Gilford Taxpayers Coalition weighs in on ballot

The Gilford Taxpayers Coalition yesterday issued its annual voters' guide for the town and school district balloting on Tuesday, March 10.

As expected, the coalition's choices for the Board of Selectmen and Budget Committee echoed the earlier endorsements of the GilfordGrok run by conservative activists Doug Lambert and Skip Murphy. The coalition recommended Dale Channing Eddy over John O'Brien for a three-year term as selectman and picked incumbents Dick Hickok and David "Skip" Murphy along with newcomer Jean Lavin for the three seats on the Budget Committee.

The coalition endorsed both the town and school district budgets as well as funding for contracts negotiated with collective bargaining units representing employees of the Department of Public Works, police officers and teachers.

The coalition has recommended in favor of appropriating $1.58-million to renovate and expand the quarters of the Police Department. "The needs of the police department are real and the proposal as presented is about as good as we'll get," they remind voters. "If it gets defeated now an comes back again in the future ... there is the danger we might not get as good a plan ... or that it could cost more."

Following the lead of the Budget Committee, the coalition has recommended against funding four non-profit social service agencies — the Belknap-Merrimack County Community Action Program, Youth Services Bureau, Genesis Behavioral Health and New Beginnings women's crisis center. Noting that "they no doubt do good work," the coalition explains that the organizations have several sources of funding, including federal, state and county government, and should not be funded with municipal property taxes.

The coalition also expressed its opposition to the warrant article authorizing the Board of Selectmen to sell the lot at 43 Potter Hill Road, originally purchased as the site for a new library, to Gilford Village Knolls, Inc. for not less than $110,000. Noting that "affordable housing" exempt from the school portion of the property tax would be built on the property, the coalition explained that the town should not subsidize housing for residents who would escape the full liability for property taxes while remaining entitled to vote on the town and school district budgets.

On the school district ballot, the coalition recommended against three petitioned warrant articles to fund a varsity ice hockey team and an assistant principal and guidance counselor at the elementary school as well as to replace the family and consumer science teacher as the middle and high schools. The School Board favors funding for ice hockey, but endorsed the elimination of the assistant principal and guidance counselor at the elementary school. and took no position on the family and consumer science teacher.

The coalition also urged voters to reject the establishment of an expendable trust fund, financed by private donations, for the improvement, management and maintenance of the Meadows, with the School Board designated as the agent to expend. Conceding the proposal would have no impact on taxpayers, the coalition warned that the fund could lead to the development of the property without the approval of voters, which in turn could lead the town to incur costs in the future.