Next Planning Board meeting

The Planning Board will meet April 21st at 6:30pm at the town hall auditorium on the main floor and continue with the discussion of this project. Unless a motion is made to open the public hearing, they will make a decision to approve or uphold their denial of the application. Let's all hope they use some common sense in their decision making and realize what a mistake it would be to approve this project with so many questions left unanswered.

Town attorney says toss the tapes

It seems our request, under the " Right to Know " law, for copies of all of the taped Planning Board minutes in regards to Mr. Van Dyke's proposed condo project sparked Margaret Sharra into bringing up the subject at the March 17th meeting. She asked the town attorney how long should the tapes be kept and his response was that the board did not need to keep the tapes and to dispose of them. The record, he stated; has been set with the minutes. Now the minutes he speaks of, are a typed up, heavily edited version of what took place on the night of that meeting. It is not a verbatim, word for word, point, counterpoint accurate account of everything that was discussed; but a short and condensed version put together by Margaret Sharra. The trouble with this is, that it's her version of recording the events of that particular meeting on that particular night and many questions and answers and comments are left out of the official record. Though the board voted to keep these recordings for 60 days and then destroy them. ( By the way, the Selectman destroy their tapes after 30 days ) my question to them would be, just how accurate would the information be, if needed for a court appeals hearing? I'm also wondering why, with all of the important topics the Planning Board needs to discuss, the chairperson would bring up the subject of meeting tapes at this time, right after our request for them. Just one of those things that makes you wonder if someone has something to hide.

Annual Town Election .. and the John Stetser saga ...

Be sure to get out and vote today in the annual town election. There are a number of positions to be filled and warrant articles on the ballot that are important to how our town government is run. Each and every vote counts, so be sure to exercise your right to be heard and get to the polls before they close tonight at 7:00pm.

Where to vote: Town Hall, main floor
When: 8:00am - 7:00pm

Disturbing Behavior

There seems to be a small group of people, intent on preventing us from informing the citizens in town, of the status of this proposal to build these condominiums on Franklin Mountain. Over the summer, many of our flyers and notices were removed from "free" bulletin boards around town and now the same thing has begun to happen again. Notices at several store bulletin boards and at the town re-cycling center have been vandalized and removed. I can only wonder why these people involved, are so afraid of us informing the citizens of Winchester about this project and these proceedings and what they expect to gain by their conduct. It's truly disgraceful to know that there is an element in town against freedom of speech.

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Decision delayed on condo project

The Keene Sentinel Tuesday February 12, 2008
by Sarah Palermo
Sentinel Staff

Winchester- The Winchester Planning Board has postponed a decision on Rindge developer Robert Van Dyke's 32 unit condominium development on Franklin Mountain Until April 7.
At the board's meeting Monday night, members requested Van Dyke secure certain agreements before they would consider granting conditional approval.
Because the project includes land underneath power lines owned by Public Service Co. of New Hampshire, the board asked that Van Dyke obtain approval from the company to do construction under the lines before the next meeting.
The board also wants to wait until the New Hampshire Dept. of Environmental Services agrees the site can support enough water and septic systems for the 32 planned units.
"I would be more comfortable if we waited until the DES approval was in.. I wouldn't just be hoping we made the right decision," board member Larry R. Hill said at Monday's meeting.
Before the April 7 meeting -- 7 p.m. at the town hall -- the board hopes to visit the site. The time and date of the visit will be posted at the town hall.