Walter Warring: Please think of assisting with hard work of Bristol BudCom

To The Daily Sun,

To the people who love living in the town of Bristol:

The Bristol Budget Committee is short a member, which reduces to five the number of resident viewpoints available — this is on top of the truncated Budget Committee which was reduced from 13 to 6 (plus a Selectboard representative, who also casts a vote) by the voters during the Town Meeting a couple of years ago . This committee has a very responsible job to oversee and advise our townspeople about how our tax money is spent, contributing the committee’s recommendation decisions on the March ballot and at the Town Meeting. All of the members are volunteers and are duly elected by the voters; vacancies can be filled by appointment with approval.

Bristol property owners have a wide range of income levels; however, according to the American Community Survey compilation of all N.H. towns from 2013-17 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Hampshire_communities_by_household_income): Bristol’s median income ranks 195 of 235 towns in their list from highest to lowest. Many of Bristol’s residents are older and retired. Some live on fixed incomes which are not going to go up; some need part-time jobs to augment that income; some are fortunate in having higher retirement incomes. Some long-time residents even find their taxes have outstripped their incomes. Other younger residents are able to have well paid active employment while others, including many of those employed at Bristol’s largest employer, have lost jobs due to Covid; even in recovery, their earnings have been impacted and catching up may be difficult with the uncertainty of our future. This town is planning on spending a significant amount of money; big plans are under consideration, some of which were voted favorably before the pandemic hit, some being revisited.

We need as many voices as possible to weigh-in on the decision process. Find more information at (https://www.townofbristolnh.org/home/news/budget-committee-opening). Support your town: please consider applying to fill the vacancy.

Walter & Susan Waring

Bristol