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This week's stories: (click on the headline
to jump to story)
 Attorney
General's office investigates police chief
Recycling
plan clears first hurdle
More
patrols sought
Lack
of state aid squeezes budget
Transfer
station wants to charge by the ton
Resident
finds fault with John Stark High School's intercession
Board
seeks $10.2 M budget for John Stark
Weare
Attorney General's
office investigates police chief
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By KATE BENWAY
Staff Writer
kbenway@yourneighborhoodnews.com
The state Attorney General's Office is
reportedly looking into the actions of Police Chief Myles Rigney
during the deliberative session of Town Meeting last week.
At that Feb. 2 meeting, Rigney angrily waved a handful of documents
he insinuated were background checks of people who had signed
a petitioned warrant article asking that his position be turned
into an elected one.
The investigation has neither been confirmed nor denied by the
Attorney General's Office. Additionally, officials will not say
whether they received complaints about the meeting.
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Police Chief Myles Rigney
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But Town Clerk Evelyn Connor and Cable
Committee Chairman Walter Bohlin confirmed that an official from
the Attorney General's Office called each of them wanting information
about what happened at the meeting.
A discussion about a petitioned warrant article that attempts
to make the police chief's position appointed and supervised
by the selectmen an elected one turned heated, sparking
a debate that did little to conceal the underlying rifts between
Rigney and some residents.
The petitioned article calling for the police chief to be elected
to a three-year term was signed by 25 residents and ushered through
the meeting by former police commissioner Brenda Lashway and
her husband, state Rep. Gary Hopper.
Rigney said the petition was nothing more than a poorly-veiled
attempt to remove him from his position.
"Is this just revenge because someone's relative got locked
up?" he asked.
"When you find that these trusted citizens have records
that are miles long, you have to question it," he said,
holding the papers up. "This is a popularity poll. I'm not
a huggable, cuddly type of character, and I don't plan on being
a lackey for state reps."
Lashway and Hopper are in-laws of Stephen Hess, the Weare teen
charged with falsifying evidence in connection with the torture
of a poodle last summer. Hess has not yet been tried on the charge.
Rigney, in a prepared statement, said he is unaware of any investigation
by the Attorney General's Office.
"If such an investigation exists, it has most probably been
generated by state political forces residing in this town who
have an interest in controlling every aspect of life in Weare,"
he said. "It is not happenstance that these questions arise
in conjunction with an attempt to create an elected police chief."
Kurk said his understanding is that four Weare residents independently
lodged complaints with the Attorney General's Office about Rigney's
actions at the meeting.
"From what I've heard, there were several concerns. Number
one, that the chief was engaged in what would be called criminal
threatening to deny people their civil rights by leading them
to believe that if they signed a petition they would be subject
to a background check," said Kurk. "If the chief did
a background check and used police data bases for something other
than law enforcement purposes, that would violate the law."
It has also been learned that the Attorney General's Office has
asked about a video recording of the meeting.
But as the words exchanged at the meeting come under scrutiny,
the absence of a video or audio recording of the meeting means
the official record is being pieced together by those who took
the minutes of the meeting.
"I got a call on Tuesday and he asked for copies of some
information," said Connor of her exchange with a representative
from the Attorney General's Office. "He wanted a copy of
the tape, and I let him know that I found out the tape was blank
when I went to get it. He also asked for a copy of the petitioned
article and we faxed him the minutes of the meeting."
Connor said she did not use an audio recorder because she believed
the meeting was being videotaped.
Bohlin, who was in charge of videotaping the meeting, said he
had a similar conversation.
"The next day, I got a call from an investigator from the
AG's office asking for the story about the tape," said Bohlin.
"I didn't know the tape was blank until Tuesday morning
and he then asked me, quite meanly, 'Well, did anybody tell you
to make it blank?'"
Bohlin said the blank tape was the result of a pre-meeting power
outage.
Power in the area had gone out at 4:36 p.m. on Monday, with about
100 of the 150 affected residences and businesses regaining power
around 6 p.m., said Elizabeth LaRocca, community relations manager
for Public Service of New Hampshire, which provides electricity
to Weare.
