Meeting opened at 6:45 p.m.

Chairman Eigabroadt and Selectman Richard A. Cook hosted the Joint Board meeting.

In attendance were Town representatives from:

New London: Doug Lyon, Mark Kaplan, Sue Clough

Sutton: Bob Wright

Bradford: Bruce Edwards

Newbury: Gary Budd

KRSC School Board: Dan Wolf, Karen Merrill-Antle, Clark Lindley

KRSD Municipal Budget: Joanne Hinnendael

KRSD Superintendent: Tom Brennan

Also in attendance were representatives from the School District, KARMA representatives were invited but were unable to attend.

Scheduled discussions were:

Middle School Site

Regional Growth

Regional Public Health

Future Meetings

The Town of Warner wrote a letter of support for the Sutton site to the School Board.

New London hopes that a new school is voted no matter where the location may be.

Bradford is in favor of the Sutton site.

Newbury hesitates to take a stand.

Sutton is eagerly anticipating the new school and is in favor of the Sutton site. The plus side is the funding reimbursement. The School Board has stated to Sutton that they will assist in supporting the Police and sharing some of that load. There is potential for growth on the Sutton site.

Sutton is concerned but has not discussed in detail the additional burden to safety services. Police Chief Tighe has gone on record saying that services can be handled.

Public Comment:

Ken Bartholomew: It does not make sense not to approve a middle school this year. Every year that goes by it will cost more to build. The site also determines a financial impact, Sutton is entitled to a reimbursement, New London is not. The impact to the taxpayers will also be greater if the new school is built in New London.

John Dabuliewicz: John is a Hearings Examiner for the Department of Health and Human Services and also has experience as a hearings officer for the Department of Education. A waiver is only granted if for some reason the standards that are set cannot be met. Because there is an alternative site the waiver was not granted.

Tom Brennan: The reimbursement aid for the Sutton site that is provided by the State will be spread over the 20 year term. The reimbursement amounts to 100% of the land purchase price and does not become available until the school is built. Some options that have been discussed for the New London site is using the building to staff the SAU office, a pre-school program for special needs students, expand the resources for the elementary school, and developing a site for education and recreational purposes.

Dan Wolf: The School Board is looking forward to be able to do something with the New London site.

Pete Newman: What happens if the voters choose the New London site?

Dan Wolf: The School Board has said that they will follow the wishes of the voters.

Ed Mical: As Emergency Management Director for Warner, he hopes that emergency planning a consideration no matter where the school is built.

Open discussion about Sate aid and if the principal and interest is included in the reimbursement. Also discussed was how the $24,000,000.00 bond would impact the taxpayers.

Karen Merrill-Antle: Karen appreciates the Town of Warner hosting the joint board meeting this evening. Karen recommended addressing how the school sizes differ from the Sutton site and the New London site.

Tom Brennan: The Sutton project is a 27 acre project. The build able acreage in New London is only 10.43 acres, 19 acres is the requirement.

Pete Newman: If New London is chosen by the voters and the State will not grant the waiver, will the whole project be scrapped?

Tom Brennan: The waiver request was based on reimbursable State aid, it was denied because the New London site did not meet the standard 19 acres. The New London site may be built upon, but the District would not receive State aid.

If the voters choose New London, the School Board would then make the final decision because Article 2 is non-binding. The School Board has made a commitment to follow the wish of the voters.

It was agreed that the overall growth is pushing town budgets up. New London has experienced an additional 140 new homes in the last 3-4 years. Warner has seen up to 35 new homes each year for the last four years. Sutton is concerned about the regional impact of development in regards to jurisdictional wetlands and watersheds along with the impact to road safety and emergency services.

New London discussed the impact that growth is having on their dirt roads. Studies have shown that once traffic reaches a certain level it becomes economical to pave rather than maintaining the gravel. The streams and watershed is a significant issue in NL along with the lakes. NL echoes Sutton’s concerns, boundaries between the towns become less significant because of the shared problems.

New London has been researching the possibility (along with State Legislature) of allowing towns to bond for the provision of broadband services. Towns would be able to own their own infrastructure with the ability to invite towns in. NL is willing to provide the information that they have obtained.

John Dabuliewicz asked if there is a future for shared services in terms of Planners etc.

New London currently shares an Assessor with Newbury and Sunapee and feels that the arrangement is working well because of the consistency. New London is currently discussing sharing planning services.

Clark Lindley asked if it would be cost effective for communities to link together, hire one company to complete the physical inspections on an annual percentage every year. Uniformity would then be developed between communities and encouraged future discussion. NL agrees that a commonality would be created.

It was found to be difficult to hire an outside contract to complete the assessing on shared terms. The communities turned to hiring an Assessor on a private level.

Joanne Hinnendael asked the panel how they notify surrounding Towns when something is happening on the Planning/Zoning level. It was found that if something is impacted regionally then abutters (towns) were noticed, small issues are not. A shared Planner is another resource toward knowing what other towns are doing.

Discussion encompassed Equine and Avian Flu and the possible regional impact. New London has a mosquito control program on their warrant in the amount of $33,000.00. The program kills the larva in the spring time and follows up in the summer.

Ambulance services were discussed. Warner has joined a Concord Hospital group that assists towns to coordinate with regional health issues.

Ed Mical commented that the Department of Health and Human Services & Emergency Management have been working together and would be a contact resource.

It was briefly discussed how it would be convenient regionally to be able to receive dialysis at the New London Hospital.

The Joint Board agreed to meet three times a year, next meeting will be scheduled in July.

Meeting closed at 8:40 p.m.