Special Town Meetings are a rare event.  Special Town Meetings may be scheduled only with the permission of the Attorney General’s office and an agreement from the Superior Court. The format of the meeting follows the same format as any annual Town Meeting.

The Selectboard requested the Special Town Meeting to be held August 17, 2026, at 7:00 pm in Town Hall for the purpose of approving a Municipal bond of three million dollars ($3,000,000).  Approving this Bond will enable the Town to move forward in the construction of a new Police Station.  Denying the Bond will push the bond vote to March 2027, delay construction and significantly increase the cost.

The New Hampshire Bond Market does not set its interest rates until the date of the Bond sales which will be in January 2027.  However, recent interest rates for twenty-year bonds have been 3.84%. The Town could assume at that rate, their annual principal payment would be $150,000; debt service would be $115,200.  Our tax impact would decline each year as bond balance is paid down and interest expense decreases.  This is hypothetical until the interest rate in determined in January of 2027.

The Police Building Committee has held several public meetings and have responded to citizens’ concerns that the building was too big and/or too expensive.  Walpoleans agreed through these discussions that our current station is too small, unsafe and ill equipped for the Officers who work there.  Our Police Officers are confronted daily by a wide variety of crimes involving drugs (I-91 is a drug corridor), potential suicides, burglaries, speeding, car/truck accidents, battery, domestic violence, runaways etc.  They experience it all.  They deserve a safe, well-equipped building in which to work.

Recently, our Police have seen an increase in retail thefts, an increase in DUIs (often involving motor vehicle crashes), and increased requests by homeowners for house checks while they are on vacation.  

The Speed Radar Trailer was on Main Street by Union Street for a week in July. It was monitoring traffic coming into Town.  In one week 16,563 vehicles were traveling north. One hundred eighty (180) of them were traveling over 35 mph in a 25-mph zone. The average speed was 24 mph.  Currently the radar trailer is on County Road where a recent car clocked by at 70 mph!

All the while our Officers are at work, the Police Building Committee is raising money to supplement a USDA grant of two million dollars and with your support a three-million-dollar Bond.  We will build a new station! Thank you for your contributions.

Please join us all Monday, August 17 at 7:00 pm in Town Hall.

Peggy Pschirrer

Tagged: police, Police Building, Police Building Committee, special town meeting