Annual report of the Town of Hampton, New Hampshire

TRUSTEES OF THE TRUST FUNDS
The 1998 net income from the Real Estate Trust Fund was threequarters
of a million dollars. The principal, derived from the sale of Townowned
land that was previously leased, has benefited the property tax rate for 15
years in the aggregate of over $15 million. The growing fund's first year, 1984,
resulted in $59,117 of revenue to reduce the property-tax assessment.
In order
to maintain the principal, Boards of Trustees since 1984 have invested in fixedincome
Federal Government and Agency notes and securities. It is better,
primarily, to protect the safety of the Town's trust funds so they will still exist to
produce income for years to come than to risk them in the equity marketplace
and possibly lose the very basis of any future revenue. That fiduciary
responsibility as a Trustee is taken very seriously by Board members.
The RETF portfolio is managed by the Trust and Investment Services
Department of the Bank of New Hampshire under contract with the Board.
Again, in early
1998 our account's Trust Officer and Investment Officer were
changed by the bank, and their office was moved to Concord from Portsmouth.
Also changing was the Town mortgage servicing firm; Fleet Mortgage and
Funding Corporation sold our account to Atlantic Mortgage & Investment
Corporation.
Twenty-seven Town-financed mortgage notes remain outstanding.
The Trustees continue to manage the Library, Poor and Scholarship
trust funds as well as two Capital Reserve Funds for the Hampton Beach Village
District and two for the Town. For the latter, the Fire/Rescue CRF was closed
out in December upon the transfer of the remaining $27,1 12.95 to the Selectmen
for the new ambulance. At the same time, the Selectmen opened up the new
CRF for Town roads (maintenance/reconstruction) with the voted $350,000.
The March voted withdrawal of $15,500 from the Town's MIS Computer CRF
was accomplished in December. (There also was a $14,500 withdrawal in
March from an HBVD apparatus CRF.)
There was no distribution to the Town by the FDIC via recovered
assets from its 1991 foreclosure of Bank Meridian. In 1971, a Trustee
purchased $10,000 in 25-year notes for the construction of the bank building at
100 Winnacunnet Road; the FDIC took the notes as liabilities of the failed bank
and thereafter allowed the Town's claim in 1992. The current Trustees will
continue to pursue the FDIC on this matter.
TRUSTEES OF THE TRUST FUNDS
C. Raymond Gilmore, Chairman
John J. Kelley, Sr., Clerk
Robert V. Lessard, Bookkeeper
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