Agenda Items

1. Approval of Minutes

• Summary:
  • Minutes from the May 4,2026 City council meeting, May 8, 2026 Special City Council meeting, and October 20, 2025 City Council meeting.

2. Request to Barricade Terrace Road

• Summary:
  • There is construction ongoing near the Franklin-Northfield line that suggests a road may be created near Terrace road.
  • Residents submitted a petition asking the end of Terrace Road be blocked off.

3. Sell Sterling Drive Turnaround Parcel

• Summary:
  • Residents of Sterling drive community submitted a petition seeking to add land that from the roadway to a parcel.
  • There is ambiguity in some of the plans defining a “temporary turnaround” during construction.
  • The city owns the roadway.
  • Abutters of this turnaround suggest that they own the parcel having cared for it for 20 years and not the city.

4. Set Schedule for 2026 (FY27) Budget Workshops

• Summary:
  • Set the schedule for budget workshops.
  • Budget workshops are City Council workshop meetings that focus on aspects of the city budget, prior to final approval.
  • These are workshop meetings. This means limited public input, but more discussion between the members of the council.

5. Revised Event Permitting and Permits for Alcohol Use

• Summary:
  • Events using alcohol on city property need a permit.
  • This ordinance has been revised through legislative, through the council, and legal.
  • The proposed regulation does the following
    • Uses a better definition of alcohol
    • Regulates consumption and sale
    • Add the mayor or designee to the permit approval process

6. Bessie Rowell Lead Abatement

• Summary
  • Accept money from the State of New Hampshire for lead abatement at Bessie-Rowell Community center.
  • This was mistakenly left off the April Agenda.

7. Fire Engine Replacement

• Summary
  • The fire department (FD) is budgeting for a new engine to replace one of two active engines in the city.
  • The full price is ~$1.1M and the FD proposes to buy it in sections; ~$550,000 in Fiscal year (FY) 2028 and ~$550,000 in Fiscal year (FY) 2029.
  • The engine set to be replaced is difficult to service and was out of operation for maintenance reasons for more than 50 days this year.

8. Set Public Hearing to Revise Wetlands Ordinance

• Summary
  • Set a hearing to change wetlands septic setback requirements.
  • City of Franklin (75 ft setback) is more protective than the state (50 ft setback) regarding septic systems near wetlands .
  • The proposed revision allows septic systems 25 feet closer to wetlands than now.

9. Set Public Hearing to Stiffen Code Violation Penalties

• Summary
  • Currently the city can charge up to $100/day for code violations.
  • The state allows up to $550/day for code violations.
  • The suggested change would link city penalties to the relevant state code and make fines for code violations larger.

10. Sell City-Owned Land on East Bow Street

• Summary
  • The owner of 102 East Bow Street has made an offer of $3,000 for 0.13 acres of vacant city land abutting their property.
  • This property generated ~$600 in taxes last year that could be returned to the rolls; however merging properties is not necessarily additive. More or less than that might be captured from the new value of the property.

11. Set Hearing for Charter Change on School Board

• Summary
  • Schedule hearing for charter change, needs at least 7 days in the newspaper.
  • Put on a question on the ballot in October to make language referring to the school board consistent in the Charter

12. Set Hearing for Charter Change on Gender Bias

• Summary
  • Schedule hearing for charter change, needs at least 7 days in the newspaper.
  • Put on a question on the ballot in October to reduce the gender bias in the Charter

13. Set Hearing for Charter Change on Tax Cap

• Summary
  • Schedule hearing for charter change, needs at least 7 days in the newspaper.
  • This proposal includes a couple of potential changes:
    • clarify how exceptions to the tax cap are calculated in successive years (e.g. bond payments)
    • Increase the scope of what expenses can be exempted from the tax cap calculations.
    • Allow additional increases to the tax cap every 5 years.

Agenda Breakdown

Other Agenda Items

1. Setting a hearing for the payment of eversource litigation

• At the city council meeting on April 6, 2026, the council rejected the City manager’s proposal to use money recovered from the industrial park TIF (moved to the capital improvements plan [CIP] - roads budget). This agenda item sets a public hearing for the new plan - using restricted fund balance to fund the litigation payment.
• Use of restricted fund balance in this way requires starting each year in a ~70,000 deficit.

