Public Hearing
May 29, 2008
Present were Mayor Bertrand, Councilors Goudreau, Remillard, McCue, Evans, Cayer, Donovan and Poulin; absent was Councilor Lafleur. Staff members present included Blandine Shallow, Patrick MacQueen, Chief Trull, Chief Morency, Angela Martin Giroux, John Moulis, and others. There was a group of High School students and many members of the public.
Mayor Bertrand opened by saying that each department formulates a budget and submits it to the city manager who then submits his adjusted proposal to the city council. The Council makes additional adjustments and this is the proposed budget being presented to the citizens. It is a work in progress and the Council is here tonight to hear from the citizens.
Paul Guerin, Burgess Street commented that he is not in favor of the budget going up. He travels 15 miles to go to work and his rent went up by $80 per month. As a working person that doesn’t make a lot of money, he is being affected by this. If anything can be done to cut, it would be appreciated.
Joe Vigue, 67 Wood Street stated that as much as he does not want to pay additional taxes, the Council did a good job. It is nice to see students here; they are our future. It is a shame that recreation is 1%of the budget and library is ½ %; it does not say a lot for the city. Tax base is at least as important as the rate. He asked that the Council think long and hard before closing the boiler at the mill.
Rod Bengtsten. 329 Hillside Avenue said that his pockets are empty. Health insurance is high and there are a lot of workers here who don’t have health insurance. There is $76,000 going to outside agencies; how much of this is going to teenagers? .
Priscilla Doucette, 1563 Main Street noted that she has never been to a meeting before. Her husband has to drive 5 hours to get to his job then put in another 10. Because there are no jobs that pay here, this is what he has to do. People are moving out of here, not moving in. Homes are being given to the bank because people can’t make the payments. She doesn’t feel that Berlin is a city any more and it should be considered a town. Berlin takes two steps forward and three backwards. Because taxes are going up, landlords will have to bring up the rents and oil is up and people will be in the street. There are going to be more people on welfare because they cannot make it. We pay bills and there is not enough money for food; in winter not enough for oil. She encouraged the Council to cut corners somewhere; there has to be a lot more to do than what it being done. If this is your job, she asked that the Council consider what is being said here.
Maurice Pelchat, 654 Fifth Avenue stated that we have to do something and he hoped the new Council has enough backbone to do what needs to be done. We are a dying community and it will take years to come back. People cannot afford the habits that we have. Berlin should get with the Gorham selectmen and do something for the valley by working together. The school system is driving us to the poor house. The number of students continues to go down and the price goes up. We won’t be able to afford to live here. He added that he does not like to pay for the fire department responding to every medical helicopter ride. How many registered vehicles are there in the police department? Police and Fire should go home in their own vehicles like everyone else. We should
cooperate with Gorham and work as a team.
Jane Ryan 214 Collins Street commented that enough is enough. If she could sell her house for the appraised value, she would leave.
Tom Mooney, 179 Willard Street said that he is a new teacher who is looking forward to staying on. Cut something other than the schools. Doing so would be cutting the future.
Bobby Haggart, State Street, stated that it’s summer and we want to clean the streets. We need jobs so the mill doesn’t shut down.
Scott Coulombe, 290 Howard Street established that he owns a rental property and a small business as well as his home. He proposed a cut in the budget rather than a flat line. City council and mayor should think like a business and make cuts. The Council needs to think differently by coming up with incentives to attract business. Berlin is not a great tax place to do business and it is expensive to live. It makes attracting employees to Berlin difficult. Cutting the tax rate would be one way to attract business.
He suggested looking at teaming up with UNH to do bio-diesel and creating an energy related park. The North Country could be an attractive place to study. Bio-diesel can be produced for $1 per gallon. Has the city looked at buying fuel oil direct instead of buying retail?
Meetings could be Internet based meetings saving money and staying effective. We should look at having a town manager instead of city manager.
He added that he is looking forward to this body doing this work to see if it is viable. He bought a house for $169,000 and taxes are $7,200 per year. The taxes are a mortgage payment. He suggested combining police and fire as well as school districts with Gorham.
He found it interesting that the newspaper said the Mayor and Council are against Laidlaw and there was no rebuttal. Laidlaw would be paying millions in taxes and they want to come here and we should let them go through the process and see what it will look like. They want to spend $100 million and develop land for more projects and business. The City should hire more people to clean up apartment buildings that are in shambles. Regarding Water Works and Public Works, they should be under one management. The moth balled waste water facility should be sold and the building turned into an incubator for small business. Mr. Coulombe asked that the Council consider his suggestions and do everything to think outside box and cut taxes.
Heather Coulombe, Ward II said that it is a great idea to combine Berlin and Gorham because there are classrooms at the High School that are not completely full.
Sariah Millis, 200 Cates Hill Road voiced that with the Federal Prison coming, if we cut too much from the schools, what will there be in Berlin to attract people?
Dana Roy, 6 Park Avenue in Milan commented about the police service in Milan and that he does not see the cruisers traveling more than 10 hours per week. There is not a need for the Milan police department.
George Cote, 466 Hillside Avenue indicated that he worked on the road for 30 years and never made $92,000. Why do the police need snow-machines and four wheelers? Expenses are foolish.