The remainder of the power returned shortly before 11 p.m.
"Our crews did not find evidence of anything unusual,"
said LaRocca.
The power outage, said Bohlin, created a chain of confusion.
He called a Comcast representative to help troubleshoot when
he realized the cable hook-up was not in working order, he said.
And even though the power returned, some of the settings on his
equipment had been disrupted.
The recorder, said Bohlin, was set to Channel 2 rather than video
input.
"I probably would have noticed it if I was sitting there,
but I wasn't," he said. "If I had more volunteers,
somebody else could have been running it. We could have had one
guy on the camera and myself running the audio."
Town officials are trying to track down any recording of the
meeting, but have so far turned up empty handed.
The selectmen discussed the issue at their most recent meeting,
and Chairman Tom Reynolds said he spoke briefly with an official
from the Attorney General's Office after receiving a Right to
Know request for the meeting's videotape.
"It's a hairy situation. You don't want to get into the
Attorney General's investigation," said Reynolds. "Obv-iously,
for us, it becomes a personnel matter, so we can't go into specifics
even if we did do anything."
He said selectmen will look into the matter as well.
"The investigation will take its course," he said.
"If something's there, something's there."
Rigney maintains he has done nothing wrong.
"I have done nothing to embarrass myself or the town
of Weare," he said. "If the Attorney General's Office
would like to ask me questions, they might extend me the courtesy
of a phone call."
Goffstown
Recycling plan
clears first hurdle
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By KATE BENWAY
Staff Writer
kbenway@yourneighborhoodnews.com
Ninety-seven residents breezed through
a handful of warrant articles at the Wednesday, Feb. 4, deliberative
session of Town Meeting, posing no resistence to a new recycling
program, but questioning a petitioned article to create a special
fund for the purchase of conservation easements.
Voters will make the final determination on warrant articles
at the polls on Tuesday, March 9, at Goffstown AREA High School.
A proposal that deviates from last year's trash and recycling
related-proposals seemed to go over well in town.
The idea, said officials, is to increase the rate at which residents
recycle so the amount of trash being disposed of decreases; the
result, they said, will be a substantial savings in solid waste
disposal.
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TRASH TALKING: A recycling
barrel was featured at the deliberative session of Town Meeting,
giving residents an idea of what to expect under the new proposal.
The benefit, said officials, is the convenience of not having
to sort recyclables. Simply toss them into the wheeled 40-gallon
barrel and let the town do the rest, they said.
(Alyssa Baer Photo)
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"Article 7 has a common theme: efficiency. It embraces a
concept of single-stream recycling this town hasn't embraced
before," Selectman Robert Wheeler told voters. "We
will save about $100,000 in the way we're doing it now. That's
with about 20 percent recycling."
With numbers predicated on that 20 percent recycling rate, town
officials will ask voters to devote $578,541 toward getting the
recycling program started. Some $533,800 of that money would
go toward a bond that would fund the capital expenses associated
with the program, including barrels, a truck, a new building,
skid steer and attachments. The other $44,741 would cover employee
wages, vehicle operating expenses and recycling disposal fees.
The savings, said officials, is estimated at $100,000 annually
after the bond is paid off, and immediate benefits would be the
$69,475 reduction in the town's operating budget if the article
passes.
Under the program, each resident would receive a large barrel
to throw all recyclables unsorted into. The wheeled
barrel features a cover to protect from weather or animals.
"It's so much easier for us to do as individuals,"
said resident Fred Plett at the deliberative session. "Hopefully,
this will increase recycling because it's easier."
Officials said the recycling pick-up will follow the same kind
of schedule that's currently in place. Some routes may change,
said Wheeler, but residents shouldn't expect too much deviation
from what they're used to.
The hitch, he said, is that the article needs a three-fifths
vote to pass.
"It takes a 60 percent vote for this bond issue to pass,"
said Wheeler. "We need to get a high level of enthusiasm
to pass this article."
Resident Jim Beauchemin asked about future increases in recycling
rates, wondering what the costs would be if the town grew to
40 percent recycling.
"I would love to be assigned to that problem," said
Wheeler.
