Meredith Islands Association
 

The Meredith Islands Association is forming and will hold it's first annual meeting this July 2018. If you are a property owner on one of the unbridged islands in the town of Meredith you are invited to join. If you have not received an e-mail or letter in the mail please respond with your name, e-mail address, island property address, winter address to meredithislandassociation@gmail.com as soon as possible so you can be brought up to date on what the association hopes to do. About half of your island neighbors have agreed to participate so why not join.

Five more Islanders replied. How about you?

Meredith Islands
 

Sign us up please! Looking forward to the meeting in July.
Two Mile Island
Stephanie Knighton
William Knighton

Pitchwood Island
 

In our quest to reach Meredith Island property owners, Pitchwood Island has been MIA (no Pun intended). If you own property on Pitchwood and are interested in joining your fellow Meredith Island property owners, respond to the e-mail in the beginning of this thread with your information.

Are you trying to negotiate the purchase of the Camp Monotomy waterfront dock area from the Girl Scouts of Eastern Massachusetts, and reconstruct it into an island access point with parking for cars, and docks for boats?

Does the Town of Meredith have an interest to purchase Camp Monotomy from the Girl Scouts and leave it be as an extremely attractive, unspoiled, 90-acre large, 2000' long unspoiled waterfront, Lake Winnipesaukee town property and create a go-to Meredith legacy, conservation forest?

The 90-acre Camp Monotomy has been posted 'no hunting-no tresspassing' for over 20 years, and it has a variety of land including a large wetlands, swampy area, very tall pine and oak forest, open grass fields, a 2000' wooded, undeveloped waterfront, a natural sandy beach with permanent docks, a well made dirt road, electric power, one central camp dining room 'plus' building. It is also home to a lot of deer, and a very small number of fox, bobcat, and black bear.

There is another thread on this down in the 'Polls' section titled 'Meredith Island Association.'

...... makes me think of the old 1970's song ..... 'They Paved Paradise and Put Up a Parking Lot.'

No but would be a great property for the town to buy and make a park with island parking and boat access. Thanks for backing that idea. New 99 acre Meredith park. Union leader potential headline: " Meredith and state finally spends some of 1.9million/year in Meredith island taxes to benefit island taxpayers who have been taken for granted for decades"

Meredith Islands
 

AMEN!

Our taxes are sky high on Bear.

You can replace "Meredith" with "Tuftonboro" in the potential Union Leader headline. Not sure what the total Tuftonboro islander contribution is to the overall tax revenues, but the net benefit to the islanders is basically zero. I suppose you could also replace "Meredith" with "Alton", Gilford", "Moultonborough" or "Wolfeboro", because islanders in general get little to no benefit for the taxes that they pay.

Well if you actually replaced Meredith with Moultonborough you would save half of the taxes as the tax rate in Moultonborough is roughly 1/2 the rate in Meredith. I am sure Moultonborough would not mind a 900K increase in revenue without $1 increase in expenses. However, Meredith would have a 900K decrease in municipal and school revenue they would have to make up with tax increases to the remaining properties. Island property owners would loose nothing as Meredith has repeatedly taken the stance that they can not control who uses the few town owned facilities available to island property owners.

Really? You need to help me with this--aren't local taxes spent primarily on schools, roads, police, fire? Given the need to use the boat, response time may be a bit slow, but I don't understand how islanders get less than other seasonal owners.

I don't believe it was said that island property owners get less than other seasonal property owners. Local taxes are spent on schools (no island school children) roads, (no island roads to repair or plow) police, (no police patrols on islands) and fire ( no fire engines on islands. Fire boat response at closest island 25 min.) Fire boat would exist without island property to respond to water front structure fires on the mainland. Island taxes do pay for the assessor (the only persons we ever see in the "police" boat) so they can come out and raise assessments to collect more taxes so I guess that's a benefit for the rest of Meredith property owners.
Has anybody ever asked Meredith why they have more commercial property to tax than Moultonborough but still have double the tax rate? Maybe Alex Ray and Rusty Mclear should be paying more? Seems like they will be getting the biggest benefit from the multi-million renovation and replacement of the Meredith waterfront and docks in town that are being proposed. No problem spending there but no money to repair docks at Lovejoy Sands or expand parking.

The following can be argued...

No police protection from the town, that falls under the remit of the MP

No fire, or maybe better put "best effort" by the surrounding towns. Of course that's why we carry catastrophic polices on our property, or better put I do.

Far as the rest, sure no roads to maintain but the town does provide several boat ramps, docks and parking lots which do need some resemblance of maintenance. OF course to technically get "free" access to the boat ramp it requires a $20.00 dump sticker.

Quite frankly got the association letter in the mail, read it and didn't see much a coherent justification as to why this association is even needed. In fact it seemed to be a list of personal grievances by the author. Just remember you start demanding more from the town that doesn't come free. Looking next door to Gilford, sure they have some cool stuff, they also pay dearly for it when the tax man comes knocking. That sadly is the problem with most of the people that have moved here or own from elsewhere - they want more, demand more, vote in more (when they can), then complain their tax bill goes up. Um DUH!

I'm sure I'll be beat up for this, but whatever I'll be one of the few to say I'm perfectly content with the way things are.

