CLAREMONT, N.H. – The bulk of the Claremont City Council meeting of June 24 was dedicated to the city’s budget. However, a few matters of note opened up the meeting: City Manager Nancy Bates announced that James Allen was hired as the new library director of the Fiske Free Library. The Claremont Savings Bank Community Center’s pool work is almost complete, and the pool will open soon. The city’s line striping is almost done. And finally, the grant application for the replacement of a twin culvert has been submitted.
During citizens’ forum, representatives of Fiske Free Library’s board of trustees and Friends of the Library spoke out against proposed cuts to the library’s budget. One member of the Friends who spoke was John Cloutier, New Hampshire state representative. After council discussion, the library book budget was increased from $20,000 to $25,000.
Representatives from the Claremont Soup Kitchen, Southwestern Community Services, Meals on Wheels, and Sullivan County Humane Society requested funds during Citizens Forum. The council voted to approve the following amounts for each agency: Sulivan County Humane Society, $10,000; Claremont Soup Kitchen, $20,000; Southwestern Community Services, $15,000; Meals on Wheels, $10,000; and Arrowhead (for insurance), $9,000. These amounts total $64,000.
The remainder of this meeting was comprised of reviewing and voting for the proposed budget. Any budget discussions preceded this final vote, in previous council meetings.
On June 25, Councilor-At-Large William Limoges posted on the What’sUpClaremont Facebook page a concise summary of how the budget would impact the taxpayers of Claremont. His brief introduction on this post stated, “Here are the current numbers for the municipal side of the Claremont budget which was sent to the councilors today. It may change a bit when everything is calculated, but it’s what we voted for.” The total general fund amount to be raised by taxes, according to Limoges’ post, would be $13,754,428, with an estimated tax rate of $0.42 per $1,000 of assessed property value. This represents an estimated increase of 3.95% over 2025.
The Claremont City Council meets on the second and fourth Wednesdays of each month, at 6:30 p.m., in the Claremont City Hall Council Chambers.