If it's good for the goose....

Impact fees came up twice at the TC meeting last night.

The first time was in reference to a public hearing about releasing impact fees for studies on the MacIntosh well. A little background--- the DES has threatened to impose a moratorium on all new building if we don't figure out a solution to our water supply problem.  I wrote about it here back in May. (Now just switch DES for DoE and water supply problem to fire and life safety deficiencies and you might start to see a pattern.)

No one spoke at the public hearing last night and the council didn't take any action after that hearing either--I'm not sure why, but it is probably procedural. My guess is that they will vote on it at the next meeting.

The second time impact fees came up was when Dr. Hayes approached the Council to request that they release approximately $30,000 in impact fees to be used toward the purchase of the Carpenter property. The discussion that followed was about what happens if a school doesn't get built and the councilors questioned impact fees that were used back in 2007 when the golf course was being pursued. Dr. Hayes expressed the need to turn over every stone while looking for funds to put toward building a school and also suggested that the council should show it's support for the project by voting for this.

The council did support it in the end--the vote was 6-1 with Mr. Nazarro voting against.

This brings me back to the well. As Mr. LaBranche pointed out last night, there are no guarantees that the Macintosh well will be developed just as there are no guarantees that a school will be built. Both have been brought to vote in the past, and have failed to get a majority among Newmarket residents. But that doesn't change the fact that we need to fix the problems.

The well will be on the warrant again this year because Newmarket has been backed into a corner---we have to solve our water issue. (Again, I see little difference with the situation we are in with our school facilities.) Using the impact fees that are available and designated for exactly this purpose just makes sense to me.

So, when the council votes on the use of impact fees to conduct studies at the MacIntosh well, I sincerely hope that the vote is the same.