T-N Fire District seeks emergency meeting on water contract

The board that oversees the Tilton-Northfield Fire Department is asking a judge to authorize a special voters meeting to approve funds to pay for water service to the department’s stations and hydrants.

The commissioners of the Tilton-Northfield Fire District are hoping to get the voters to approve a contract with the Tilton-Northfield Water District in order to settle a dispute that at one point last year led to the Water District temporarily shutting off some of the fire department’s water services.

Specifically, the Fire District commission is asking the voters in the two-town district to appropriate $523,322. Of that total, $130,000 would go to pay for past water service, with the rest going to fund a three-year contract for water at the rate of $126,000 a year.

The hearing on the request to hold the emergency fire district meeting is scheduled to take place next Wednesday in Belknap Superior Court.

Under state law, a special meeting to spend or obligate tax revenue requires that a judge rule the proposed expenditure is of a serious and urgent nature that demands prompt or immediate action.

In requesting Wednesday’s hearing, the fire district’s commissioners say they were able to agree to terms with the water district only recently. Because the need for continued water service to department facilities and its hydrant system is crucial, a vote on the matter cannot wait until the next scheduled fire district meeting next March.

The special meeting had initially been scheduled for Monday, Oct. 24. But because the court set the hearing for Wednesday, the meeting will have to be rescheduled, Fire District attorney Paul Fitzgerald said Friday.

The fire department has obtained water service for years under a series of successive contracts until last year when voters failed to ratify the contract by two votes at the annual fire district meeting.

Following the meeting, the fire district commissioners wrote to the water district in April 2021 in an effort to resume negotiations with the water district. However, in June 2021 the water district responded, saying it was unwilling to continue negotiations and interpreted the fire district commissioners’ letter as a request to suspend hydrant services. The fire district’s attorney sent a letter to the water district objecting to the stoppage of water service, saying to do so would jeopardize public safety. Later that month the water was turned off to the fire station on Park Street in Northfield, as well as a fire hydrant outside the station, the petition states.

A court hearing was held June 25, 2021, during which a judge ordered the water district to restore the service.

A tentative agreement for a new water services contract, along with an agreement on payment for the past-due services, was recently reached after negotiations between the fire and water districts, which involved the services of a mediator, Fitzgerald said.