Budget Committee Retained by 16 Votes

Merrimack's Wastewater Treatment and Compost facilities will get their much-needed upgrades and the school district support staff and police unions will be awarded their negotiated contracts, but what seemed to be the surprise of a very quiet election night is that the school district's budget committee will live to see another year.

A petitioned warrant article seeking the elimination of the 12-member committee that has the ability to alter the bottom line of the annual school budget but not the specific line items, failed to pass by a mere 16 votes during Tuesday's annual town and school district elections.

The article, petitioned by Merrimack resident Tim Tenhave was an effort to streamline the budget process, Tenhave has said, and lighten the load for district staff that have to attend or prep for budget committee meetings.

Andy Schneider, the former two-year budget committee chairman and newly-elected member of the school board said on Tuesday night he was happy the committee will be around for another year. Schneider said he though the concept of removing the committee had value, but that he thought it was too soon to simply pull the rug out from under it.

“[Its failure] is an opportunity for the district to take a step back and look at it as an option,” Schneider said. “The bottom line is that it's something worth considering.”

Davis Powell, the other winner for the two open school board seats vacated by Jennifer Thornton and Jody Vaillancourt, also thought it was a positive thing that the petitioned article failed. He too thought the idea had merit but said he'd like to see an alternative presented if the committee were to be disbanded.

He suggested taking a similar approach to what the town did when it changed its charter and dissolved the budget committee and created a seven-member town council instead of a five-member board of selectmen.

“I don't feel comfortable with five people being in charge of a 65 million dollar budget,” Powell said. “If we're going to do away with the budget committee, I would like to see the school board increase in size.”

The budget committee article was the only of 11 between the two ballots to fail Tuesday night. Full and

Both budgets, $30.1 million on the town side and $65.5 million for the school district passed handily.

And Article 5 on the school board ballot to repair and realign the parking lot at Reeds Ferry was endorsed by more than 1,700 voters.

The two articles on the town side, dealing with the upgrades to the Wastewater Treatment Facility and Compost Facility each made it through with the two-thirds majority needed to pass a couple of collective sighs of relief bubbled through the group that gathered for the reading of the election results.

Tom Koenig, who was re-elected to the Town Council with Tom Mahon and Nancy Harrington earning the remaining two seats, said the results, for the most part, were returned the way he was hoping they would.

He was appreciative to the town for its support of the pair of articles, that will replace aging equipment and create some energy efficiencies within each facility.

“I thought everything worked out really well,” Koenig said, adding that he was disappointed by the low turnout.

With 2,510 ballots cast, only 10 percent of the town was represented by the vote. Koenig said he hopes that of a couple of scenarios that may have played out Tuesday, he hopes that the low turnout was a sign of people being happy with the decisions being made by town officials, not simply that people just don't care.

Koenig said he felt comfortable assuming the former.

He thanked the voters for re-electing him, saying he was humbled, and said the Council will continue to do what it does, which is being “constantly focused on the budget and the tax rate and the impact they have on the town.”

The town was able to reserve some money for future infrastructure this year, Koenig said, and in addition to being budget focused it's another year to be business-focused, he said.

“We made an amazing collapse with the economy whether we wanted to or not,” Koenig said, adding that with the opening of the airport access road and the Outlets, there's a lot of growth opportunity knocking on Merrimack's door. He said the leadership of Town Manager Eileen Cabanel and Community Development Director Tim Thompson will help the town capitalize on those opportunities.

Harrington, who sat on the town's board of selectmen for a year and served a three-year term previously on the Council said she was thrilled and honored to have been elected among so many solid running mates. Harrington said she looks forward to the challenges ahead but couldn't predict what the year might have in store.

“The hot button issues spontaneously erupt,” Harrington said. “They're always surprises.”