Canterbury Select Board opens public budget hearing and reads warrant articles 7–19; no public comment recorded

The Canterbury Select Board opened a public hearing on the town budget and read warrant articles 7 through 19 into the record, including estimated tax impacts and funding sources.

Select Board members read Article 7 — a request to raise and appropriate $3,485,450 for general municipal operations — and reported the estimated tax impact as $6.11 per $1,000 of assessed value (about $2,444.63 for a $400,000 home). Articles 8–13 and 15–19 were read in sequence with line-item totals, funding sources, and tax impact information for each.

Notable warrant articles read into the record included: - Article 8: $88,000 to be placed into capital reserves for highway equipment/truck, a rescue truck, landfill closure, town building maintenance and related highway reserves (estimated tax impact roughly $0.23 per $1,000; ~$92.90 for a $400,000 home). - Article 9: $35,874 to pay principal ($35,000) and interest ($874) on a gold star bond, to be removed from the town’s unassigned fund balance (no tax impact); Select Board noted this is the last year of that payment. - Article 10: $7,000 for purchase of a ballot counting device to be funded from the unassigned fund balance (no tax impact); board clarified the machine is currently unavailable. - Article 11: $80,000 for renovation work on the Sand Lake House garage to come from the Sand Lake House Capital Reserve Fund (no tax impact). - Article 12: $20,000 for weatherization of the Elkins Public Library (estimated tax impact 0.0105 per $1,000; about $21.11 on a $400,000 home); a Select Board member noted Tom will speak to that article at town meeting. - Article 13: Establish a voting equipment capital reserve fund under RSA 35:1 and place $5,000 in the…