Article 29: Replenish Conservation Fund – $40,000

Shall the Town of Hampton vote to raise and appropriate the sum of $40,000 to be placed in the Hampton Conservation Commission Fund; this fund is used to “acquire, maintain, improve, protect or limit the future use of, or otherwise conserve and properly utilize,” open spaces and conservation easements in Hampton in accordance with RSA 36-A: Sections 1 through 4, inclusive.  Recent acquisitions such as the Batchelder Farm Conservation Easement, have significantly reduced the size of the Fund, and the goal is to return the Fund to adequate levels to enable the Commission to conserve additional lands on behalf of the Town of Hampton?

What it means: This fund is a way of saving for opportunities.  Voter approval of this Article each year is primarily how the Conservation Commission replenishes the fund it uses to acquire, preserve and maintain open spaces.

Those in favor say:  Support of conservation land incrases recreational opportunities and helps maintain open spaces to mitigate impacts of excess storm water and reduce resultant flooding.  The availabilty of this fund has made possible the Victory Garden, hiking trails, skating on ice pond, etc.  A taxpayer at Deliberative Session made the point that once open space is gone – it is gone forever.  He felt the need to keep the balance of the fund at a level that allows quick action when parcels become available, and he was successful at Deliberative Session in getting the requested funds increased from $20,000 to $40,000 to be contributed to the fund in 2018.  The Conservation Commission also uses this money for maintenance of town-owned open spaces and this year was able to replace the Ice Pond Dam out of funds previously made available through this Capital Reserve Fund.

Those against say:  One speaker at Deliberative Session expressed a concern about the cost of contributing to the fund and the potential of escalating requests for the fund in future years.

Fiscal Impact:  The average Hampton home valued at $408,000 would bear an increased tax cost of $4.89 if this Article passes.  The tax impact is for this year only.  The cost per thousand of property valuation is .012.