Milford to decide on $850k land buy
MILFORD – Voters will see 29 warrant articles on the ballot when they go to the polls in March following the Milford Deliberative Session at the Town Hall auditorium on Saturday.
According to the Supervisors of the Checklist, exactly 100 Milford residents attended to discuss numerous issues over the 51⁄2-hour meeting, which decided the wording of all measures to be voted upon by Milford voters in March with the exclusion of zoning variances and the election of officers.
The first contentious topic of the day was Article 4, an article that would allow the town spend up to $850,000 to purchase four pieces of property between Nashua, School and Pine streets in order to transform the current fire station into a combined fire and ambulance facility.
The article arose from a proposal from the town’s Facilities Committee to replace the current fire station on School Street and ambulance bay in the basement of Town Hall. The initial proposal also included two other locations for ambulance facilities farther away from the Oval. Neither facility has been renovated since 1975.
While supporters and opponents of the article cited the need for upgrading the fire and ambulance facilities, differences arose on how.
Supporters said it’s an advantageous time to buy property due to the flagging real estate market and that bonding would not begin until 2011. Opponents suggested that interest on bonding would actually turn the $850,000 into $1.1 million and that it would be more expedient to engage in the entire process, which would include building the combined facility, estimated at $6.6 million, along with the $850,000 purchase of the land.
An amendment was passed allowing the Board of Selectmen – should they not be able to buy all four properties needed for the facility – to spend the money on an ambulance facility at another location with the approval of the director of ambulance services and the Facilities Committee.
The other largely discussed article was the last one of the day, a non-binding article to request that Milford’s elected officials in Concord bring the matter of gay marriage to the voters at large.
This article had two proposed amendments. The first amendment was proposed by Marcia Nelson, who suggested the second paragraph of the article should be changed from “The citizens of New Hampshire should be allowed to vote on an amendment to the New Hampshire constitution that defines ‘marriage’ ” to eliminating the second half of the sentence so it read, “The citizens of New Hampshire should ‘be.’ ” The second amendment suggestion asked to allow the elected representatives to be carry out their duties and recognized that they are chosen by the people. Both measures failed after heated discussion from both sides.
“This (article) is not for homosexuality or against homosexuality, it’s about democracy. We’re not asking to define what marriage is, we’re asking to put it before the voters and ask them what it is,” said Jennifer Salisbury, one of the petitioners who put the warrant article to the Deliberative Session for review. “I want to point out that the representatives have taken actions that go against what they’ve been elected to represent.”
“I’d say the matter was settled on January 1st, and it’s only those who disagree with the position that want the position reversed,” Milford Town Administrator Guy Scaife said. “I grew up in Alabama, and I can tell you that if the people were allowed to vote on every issue, the state of Alabama would still be segregated.”
Other opinions on the article were more nuanced. Selectman Nate Carmen was worried about the article because he believes the Constitution should not be amended lightly and if this article passes and elected officials in Concord overturn New Hampshire gay marriage laws, opponents of the repeal would conduct their own campaign and the process would continue.
Milford resident Russ Kincaid told the meeting “It would be gay bashing legislation, and I would not support it, but I support the rights of people to vote on it.”
The gay marriage article took nearly 45 minutes of deliberation before being moved to the ballot as originally written.
There were more fireworks at the meeting while discussing an article about funding fireworks, appropriating $8,500 to reinstate the Fourth of July pyrotechnic display sponsored by the town.
Supporters claimed town merchants lost thousands of dollars in revenue last year due to the lack of regular onlookers at the event.
Chief opponent of the article, Selectman Gary Daniels, said, “I can think of better ways to spend $8,500 than by blowing it up in 20 minutes.”
Daniels attempted to zero out the fireworks article, but it failed along with his proposed amendment to reduce an article for the Granite Town Rail Trail from $53,210 to $20,010. Daniels attempted to withdraw his amendment, which was designed to keep the improvements except for a tunnel under Melendy Road, after being told that the federal grant money for the project had already been applied for, so the figure for the fproposal could not change.
The grant would only be approved if Milford funded 20 percent of the project. However, his amendment could not be withdrawn from the floor until it reached a vote.
Also garnering discussion at the annual meeting was a request by the Board of Selectmen and Budget Committee to reject the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Collective Bargaining Agreement on behalf of the Police Department due to disagreements on adjusting the sick pay policy, and an article creating a rotating fund for public access television from cable fees, which had previously been put in the general fund.
If the article is approved by voters in March, the public access television services would be separated from other previously connected items in the town’s communications budget.