2. Leasing River Road Acreage to Brent Fife to Farm

• Historically this approximately 34 acres of city-owned land has been leased to Brent Fife to farm.
• Lease term highlights:
  • one year term of lease
  • $25/acre (~$850 total)
  • only agricultural use
  • 60-day cancellation provision
  • crop harvest protections included in lease
  • hazmat (pesticide) outside of label use not allowed
  • city indemnified for injury and/or death
• Same lease as in 2025

Agenda Breakdown

Agenda Items

1. Approval of minutes

• Summary:
  • Minutes from the March 2026 City Council meeting and March 23 City Council workshop (how to read the Municipal budget).

2. Approve the teachers’ contract

• Summary:
  • This contract has been under negotiation with with members of the School Board for months. It covers 1 year of time (2026-2027).
• Teacher Evaluations
  • Complaints about teachers to the administration that result in an investigation; the administration has to notify teachers of investigation findings.
• Employment
  • Hourly rate raised from $39 to $45 for prep periods/lunch coverage.
  • Teachers get contractual protection for prep periods (varies by school).
  • Pro-rate time at step for coverage of additional classes. Split appropriately if sharing kids from a class.
  • 30-day notice if administration is removing an extra class load from a teacher.
  • Remove $2,000 retention pay.
  • General pay increase for teachers at each step/level.
  • 3.5% pay increase for teachers at the top step.
• Sick Time
  • Increase incentives(+$200) for teachers to not use personal/sick leave and over-banked sick time.
• Health Insurance
  • 100% of single family coverage, 95% of 2 person coverage, 91% of family coverage.
  • $5,000 if a teacher declines health insurance.

3. Set hearing to approve ventilator purchase using grant funds

• Summary:
  • Set a hearing to purchase ventilators using money from a grant fund.

4. Offer discount to self pay ambulance patients

• Summary:
  • Earlier this year, the City Council increased ambulance-bundle fees 350% in response to new negotiations with private insurance triggered by changes in state law.
    
  • Fire committee and Chief Foss recommend up to 25% credit for self pay of ambulance services.

5. Set hearing for accepting grant funds for fire hosing

• Summary:
  • The state provides annual funding for firefighting and protective equipment for wild land fires.
  • Franklin Fire Department (FFD) hosing is out of service.
  • FFD needs shirts and helmets for forest firefighting.
  • Up to $2,000 may be reimbursed by the state.
  • Total cost of equipment is ~$7,000. If the grant is accepted, cost to the city would be ~$5,000.

6. Eversource litigation funding

• Summary:
  • The city lost an assessing case against Eversource and has to pay ~$350,000.
    • Multiple other municipalities got caught in this case and have to pay similar property tax abatements.
  • The city manager recommends covering this unexpected cost with money from the industrial park TIF and 2026 budget.
    • TIF closed in December 2025.
    • Outstanding money in the TIF (~$320,000) was moved to the Capital Improvements Plan (CIP) for road repair.
    • ~$31,000 was budgeted for abatements in 2026. This would be combined with the TIF money to satisfy the judgement.
  • During the City Council workshop meeting, Councilor Johnston suggested using fund balance in pace of TIF/CIP money. He did not provide a plan for replacing fund balance money.
  • This bill accrues daily interest (~$30/day) each day it is unpaid.

7. Set public hearing for alcohol event permitting

• Summary
  • Set public hearing to change ordinance on alcohol and event permitting.
  • This came through legislative and legal.
  • Significant changes are:
    • Add mayor to permit review committee
    • Expand definition of alcohol
    • Establish appeal process for denied permits
    • Enhance compliance with state law
    • Remove need for permit for consumption, require only for serving

8. Fireman’s Muster

• Summary
  • Make an admissions-based fundraising event to support the fire department.
  • Event will cost $2,000 for league entrance; it is anticipated to raise more.
  • Form an ad-hoc committee to develop and execute the event.

9. Set date for school funding explainer

• Summary
  • Set a workshop for late April to talk about state and local education funding.

10. Odell cottage maintenance

• Summary
  • The non-profit “Franklin Parks and Rec Volunteers” want city approval for planned changes to Odell Park cottage.
  • These include:
    • Sealing the ADA ramp
    • Repairing the chimney
    • Repairing/replacing gutters
    • Lattice repair
    • Sand/seal cottage floors
    • Tree removal

Other Business:

Agenda Breakdown

Agenda Items

1. Approval of Minutes

• Summary:
  • Minutes from the February 2026 meeting.