Thanks Maxim for your input. Taxes paid are based on value of the property and I get that. We bought island property with all that goes with it. To redirect the discussion, the association came about in a meeting of another organization. The initial problem was the extreme shortage of parking and the condition of the docks at Shep Browns. The town was approached via a letter and the attitude of the town was to basically say shut up you get what you have. Additional discussion brought the idea of an association which can talk to the town with one voice for it's island property members. In addition the association will provide educational materials and speakers on such items as the shore protection act, water quality, and resident fire protection. We also hope to have input with the state and town when legislation comes up that will effect the use and enjoyment of our property. We also hope to be a resource for potential island buyers. If people had a good resource for what island living is about that may enhance the value of island property.
I do not have any more of a personal ax to grind than the 80 property owners that have already expressed support for the association. We have only contacted about 1/2 of the island property owners to date. Hope you will reconsider the value of this organization. Of course you do not have to join but will still get the value of our work if that is the way you choose to go.

Just because you own on an island doesn’t mean you don’t get the benefit of town services. You travel on town roads, you use the dump, you definitely get police protection (if you are robbed, you don’t report it to MP, you report it to the local police), you have access to the courts, library and parks. You don’t have to own on an island, it’s your choice and you bought it (or inherited it) with the tax system in place.


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Just out of curiosity what exactly do you expect the town to do about the supposed parking shortage at sheps or Cattle landing? What property they own is parking lot. You should be thankful there is a deal between the town and owners of Sheps to allow the public use of the upper dirt lot during the summer time which the town doesn't own.

The parking problem there is for a very short period of time during a few weeks of the summer. I know I'm up there all the time year round and I use the ramp and parking lot as I don't own a slip I put in and pull out every trip up there. The problem is way overstated and quite frankly I don't blame the town for basically reacting the way they did. If you want your own guaranteed private parking spot buy/rent a slip that comes with one. Oh in fact Sheps gives you trash service to.

I've already seen the town of Hooksett go to hell tax wise because of all these people moving in from states other than NH then wanting all the city services they had where ever they came from. My taxes have almost quadrupled while my house value is worth maybe about 1.5 what it cost to build. I liked it here because the town was conservative and the cost of living was low. Boy has that changed. I guess I should roll over than thank my lucky stars that I can take advantage of all the "services" I never wanted in the first place and sure as hell end up paying for. All I see here is it happening all over again.

IF the day comes were something your association is about to get involved with that I find mutually beneficial and worthwhile I got no problem lending my support but thus far I'm not seeing it. Sorry.... I'm an islander because I'm truly self sufficient and have no desire to change that.

If it’s that difficult for you to understand, then I cannot help you out.

Ok Maxum got it you want to be left alone. Several answers to your question about what the town could do, but it doesn't concern you. I'll just leave you alone and make no more replies as you wish.

Have you talked to the Gilford Islands Association to see how they got started & how they like it?
http://gilfordislands.mylaketown.com

Yes Rusty we have communicated with them. Thanks for the suggestion.

Island contribution to town revenue
 

Hi bil

I have a question on some of the numbers I have seen on the forum, and on some town documents. Disclosure - we are island property owners and will be joining the association.

I have seen the number of 1.9M for the contribution of island residents to the budget. What percentage of the Meredith budget does that represent? I think I saw 15.3M for proposed 2018 budget but am not sure that is correct.

Also - what percentage of households do the islands represent in the overall number of households in Meredith?

Based on property assessments for 2016 assessments and a tax rate of 15.59/thousand the 29 unbridged islands paid a total of 1,905,220. in taxes that year. Of that 618,434 went directly to the town of Meredith, 826,103 went to the local schools directly and 460,883 went to the state and county (some of the state money comes back to Meredith and the local schools thru state aid and grants). Of the 1.9 million, Bear Island was responsible for 1.2 million of that money. The budget was slightly smaller in 2016 but I believe it was just under 4.8% of the budget. The percentage changes when you look at the budget as a percentage of total taxes. Total of the budget raised from property tax was about 8 million so the island taxes get to almost 8%. There are about 335 properties with an I designation. I have no idea how many total accessed parcels there are in the whole town. The whole budget on the revenue side is confusing. Sewer and water taxes and expenses are included in the budget.

Sewer and water are user fees, not taxes. If you have a well and septic, you don't pay whether on an island or mainland.

Gia
 

The Gilford Island Association has been in existence for many years. In the early years, GIA was responsible for the Gilford fireboat. Ongoing management of the Glendale docks, parking and dumpsters/recycling, working with the Selectmen is a huge benefit. That's why there are docks labeled "Island Residents Only" At one point in time, the board started in a political direction, wanting to lobby for an income tax, raising dues and building a big "legal fund". That turned people off and the number of truly active members has decreased. Nonetheless, having the association in place to immediately inform and activate people when an issue arises is important, and those who are willing to get things started should be applauded.

If there are $8M from property taxes, wouldn't the 1.9M from the islands represent more than 8%? I may be missing something.

As far as overall numbers - this document list values by location. I do not know if it is all residential, or includes commercial, but it is over 184 pages at 33 lines per page (6074 entries)
http://www.meredithnh.org/sites/mere...y_location.pdf

Of the 1.9 mil only 618,434 went to Meredith for the 8 mil budget.
Therefore 618,434 is .08% of 8 mil

618434/8000000=.077x100=7.7% or rounded to 8%

Exactly, I used the decimal. 08 but it's the same.

Got it - thanks