Steve Fournier Answers Town Meeting Questions

North Hampton Town Administrator Steve Fournier weighed on several big topics today during a special , including some of the big money articles and one policy change officials hope will help the town for the better.

Fournier identified the and the as the most important items, and said that the proposed budget is "reasonable" at 1.6 percent over the current year's budget. He said the union contracts pose significant healthcare savings for the town despite the salary increases.

Fournier also addressed the possibility that the may not boost voter attendance as hoped. A warrant article proposes shifting town meeting voting from May back to March, where it was up until a couple of years ago when officials proposed a change for a .

Turnout at town meeting has continued to drop since the change, though. The good news, he said, is that several of the reasons for a May town meeting are no longer an issue, which will allow the town to focus on efforts to ensure the change has the desired effect on town meeting attendance.

"I think that by better educating the people on the importance of the issues that the Town is facing, it would hopefully encourage more people to take part," wrote Fournier during the live chat. "We already have guides to Town voting on our local Channel 22 and provide documents for review on line and in the Town offices."

The town meeting live chat was delayed Monday for approximately 20 minutes due to some technical and Internet issues on Hampton-North Hampton Patch's end, and we apologize for the delay and if any residents felt unable to ask their questions while viewing the live chat before 1:20 p.m.

Town meeting balloting is Tuesday from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. at .

Hampton-North Hampton Patch is looking to make the live chats a regular occurrence, and Fournier said he would be amenable to doing another session soon.