SEABROOK POLICE TO PAY FOR SCHOOL RESOURCE OFFICER

SEABROOK - After a long debate whether the position of school resource
officer should be paid by the school, the police, or both, the Seabrook
Police Department has agreed to fund the position.

The position of Resource Officer James Deshaies will save the department
$20,000 this year because Deshaies' job is being paid out of a fully funded
but vacant lieutenant's position, Chief William Baker told the Board of
Selectmen on Wednesday.

"I want to come back on the lieutenant position and rank structure," Baker
told the board. "I've not always been a fan of specialization. They'll be
seeing me in the schools and other officers in the schools."

Baker said he supports the position of resource officer at the Seabrook School.

Deshaies, the former D.A.R.E. (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) officer in
Seabrook, has held a full-time position in the school for three years, his
position funded by a three-year grant.

Some members of the School Board had expressed a willingness to pay nine
months of Deshaies's salary, for the time he spends in the school.

"We all agreed we wanted him there," School Board member Michele Knowles
told the Budget Committee Thursday. Knowles is the board's representative
to the Budget Committee. "We thought, the legality of it, he receives his
benefits from the police department. The school could not be responsible
for his contract." On Thursday Baker and deputy Police Chief David Currier
presented the police budget to the Budget Committee.

"We've cut wherever possible to cut," Currier told the committee.

Still, the budget presented represented a 10.9 percent increase over last
year's budget, Budget Committee member Richard McGuire told the board.
McGuire represents the Seabrook Beach Village District, an area hit
especially hard by a rise in assessed valuations this June that increased
taxes.

The Budget Committee approved a Board of Selectmen recommended police
department budget of $2,609,092, with McGuire and Peter Fowler voting
against the motion.

Ninety percent of the budget is personnel, Currier said, with a contractual
3 percent cost-of-living increase in the new budget.

In warrant articles, the police department is asking to purchase three
police cruisers at a total cost of $86,700.

"Our most serious situation is in the cruiser fleet," Currier said. "We've
spent about $40,000 by the end of November on motor vehicle maintenance."

The department has eight police vehicles: five have more than 100,000 miles
and one is more than 10 years old, according to Currier.

The vehicles were purchased with a 100,000 mile warranty.

Voters rejected the purchase of new vehicles at this year's Town Meeting in
March.

To make the purchase more palatable to voters this year, selectmen intend
to fund the $86,700 warrant out of the town's unexpended fund balance.
Selectmen are paying for an estimated six warrant articles out of $492,588
in unexpended revenue.

The town is required to keep from 5 percent to 10 percent of revenue
collected. One reason, said Town Manager Fred Welch, is the "suspicion, we
have reason to believe, Seabrook Station will sue both the town and the
state for assessed value."

Seabrook Station was given its new tax bill, at a rate of assessment set by
the town, in November.