Brian Moriarty: Vote no on Ashland warrant article 25

To The Daily Sun,

By petition, warrant article 25 asks the town residents to vote to purchase the old elementary school to be turned into a library. There is a donor that is gifting the purchase price of $400,000 to the Town of Ashland for naming rights. The article states no tax impact. This is not accurate as there will be legal fees to complete the purchase. There has been no mention as to who would pay all of the legal bills and other costs associated with this purchase.

The Town of Ashland cannot afford to have this building come off of taxable properties. The town cannot afford to bring this building into ADA compliance and do the necessary renovations that would be indicated. The town certainly cannot afford the upkeep on this large old building and grounds. I believe this will be a large noose around our necks forever.

I want to mention that this article is not supported by the selectboard four to one or the Finance Committee four to three. There is good reason for this, we cannot afford this building now or ever. I want to make everyone aware that the library budget in every town in New Hampshire each year is a standalone line item. It is a line item on the entire town budget. The Library Trustees submit the budget to the selectboard and Finance Committee and that’s it. They can talk about it all that they want, however the trustees do not have to change their number. That line item is very hard to change because it is not controlled by the Finance Committee. It is controlled by the Library Trustees. The finance committee does not like the project. They have already voted four to three not to recommend this project. With that said, just wait until 2023 if this passes and see the amount that the Library Trustees will ask for. There may even be another warrant article to fit out this mammoth building for another $400,000 to $1 million. Then what, you have to vote for it then because you already own the building. This building is just too large and old. Ask yourself why Ashland would need the largest library town library north of Meredith.

My belief is, if this article passes, every taxpayer will see huge property tax implication forever for something that I believe we do not need. The taxpayers of this town cannot afford this project. This desire by a few is way too much for this small town. The taxpayers of Ashland are already burdened with an astronomically large tax rate. We need spending control now. No more crazy spending. Spending is what got this town in trouble and we ended up with an extremely high tax rate. Please vote no on article 25 on March 8.

Brian Moriarty

Ashland