Big impact

Newmarket has an impact fee program. Don't know what it is?? Don't worry, you're not alone.

I honestly don't know whether or not the impact fee program is a good one and I knew nothing about it before last week. But what I understood from the meeting on Wednesday night is that the school can use these funds to pay for a portion of the work that has been done thus far on the architectural drawings for the new school/renovation project. (Just to clarify--it is my understanding that the impact fee monies can ONLY be used for expansion/upgrades--they can't be used for repairs or maintenance. In other words, they couldn't be applied to the bill for fixing the ceilings.)

Here's what I know about it:

• Developers pay an "impact fee" when they build a new home in town. 
• The fees can be used to pay for the increased demand on systems in town, including water, sewer, recreation and school.
• The fees expire after 6 years.
• When the fees expire, the monies are returned to the current homeowner.
• A percentage of those fees are designated to pay for expansion of school facilities. 
• The School Board needs to request permission from the Town Council to use these funds.
• Over $100,000 in unused impact fees have expired and more will continue to expire each month.
• The town oversees the funds but the school has not been given a regular accounting of the impact fund balance/availability.

Here's the rundown of the conversation Wednesday:

• Dr. Hayes requested that $30,000 be released to the school. 
• Matt Angell explained that some of those fees (about $3800) would be expiring within a few days and if the council didn't take action, they would be returned to the homeowner.
• Mike LaBranche seemed annoyed that this was brought up at all, saying that people had specifically asked him if this would be on the agenda. (Apparently there was a miscommunication and Dr. Hayes thought it was going to be on the agenda--other people must have thought so too.)
• Phil Nazarro commented that this is an example of how the school and town share some finances.
• The TC voted to release only the $3,800 because it needs to look into the impact fee program further.

And...here are the lessons I learned from the conversation:

• Don't surprise the TC--this wasn't on the agenda and the TC didn't feel that they had enough information to make an informed vote on this and some councilors seemed annoyed. 
• The TC doesn't seem to have a clear understanding of the impact fee program or how it works. 
• I hope that the town and school can work together on this. It seems pretty clear to me that the school should be granted the use of the funds and that by doing so, it will save the bottom line in the end. Clearly it needs further discussion and needs to be on the agenda for the next TC meeting.