By Darrell Halen
Correspondent

Weare residents will decide the fate of nearly 60 spending requests, zoning changes and other proposed measures when they cast their town ballots in March.

Selectmen are asking voters to approve a proposed operat- ing budget of roughly $3.7 million. The anticipated tax impact would be $2.63 per $1,000 of assessed valuation. If voters turn it down, a default budget – the previous year’s budget plus costs the town is obligated to pay – would be approximately $3.6 million.

Town Administrator Robert Christensen said some of the factors of the increase are anticipated higher health insurance costs, along with higher fuel and steel costs.

Fire department
Officials are asking voters to approve the spending of $100,000 for a used fire department ladder truck. Selectmen want to take $75,000 from a vehicle replacement fund, and raise the remaining $25,000 needed through taxes.

Last year, voters approved tearing down the old center fire station but no funds were appropriated. Residents will be asked this year to spend $30,000 to tear down the building and replace the town well to a new location.

Roads
To reconstruct and resurface roads, officials are asking voters to earmark nearly $348,000 for the projects. Highway block grant funds from the state would provide about $226,000 of that amount, while the balance would be funded through taxes.

Other items
In hopes of preventing boats from bringing exotic weeds into Horace Lake at Chase Park, officials want to spend $3,000 for inspections at the boat ramp. Launch fees would cover part or the entire amount, according to officials. Christensen said the town is taking a proactive approach to avoid having exotic weeds in the water.

The library staff will extend its hours of operation by an extra hour on Saturday, and fund four hours of additional help from pages, if voters approve a $1,938 article.

Voters are being asked to put $250,000 into the town’s conservation fund for the purpose of acquiring conservation land, easements or forest land. The article would add 64 cents to the tax rate.

Aseparate article would use a maximum of $80,000 from the Town Forest Account to be used in combination with the conservation fund to buy new town forest land.

Voters are also being asked to approve raising the current war service credit of $100 to $400. In order to purchase fireworks for this year’s Patriotic Celebration, voters are being asked to approve a $6,000 article.

A warrant article by citizen petition calls for a policy that would require a minimum of two public hearings and ratification by a majority of voters at March voting before municipal employee contracts could be enacted.

To ensure that zoning ordinances are appropriately enforced, and defended if challenged in court, a warrant article authorizes the trustee of trust funds to appoint a five-member committee.

The committee would, over the next three years, enforce ordinances and defend Weare in any lawsuit involving a zoning ordinance. The article was submitted by a citizen petition.

The town’s deliberative session will begin at 10 a.m. on Saturday, Feb. 5, at the Center Woods Elementary School. This will be an opportunity for voters to amend and change dollar amounts to articles.

Zoning amendments
The March ballot also includes 21 proposed zoning amendments. These will not be debated at the deliberative session, having already gone through public hearings.

One article would institute a growth management ordinance. The ordinance, according to the article, would establish a rate of residential growth that would allow the community to provide services, including education, in an “orderly predictable” manner without unnecessarily overburdening taxpayers.

The article is being proposed by a citizens’ petition, but the planning board is not recommending its passage.

Another amendment by citizen petition calls for preserving open space and the town’s rural character through three methods: increasing the minimum size of future lots in the rural agricultural district from 2 acres to 5; increasing the minimum frontage requirement in the rural agricultural district from 200 feet to 300 feet; and increasing the size of future lots in the rural conservation overlay district from 4 acres to 10 acres. This article, too, is opposed by town planners.

Voters will go to the polls on Tuesday, March 8. Polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. at Center Woods Elementary School.