Milford board approves Avatar tax-collection contract, seeks clarification on historical data access

The Milford Board of Selectmen voted March 30 to approve a contract with Avatar Associates of New England for a new tax-collection system and authorized the town administrator to sign the agreement.

Troy Nef, the town's finance director, told the board Avatar was selected after reviewing options to replace the town’s tax module in Munis and because Avatar “did rise to the top as well as it has the most amount of efficiencies that we can gain with New Hampshire DRA reporting out of it.” He said the $28,470 cost was included in the 2026 IT budget.

Board members pressed staff about the conversion of historical tax and payment data. One selectman asked, “Are we going to lose that data at our fingertips on the website?” Nef replied that many historical records exist in paper form and that Avatar offers similar portal capabilities, and committed to provide a staff memo clarifying what historical electronic records will remain accessible.

A motion to approve the Avatar tax-collection system in the amount of $28,470 and to authorize the town administrator to sign the contract was moved, seconded and carried unanimously.

The board did not make any additional conditions to the authorization at the meeting; the finance director said he would follow up and report back to the board with a memo at the next meeting to describe the data conversion and website access implications. The board’s authorization allows the town administrator to execute the contract once staff confirm the data-conversion details.