County commissioners get sobering budget forecast

LACONIA — The person who oversees Belknap County’s books on a daily basis is seeing a number of red flags that indicate that some departments could be struggling financially toward the end of the year.

County Accounting Manager Lori Sharp gave that assessment to the county commissioners at their meeting Thursday when she indicated that some county departments may not have enough money in their budgets to cover their expenses.

“What is your state of alarm?“ commission Chairman Peter Spanos asked Sharp.

“I am less optimistic knowing what I know,” Sharp answered. “I can’t be extremely optimistic given what is in these memos,” she added, referring to concerns that have been raised by the County Nursing Home director, among other department heads.

In a memo to the commissioners, Nursing Home Administrator Shelley Richardson outlined more than $31,000 in insufficient funds in the budget to cover costs for auditing services, health insurance, and software support, and membership dues for the New Hampshire Association of Counties.

Those line items “reflect my known current expense concerns,” Richardson wrote in the memo dated Feb. 9. The situation is expected to grow more serious in the coming months, she warned. “... as the year progresses and the (nursing home) census increases there will be other expenses to monitor which will affect operations.”

The County Delegation last month passed a $30.3 million budget, $1.7 million less than what the commissioners had requested. In the days prior to the delegation meeting at which the budget was passed, commissioners asked the delegation to restore about one-quarter of the amount cut — or about $444,000 — but the delegation rejected that request. Half of that $444,000 would have gone back into the nursing home budget.

Spanos has called the $30.3 million budget unsustainable.

County Delegation Chairman Michael Sylvia, who was one of the 11 members of the 18-person panel who voted for the $30.3 million budget, has said all county departments have enough money to operate at present and so there is no need for any adjustments to the budget at this time.

The Executive Committee has agreed to meet on March 1 to take up a request by the commissioners that about $19,000 be moved out of a contingency account to pay for financial audits and health insurance benefits for some employees in the Finance Office. The committee will also be acting on a request to approve a short-term line of credit to cover the operating costs that Gunstock incurs every year prior to its peak winter season.

In a separate memo, Michael MacFadzen, the executive director of the Belknap County Restorative Justice program, noted his budget was cut by almost 25 percent. The cuts the delegation’s Executive Committee made to some of the program’s expense lines “make it almost impossible to effectively function at current staff and caseload levels,” MacFadzen wrote. “These cuts can be described as slow death by a thousand pin pricks.”

He said the lower expenses the program incurred last year were largely due to the impact of COVID. As the impact of the pandemic lessens and the court system begins to return to normal operation, MacFadzen said the expenses of his office will in time return to pre-COVID levels.

Last month County Corrections Superintendent Adam Cunningham said that because of cuts to his department’s budget he may have to cut the CORE program, a comprehensive, multiphase treatment program for inmates with substance abuse problems. Cunningham told commissioners that he may have to make cuts to or eliminate the successful program because it is one of the few services the Corrections facility is not legally required to provide.