Happenings

After Each Election, Update Your Information with NHMA Please Update Your Municipal Roster by May 31st!

Most towns are beginning to hold their town meeting starting in March, so this is a good time to remind members to update their municipal roster. Since town meeting means reelections and new elections, we ask that you take a moment to update your information for our New Hampshire Municipal Officials Directory.

The time has come again for all member municipalities to review, update and verify their information in the Members Features box on NHMA’s landing web page. If you think you have a member account with NHMA, but can’t see the Members Features box shown above, then click the NHMA logo in the upper left-hand corner like a reset button. If your Members Features box appears, then you have membership rights. If your Member Features box does not appear it is likely that you do not yet have a member account with NHMA. Please consult with your Account Administrator, typically someone in supervisory role such as town manager or human resource director, in creating a member account for you.

To maintain the accuracy and timeliness of all submitted information, each municipal member is expected to have one or two persons handle these updates. This year’s deadline is May 31st .

Updating this information each year helps NHMA make sure it can effectively communicate and engage with municipal officials from across the state on legislative activity and opportunities for workshops, webinars, conferences, and other educational and training events.

Deadline is May 31st. This gives the six municipalities with elections in May plenty of time to complete this assignment. As always, we thank you for your help in making the Directory as complete and up-to-date as possible.

NHMA Offers Customized “On-Demand” Training Services During Times of COVID-19 for Only $350!

Thanks to COVID-19, we’re doing things a little differently with our “OnDemands” training. Instead of having a legal services attorney travel to your city or town, we’re now offering “OnDemands” as virtual presentations via our Zoom or Teams platforms.

Attendees would log in to the training program from the comfort of their home or office and attend virtually, with the ability to ask live questions of the presenting attorney. Please contact us at legalinquiries@nhmunicipal.org for more information!

NHMA will offer this alternative method of training on a date and time that would be suitable for your board and staff, and you could always invite surrounding member municipalities to participate and contribute to the total cost. The cost is only $350.00.

If interested, please Download Fillable PDF On-Demand Order form on NHMA’s website (www.nhmunicipal. org) and follow instructions.

HAPPENINGS from page 9

Housing Appeals Board Launches Website! Now Accepting Appeals in Accordance with RSA 679! Attention Public Works Directors and Road Agents! Help Track Public Works and Highway Crews Status and Impacts during COVID-19

The New Hampshire Housing Appeals Board, established by the New Hampshire legislature during the 2020 session, has launched a website to aid in the filing of Planning and Zoning appeals in accordance with its statutory authorization NH RSA 679. Visit http://hab.nh.gov to access the website.

In addition, the three-member Housing Appeals Board is now accepting Planning and Zoning appeals in accordance with its statutory authorization NH RSA 679.

Case filing procedures and deadlines are outlined in NH RSA 679, which integrates the requirements of NH RSA 677:4 through RSA 677:16. Pending formal procedural rule adoption under NH RSA 541-A, the Board will operate using the statutory requirements of NH RSA 679 and the rules contained in the New Hampshire Code of Administrative Rules, JUS 800.

The legislation allows pro se petitioners, or they may be represented by attorneys, professional engineers, land surveyors, or architects.

The Board’s offices are located in Johnson Hall Suite 201, at the Governor Hugh J Gallen State Office Park, 107 Pleasant Street, Concord, NH 03301 – 603-271-1198 – clerk@hab. nh.gov. The New Hampshire Department of Transportation (NHDOT) and New Hampshire Division of Homeland Security (NHHSEM) recognize that Public Works Agencies and Municipal Highway Crews are part of our essential critical infrastructure workforce. The State also recognizes that Homeland Security Presidential Directive 8 (HSPD-8) identifies Public Works and other skilled support personnel as first responders. While so much of the work is critical every day, there are few responsibilities more immediate and impactful to the public, and other first responders, as snow and ice control. With the potential impacts of COVID-19 to your workforces, this year the State has construct a WebEOC board to track Public Works and Highway Crews status during COVID-19.

State officials are asking you to please populate this tracking board prior to January 12, 2021 and update it as needed with any changes, every Thursday and Tuesday thereafter until April 15, 2021.

The time has come again for all member municipalities to review, update and verify their wage and salary information in the Members Features box on NHMA’s landing web page: www.nhmunicipal.org. Please look for “Municipal Wage Data” in your Member Features box as the spot to update this important member information.

