Bristol voters approve budget, hiring of firefighters

BRISTOL — The 122 voters attending the town’s 206th annual Town Meeting on March 15 easily passed the $9.66 million budget, along with several other warrant articles. The only real controversy was around a proposal to hire as many as four additional full-time firefighters to enhance the town’s ability to provide round-the-clock staffing for two ambulances.

Fire Chief Ben LaRoche tried to allay concerns about the impact on property taxes by saying 100% of the cost of the new personnel would be covered by increased fees to Alexandria, Danbury and Hill that pay Bristol for providing ambulance services to their towns. LaRoche also promised that, should any of those towns reject the new contract at their own town meetings, Bristol would not be hiring all four firefighters.

“This does two things,” LaRoche said of the additional firefighters. “It ensures that somebody’s there at the station, ready to go, so that there’s no delay in that response.

"We get about 0.7 people to respond to those second EMS calls or third EMS calls. That tells me that the majority of time we get one call member or off-duty employee to respond. What this means is that there’s going to be another person there that they can then team up with ... and that ambulance can get out significantly faster and in better position than waiting for New Hampton or Bridgewater or Meredith or Franklin, or whomever we have to call.”

Some residents questioned why Bristol provides ambulance service to other towns, including as a member of the regional mutual aid system.

Nate Jarrett, a Crescent Street resident who said he manages a sewer department, compared the fire department to the Winnipesaukee River Basin Program. “Everyone has a part ownership in that plant based on usage,” he said. “So when something breaks or you need a new pump station, everyone contributes.” Turning to the ambulance service, he said, “It’s great so that when [the ambulance is] elsewhere, we have a second one, but we’re fronting the bill.

"I think there needs to be some capital investment from these communities — surrounding towns — first, to buy into the capital plant, the fire station here, and put monies aside for those purchases.”

LaRoche explained the ambulance contract with the towns includes a provision that captures a percentage of billing revenue for ambulance transports.

“The lion’s share of the revenue from that transport out of town comes back to the town of Bristol,” he said.

“One other point that I want to make,” LaRoche said, “is this also ensures that we don’t have to rely on a mutual aid ambulance coming in to assist us when that first ambulance is out of town.” He offered a hypothetical case in which the first ambulance is transporting a patient to Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center. “If that ambulance is in Dartmouth and no call members are around on a Saturday afternoon to man that second ambulance, and that [wait] goes to 5 to 8 minutes, they automatically call in New Hampton or Bridgewater. That Bridgewater ambulance comes in and they get all the revenue from the transport of that patient. This is going to virtually eliminate that.”

Former Selectboard member Paul Manganiello raised a different objection. He pointed out the selectboard used $500,000 from the town’s reserve fund to keep the property tax rate from increasing as much as it would have in 2024. That depleted the fund to the lower end of the range recommended by the Department of Revenue Administration to cover legal expenses and other obligations that may arise. Adding four firefighters will add almost that much to the budget on an annual basis, although the ambulance contract presumably would cover that cost.

“I’m not sure where we’re going to find $500,000 to keep the tax rate in check,” Manganiello said.

He called for a ballot vote on the article. The measure passed, 80-31, with one ballot unmarked.

Most other articles passed with little discussion and even when there were questions, it tended to be on minor points needing explanation. On the main budget, there were questions about why some expenditures, such as welfare and forestry, were eliminated. Budget Committee Chair Paul Regan explained welfare spending remained the same, but the duties were reassigned to a different staff member and appeared under the executive department. The forestry costs were moved into the fire department budget.

Another question involved the column on the budget spreadsheet showing the percentage of increase or decrease. A glitch in the chart showed no change when, in fact, certain categories went from 0 to, in once instance, $43,000. Regan said they would work to correct that problem in the future.

Some articles passed unanimously: a $25,000 contingency fund; a $125,000 grant-funded emergency generator for the public safety building; $2,025 for the establishment of a cemetery maintenance expandable trust fund; and $25,000 for new firearms for the police department.

The other articles also easily passed, with some voting against them: a $25,000 allocation for fireworks; $10,000 for an energy projects capital reserve fund; modifying the transfer station revolving fund to include recycling maintenance and equipment improvements; and $16,700 for the planting and maintenance of new trees in Central Square to replace those removed because of damage by the emerald ash borer.

The selectboard had obtained a quote from Belknap Landscape for the planting and after-care of the trees, but Chair Rob Glassett agreed to seek other bids after a resident pointed out the town policy requiring the solicitation of three bids on large expenditures.

At the beginning of the meeting, the selectboard made a presentation to Walter Waring, the subject of this year’s town report dedication.

“I love representative government,” Waring said in response. “I just hope I never see an empty space on the ballot again.”