Ralph Collins, 104 7th Street related that he’s had a house since 1989 and taxes have gone up every year. They make adjustments but the Council needs to show leadership and make the cuts. All of us here will give the keys to the bank.
Sue Small, 319 High Street believes there is a need to flat line or cut the budget. She sees areas that can be cut. Board members can help the community by sustaining what we have. If we continue to increase costs, we will continue to lose people and lose businesses. She hoped that board members would help to contain budgets.
Priscilla Doucette, 1563 Main Street, returned to the podium and stated that her taxes are more than her mortgage payment and that is very wrong. She is struggling to make ends meet and feels what people have to say is falling on deaf ears. Berlin is being compared to the south and there is no comparison. In the south, there are jobs and that is something we don’t have.
Paul Guerin, Burgess Street acknowledged the young ladies’ statement about classrooms not being filled and suggested closing a school building and consolidating.
Maurice Pelchat, 654 Fifth Avenue asked if it is necessary to have all SUV’s for the top brass. They are not responding to calls with that car and the Police Chief should have a little hybrid. When we can’t afford our own expenses, we don’t want to see our money being spent this way. There are ways to make cuts. They take cars home and drive them around to do personal errands. We are also subsidizing ambulances that do personal business on company time. Every little bit will help.
Larry Laflamme, 474 Second Avenue said that someone has to speak to the unpopular. We elected this Council because we trust you to do the job of the city. If we want business to come to Berlin, we have to maintain the city. The only way to cut taxes is to increase the tax base. Reducing or flat-lining the budget won’t help us.
Rod Bengsten, 329 Hillside stated that this budget will probably go and when we pay more, we want to see more done. Cans are left to the side of the road and law enforcement could move the cans back to the side of the road.
Joe Vigue said the Council is doing a good job and they should keep doing what they’ve been doing.
Diane Rocca, 20 Viking Street commented that it is a hardship trying to survive. All the bills are going up and pay doesn’t go up. Please do not raise the taxes any more.
Linda Gelinas, Beaudoin Street voiced that people don’t make enough money. Dump houses and move on.
Harold Bigelow, 50 Labossiere Street, commended the Council for their efforts to keep tax rate as low as possible. He cautioned that these are difficult economic times with people struggling with fuel, gasoline, food and it will not get any better in the future. It would be great to keep a flat budget and we need to look at the size of government and keep rates at a reasonable level. He urged the Council to keep a flat budget and to look at the hard decision of cutting government back. We have infrastructure that is falling down and we will see more demand for services. There are unfunded mandates and it is time to say, no. He asked that the Council keep in mind that there are people who live on fixed incomes and the last thing needed is an increase in taxes.
Bronson Martin, a student, asked that the Council not cut from the school system. The budget is as low as it can be; we need teachers and sports.
Mayor Bertrand thanked everyone for the great feedback and for attending. He reported that six of the people on the Council are new and a lot is based on what has happened in the past. He asked the people to be patient and to trust that the Council will do what is right for Berlin.
Mayor Bertrand acknowledged Mr. Guerin’s comments and responded that the Council can see that people are hurting. With regard to the schools, there are many things that have changed over the years and the State dictates what goes on in the schools and a lot is out of our control. He asked that staff call Mr. Guerin and describe the differences between school in the 1970’s to today.
They City needs to increase its tax base and attract business, building ourselves up and by doing what will work. We know it has to happen in the short term to secure a solid future for the city. The Mayor referred to a comment about Outside Agencies and why the City would give away money to these agencies. There is a need to look at opportunities for youth and to be sure there are things to do after school hours.
The issue stated by Ms. Doucette on Berlin being a City versus a being a town, the delineation simply determines the type of government. Berlin is not the smallest city, Franklin is. There are pros and cons to both the City and town form of government and Mayor Bertrand did not see changing in the near future.
The Mayor responded to the comment that outsiders are not moving to Berlin by saying that there will be a migration when the prison opens and public education is key to economic development and having people move here rather than into the surrounding communities. If there is a young family wanting to move here, they will look at the schools. We need to keep in mind the quality of education.
The Council will look at issues and be sure there is nothing frivolous in the budget. They will look for incentives to attract business such as the examples on Main Street. There may be incentives on the State level to attract business and we will try to attract things that will make this a better place to live.
The Mayor also commented on the suggestions to work with Gorham on combining services. He noted that it will not happen overnight. We need to work smarter and not necessarily work harder.
Councilor McCue thanked everyone for coming and for the good feedback. He asked that the people keep in touch. He wanted to hear back from people on two particular questions: which city service are you willing to do without and who are we going to fire? What employees should lose their job so that taxes don’t go up?
Councilor Goudreau thanked everyone for coming. Initially the tax rate was $4.00 per thousand. If $1.47 is the true number then why was $4.00 presented? Increasing the tax base is a must. We need additional revenue, strong education and strong service. He noted that he does not think we are there yet; we need to work as a team to eliminate the fluff.
Mayor Bertrand thanked everyone again and closed the public hearing.
The meeting ended at 8:05 p.m.
Respectfully Submitted,
Susan Tremblay
Administrative Assistant
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