Reducing the solid waste stream would pay for the extra crew
needed to pick up the recycling that had been removed from that
stream, should the rates of recycling grow, he said.
Meanwhile, residents didn't question a proposed operating budget
of $14.8 million, which would be reduced to $14.3 million under
a default budget.
And as articles asking for $15,000 for the Goffstown Main Street
Program, increased elderly tax exemptions and $1.8 million for
the third installment of the road repair program were quickly
ushered through the meeting, a petition article designed to garner
funds for conservation attracted both criticism and support.
Article 17 asks voters to approve depositing 50 percent of the
revenues collected through the land use change tax into a conservation
fund. The land use change tax is levied when property owners
take their land out of current use zoning, usually looking to
develop it. Owners pay 10 percent of the fair market value of
the property under the tax and all of the funds collected are
diverted to the town's general fund.
Under the proposal. 50 percent of what's collected will be set
aside in a conservation fund that would help residents pay to
put their land under easement, to purchase conservation land
or place easements on town-owned properties.
Selectmen did not recommend the article because, they said, the
loss of part of the land use change tax revenue was not budgeted
for.
And while other residents questioned the need for the fund, especially
when another article asks for the devotion of $80,000 to the
conservation capital reserve fund a separate, already set
up fund others called on residents to take the chance to
keep some of Goffstown's green space.
"I'm speaking for about 50 concerned citizens," said
resident Jason Sacks. "I think this is a really important
thing for our town. This is one option that over 75 percent of
towns in Hillsborough County use to help pay for conservation
land."
Planning Board Chairman Jim Raymond agreed.
"If you want it to be green, forever, you have to buy it,"
he said. "If you're in a hurry to lock up land, this is
another way to do it."
In other requests, voters will decide whether to create a charter
commission, a nine-member board that would have 225 days to analyze
the town's current form of government, explore other options
and make recommendations on whether to change the government.
If the charter provision is approved, an election would be held
to elect the nine members. The cost of the election would be
about $5,000. Also, any recommendations put forth would need
voter approval to be adopted.
"Goffstown is the 17th largest community in the state,"
said petitioner Steven Monier. "For over 230 years we've
basically had the same form of government. What we haven't done
is take a thorough and comprehensive look at our government and
report back."
And a final petitioner, Russ Lauriat, commander of the George
Cochrane VFW Post, has asked voters to consider raising the tax
credits the town gives to veterans.
There are three articles asking for the raises; one from $1,400
to $2,000 for disabled veterans; another from $100 to $500 for
all veterans; and a final request from $1,400 to $2,000 for the
surviving spouse of a veteran who was killed in action.
"I feel $500 for a veteran who put his life on the line
is pretty cheap," he said. "If it weren't for these
people, we wouldn't have the freedom we have today. Freedom isn't
cheap."
Weare
More patrols
sought
By KATE BENWAY
Staff Writer
kbenway@yourneighborhoodnews.com
The dark streets of Weare are virtually
unpatrolled during the hours between midnight and 8 a.m., a troublesome
situation Police Chief Myles Rigney said he wants to change.
A proposal to offer 24-hour police coverage in town is one of
the priorities topping Rigney's requests this year.
The move, he said, would provide additional protection during
those late-night, unmanned hours.
"We have been running with a shift that stops at midnight
and starts again at 8 a.m.," Rigney said. "But
with growth comes a liability in not filling positions."
Rigney's proposal is that the town take advantage of a grant
that, in its first year, would pay for 75 percent of two new
additional full-time officers' salaries. The town would pick
up the other 25 percent.
The federal grant covers three years' worth of payments, though
the town will pay more in the second and third years. As of the
fourth year, the town would begin fully paying for the two officers.
If the warrant article passes, taxpayers will pay just over $29,000
in the first year. In the second year of the grant, taxpayers
would pay over $61,000 and in the third year, the town's portion
would be over $97,000.
In the fourth year, the town would pay about $137,600.
The town's finance committee supported the proposal, which voters
will see on the ballot on March 9, as a way of easing into paying
for 24-hour police coverage.
Currently, state police take any emergency calls to police during
those eight hours. The troopers will respond to emergencies in
Weare, though the practice, said Rigney, is usually reserved
for towns of 3,000 people or less.
