YourNeighborhoodNews.com: The Hooksett Banner

Anytime anyone starts asking for a million bucks or more, it.s bound to get you wondering where they think people can come up with that kind of dough. And that seems to be the biggest problem with Article 4 on the Hooksett town warrant . it.s a heck of a lot of money.

When the proposal first came up to change Hooksett Village School over to a community center and possibly even the best place for town hall, it seemed like a pretty good idea to most of us. Approval had to come from the voters twice . once on the school side and again on the town side, even though it.s all the same people voting on the question. Seems pretty clear folks want that building to be useful to the town.

What.s harder to understand is that our gfreeh building is now going to cost $1.5 million to fix up for use as municipal offices and a community center.

If you think back to the time when the school officials were trying to persuade Hooksett residents that a new school was needed, one of the items they pointed to is that Village School was not up to code and needed many expensive fixes to be brought up to code. As long as they didn.t change anything, the condition of the building was grandfathered, but anything new would force many changes to the building.

Well, this is that new change. We.ve got an outline of what those costs will be in this paper, and there.s a meeting on April 20 at the Hooksett library where you can learn about them in even more detail.

Will Hooksett foot the bill for that change? We hope so. The current town hall is terribly overcrowded. The place is a mess of file cabinets and boxes everywhere. And just as important, a majority of citizens have expressed the desire to see the Village School building converted to a community center. Hooksett has 12,000 residents who would like to see recreational and educational programs run from that facility. Everything from computer classes to plays to adult rec basketball to summer daycare could be run in this building, making Hooksett a truly wonderful place to live. The quality of life for both residents and town employees would be greatly improved by the conversion of this building.

It comes down to paying about $30 extra a year in your taxes. You.d pay about that just for most health club memberships per month. It.s an investment in the community that would have tangible, direct benefits to everyone in town. Say yes to Article 4.

-Ginger Kozlowski, Editor

And 414 said they would be willing to approve a warrant article to provide funds for renovations to the Village School building for any of the purposes above.

On May 10, Hooksett voters will have the opportunity to fund renovations of the Village School for Town Offices and a Community Center.

I urge Hooksett voters who expressed a desire for a Community Center and better municipal offices to get out and vote on May 10 and support Article 4.

The residents of Hooksett vote on Tuesday, May 10, and we are asking you to vote yes on Article 8, which is the town budget article.

This year, the Kids Kaboose playground will be part of the town budget (special thanks for Peter Farwell for his concern) due to the recent dismantling of many of the structures that were not up to code by today.s standards. A yes vote on Article 8 is also a yes vote for Kids Kaboose playground.

For the last 12 years, Kids Kaboose has been supported by donations and the hard work of many volunteers. The structures have weathered over time and are not up to code by current standards. Recent lawsuits have also forced the playground to close abruptly, and several structures have been dismantled and removed.

The once beautiful state-ofthe- art playground is now in need of major repairs. The gJourney Through Timeh theme is now represented by open spaces.

Even though we have not asked for your monetary help in the last 12 years, we are asking for your help now. By voting yes to Article 8 of the proposed town budget, we will be able to replace the once wooden structures, with new pre-fab structures to comply with the new code standards and make the playground fun, safe and maintenance- free once again.

It is not just the Kids Kaboose playground that needs your help. Many town departments also need the funds in the proposed budget to function successfully and provide the necessary services that we need as residents in Hooksett.

As employees of the town of Hooksett, we want to perform our duties in as efficient and effective manner as possible. For some years now, lack of space has been a serious problem for us. As you are aware, Jo Ann Duffy and I staff the planning board; we are very busy these days due to the rapid growth in town. As staff of the Community Development Department, we are responsible for the preservation of subdivision, site plan, and lot line adjustment records for property in Hooksett. Very many of these records involve the residential properties of hundreds of Hooksett voters. The material we are required to keep in paper format has outgrown our ability to house it. We cannot add any more file cabinets because there is no room for them. We are working as quickly as the town will permit us to transfer the paper into electronic format, but it will be several years before that can be accomplished. In addition, we have large-format plans that must by state law be preserved for 20 years. These are housed in flat files at the highway garage because we have no room for them here. (The floors at Town Hall will not carry their weight even if we had the room for them.) We need to refer to these plans regularly, and having them three miles away makes our work ineffective.

I know there are many other valid reasons to support Article 4; one that seems important to me is to convey to all who enter Town Hall that we in Hooksett have pride in our community, that we handle their business in a professional manner, and that our community offers a host of public service benefits. Having the community center right there would demonstrate the town.s commitment to serving the needs of its residents.

