City Council

Minutes were approved on July 24, 2023, by the Finance Subcommittee. CITY OF LACONIA - CITY COUNCIL SUBCOMMITTEE MEETING FINANCE COMMITTEE 6:30 P.M. 3/16/2023 - Minutes 1. CALL TO ORDER Chairman Lipman called the meeting to order at 6:35 PM 2. SALUTE TO THE FLAG Chairman Lipman led the salute to the flag 3. RECORDING SECRETARY Katie Gargano, City Clerk 4. ROLL CALL Clerk Gargano called the roll of the following committee members: Councilor Cheney, Councilor Soucy and Chairman Lipman were all in attendance. 5. STAFF IN ATTENDANCE Kirk Beattie, City Manager Glenn Smith, Finance Director 6. ACCEPTANCE OF MINUTES FROM PREVIOUS MEETINGS 6.A. City Council Finance Subcommittee Minutes of January 9, 2023 Minutes of the January 9, 2023 Finance Subcommittee meeting were distributed to members of the City Council Finance Subcommittee on January 20, 2023. With no corrections or changes submitted to the Clerk’s Office, the minutes of January 9, 2023, were accepted as distributed. 7. FINANCE (Lipman (Chair), Hamel, Cheney) 7.A. Review and discussion of a potential purchase of the former Lakeshore Spur, a 3.63 +/- acre area of State-owned discontinued rail corridor, part of the Concord- Lincoln corridor in Laconia The Surplus Property Appraisal Report is attached to the agenda for the former Lakeshore Spur, a 3.63 +/- acre area of State-owned discontinued rail corridor, part of the Concord-Lincoln Corridor in Laconia. The City has the right of first refusal from the State of NH on this property. This matter was discussed at the February 27, 2023 City Council meeting. At that meeting a motion was approved to send an expression of interest letter to the State; that letter was sent to Commissioner William Cass at NH DOT on February 28, 2023. Staff recommends that the Finance Subcommittee review and discuss this potential purchase and make recommendations to the full Council at their March 27, 2023 meeting.  This matter was discussed at the February 27, 2023 City Council meeting. At that meeting a motion was approved to send an expression of interest letter to the State; that letter was sent to Commissioner William Cass at NH DOT on February 28, 2023. Staff recommends that the Finance Subcommittee review and discuss this potential purchase and make recommendations to the full Council at their March 27, 2023 meeting. Manager Beattie explained a 95k grant, applied from the water dept through DES for clean water to pay for some of this, and he believes it can be transferred over to the City. Councilor Soucy explained we have the first right of refusal. The water commission wants to move ahead with this. He thinks that it should belong to the city. The first piece the committee would like to see the City’s Water protected. The second piece is how many pieces do they need to buy? They’d like to know procedurally with the council what are the steps to buy, label as surplus, and sell to abutters to try and reduce the debt cost to the city. Manager Beattie says the 95k grant is for purchasing sections 1-4. Councilor Soucy would like to see the city purchase sections 1-4 but keep them instead to make sure they are doing everything they can to protect the city’s water. Councilor Cheney thinks they are all in agreement for sections 1-4. He asked how much section 5 is, Manager Beattie explained that it is appraised at 55k but he doesn’t think that they would offer the appraised value. It can have a variety of purposes and buying it as a whole would probably be the easiest. Chairman Lipman explained that this is quite a lengthy process, it needs to be deemed surplus by the state, it needs to go through governor and council. Manager Beattie explained that he has started the process by sending the letter to the Governor and Council expressing the City’s interest. Chairman Lipman asked the City Manager is to consult with legal counsel on what the process would be if they wanted to make it surplus property after purchasing the segments. There was a brief discussion on segment 5, it is land that could be placed into conservation. Chairman Lipman would like Manager Beattie to look at what we could use for conservation money instead of general fund money. Potentially look at impact fees because there is impact fees available in parks, to see if there is anything to be used. This would be if the conservation committee had interest in the property. The Committee suggests to acquiring all pieces with negotiating the price, and if needed they can always back down to sections 1-4 if necessary. Councilor Cheney says he’d rather not see the City sell any of the segments. 8. Any other business that may come before the Committee 9. ADJOURNMENT Chairman Lipman adjourned the meeting at 6:52 PM. Respectfully Submitted, Katie Gargano, City Clerk