Weare, he said, according to the last census, has a population
of about 8,500. He added that the campgrounds in Weare can add
up to 4,000 people to the town's population during camping months.
"We're fortunate we've been able to get away with this for
so long," he said of the state police coverage. "Part
of the reason is that if a trooper comes to Weare, the dispatcher
calls me and I go out, no matter what time, and back up the trooper."
During the last three months, said Rigney, there have been 41
calls for service at night.
The department has seven full-time officers, plus a full-time
patrol sergeant, a part-time detective and two part-time patrolmen.
The full-time staff has taken a hit, though, as officer Ken Cox
is on his way to serve in Iraq for 18 months, Detective Mark
Bodanza is the department's prosecutor and officer Robert Peterson
spends his hours at John Stark Regional High School as the school
resource officer.
"That leaves us with four full-time patrolmen," said
Detective William Quigley.
At the deliberative session of Town Meeting on Feb. 2, Rigney
told the crowd that Weare is well-known by criminals as a town
without night time police coverage.
"We're being used as a dumping ground for sexual predators,"
he said. "We have seven of these people (on the sexual offender
list living in town) and we have another 16 that don't make this
list."
The chief's plea resonated with some, who spoke in favor of the
proposal. No one spoke against it.
Bodanza asked voters to pass the warrant article based on the
increased safety two more officers would provide.
"I ask that you give your families a chance," he said,
after recounting two fatal accidents last year that occurred
during the night hours.
And resident Forrest Esenwine said pledged his support.
"If one person's life is saved by 24-hour coverage, I'd
say it's worth it," he said. "If someone feels
the need to call the police department after midnight, at that
time,that's the biggest emergency of that person's life."
New Boston
Lack of state
aid squeezes budget
By LARA SKINNER
Staff Writer
lskinner@yourneighborhoodnews.com
A lack of state aid for schools means the
school portion of the local tax rate will nearly double, according
to local education officials.
Local taxes for schools will jump to $16.25 per $1,000 of assessed
value, up from $8.90 last year.
Tuition to Goffstown area schools is over half of the regular
education budget this year.
Per student cost increases, coupled with a loss in funds from
state adequacy grants, has put the school board in a tough spot,
said Chairman Betty Ann Noyes, who presented the news in solemn
tones at a budget hearing on Tuesday, Feb. 3.
The operating budget next year, if approved by voters, will increase
by more than 6 percent, according to school officials.
"I don't stand up here with any pride defending a 6.21
percent increase," said Noyes. "But that's what it
is."
The total budget proposal for 2004-05 is $3.89 million, which
is $226,876 more than the 2003-04 approved budget.
State funds last year totaled $657,515, and the board budgeted
for only $306,840 this year. Adequacy grants only represent $4.60
on the property tax rate.
Because of the loss in state education aid, the Dunbarton School
System must raise more than $1.1 million this year, said Noyes.
High school tuitions under the new AREA agreement are estimated
at $7,184 per student, and middle school tuitions are estimated
at $7,661 per student. Enrollment at Goffstown schools isn't
expected to change much, but actual numbers are difficult to
estimate because students move in and out of school districts
all the time.
Building fees, curriculum and operating costs are included in
tuition rates.
Building improvement costs aren't only coming from the Goffstown
schools. Repairs to the heating and ventilation systems at Dunbarton
Elementary School could increase the budget by $150,000
an additional 95 cents on the tax rate this year if voters
approve the warrant.
Principal Chuck Gaides has fought with the heating at Dunbarton
Elementary School for a few years.
Some years, teachers have put buckets in the classrooms to catch
leaks from ice dams on the roof that soak the ceiling tiles in
the classrooms.
Ducts in the attic are falling apart at the seams, and heat that
should make it to the classrooms is rising to the roof instead.
Small repairs over the years may have done more damage than good.
"Any (person) who goes up in that attic does damage every
time they go up there," board member Jeffrey Trexler said.
