Proposed FY2023 budget before Council March 23

posted on 3/21/2022

The City Manager will present his proposed fiscal year 2023 budget to the City Council at its Wednesday, March 23 meeting.

The presentation by City Manager J. Michael Joyal, Jr., will provide an overview of the proposed budget. At subsequent budget workshops on Wednesday, March 30 and Wednesday, April 6, the City Council will receive in-depth budget presentations for each city department. These workshops are open to the public and televised.

Once presented, the proposed budget will be added to the dedicated FY 2023 Budget Revealed page at https://www.dover.nh.gov/government/open-government/budgetrevealed/fy2023-budget/. All budget workshops and department budget presentations will also be added to the page.

Budget public hearings to be scheduled

Following Joyal’s budget overview, the City Council is expected to schedule two public hearings related to the budget. The first would be on the School Department portion of the budget on Wednesday, April 13. The second would be on the city portion of the budget on Wednesday, April 20. Public input is also welcome during the public forum portion of all budget meetings and workshops.

Outdoor dining on public parking spaces to be considered

Also on the Council's agenda is a proposed ordinance that would create a permit program to allow outdoor dining on public parking spaces, following a recommendation by the Parking Commission on March 15.

Recommendations from the Parking Commission include:

• The initial application for the number of spaces and location shall be made to and approved by the Parking Commission.
• The program would run from April 15 to Oct. 15, allowing minor adjustments to accommodate holidays or weather.
• The fee per space per season is $1,100 and paid to the Parking Activity Fund. The complete draft ordinance is included with the City Council agenda materials.

For the past two years, the city utilized the governor’s executive order to allow the use of city-owned parking spaces for outdoor dining during the COVID-19 pandemic. The resolution, if adopted, creates a process for extending that option now that the executive order is no longer in effect.

The meeting begins at 7 p.m. in City Hall’s Council Chambers. It will broadcast live on Channel 22 and online at https://dovernh.viebit.com, where it also be available for on demand viewing. Click here for the complete agenda and materials.