LTE, “Heard at the County, 5/26/26 Commissioners’ Meeting.”
Grafton County Commissioners’ discussions & actions on May 26, 2026 include:
- industrial dishwasher for the Department of Corrections (DOC) to the tune of $57,752.64;
- discussion of purchasing a new, commercialized, zero-turn mower costing $18,899.00. The Maintenance Supervisor recommended getting a new (1-year-old, never-used) mower because the current mower is in the shop and needs a new clutch. He further stated that “… present mower is waiting for replacement parts, and ‘is dead in the water.’” Long discussion by Commissioners questioning why this issue didn’t come up during the earlier Budget Process to be included in the ’27 Commissioners’ Budget? “It was off my radar!” explained the Maintenance Supervisor when learning that the clutch on the County Complex’s lawn mower was inoperable. (At this point, my thought as a listener and taxpayer of Grafton County was: ‘Isn’t that what the Maintenance Supervisor is supposed to know, and have ready for Springtime mowing?’) Yet another example of improper Preventive Maintenance (“PM”), it seems? Maintenance Supervisor is requesting another mower to the tune of approximately $19,000.00, and is recommending an older mower (the one with the clutch problem which is being fixed!) to be used as a back-up! So, we, the taxpayers of Grafton County, will have 2 mowers at the Complex! Thankfully, with the Budget Season over, the Commissioners did not want to set a precedent in purchasing a new mower, and “kicked the can down the road,” to leave it up to the Executive Committee to decide spending this additional expense in July.
- Additionally, the Commissioners agreed to (1) keep the peaked roofs [additional expense], (2) keep the 4th elevator [additional expense], and (3) add security glazing & bollards [additional expense] to the design of another courthouse. Overflow parking was eliminated. The Commissioners requested that the architects, Lavallee, provide pricing to proceed into the Schematic design phase using the available, approved American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) federal grant funds. County Administrator stated that”…ARPA = ’flexible dollars’”! [ARPA monies are US taxpayers’ monies (COVID monies) to the tune of $1.9 trillion encompassing our overall $39 trillion federal debt.] Economists predict Medicare/Medicaid and Social Security trust funds will become depleted by 2034 if we don’t fix our federal debt problem.
- Lastly, one Commissioner said, “If we’re going to spend a lot of money [on the courthouse], we should have a nice-looking building with peaked roofs.”
Nick De Mayo, M. Ed., Sugar Hill, NH
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