The school board did consider taking out a bond for the project,
but Trexler said they would prefer to put money into the capital
reserve fund. He presented a four-year plan that starts with
heating and ventilation repairs above the classrooms and library
in year one, heating and ventilation repairs above administration
and support offices in year two, and thermal and vapor barrier
replacement in years three and four. Total costs of the project
are estimated at $240,000, and the school board would ask for
additional money each year.
Trexler said the board will use the money for repairs each year
starting in 2005, and any funds that aren't used will stay in
the capital reserve fund account.
Paying for the building project this way could also make the
school eligible for state building aid up to $9,000 a year for
six years after the repairs begin.
Residents did express concern about whether the repairs would
actually fix the problems, and wanted to know if the school board
is going to stand behind the work done.
"You bet your life we are," board member Rene Ouellet
said.
Fixed costs, such as teacher salaries and health benefits, have
also bought the total budget up, but state aid is the budget
piece that concerns Noyes the most. Dunbarton is on the verge
of becoming a "donor" town under state formulas for
education spending. Noyes was told she should expect less and
less from the state every year.
New Boston
Transfer station
wants to charge by the ton
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By LARA SKINNER
Staff Writer
lskinner@yourneighborhoodnews.com
Piles of old roofing shingles, dry wall
and construction wood are a constant at the transfer station.
New housing developments mean manager Gerry Cornett works with
a steady stream of contractors bringing in truckloads of debris
from their work sites. Almost 300 tons of demolition waste have
moved through the station over the year, but Cornett said the
town's disposal fees aren't keeping up with the cost to haul
the debris off-site.
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Officials at the town's
transfer station say disposal fees are not keeping up with hauling
costs. (Lara Skinner Photo)
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"We (had) very low rates and people were used to coming
up and being able to dump it and go," Cornett said.
When a contractor comes in with a truck or trailer full of construction
waste, the town charges $30 per cubic yard. Waste management
companies that haul the construction debris away from the Transfer
Station charge the town $140 per ton.
Wood, drywall and shingles are heavy items, and fees by the cubic
yard don't come close to the price by the ton.
To start charging by the ton, Cornett has proposed buying a truck
scale for the transfer station. At the budget deliberative session
on Monday, Feb. 2, an article proposing $37,000 for a scale was
approved unanimously for the town warrant.
The total budget for the sanitation department is up because
of items such as increases in construction debris. With the scales,
selectmen are recommending a budget for the station of $367,190,
which is a 21.8 percent increase over last year. Administration
costs, landfill monitoring costs and solid waste disposal are
included as well.
Sanitation is 13 percent of the town's operating budget, and
represents 78 cents per $1,000 of assessed valuation on the town's
portion of the current property tax rate. A resident with property
assessed at $250,000 will pay $195 yearly for the sanitation
department budget.
Updating the fees to meet the charges at the transfer station
is only one of the changes Cornett has proposed since he started
as manager in August.
Windows on the recycling building are covered with thick plastic
strips. Now, recycling can come in to the building, but heat
can't get out.
Signs above the windows and wooden ramps for recycling collection
make plastic recycling a one-man job. Staff was walking from
one end of the building to another to sort plastics before, and
now one person can stand at the bottom of the ramps and sort
the recycling into bins right there.
New to the station is an aluminum can crusher, which Cornett
plans on painting orange and naming "The Orange Crush."
Parking lines next to the outdoor trash dumpster have redirected
traffic so there is less congestion.
Even on the cold days, Cornett said he has opened the transfer
station gates to a line of people with cars full for a weekly
trash run.
Traffic on Thursday, Feb. 5, was light, and Jeff Lavoie was there
for his weekly visit. Some people in town pay for a private hauler
to pick up their garbage. Lavoie moved to town 15 years ago,
and even worked for the transfer station for a year.
"You have to adapt to the environment," he said about
the changes at the station.
Expenses at the Transfer Station need to adapt to every market
change. For the past two years, revenues from the sale of aluminum
cans and paper products were down, according to town reports
from 2001 and 2002.
In 2001 the town decided to stockpile aluminum cans at the station
until the price per pound went up to around 50 cents. Cornett
said the price finally reached that goal this year. But the town
hasn't held onto aluminum cans that whole time.
Recycling is mandatory in town, but Cornett said he wants to
make sure the station handles the items that come in appropriately.
