League season. Mayor Matt Lahey continued this deception by unrolling a piece of paper that was going to show how the field would be affected. When he unrolled the paper and showed it to the audience it was blank. He then began the presentation, which was a surprise to the co-recipients and their look of shock and surprise was priceless.

The next presentation was by Jody Connor, from NH DES and Brian Wolf, from the Lake Winnisquam Association. It concerned the growing plumes of Milfoil on Lake Winnisquam and a request for $5,000 to help pay for chemical treatment. There was some good discussion about this topic and some good questions asked. There is a fee on boat registrations that is supposed to help fund the eradication programs in the state but that money is also used in other boating programs, not leaving enough money to maintain the lakes. I discovered that last year there was a bill to require out of state boaters to pay $10 to use our lakes. I understand that this bill passed the House and Senate but was killed by the Governor. The end result is that we all agreed that this is just another example of the state shirking their responsibility to maintain New Hampshire Lakes from exotic vegetation. This request will be reviewed in the normal budget process and prioritized with the other items in the budget. I feel that some Corporations are working on helping local environmental programs and that there is grant money available for this program. I will be looking for ways to help this effort.

The last presentation was from Shanna Saunders, the Planning Director concerning the EPA report on “Smart Growth”. I haven’t had a chance to read all of this report but what I have read is wonderful. The Planning Department is going to use this report in updating the Master Plan and the Council will use the Master Plan to monitor the implementation of the report. Attorney Pat Woods mentioned that he is sharing the Downtown portion of the report with businesses in the Downtown area to help get support in implementing this part of the overall project. I plan on sharing the Weirs Beach portion of the program with the Weirs Action Committee to get the same results. Shanna said that her department will be posting the report on their web site soon and I will let you know when that happens.

This week was very busy for me on a personal level but the news has been fairly quiet.

1. On Thursday, January 17th I attended monthly the Weirs Action Committee meeting. Preparations are under way for the upcoming Bike Week. Several items were discussed but what I want to bring forward is a complaint about the location of the “Port-a-Potties” during the event. I spoke with the City Manager, Eileen Cabanel about this and she had Lee Johnson, from the Department of Public Works contact me directly. I am glad to report that Laconia is going to work closely with the businesses that are affected by the location (and odor) of these facilities. At the next meeting, February 21^st at the Weirs Park House I will be asking for input as to possible solutions to the problem. In fact Lee has offered to attend the March meeting on his own time to work on a solution.
2. As was reported recently in the Citizen, the Greater Laconia – Weirs Beach and the Greater Franklin Chambers of Commerce merged to form the Lakes Region Chamber of Commerce. On Tuesday I had the honor of attending the Lakes Region Chamber of Commerce Awards Luncheon. It was an exciting opportunity to meet several of the business leaders in the area and there was an overall excitement about the economic activities happening in the area.
3. On Tuesday evening I attended the monthly board meeting of the Lou Athanas Youth Basketball League, where we discussed how the season is progressing and about upcoming events. On Saturday, February 9^th at 6:30 PM in the MMS Gym there will be a food-drive/fund-raising “Free Throw Shooting Contest” and the board has issued a challenge to the City Council and School Board to participate in this event and has also issued a competition between the Council and Board for bragging rights as to who makes the most “free throws” on this night.
4. On Wednesday we heard Governor Lynch give his State of the State Address. It is interesting that he has proposed providing tax credits to businesses in Coos County that create “well paying” jobs but has put nothing forward on creating an economic stimulus or incentive to the rest of the state. He also glossed over the budget crisis that New Hampshire finds itself in the midst of. He said that he would not support any spending legislation but there was nothing heard about cuts in the current spending plan that increased spending more than 17%. Also absent from his speech was any mention that tax increases are “off the table” to repair the problem he and the Legislature have put us in. I am curious what his plan is to fix this crisis.