By Devon Cormier
Staff Writer

The Hooksett Town Council has been busy putting the finishing touches on upcoming warrant articles for the April Town Meeting. Although voting doesn’t take place until May, the articles are all prepared and a few big-ticket items will be decided soon.

Town hall/community center
One of the biggest warrant articles voters will be asked to fund is $1.5 million for renovations to the former Hooksett Village School building to use it for town offices.

The proposed renovations will include a new sprinkler system and smoke detectors, a new heating and ventilation system, air conditioners for some rooms, updated light fixtures, asbestos and lead paint removal, additional parking in front of the building, and changes to the structure of the building for office space.

Except for building-wide improvements like the sprinkler system, the renovations will only be done to the half of the building targeted for the town hall offices. The other half of the building will become a community center, but fundraising will fuel that effort. While the community center will be put together piece by piece, the town offices just can’t wait.

“It is very important we move in soon,” said Town Administrator Moni Sharma. “Also, I think people would have the advantage of having the town hall and the other (community groups) in the same building.”

The current town hall on Main Street has become extremely crowded in the past few years. Documents spill out of cabinets and off of desks in every department.

The $1.5 million would be bonded but the details haven’t been worked out quite yet. As an example, a 10-year bond would cost a taxpayer with a $300,000 home about $57 the first year, and the amount would go down each year after that.

Cable TV
Another article has fetched much community support despite failing before voters last year. Councilors just added a warrant article asking for $40,000 to be put in a capital reserve fund to establish community access television in Hooksett.

Resident Peter Farwell had asked that councilors consider adding the warrant again despite its failure. Although the details of exactly where the equipment will go and who will run it are up in the air, support is still out there for the station. If Hooksett had community access television, public meetings could be watched in real time from homes around town.

“I think, personally, that a lack of public access television hurts a lot of things in town,” Farwell said. “There really is a lack of public forum and our attendance at meetings and deliberative sessions is very poor.”

The article will ask for $40,000 to be put in a fund for community access television and a footnote will alert voters that about $40,000 a year is collected by the town from cable franchise fees.

Some have suggested that the former Hooksett Village School would be the perfect place for the equipment. The chairman of the Community Economic Development Corporation of Hooksett, Dawn Stanhope, is in charge of organizing the community center portion of the building, and said she supports housing community- access television in the community center.

Composting
While the community center may have space to spare, the wastewater treatment plant doesn’t. The plant is near capacity and the sewer department is asking for permission to use $3.5 million to expand the plant and build a composting plant as well. The department was granted approval to bond the money in May of 2002.

“The authority has already been granted but they have not borrowed the money yet,” Town Councilor Michael DiBitetto said. “Now they are ready to borrow it but they see some ways to save money without going through the state bond bank to do it, so they want permission to bond it how they want.”

Most of the money will be paid for by user fees the sewer department collects. Some money has been saved and none will be raised through taxes.

Traffic relief
Article 9 also looks to the future and expansion. It asks voters to establish a capital reserve fund for a feasibility study and land acquisition for the southern leg of a proposed parkway and to raise $150,000 to be placed in the fund.

Much of the land for the parkway is being donated by Manchester, Sand, Gravel and Cement Co. If a proposed plan for retail space goes through at the Manchester Sand offices across from Hooksett Kawasaki, they may begin to build this parkway. It will travel from Route 93 up to Allenstown, bypassing much of Route 3. The parkway will soon become imperative to the town as traffic increases.

Fire trucks
The fire department will be asking for over $100,000 to cover the first year’s cost of two separate leases for fire engines called pumper trucks. The lease is for seven years and the cost for each truck in the first year is $51,846. There is an escape clause in the leases.

Street cleaner
The town will also be asking to enter into a lease agreement for a street sweeper. Article 12 asks voters to authorize the town council to enter into a fiveyear lease to purchase a vacuum sweeper for the highway department. The first year’s payment will be $35,198.

Other articles include:
• Article 7 asks to use $32,000 to purchase a solid waste skid steer loader. The money is currently in the Solid Waste Disposal Special Revenue Fund, so no money is needed through taxes.

• Article 8 asks for $90,000 to be placed in the Library HVAC System Development Capital Reserve Fund already established. The money will go to the second phase of HVAC replacement, said DiBitetto. The first phase includes the upper floor of the library and is already out to bid. the second phase will include the lower level.

• Article 10 asks for $15,000 to be placed in the Police Computer System Development Capital Reserve Fund.

• Article 11 asks for $10,000 to be placed in the Parks and Recreation Facilities Development Fund.

• Article 13 asks for $78,564 for pay increases for nonunion town personnel. The pay increase will include a 2 percent cost of living adjustment and a 2 percent step merit increase based on a successful performance evaluation.

• Article 14 asks for $25,000 to be placed in the Solid Waste Containment/Enclosures fund. This money will help the town comply with the Environmental Protection Agency’s National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System.

• Article 15 asks for $44,802 for the salaries, benefits and taxes of a full-time employee for trash collection.