Shall the Town of Hampton vote to raise and appropriate the sum of $50,000 to begin the process of converting stored paper documents to electronic format as authorized by Chapter 226 of the Acts of 2016. Said sum of $50,000 to come from the Unassigned Fund Balance, a fund containing unexpended appropriations from prior years, as of December 31, 2016, with no amount to be raised from taxation. This shall be a non-lapsing appropriation per RSA 32:7, VI and shall not lapse until the purpose is completed or by March 31, 2019, whichever occurs sooner? (Majority vote required)
What it means: Certain town records are required to be kept indefinitely. As the years go by and the population grows, the number of documents and the space required grows exponentially. This Article approves the use of unexpended funds from prior years to be used to begin the process of preserving the documents in an electronic format, which will also make them more accessible.
Those in favor say: This will allow the town to begin the process of talking to companies that specialize in document preservation, to understand the scope of the task at hand and to solicit bids for the defined work.
Those against say: No one spoke against this article at the Deliberative Session.
Fiscal Impact: There is no tax impact since the monies will be taken from the unexpended appropriations from prior years.