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Below is a list of recent off topic comments that have been moved here in an effort to clean up some previous threads..
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61 comments:
Why Bother? said...
Its off the subject, but I see the town hall is looking for volunteers for the budget committee. First, is a appointment legal and second, why would anyone who wanted to vote there conscience apply. The select board has the board down to almost total control, so its would be a total waste of time if you wanted to make a difference.
September 20, 2013 at 5:04 PM
Talk about a total waste of time said...
To add to the Sept. 20th point, If you are a member of a budget committee who tries to make a difference for the taxpayers of Winchester, wait until you get to the deliberative session. The town employees, friends and family will shoot you in the foot so fast that you will have to wonder why in hell you put in so much time trying to help the people that don't show up to support any change that would help with there tax bill. So if you have time to waste, sigh up for the budget committee, at least you will understand why your tax bill keeps going up.
September 20, 2013 at 5:04 PM
Anonymous FYI said...
FYI-For Winchester residents, todays sentinel has water flushing hydrants, Sept 23 to Oct 11, in the legals instead of the second page. Just in case you missed it.
September 21, 2013 at 6:35 AM
Anonymous said...
I saw a posting on the Town web site, to submit names to the budget committee chairman. Interesting that she hasn't paid her property tax bill yet. I'm glad to see that our leaders in reviewing the budgets that the rest of us live by, aren't held to a higher standard.
September 21, 2013 at 8:13 AM
Anonymous said...
Those volunteer forms are suppose to be submitted to the BOS, who in turn shoot down anyone with a brain or standards that would go against them. What's the use of trying when you won't get selected unless you're a patsy for those in power now. Do you really think someone with experience and a conscience, say like Bob Davis or Brian Moser or Jenn Belam would get selected? to serve? This is such a joke and everyone knows it.
September 21, 2013 at 9:44 AM
Anonymous said...
Many who can well afford it don't pay their taxes, including several town employees who get paid quite well for doing very little. Yet when it's someone outside the clique who is struggling, they get demand letters and are ostracized by the very same people who shirk their own responsibility. There is no level playing field in Winchester.
September 21, 2013 at 12:06 PM
Anonymous said...
Anonymous @ September 21, 2013 at 12:11 PM
A very true statement and something that could be considered a FACT. Maybe somebody can do a little research and publish these names on the informer. get this information out there for individuals to see easily and then nobody could deny these facts and it just might start the whole ball rolling. I do believe if you are a town employee or board member or have any association with the town, if you cant pay your taxes you shouldn't be allowed to be on any town board or payroll.
It would be interesting to see if a town employee or board member is farther behind on taxes than a general citizen who was and lost their property while the employee or board member still has theirs!
Is there truth to this and can it be published?
September 21, 2013 at 12:11 PM
Anonymous said...
Perhaps someone with an accounting background should apply. Oh, but then, they would have to keep their hand out of the cookie jar!
Once again you are all saying what has been said for the last five years. I say to you put your money where your mouth is and thank Bob Davis, Brian Mosher and most of all Mike Towne. Mike took the most crap and is still one who values integrity.
September 21, 2013 at 1:05 PM
What Happened? said...
Remember back in the day when the business owners and the high ranking people like the tannery management, or local farmers like Mr. Johnson ran for the offices that kept this town on the right track
September 22, 2013 at 6:57 AM
Who in town hall doesn't pay their taxes and why? When are they going to pay them? Who is responsble for this?
u wanna find out who in town hall dont pay there taxes follow this link and put there name in the box and see for yourselves gonna show who is honest and who the crooked ones are that live off of us
https://nhtaxkiosk.com/?KIOSKID=WINCHESTER
Here's a few I found following that link posted above
Teresa Sepe on our Select Board owes the town
$1,662.15.
Planning Board and Budget committee member Jack Marsh owes the town
$20,452.20
Planning Board member Larry Hill owes the town
$907.84
Zoning Board members
Lou Fox owes the town
$542.22
Rebecca Beaman owes the town
$936.16
John Pasquarelli owes the town
$21,084.56
Budget Committee member Kathleen Hebert owes the town
$1,887.73
Land Use Admin and newly appointed Town Assessor Margaret Sharra owes the town
$2884.92
and there's lots more if you just go look. There's a whole crap load of businesses that haven't paid their taxes either, how come? Why aren't the Selectmen doing their jobs and going after these people, especially paid employees and business scofflaws and getting the towns money instead of forcing new taxes on all of us who pay to make up for those that don't? This is total crap!!
Wasn't Roberta another one who never paid her taxes yet took her kids on lots of vacations and even bragged about it on her facebook pag? Did she ever pay those back taxes she owed or did she get a pass when she became a selectman like they have done so many times before?
People have a hard time keeping up with there bills from time to time, but the same people that cant keep up and are in a position to regulate the towns budget is just wrong. Its amazing, some of these people never vote NO on anything and we keep voting them in.
If my memory serves me correct a few home owners who were not Town hall supports lost their property's owing less than Mr. Marsh and Mr. Pasquarelli.
