Hampton, NH       Friday, August 29, 2003

Two-letters spell trouble

By Susan Morse
smorse@seacoastonline.com

SEABROOK - In their November tax bill, residents will pay for the $3.6 million water-meter warrant article approved at Town Meeting, but will buy no meters or other items in the warrant until the Board of Selectmen straightens out the article’s bungled wording.

Town Manager Frederick Welch discovered the wording error two weeks ago, he said Wednesday, just before he was to send out the bids for the residential water meters.

The $3.6 million article, to be paid in one year, was intended to fund water meters as well as the design and permitting of new sources of water: a desalinization facility and a stream diversion program.

Welch discovered that the word "if" in the warrant ties the meters - estimated to be $1.2 million of the total warrant cost - to state permit approval of the water resources.

"The word ‘if’ stood out the size of a four-story building," Welch said Wednesday.

Article 11 of the March Town Meeting states, "To see if the town will vote to raise and appropriate the sum of $3.6 million dollars to prepare designs, permits and construct a stream diversion of the Hampton Falls River in Seabrook near the town boundary and to prepare the designs and permits for the construction of a desalinization facility and to install water meters as part of a state mandated water conservation program if the diversion and permits for the desalinization facility are approved by the state." (Italics added)

Town counsel confirmed Welch’s fears: The town can buy no meters until it goes through the expensive and time-consuming procedure of getting state permits for a desalinization plant and stream diversion.

Welch withheld the meter bids. They are on hold indefinitely, until the next town meeting or if and when selectmen hold a special town meeting to amend the wording.

Selectmen Chairman Oliver Carter Jr. said Wednesday that the board is in the process of deciding what to do.

"We could put meters in," he said, "but we don’t have the funds; we don’t have the authorization to expend."

Welch is negotiating with a company for the lease and eventual purchase of the meters, he said.

The intent of the article was not to wait for state approval of the other items to install the meters, said Carter. The permitting process for the desalinization plant would be especially time-consuming, he said, because it has never been done before in the state.

The warrant article went through copy edits and rewrites from engineers from Earth Tech, the Water and Sewer Advisory Committee, selectmen and town counsel, with no one noticing the error.

"Even after the vote," Carter said Wednesday, "I still wasn’t reading it that way."

Welch said that, because the article was approved, the $3.6 million will still be raised. The town has five years to use the money as intended, he said, or return it to taxpayers.

The $3.6 million warrant, to be paid in one shot, will add an estimated $300 to $350 on tax bills for all taxpayers, residential and business, according to information released by the town before the March Town Meeting.

The cost is expected to be reflected in the new tax bill going out in November. Finance Manager Christine Soucie said Wednesday that the new tax rate is not yet ready and will not be set for at least a month.

Residents are taxed twice a year. This June, tax bills stayed the same as last year, at $13.01 per $100,000 of assessed valuation, to help ease the double tax burden of an increase in home values and a 27-percent rise in the town budget.

The June bill reflected the 10- to 35-percent increase in home assessments.

The November bill will include the budget and articles approved at town meeting, including the $3.6 million warrant article.