"Spending $1,000 to save 50 is ridiculous," he said.
Cutting back on employee hours, improving the sorting method
for recycling used by employees, and adding the truck scales
to even out the costs of taking construction debris should help
reduce the transfer station budget.
Weare
Resident finds
fault with John Stark High School's intercession
By HENRY METZ
Staff Writer
hmetz@yourneighborhoodnews.com
WEARE Matt Esenwine was getting angrier
by the moment.
The Weare resident said his "blood began to boil" when
he was read the list of courses students at John Stark Regional
High School are offered during intercession the period
after exams when formal classroom instruction is suspended and
students are allowed to choose from a variety of week-long electives.
Those electives include trips to Boston, skiing, ice fishing,
indoor rock-climbing, a history of video games, snowboard racing
and overnight trips to an Appalachian Mountain Club hut.
"Teachers should be teaching reading, writing and science,"
Esenwine said. "Forgive me if I don't see the academic value
in this."
Esenwine's comments came during the school deliberative session
of Town Meeting on Wednesday, Feb. 4, at John Stark Regional
High School, where about two dozen residents of Weare and Henniker
showed up to review SAU 24's 2004-05 spending plan.
That plan will be voted on by residents at the March 9 election.
"I'm trying to understand where our money came from to pay
for all this," Esenwine told the five members of the SAU
24 school board. "We're talking about an almost 6 or 7 percent
increase in the budget so our kids can get a week off."
School board member William Johnson said although students pay
for many of the programs out of their own pockets, there is a
percentage of the curriculum that is paid for through tax dollars.
"We are funding this to a certain degree to pay for
the teachers," he said.
Esenwine, who has three children in the Weare school district,
said when he graduated from high school there was no such thing
as intercession.
"I graduated first in my class and I turned out just fine,
thank you," he said. "I don't see where this is really
necessary."
But others disagreed. Weare resident Suzanne Canali, one of three
who spoke in favor of the intercession curriculum, said offering
such courses provides students with a well-rounded educational
experience.
"To think that scuba diving is just jumping in the pool
and flapping the fins around that's a misconception,"
she said. Canali said students who take the electives, regardless
of how recreational they may seem, are required to read about
the activities they become involved in.
"I applaud intercession," she said. "It allows
these students to work together in ways they might not normally
do."
School board member Lisa Hustis also defended the program, saying
it allows teachers and staff to connect with the diverse student
population on several levels.
Specifically, she said some of the programs are targeted at students
at risk of dropping out. "Any way we can get these kids
to keep coming back is a good thing," she said. "For
many students, this has really enriched and broadened their viewpoints.
It's a chance for them to broaden their horizons."
Weare
Board seeks
$10.2 M budget for John Stark
By HENRY METZ
Staff Writer
hmetz@yourneighborhoodnews.com
WEARE The John Stark Regional School
District is proposing a $10.23 million operating budget for next
year, which represents a 7 percent increase over last year's
spending plan.
The difference between this year's proposed operating budget
and last year's operating budget is $667,559.
The spending package was unveiled at the school deliberative
session on Wednesday, Feb. 4, at John Stark Regional High School.
About two dozen people turned out to review the numbers, which
will go before voters on March 9.
If approved, Weare taxpayers would see a $1.58 per $1,000 of
assessed value increase to $10.53.
The John Stark Regional School District includes the towns of
Weare and Henniker. In Henniker, the tax increase from the proposed
operating budget would be 44 cents per $1,000 of assessed value.
The default budget for 2004-05 would be $10.03 million, which
is 2 percent less than the proposed operating budget. The default
budget for next year would represent a 4.9 percent increase over
last year's operating budget of $9.5 million.
School officials said the spending proposal is based on a projected
student increase at John Stark Regional High School of 3.9 percent,
from 872 students last year to 906 students in 2005.
Other major changes include the following:
· An increase in the special education budget of $153,530.
· An increase in regular education instruction of $284,277.
· An increase in the athletic budget of $47,778.
· A 4.1 percent salary increase for the principal and
two assistants.
· Buildings and grounds salaries and benefits increase
of $26,942.
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