Commissioners still hoping for appropriations for county services

LACONIA — County commissioners are set to discuss a response from the Belknap delegation about supplemental funding for organizations slashed from the county budget at their meeting Monday night.

The meeting is set for 5:15 p.m. Monday at the county complex off North Main Street. 

Commissioners, at their meeting on April 8, elected to submit a formal request for the delegation to consider a supplemental appropriation to restore services provided by the Belknap County Conservation District, the University of New Hampshire Cooperative Extension Service and Court Appointed Special Advocates of New Hampshire.

Under the provisions of RSA 24:14-a, pertaining to supplemental appropriations, the delegation — which comprises Belknap County’s 18 representatives to the New Hampshire Statehouse — is required to schedule a public hearing within 30 days of the delivery of the request.

Representatives, in finalizing their county budget on March 31, significantly reduced funding for agencies which provide various services to Belknap County residents, citing fiscal and budgetary concerns at the state and local levels.

The UNH extension and the county’s conservation district saw their funding reduced by 50% of their 2024 appropriation, equal to about $125,000. Funding to CASA — which provides trained volunteer advocates who lobby for the best interests of children in the juvenile court system due to abuse or neglect — was reduced from $7,500 to $3,750.

At their last meeting, Commissioner Glen Waring (District 2) made a motion to appropriate $130,000 to those agencies, noting the budget savings garnered by the cuts paled in comparison to the revenue gained by the county in grant monies and real services provided to residents.

County Commission Chair Peter Spanos (District 1) and Commissioner Stephen Hodges (District 3) supported the motion unanimously. 

This request is not the first made by commissioners to the delegation in recent years, nor is it by any means the largest.

In summer 2023, county commissioners requested $750,000 for the Belknap County Nursing Home in supplemental appropriation. Representatives met on Aug. 29, 2023, and unanimously approved the motion, submitted by Rep. Steven Bogert, to authorize the additional spending.

That appropriation was meant to cover an anticipated $635,000 shortfall, plus additional monies to cover the expense of hiring additional nursing staff, if administrators had the opportunity to do so. 

Commissioners will also hear a department update regarding the nursing home from its administrator, Shelley Richardson, at the meeting.