The Jaffrey operating budget is proposed this year at $8.08 million, a 5.8% increase from the current year’s budget.

On Saturday, the Jaffrey Budget Committee met with Town Manager Jon Frederick and department heads to review the final draft of the proposed budget and to officially approve it for the town’s budget hearing. The committee tentatively approved the budget put forward by Frederick, as well as budgets for the water and sewer departments, and the town’s tax increment finance districts.

The major drivers in this year’s budget are salaries, benefits and insurance, which represent more than half of the $443,014 increase, as well as increases in the budgets for law enforcement, IT services, fire and mutual aid dispatch, and the library.

The overall impact of the budget, taking into account the operating budget and all proposed warrant articles, is a 5.3% increase from the current year, or about a 33-cent increase in taxes.

Proposed bond for new fire station addition

The town is anticipating requesting a 20-year, $3 million bond this year, to build an addition to the town’s fire station.

Jaffrey Fire Chief David Chamberlain spoke about the plans for a 4,500-square-foot, two-story addition to be built on land given to the town several years ago, which expanded the current fire station lot by about an acre.

Chamberlain said while there are no immediate plans for a full-time or overnight fire service, the station would allow that level of service, with showers facilities, bunk rooms, and two vehicle bays. He said the bunk rooms will still have uses in the meantime, as the department is used as a base of operations during major emergencies. He noted that during the 2008 ice storm and subsequent cleanup, crews were sleeping on cots in the department’s meeting room and stowing them away to create an operations center during the day.

“The station is 45 years old and is still in fairly good shape, but some things need to be done,” Chamberlain said. “This will be setting the facility up for the next 50 years.”

Frederick said the primary and most immediate concern is to provide showers and decontamination stations for firefighters.

“We’re required to provide that, and we’re not,” Frederick said.

Frederick said he has proposed the use of end-of-year undesignated funds to pay off the remaining debt on one of the town’s fire engines, and to use the anticipated debt service for the truck, as well as other retiring debts, toward the payment for the fire station bond. He said that would reduce the 22-cent tax impact from the bond to functionally a 5-cent increase.

Other proposed warrant articles include $150,000 for the downtown tax increment finance capital reserve and $60,000 for the infrastructure improvements capital reserve.

The Budget Committee is set to further discuss proposed warrant articles during its next scheduled meeting on Thursday.

Ashley Saari can be reached at 603-924-7172 ext. 244 or asaari@ledgertranscript.com. She’s on X @AshleySaariMLT.