Belmont town valuation nearly $1.5B

BELMONT — The Belmont Selectboard voted to continue an alternating day and evening meeting schedule, until March 2026 Town Meeting.

The discussion occurred during the 22-minute-long meeting on Oct. 15, and Town Administrator Alicia Jipson asked the board for their preference on how to move forward.

“In talking with department heads, they much prefer coming in the morning,” said Chair Ruth Mooney. Department leaders are not required to attend meetings if they’re not listed on the agenda.

For Mooney, she likes “the switchy-swappy” of the alternating meetings. All board members were in favor of continuing the meeting schedule as is.

The meeting agenda listed only three items of new business, and selectboard members roughly split the time discussing the town’s valuation along with a sewer force main on Route 140 that’s internally eroding.

The town’s valuation has come in, including credits and exemptions, at $1.48 billion. Before that, the valuation came in at $1.52 billion. The selectboard’s meeting packet including related reports was not made available by press time. Meeting minutes were also not immediately available.

“I was busy all week — two weeks probably — doing the MS-1, which is the town’s valuation,” Jipson said during the meeting, and went on to explain how some of the town’s exemptions impact the valuation in a negative way.

“Exemptions are great and all, but they do have a cost to the tax rate, because it does reduce your value. One of our biggest hits is the commercial exemption that we give to the commercial-industrial. That is a total of $9.5 million loss of value that gets decreased.”

Despite these exemptions, the town’s valuation has continued to grow over the past few years.

Switching gears and talking about the Route 140 pipeline, town leaders referenced the condition and performance index report regarding the integrity of the force main, which is a pressurized pipeline used in sewage systems to transport wastewater. There were some recommendations from the company who created the report, Underwood Engineers Inc.

In the report, engineers suggest the “remaining force main, excluding the 1,500 feet in need of rehab, is in generally good condition with some minor internal deterioration and it has some service life remaining, approximately 15-20 years remaining.”

After some discussion and at the suggestion of Jipson, the selectboard will schedule a joint meeting with the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services and Underwood engineers.

Minutes from the selectboard’s Oct. 1 meeting were approved. The next meeting of the Belmont Selectboard will at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 5, at the Belmont Mill at 14 Mill St.

A presentation by the New Hampshire Department of Transportation regarding the Route 140 and Main Street intersection was rescheduled to the Dec. 3 meeting.

According to a press release from NHDOT, “The purpose of this meeting is to present the refined intersection alternatives based on previous public informational meeting, review traffic conditions, construction costs, and solicit input from public officials to ensure project decisions meet public transportation needs and community goals and protect and enhance the environment. The limits of work for each approach to the intersection depend on the preferred alternative.”

To view the upcoming meeting agenda, visit belmontnh.gov.

In the posted meeting agenda under new business, the selectboard will start the meeting with the introduction of fire department new hire Kyle Behan.

Police Lt. Evan Boulanger will offer a presentation about his time at the FBI National Academy.

Finally, closing out the new business portion is an announcement from the Belmont Public Library about a staff resignation.

Several unresolved items will be addressed, including an update on the state veterans credit, Public Works Assistant Director Brian Jackes will share about the NH Granite State Clean Fleets Grant, and a motion filed for reconsideration in the court case against the town. 

The board will meet again, out of schedule cadence, at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 18, due to a conflict with a conference most town department leaders attend.