By Nicholas Brown
Staff Writer

A $1.5 million proposal for a Candia-only transfer and recycling station leads the list of warrant articles to be discussed at the upcoming Town Meeting, set for Saturday, March 18, at 9 a.m., at the Moore School.

Other items for discussion include a request for $315,000 for the town’s conservation fund, a $57,000 request to buy seven acres of state land, a proposed municipal operating budget of $1.9 million and a petitioned warrant article that asks for an ordinance to restrict eminent domain use.

Transfer/recycling station
With time running out for the town’s 27-year-old incinerator, officials are asking for $1.5 million to cover costs of land acquisition, engineering, design and construction of a new solid waste transfer and recycling station.

In each of the last two years, more expensive regional waste treatment construction projects have been shot down at Town Meeting.

The permit for the current facility’s incinerator expires in 2008, and officials have stressed that the 27-year-old incinerator won’t qualify for a renewal.

“The citizens have to make a commitment this year,” said selectmen Chairman Gary York. “For long-term cost avoidance, now is the time to act.”

Officials have been negotiating for a property off a cu-de-sac off Deer Run Road, but no property for the proposed facility is specified in the warrant article.

The current proposal was the result of research by the Candia Solid Waste Committee, which was reconfigured after the last two waste management plans were nixed. The committee deemed the current proposal as the most cost-effective solution to the town’s looming solid waste problem.

State land
Article 29 on this year’s list of warrants asks residents whether they support spending $57,500 for the purchase of 7.18 acres of state-owned land off Brown Road.

York said no specific plans are in place for the land – which sits in a largely residential area – but suggested potential uses including a park, a police or fire station, or a district courthouse.

York likened the purchase to the mid 1990s purchase, as approved by voters, of land where the library now sits.

“There may be no particular need now,” he said. “But it’s a tremendous opportunity at a great value.”

The offer breaks down to $8,000 an acre.

Conservation
Conservation officials are pushing for Warrant Article 28, which asks voters to place $315,000 in the town’s conservation fund.

Candia Conservation Commission Chairman Ed Fowler said the money would replenish the fund to about $500,000 after last year’s controversial $370,000 purchase agreement for a conservation easement on 82 acres off Deerfield Road.

Operating budget
The budget committee is endorsing a $1.9 million municipal budget that’s about $27,000 less than the budget recommended by selectmen.

Most of the $27,000 difference is earmarked for the police department. Shortly before finalizing a budget for proposal, selectmen hired a new full-time police officer, which the police officials have been requesting for the last three years.

York said the proposed budget marks only a slight increase over last year’s budget, and reflects a 17 percent increase in health insurance costs for town employees.

Eminent domain
Warrant Article 32, submitted by petition, asks voters to establish an ordinance restricting the taking of property through eminent domain.

York said town counsel has deemed the warrant article illegal and unenforceable, and said, “It will be ruled out of order.”

Similar warrant articles have popped up for Town Meetings throughout the state after last summer’s controversial U.S. Supreme Court decision Kelo vs. New London, Conn., in which the court upheld the Connecticut city’s taking of private property for the purpose of economic development.

Other warrant articles
Voters will also weigh in on requests including $150,000 for the second phase of construction on South Road, $124,000 for operation of the Smyth Public Library, $8,600 for spraying to control the spread of West Nile virus and Eastern equine encephalitis, and $50,000 to update the fire suppression system at the Candia Youth Athletic Association building.