The rest of the list the $ is a lot lower and I'm sure they will catch up, this could just reflect paying 1 tax bill late, I'm not justifying it, just saying it is what it is.
But thank you to whomever did the research and typed this up for us, Good job.
Be sure you note that the Chairman of the Budget Committee is none other than Kathleen Hebert!
Unless things have changed, wasn't our representative in Concord behind on property taxes, and possibly has a lien on his property? People who cant or wont pay there property taxes should not have there hands on the purse strings of the town or the state.
PARKHURST, HENRY A. L.
The total due to the town is $7,913.23.
Nothing but scofflaws representing this town. Why in hell should the rest of us pay; disgusting doesn't even come close
What the hell is going on here? This is really unbelievable!!
MONADNOCK MOTOR SPORTS INC.
both tracks combined, the cycle and speedway
Owes the town $30,898.40. going back to last year and yet the get a permit to operate, what the hell?
Not defending the track but if they cant operate they will not be paying taxes. The town hall crew I find way more shocking. Time for the town to tale some property's and auction them off dirt cheap. What's good for the Gander should damn well be good for the Goose.
F.Y.I JP place on route 10 is coming up for auction.ID#2013-703
Event status: On
Store with (2) Two-Bedroom Apartments Along Route 10
10/11/2013 11:00:00 AM
234 Keene Road, Winchester, NH
Pickle fest is hear, go and have a great time. The voters continue to fund the event, but do they know that its over funded to the point that the Pickle committee has enough extra money to pay for 1/2 of Smokey Bear that no one can agree on where it should be placed. It never ends, does it?
Why hasn't the town published any recent minutes from the Planning and Zoning boards since August what gives?
As per usual Margaret and now her new best friend Shelly don't want people to know what goes on at those meetings.This has been going on for a long time. You'll also notice they removed almost all of the old meeting minutes so you can't go back and read up on what lies she's told. You aren't really missing anything as it's business as usual where Margaret is involved, more regulation changes to help her friends and ignoring procedures, nothing has changed. Pretty sad when you pick on a woman in a wheelchair.
If they had nothing to hide the information would be posted on the town's website. This has been Sharra forte' for over a year now since she has been caught a number of times fabricating the truth and manipulating the boards. Truth is she's a twisted, vindictive woman with an agenda and she does whatever she wants with no repercussions from those we have placed in charge. lack of leadership and personal agendas are what Winchester is all about. Our boards are a joke anyways, same old people on all of them, why bother going through the trouble of reading the minutes, they're never an accurate account of what transpired or who said what. You only get Margaret's version of what went on and who said what, never the full truthful version
Reading the above about overdue property taxes...note that our own Mr. Pickle owes about $8000 in unpaid taxes..YET he is just about to leave on a European vacation. Oh the things you can afford when you don't have to spend your dough on unpleasant items like taxes.
Also...NH Tax Kiosk reveals that businesses in the Kulick's plaza have closed and never paid water or sewer bills. They are all still outstanding due and payable.
Are our elected officials making any attempt to collect?
Or do they just ignore it?
Why do any of us bother to pay our bills on time?
Will the money raised at the public auction of PSquare's go first and foremost to reducing that $20,000 property tax debt?
Excuse me selectmen...how do you let someone get $20,000 behind on their taxes?
And Mr P Square, why would you open a business a mile up the road from a successful established business that sold everything your store would plus gasoline.
No crystal ball needed to see that doomed to failure was in your future.
The new business in Mr G's spot has got the Winchester demographic nailed down tight - can't go wrong with beer, cigarettes, and lottery tickets in this town.
There is no reason to complain about the Pick fest, the money for it is put right on the ballot for people to decide if they want to support it as all items should be. Its a great community event and brings a lot to our little town.
Now we have tons of other expenditures that we have no control over or are unaware of. Line items get changed and moved around. money is moved from here to there. and when we say no to cruisers and other un needed stuff they still have find a way to purchase it against our wishes and votes. Money is wasted on stupid things like the HDC, over paid employees, Funding our own Ambulance while still paying for Diluzio to handle most our calls, Ugly sidewalks that wont last instead of doing it right the first time. un necessary legal cost because a local business man wants to build a monopoly. The list goes on and on. but yet you find it important to complain about the Pickle festival? I think this shows where are true problems are, ignorant uninformed citizens and voters.
^ speaking of ignorant uninformed citizens and voters.
10:12AM--I AGREE
The only thing I see about posting to this site is that when you do, you get insulted and ridiculed.
So what's the sense of trying to post something that you feel needs to get out to the people.
Doomed from the get go.
Let's have it on this one too. c'mon give it you best shot.
Been boring the last few days. Just want to stir it up a bit.
Thinned skinned are we? When you post comments on a public blog you can expect others not to agree with you and like you voice their opinions. If you don't like being held accountable for what you write, don't comment and better yet, go start your own blog if you feel you have important information to get out to the public. That way you can control every facet of the blog and delete comments you don't like or agree with and have no worries that someone might put you in your place for showing what a boob you are. :0)
To October 7, 2013 at 8:18 AM
I understand. Thank you for that.
