60 years later, Gunstock continues lawfully mandated payments to Gilford

LACONIA — Members of the Belknap County Delegation clarified questions regarding a RSA dictating payments from Gunstock Mountain Resort to the Town of Gilford during their meeting Monday night.

In 1959, the New Hampshire Legislature passed a law enabling the Gunstock Area Commission, a governing body tasked with the operation, maintenance, development, improvement and promotion of the Gunstock Area in Gilford, owned by Belknap County. 

Chapter 446 of the Laws of 1963 outline tax assessment, and stipulate Gunstock Area be exempt from taxation but, starting in 1963 and in perpetuity, Belknap County would make payment to the Town of Gilford an amount equal to the taxes assessed on that area for the year of 1962 in lieu of paying taxes. The law was passed and went into effect on July 2, 1963: the Town of Gilford was to receive $6,586.65 each year.

And they have — though the mechanism works slightly differently than outlined in the law. Today, the Gunstock Area Commission pays that amount to the Town of Gilford directly, without the county administration acting as a mediator.

“The reason I brought it to the delegation is that, in all my years sitting on this delegation, I have never seen a check written by the county or had it included in our budget as writing a check to the Town of Gilford. And I was concerned about that, because I found that it says ‘the County of Belknap shall pay to the Town of Gilford,'” Rep. Barbara Comtois (R-Barnstead) said Monday night. “I was just concerned that we weren’t doing our due diligence.” 

The Belknap Delegation is made up of all representatives who serve the county in the Statehouse.

Comtois' clarification was the purpose of the item’s inclusion on the agenda. Members of Citizens for Belknap, a local advocacy group, attended the meeting in large numbers, but many left after it was clear the delegation would not be taking any action on the matter.

“Citizens for Belknap was in attendance this evening to make sure no further attempts to sabotage the Gunstock Area Commission, Gunstock Recreation Area or the Gunstock Mountain Resort could be attempted,” Brian Beihl of Citizens for Gunstock wrote in a letter, in part. “Such actions would put our county economy at risk and needs to be guarded against.”

“In light of this coming up, I did some research, too. I spoke with the town administrator in Gilford, he said for 17 years everything’s been working very well, and he’s been getting the money he’s supposed to be getting,” Rep. Harry Bean (R-Gilford) said.

Belknap County Administrator Debra Shackett told representatives the commission has been paying Gilford directly.

Doug Lambert, Gunstock commissioner, said the mountain has been paying the town annually.

“I guess everybody’s happy,” Lambert said.

In other business, representatives restricted county commissioners' ability to transfer funds between budget line items.

“I’d like to understand the why,” Commissioner Glen Waring said. “I understand the $7,500, if you want to know the transfers between departments — well, I’ve got small ‘why’ on that one — but a much larger ‘why’ of, if within a department a department head says, ‘Hey, I need more money in my supplies line and I’m not going to use transportation line,' that’s the authority of the commissioners to manage that budget. I’m just curious as to why the delegation feels that that authority needs to be reported and almost stripped of the commissioners authority.”

Transfer authority is limited to $7,500 and below between departments, and any transfers greater than that amount between departments require authorization from the delegation’s Executive Committee. Commissioners are to report inter-departmental transfers to the executive committee on a quarterly basis. Every department except for the nursing home is included. 

“I’m not interested in placing onerous, ‘Mickey Mouse’ burdens" on members of the commission, Rep. Paul Terry (R-Alton) said. “This is not going to be something that is going to be occurring on a frequent basis. But what it does is it just makes us a little better informed as to how the budget is being managed, and that can potentially be helpful to us when we look at the next budget.”

Reps. Peter Varney (R-Alton), Douglas Trottier (R-Belmont) and Steven Bogert (R-Laconia) did not attend the meeting.