Town Ends Year
With Surplus

Randolph’s fiscal year ended on June 30 with big surplusses in all the town’s accounts, the selectboad was told Monday evening.

Financial officer John Clough gave the highlights of a new budget update which shows a surplus of a whopping $198,000 in the general budget.

Other surpluses were as follows:

Highway budget, $69,000; police budget, $2400; water budget, $32,000; and sewage treatment budget, $48,000. The total is about $350,000.

That would seem like exceptionally good news, but Selectman Larry Townsend had a different way of looking at it.

"Did we underestimate revenue?" he asked. "This seems like a lot." People will say we collected too much in taxes, he speculated, and they might be right.

Expensive Cameras

In other news, Town Manager Peter Butterfield admitted to being "taken aback" by the price of putting a surveillance camera in or near Gazebo Park.

He had found it would cost more than $16,000, with $3000 more for every other location the town might want to place cameras.

"It’s a bit out of our league," he opined.

Unlicensed Dogs

The selectboard agreed with Butterfield’s proposal to send a "get tough" notice about unlicensed dogs, with the threat of impounding them if the owners don’t take care of the problem.

Notices will go out in The Herald and in posters next week. Dog owners will have a chance to avoid the $2 late fee for licences if they act before a certain time. At that point, the town might start impounding dogs, and charging their owners to get them back.

The town of Brookfield enacted a similar Get-tough policy several years ago, and it ended with dozens of new licences—and no dogs impounded, he said.

Butterfield said that discussions just within the Municipal Building staff identified 30-40 unlicensed dogs, and he said people will be visited at their homes.

Selectboard Chair Jim Hutchinson emphatically agreed. "We’re not controlling this issue as it is," he said.

Manager Reports

In his manager’s report, Butterfield noted that by pooling with the schools, the town will get its heating fuel for $2.36 a gallon next year.

He disclosed that the Lamson Howell Foundation has given the town a grant of $10,000 for resurfacing the village tennis courts, while local tennis players raised a matching amount.

A permit was granted to Chandler’s New World Festival, allowing it to close down a block of School Street from Main Street to Summer Street. Usually, a block of Main Street is closed, but that is not possible this year because of the bridge construction.

The 15th annual Festival, which celebrates Celtic and French-Canadian music and dance, will be Sunday, Sept. 2 from noon to midnight.

Tuesday Meetings

The Selectboard voted to start all its meetings at 6 p.m. instead of 7 p.m. for at least the next three months. The next meeting will be Tuesday, Sept. 4. After that, the meetings will move to the first and third Tuesday of each week, instead of Monday.