2. Increasing Police Detail Rates

• Summary:
  • Police details are when a company or organization hires Franklin Police officers to provide services. This is typically traffic control (like when a cruiser sits near an electrical line repair truck).
  • Old rate: $95.00/hour; new rate: $110.50/hour.
  • Brings rates in line with other police details (e.g. Belknap County sheriff, Concord, Hill, Merrimack County).

3. Waiving Vendor Fees for Farmer’s Market, Winni River Days, Community Day

• Summary:
  • Waive city-based fees for three community events.
  • Fees have been waived for these three events in the past.

4. Accepting Lead Abatement Money from the State

• Summary:
  • Schedule a public hearing for lead pipe abatement at Bessie Rowell.
  • New Hampshire department of Environmental Services (NHDES) will cover up to 100% of the cost of abatement.
    
  • Currently, a portion of Bessie Rowell’s water service is posted as not-safe to drink.

5. Webster Lake NHDES Monitoring Station Access Agreement

• Summary:
  • New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services (NHDES) seeks to install a shed near the boat ramp of Webster Lake.
  • Shed will allow NHDES to automatically monitor lake level.
  • Agreement makes DES responsible for installation, upkeep and removal.
    
  • Agreement lasts for 5 years with automatic renewal and 30 day notice for termination of agreement.

6. Franklin Opera House Community Development Finance Authority (CDFA) Grant Memo

• Summary:
  • The Franklin Opera House (FOH) has an existing memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the City of Franklin that is actively being renegotiated.
  • FOH applied for NH Community Development Finance Authority (CDFA) grants that require an MOU.
  • To help FOH’s application for grant money from the state, the City Manager is asking the Council to affirm the existing MOU for 1 year.

7. Setting a Workshop for School Budget Explainer

• Summary
  • Schedule a meeting for the School District to explain their budget process to the City Council.

8. Naming New Street Piper Street

• Summary
  • Add name to newly constructed street before it normally would be added to help with emergency and postal services.

Other Business:

• Follow up on ambulance self-pay policy/discount.

How Sam Sees It:

I expect the big point of discussion this meeting will be pay scales. At the last meeting, the Chief presented a plan to change the pay scales of the entire department in an effort to retain officers. Members of the Committee and City Manager wanted to see additional backup that the department could afford to change pay scales mid year while staying within budget. To make this change, the Chief of Police wanted to close open positions, an approach that may work in the short term but can lead to burnout via under-staffing. As shown in the fire department, under-staffing can lead to excessive overtime, which may cost more than hiring additional officers. Additionally, solely changing pay scales in the police department may trigger resentment between other departments.

I’m hopeful we’ll have some additional budget backup provided to discuss, so that the Police committee can make a strong recommendation to the broader council. Right now, I understand the need to raise pay to retain officers, but am not convinced we can afford to.

All Roads Lead to …Franklin

The city of Franklin is fairly small, only 29.1 square miles. and yet it has hundreds of roads. Open Street Map (OSM) is an open-source, community-editable map. It’s kind of like wikipedia for place information and is used by both private and public entities as a source of geographical information.

Pulling data from OSM we can get a sense for how many roads are in the city and what kinds of roads they are (paved, dirt etc). I’m focusing on surface type for this blog as it is speaks more to the maintenance need. Future posts may look at speed limits for traffic safety, walking paths through the city for non-car based travel or other interesting transit questions.

The map and table above show the distribution of roads by type:

• Primary Roads - Highways. Example: Route 3 coming into town.
• Secondary Roads - Lesser traveled highways. Example: State Route 127.
• Tertiary Roads - Main roads that connect portions of the City. Example: Prospect Street.
• Trunk Roads - Main travel roads through the city. Example: Central Street.
• Residential Roads - Neighborhood streets. Example. Beech Street.
• Unclassified- Not currently classified in OSM.

Most of the roads in Franklin are residential however the primary and trunk roads are probably most heavily traveled.

The Scale of Franklin’s Roads

Franklin has more than 350 roads, totaling more than 100 miles of roadway. This demonstrates the scale of the maintenance burden in the city. Some maintenance of the higher level roads (e.g. Primary) may fall to the state. I don’t have a true cost of road repair by this classification system, but 100 miles of anything is going ot be expensive. Another thing to keep in mind is that these expenses are recurring - roads are “consumed” by the traffic on them. The city needs to be budgeting for routine upkeep across the entire network.

OSM also provides the surface type of the road. The material a road is made from impacts how much it can be used, who can use it, it’s lifespan, and how much it takes to repair or replace it. These data are even less well documented than the road type, but it helps outline the scale of the Franklin’s roads.