Every year, NHMA asks our members to update their member compensation information for the online wage survey. The information members provide allows for an annual report of the wages and salaries paid to New Hampshire municipal employees and elected officials.

NHMA makes the survey data available to members through its website: www. nhmunicipal.org. Municipal members can use this online tool to make sure

Time to Update Wage & Salary Survey

that their compensation scale is competitive with other municipalities with comparable populations and budgets.

Responding to the wage survey is voluntary, but NHMA encourages all cities and towns to complete it every year, since widespread participation makes the data more useful. The 2021 wage survey will be available for data entry until May 31st!

Resiliency Academy for Communities and Businesses

April 7, April 21, May 5, May 19, & June 2, 2021

9:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.

UNH Extension and NH Small Business Development Center are partnering to offer Resiliency Academy, bringing together small businesses and community leaders to work toward a resilient future. The academy will focus on the intersection of small business and community resiliency.

Resiliency Academy will explore:

• Resiliency planning and business retention

• Defining and measuring resilience

• Value and Supply Chains

• Workforce Needs and Quality of Life

• Communications and Cybersecurity

• Innovation, Sustainability and Partnerships

Academy sessions will include opportunities to learn from practitioners, municipal staff, business owners and experts through case studies, presentations, discussions and Q&A sessions. In addition, Resiliency Academy includes Regional Discussions, Regional Business Cohorts and the opportunity for businesses to receive advising from SBDC advisors. Participants are encouraged to attend all five sessions.

CORRECTION: On page 11 of the January/February 2021 issue of Town and City, we recognized the graduates from the first class of The Academy for Good Governance. We inadvertently left out Robert Edwards, Select- Go Green! board member in the Town of Antrim. Thanks for all you do for your local government, Bob! To register, go to: http://bit.ly/ResiliencyAcademyHelp Us Go Digital! Currently our bi-monthly magazine, New Hampshire Town and City, is published as a member benefit and distributed to approximately 2,300 municipal officials across New Hampshire.

We are pleased to continue to deliver the print edition to member subscribers, however, should you find the digital version sufficient and no longer require a print copy, please let us know at nhmainfo@nhmunicipal.org. or by contacting Tim Fortier.

Thank you for your consideration to move from a print edition to a digital version of Town and City magazine.

In Appreciation of Your Leadership Thank You for Your Service to NHMA!

NHMA wishes to recognize and thank our officers and board members for sharing their time, their efforts, and their shared commitment, as they continually strive to improve municipal government in New Hampshire. These municipal leaders rose to the challenges brought on by COVID-19, not only the challenges each experienced in their own city or town, but also striving to improve delivery of municipal services in New Hampshire during the pandemic.

Currently the 25-member Board of Directors is composed of both elected and appointed municipal officials. At its December 18, 2020 Board of Directors virtual meeting, the following officers were elected to serve for two-year terms:

Chair -Laura Buono Town Administrator, Hillsboro

Secretary - Rick Hiland

Selectman, Albany

Vice-Chair - Elizabeth Fox

Assistant City Manager & HR Director, Keene

Immediate Past Chair Shaun Mulholland

City Manager, Lebanon

Treasurer - Lisa Drabik

Assistant Town Manager, Londonderry

Immediate Past Vice-Chair Jim Maggiore Selectman, North Hampton

Thanks to all our board members who worked hard to maintain our organization through challenging times while continuing to fight for our members!

Butch Burbank, Town Manager, Lincoln Dave Caron, Town Administrator, Derry Shelagh Connelly, Conservation Commission, Holderness Phillip D’Avanza, Planning Board, Goffstown Jeanie Forrester, Selectman, Meredith Steve Fournier, Town Manager, Newmarket Meredith Hatfield, Councilor, Concord Bill Herman, Town Administrator, Auburn Neil Irvine, Town Administrator, New Hampton Pamela Laflamme, Community Development Director, Berlin Cheryl Lindner, Chief of Staff, Nashua Pat Long, Alderman, Manchester Hal Lynde, Selectman, Pelham Conner MacIver, Town Administrator, Barrington Judie Milner, City Manager, Franklin Donna Nashawaty, Town Manager, Sunapee David Stack, Town Manager, Bow Eric Stohl, Selectman, Columbia Swens Swenson, Selectman, New Durham