Present: Jack Sapia, Chair, Paul Sullivan, Fred Childs (Selectmen) and Russell McAllister (Town Administrator).

The Board observed a moment of silence.

7:30 pm – Meeting called to order.

Mr. Sapia announced that the annual tree lighting was scheduled for Thursday at 5:30pm with an expected visit from Santa Claus at 6:30pm at the Atkinson Country Club.

The TA explained that the previous week’s $500 donation offered by the Historic Society would not require a public hearing. Rather a public hearing for donations of $500 or less was at the discretion of the Board as proscribed under RSA 31:95-e. Mr. Sullivan made the motion to accept the donation of $500 from the Historic Society without a public hearing. Mr. Childs seconded the motion. The vote was unanimous and so moved.

Chief Consentino provided the Board with a synopsis of monthly activity within the department. He noted that there had been several car break-ins. He advised people to take their keys from the ignition, lock their car doors and remove any valuables from the vehicle as a precaution against theft. He also noted that the department was sponsoring a children’s Christmas party so that parents could have the opportunity to complete their shopping. Birthday wishes went out to Charlie McCarthy.

Budget Committee – Jim Blackadar

Mr. Blackadar provided a status report on the budget process so far noting that all of the budget reviews were scheduled to be complete by the end of November. He also noted that the committee would be reviewing warrant articles in December. He explained that the committee was scheduling the public hearing on the budget for January 10^th so that it would not compete against the school’s public hearing scheduled for January 15^th. Board members complimented Mr. Blackadar on the smoothness of the budget process this year.

The TA presented several budgets to the Board for their review and began by providing highlights to the budget being presented. Those highlights are illustrated in the following tables.

Board members engaged in a broad discussion over various topics including health insurance costs, property liability costs and so on. The Board discussed a scheduled 2008 retirement and the need to fund some overlap in the position for training purposes. The Board approved $15,000 in additional funding for the purpose in the clerical component of the executive budget.

The TA and Steve Jussif, the Town’s MIS consultant of many years, addressed the Board relative to the computer budget. Mr. Jussif explained that the overall technology budget was designed to consolidate applications away from standalone PC’s to servers because it helped lower labor costs. It was explained that it was less expensive in labor costs to work on one server than it was to work on many PC’s. The TA voiced some concern that the Town’s financial software resided on a PC rather than the server and that it presented a risk should the PC crash. Mr. Jussif agreed noting that the server was a more robust, fault tolerant platform on which to run and back-up the software. The TA also noted that he was looking to include $5,000 for the purchase of a new copier noting that the current copier had approximately 600,000 copies. The Board recommended placing the funding in the TA’s equipment line. The Board laso discussed the two insurance proposals and noted that the proposal from the NH Local Government Center was $13,181 less.

Mr. Sapia noted that there was a planned meeting for the Communication Committee tomorrow. Mr. Sapia also spoke about the easement language for the Sawyer Road conservation property and suggested a meeting with Sumner for members of Conservation and Recreation. Mr. Sapia also asked about placing the assessing contract out for bid. Board members noted that they were not compelled to do so. The issue was tabled for later discussion.Mr. Sapia asked about the work between conservation and recreation on the easement transfer. The TA agreed to set up a schedule with the attorney for the two parties to meet and discuss the language

Mr. Sapia spoke of a recent event he attended where County Attorney Reams and Sheriff Linehan spoke on the issue of child predation. Board members thought it might be an appropriate to invite the two to the upcoming Area Selectmen’s meeting in Sandown scheduled for December 19^th.

There being no further business to come before the Board Mr. Childs made the motion to adjourn the meeting. Mr. Sullivan seconded the motion. The meeting concluded at approximately 9:50pm.

Respectfully,

Russell McAllister

Town Administrator

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Jack Sapia, Chair

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Paul Sullivan

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Fred Childs