This suggests that the city has at least 80.77 miles of road to repave. This will take time, money and concerted effort. The time to start is now!

Agenda Breakdown

Agenda Items

1. Approval of Minutes

• Summary:
  • Minutes from both the old and new business portions of the January 2026 meeting.

2. Ambulance Fee Pricing

• Summary:
  • Changes to state law stop balance billing, starting a cost study statewide.
  • City Manager and Fire Chief began negotiating to allow 325% Medicare rate. If the city does not continue these negotiations, we are locked into Medicare rate.
  • Now can bill up to 325% of Medicare rate, but cannot balance bill.
  • Council will vote on final contracts with insurance providers.
  • Proposed rates would increase. For example, basic life support would increase from $603 to $1,567.
  • Transport statistics (2025):
    • 67% of transports were from Medicare
    • 15% were from Medicaid
    • 9% were from commercial (i.e. private insurance)
    • 7% were self-pay
    • 2% were other

3. Changes to Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) Zoning Procedure

• Summary:
  • State-level changes mean ADUs are easier to zone and build.
  • Anywhere that is zoned single family can construct an ADU.
  • Franklin can still put restrictions on the number of ADUs, other zoning categories (e.g. multi family), owner occupancy, aesthetics, and set backs, among other criteria.
  • ADU minimum is 750 square feet; maximum is 950 square feet.
  • Only 1 ADU allowed per parcel.

4. Policy on Council Appointments

• Summary:
  • A proposal has been made for the Council to set policy for committee appointments as:
    1. Minimum 30-day public notice
    2. Notice added to next agenda meeting that there will be an appointment.
    3. Councilors nominate.
    4. Close nominations.
    5. Debate nominations.
    6. Election by paper ballot.
       
  • A proposal has been made for the Council to set policy for appointment of a vacant Council seat as:
    1. Minimum 30-day public notice
    2. Notice added to next agenda meeting that there will be an appointment.
    3. Councilors nominate.
    4. Debate nominations.
    5. Public hearing within 10 days.
    6. Election by paper ballot by the council at the public hearing.

5. Odell Park River Access

• Summary:
  • Steven Mandella (Ward One) wants to work to build river access at Odell Park.
  • He is seeking Council feedback and permission for a feasibility study of river access.
  • River access will likely be paired with something called 603 Tubing.

6. Increasing Police Detail Rates

• Summary:
  • Set a hearing to increase police detail rates.
  • Old rate: $95.00/hour; new rate: $110.50/hour.
  • Brings rates in line with other police details (e.g. Belknap county sheriff, Concord, Hill, Merrimack County).

Late Item 1: Creation of New City Positions

• Summary:
  • The City Manager wants to create two on-call positions to facilitate RSA-91A (right-to-know) requests.
  • The City Manager reports that he’s inundated with requests that hamper his ability to do his job.
  • Some requests require thousands of pages of backup.
  • There is room in the budget for this by moving money around.

Schools

This year is a negotiation year for the teacher contract, and the federal government has removed a series of grants from the schools. I am waiting to hear from the joint finance committee for more budget information, but I expect this to be a big discussion before the council.

Tax-capped budgets are hamstringing the SAU’s ability to manage their district and provide state-mandated services.

Capital improvements

Capital improvements (for example, road paving, fire truck replacement) are a major focus for the council. A number of councilors stated that they would be willing to put anywhere from $500,000 to $2.5 million toward the CIP. Councilor Carrier brought up that the 20 year replacement cost for roads was approximately $2 million annually. To replace the city’s roads, the council needs to put $2 million every year toward them. This creates a 20 year schedule for replacement. Roads only get more expensive as they deteriorate.

I am hesitant to bond for capital needs as they begin depreciating as the bond is being paid off. Additionally, I believe we have deferred maintenance for long enough. Folks in Franklin are looking for their government to function, and one basic way to do this is show stewardship of city owned property.

I believe that the tax cap as written allows us to raise funds for capital needs, and I believe we should do so.

Fire/EMS

The staffing levels in the fire department are at a point where we are losing professional firefighters and stacking more calls. I think the fire department could use another firefighter to provide better service and reduce overtime.

The council discussed the option of encouraging private residents to volunteer for the fire/police departments in exchange for a tax break. This may save on personnel costs, but there are potentially significant training and equipping costs. I am skeptical that the fire chief could adequately incorporate volunteers into the schedule, and I need to be convinced that the professional firefighters feel comfortable relying on volunteers.