Shall the Town of Hampton vote to raise and appropriate the sum of $435,000 from the 1998 Road Improvement Capital Reserve Fund, previously established, for the purpose of the survey, engineering and design work for replacing the Winnacunnet Road and High Street sewer and closed drainage system mains, sewer services, then followed by curbing, sidewalks, school zone and pedestrian signage, street lights, traffic signage, paving of the entire roadway, and line painting. Reconstruction of the roadway may ultimately include traffic calming structures or other improvements to assist in controlling the speed of vehicles.
Further to authorize the Board of Selectmen to apply for, contract for, accept and expend any Federal, State or local grants and funds towards the project in accordance with the terms and conditions under which they are received for the purpose of sidewalks, CMAQ mitigation, State or Federal highway funding or Hazard Mitigation grants with said grants and funds to be added to the project; andTo authorize the Board of Selectmen to implement such cost effective solutions as are presented in the future that they deem to be in the best interests of the Town that may result in lesser amount of expenditure than is authorized by this warrant article; and
To authorize participation in the State Revolving Fund (SRF) (RSA 486:14) established for the purpose; and
To authorize the Board of Selectmen to take any and all actions necessary to carry out the project in the best interests of the Town. This will be a non-lapsing appropriation per RSA 32:7, VI and shall not lapse until the work is completed or by March 31, 2024, whichever is sooner? (Majority vote required)
What it means: In 1998, Hampton voters established a fund to which taxpayers contribute on an annual basis. This money is being put aside for major road projects. The engineering and design work requested in this article will be paid for via this fund. Both Winnacunnet and High Streets have been on the Capital Improvement Plan for years. This article represents the first of the work being done to assess, design and obtain cost estimates for whatever is determined to be in need of doing.
Those in favor say: One of the things Hampton residents are continually asking for is improved roadways, and generally they are referring to paving the surface of the roads. However, it does not make sense to pave the roads when the infrastructure beneath them is failing. This request is for the engineering and design work to get Winnacunnet and High Streets ready for construction. This funding will establish a fully mapped out plan including costs. It will allow the cleaning and visual capture of the sewer systems to learn what does and does not need to be replaced. It is coming from the Capital Reserve Fund set up for this purpose, so it does not have a current year tax impact.
Those against say: The only speaker against the Article at Deliberative Session stated that he is not in favor of replacing sewer lines when it is not necessary to replace them. Note: This speaker may have misunderstood because the article is for exactly that – to learn where we do – and do not – need to address the condition of infrastructure under the roadways so that we are paying for only what is necessary.
Fiscal impact: There is no tax impact because the money was appropriated in prior tax years. This Article is allowing the withdrawal of the money from the Road Capital Reserve Fund for the specified purpose. The fund is currently valued at roughly $2.2 million but previously approved dollars have not yet been withdrawn. In 2018, voters approved the withdrawal of $1.5 million that will be drawn upon as the work is done and invoices are presented. If both Article 18 and Article 23 (new $300,000 contribution to the fund) are approved, the fund will be in the neighborhood of $500,000.