I just want you to know that it is the desire of all of us at Town Hall to serve you as well as we know how.

I have observed and agree that the use of the former school on Main Street is in the best interests of all taxpayers and will enhance the working environment for all of the town.s employees. This opens up the question; What to do with the gold town offices?h

Well, many constituents have expressed that the old town offices would be an ideal location for the proposed activities that the private nonprofit corporation called CEDCOH have advanced. They wish to establish a so-called gCommunity Centerh for public use.

Should such a lease agreement be made with this corporation, the town offices would be insulated from proximity detractions that might otherwise occur.

The gCommunity Centerh could then be administered by the nonprofit corporation and any liability would rest upon the corporation and not upon the taxpayer.

Caution should be paramount when considering anything that suggests a gjoint ventureh and the reported use of gFederal Grantsh must be understood as credits received from the taxes you have paid to the Federal Government in past years.

There is an old saying that goes something like this; gThere ain.t no free lunch!h I can testify to that as a member of the General Court, which holds the purse strings of the taxpayers pocketbook. My record of fiscal conservatism speaks for itself and my only admonition for the taxpayers is, gLook, before you leap.h

Proponents to the proposed Growth Management Ordinance have acknowledged that it is flawed but that it is just a gfirst steph intended to afford Hooksett an opportunity to gcatch our breath.h The courts will be looking for a better argument.

Let.s look at the facts relative to the matter of growth in Hooksett. First of all, it is important that you realize that the town of Hooksett already has a growth ordinance. In fact, the planning board has been very aggressive in dealing with growth issues over the past three to four years.

In 2001, the town of Hooksett passed an impact fee (growth) ordinance, which authorized fees to be assessed to new construction projects. Those fees are used to make infrastructure upgrades.

The town council commissioned studies to determine the impact of various categories of new construction on schools, fire stations and equipment, police stations, recreational facilities and municipal buildings. Once completed, the town had a rational basis for assessing impact fees on new homes, new commercial buildings and new industrial space. A proper foundation was established and the impact fees were instituted.

They are working well. The town has already collected more than $1.1 million in impact fees; $811,000 for schools; $255,000 for safety improvements; and $44,000 for the construction of recreational facilities.

We are easily tempted to view growth as the root of all evil. In fact, growth is often the prime motivator for correcting years of neglect.

Ten years ago, Hooksett.s school buildings were in tough shape. Both Memorial and Underhill schools were severely overcrowded. Both were on life support, kept alive only with the aid of temporary modular classrooms. This overcrowded condition existed despite a long drought in growth.

The collapse of the banking industry and the subsequent decline in real estate values had suppressed housing demand for nearly a decade. Once the market recovered in the later part of the decade, growth provided the motivation and resources to build the new Cawley Middle School and to expand and renovate Memorial.

Largely due to the greatly expanded tax base and fees on new homes, we now have first class facilities which have been designed to accommodate the growth which school officials and citizens know to be coming.

Transportation is another area where growth has driven upgrades and improvements. Hooksett Road has been the subject of a number of NHDOT studies. Plans resulting from those studies call for its expansion to a four lane thoroughfare, yet only a few sections of Hooksett Road have been upgraded with public funds.

The Granite State Marketplace, Legends Drive, Cigna and Granite Hill traffic improvements were all constructed by private land owners.

A connector road, which will relieve traffic on Granite Street and reduce safety hazards at Main Street, will be built this summer with $900,000 of private funds supplementing the $600,000 that NHDOT has committed to the project.

The private sector is contributing equipment, providing engineering work and improving infrastructure throughout town . needed improvements that otherwise would be borne by the taxpayer. Impact fees also purchased a new staff vehicle for the fire department this past year.

Growth presents numerous challenges, but it also offers many unique opportunities. Your planning officials are working diligently to properly plan and manage our growth to make Hooksett a better place for all of us.

The required wording of the operating budget warrant articles, which was Article 3 this year, included this provision (... the governing body may hold one special meeting, in accordance with RSA 40:13, X and XVI, to take up the issue of a revised operating budget only.”). The School Board, the governing body of the Hooksett School District, made this decision for the following reasons:

• There was a historically low turnout, with only 535 voters, due to the dangerous driving conditions on March 8.

• The default budget, which is $500,000 less then the requested operating budget, would have a significant negative impact on the education of the Hooksett children.