By Nicholas Brown
Staff Writer

Purchasing 60 acres of school land, converting the old fire house into a community center, a change to conservation funding, and a new roof for the Auburn Village School will be some of the topics at the upcoming Town and School District Meetings.

School District Meeting is set for Friday, March 17, at 7 p.m., with Town Meeting scheduled for the following day, at 1 p.m. Both meetings will be at the Auburn Village School. School District Meeting School officials are asking voters to authorize the $686,500 purchase of 60.2 acres off Hooksett and Dollard roads for new school land.

Only $9,483 in new taxes would be needed for the purchase, as voters last year approved funneling $545,000 in state adequacy money into an expendable trust fund aimed at buying school land. The balance on that fund is currently at about $677,000, school board members said.

The school board’s land search committee settled on the site, off 101’s Exit 2, after reviewing 34 pieces of available property in town. The search came after voters in 2000 and 2001 rejected $7 million plans to build a new middle school off Raymond Road.

School board Chairman Elaine Hobbs said she’s gotten a lot of positive feedback since the board announced its interest in the property, owned by the Dollard family, at a Feb. 13 public hearing.

“I think people are excited that we’ve found some land, and we can hopefully move forward,” she said.

If voters approve the land purchase, school officials are also asking for $57,000 to cover costs of engineering, surveying and land testing.

School officials have said the Dollard property appears to have both ledge and wetlands, but offers considerably more space at a better value than other properties eyed by the land search committee.

The board already has plans to form a school site planning committee, which will replace the land search committee if the purchase is approved.

The board is welcoming volunteers from throughout the community to participate.

“This is a huge task,” said school board member Kathleen Porter. “What we want to do is get a lot of volunteers and break them up into smaller subcommittees.”

Enthusiasm seems abundant. Porter said she’s been approached by at least 10 people interested in joining the new committee.

But Porter said securing the land is the board’s first priority. “Right now, my main goal is to get people out to that (School) District Meeting,” she said.

School officials are also asking for $44,000 to replace the leaky roof above the AVS gymnasium. The money would also go toward replacing wet insulation.

Porter said she recalls years past when buckets were set out on the gymnasium floor to collect dripping water during school and town meetings.

By far, the biggest money item at the School District Meeting is the proposed $9.5 million operating budget, which marks a 6 percent increase over last year’s bottom line, said Hobbs.

Porter, the school board’s liaison to the budget committee, said the proposed budget reflects $545,000 less in state adequacy grant revenue, and increased anticipated costs for health insurance, the high school tuition contract with Manchester, special education services, transportation contracts and utilities.

Town Meeting
Some of the most engaging warrant articles to be voted on at the upcoming Town Meeting come from resident petitions.

One petitioned warrant article asks for $190,000 to convert the old Raymond Road fire house into a community center for use by groups such as the Senior Citizens Club, the Auburn Lions Club and Scouts.

Selectmen and the budget committee have each voted not to support the warrant article. The building has been used primarily as a storage space since the fire department moved into the Eaton Road safety complex several years ago.

Town officials have drafted an article asking for the establishment of a capital reserve fund for the purpose of rehabilitating town buildings for future uses. Warrant Article 4 also asks for voter approval to use $100,000 in surplus money to start the fund.

“There’s no specific proposal at this point,” said Town Administrator Bill Herman. “It’s just a mechanism to get funding.”

Another warrant article submitted by petition asks voters to approve funneling current use tax revenue – paid by developers – into the town’s general fund. Currently, 100 percent of current use revenue goes into the town’s land conservation fund, which currently has about $377,000 said Herman.

Last year alone, said Herman, developers yielded about $250,000 in current use tax money.

The legislative body will also be asked to support spending $260,000 to replace the Depot Road Bridge. Town engineers have been designing a replacement over the last several years, said Herman.

Officials plan to receive a $246,000 reimbursement from the state for the town’s recent work on the Dearborn Road Bridge. If the bridge warrant article passes as written, that money would go toward the Depot Road Bridge replacement, leaving $13,607 to be raised by taxation.

Officials also expect to get reimbursed for 80 percent of the cost of the Depot Road Bridge replacement.

Selectmen and the budget committee have agreed on a proposing a $3.2 million operating budget, which is just over $500,000 more than last year’s approved budget, said Herman.

Last year, voters approved adding $198,000 to the annual budget with the hire of a fulltime town administrator and two new full-time firefighters. Only about half of the salaries and benefits for those positions was paid out last year.