The week in ⁠Londonderry

The Town Council voted 3-2 to create a legal subcommittee limited to the chair and vice chair after residents flagged ⁠$281,298.98 in legal bills through March. Critics warned the move hands unilateral authority to the same members already generating most of the spending and bypasses the charter requirement that the council act as a body.

The same session produced a 4-1 vote to apply for a SAFER grant covering eight new firefighter positions for three years. Opponents, including the chair, objected that the town would then face ⁠an estimated $1 million annual cost outside the regular budget process.

Resident Glenn Douglas also raised the proposed 14% budget increase and animal-control operations with little follow-up. Watch whether the new subcommittee structure alters legal spending patterns and how the long-term firefighter costs ⁠surface during the next budget cycle.