Tonight,!0/10,on WMUR, The Winchester Pickle Fest.
All you hard working tax payers enjoy your work Monday, another 3 day work week for the chosen few.
Above comment: town employees have Monday off so it's a 3 day work week for them.
Wait a minute - isn't something wrong?
Paid holidays are based on 8 hour days.
Why is their paid holiday 10 hours?
They are SUPPOSED to be working 40 hour weeks.
If they have a 10 hour Monday holiday that means they worked a 30 hour week.
What a deal!!!!
How does this work????
If the town grants say 2 days of vacation that would be 16 hours of vacation.
For Winchester employees does that 2 days = 20 hours off?
Do they punch in and out or just come and go as they please?
Our town is run quite differently than our work places and we all know there is no accountability what so ever. Winchester taxpayers will continue to get the short end of the stick until changes at the top in personnel have been made. Course if no one cares enough about getting screwed to go out to vote then this stuff will go on and things will only continue as usual.
I would think enough people think this is unfair. And the whole 4 day work week does not work for the citizens, but it is handy to the employees. I also think many people would like to see the downstairs offices open during some night hours and maybe a few hours on Sat. stagger them so there is no overtime.
Can any of this be accomplished with petitioned warrant articles?
Night hours are essential for town offices. People who WORK (there must be at least some of us in Winchester who work) cannot get to town hall by 5pm in order to have enough time to complete their transactions.
At least ONE half day Saturday per month should also be MANDATORY.
Town employees are hired and paid by the people of Winchester and, as our employees, we expect them to serve our needs which is their job rather than operate at their own convenience.
We, the taxpayers, need to get this on the ballot - hours WE need and most definetly a time clock like the rest of us use.
Also to consider: as our employees, why do they have more sick and vacation time than we, their employers, could ever hope for?
On OUR jobs, are we allowed to come and go at will? Make appointments and run errands and still get paid for a full day without being warned or docked?
Wondering if we have any part time employee or employees that get paid time off. I'm betting we do.
Some part time employees do get paid vacation, sick and holidays which should not be allowed - part timers generally do not get any "extras". Many full time employees do not get paid sick time and certainly not every federal holiday.
Anonymous comment wondering about time off for part time employee(s).
Nicely phrased. Point noted.
This issue has been discussed and dismissed.
My opinion is that it is ridiculous and should be changed.
I stand by my 2 suggestions:
"Downstairs" services should have one day a week when one person works 9-7:30 instead of 7-5:30
And at least one week per calendar month one person should work 4 hours less on a weekday and come in for 4 hours on a Saturday.
They could alternate and these hours would serve townspeople needs better.
Ok, I'm done!
Holy smokes, Just read all the newly added minutes on the towns web site, by the looks of it we are in real trouble with next years budget, our taxes will be going through the roof. I think I will start going to the budget meetings and paying attention.
What? Are you people from another planet or something or maybe from place under a rock? These town employees do not work for us the tax payers, they work for themselves all governed by The Shermnator's Rule. You will not tell them what time they should be at work or what hour they should go home. They isn't a town warrant that you can get pass deliberation session because you people can not get off your fat a$$ long enough to show up at the town hall.
You will continue to pay people like John Gomarlo thousands of dollars in comp-time and have him sit out to the dump with him thumb up his a$$ collecting your hard earned tax dollars. Good luck! With any changes in this town...
Speaking of saving money, drove through Hinsdale today, The Hinsdale hwy. dept.was line striping the road. What is the matter with these people, don't they know that using an outside vender like Winchester does is the cheap way out.
Heard the school board met last night on the budget and didn't post the meeting! Is there something to hide?
Wonder who dropped the ball on the burt hill bridge? Wonder what outside service we will have to pay to fix this mess.
Did you go to the meeting? I think they are public meetings.
There was a ton of heavy truck traffic on Burt Hill this past summer. Logging trucks, cement trucks etc. Here's hoping that this winter the highway department sands and salts the road better than they did last year. There is still a lot of traffic on the road on a weekend night. If Winchester's finest patrolled the road they might be able to fix the bridge with funds from DUI stops.
Its the way it works, log trucks and cement trucks etc. beat the hell out of roads and bridges and the poor slob that works trying to scrap by get to pay for the damage. Maybe it all evens out with jobs and taxes but it looks to me like the rich get richer and the poor working slob gets further and further behind. There is enough money on Burt hill, that I'm betting the bridge fix is put on the fast track.
Speaking of Winchesters Finest, anyone know where we got the money for the new 4x4 cruiser?
I understand water and Sewer is looking for another full time employee, I'm betting that's not the only full time position that they are looking to fill.
We got to pay attention and start going to budget committee meetings, You think your tax bills are high now you just wait till after this years budgets go through. Go to the meetings, support the BC and voice your concerns. More full time Town employees are coming, The library want's to increase their budget from 1,500 to almost 18,000. Flood the BC meetings with people and be vocal.
Was just reading the minutes from the selectmen's 10/23/13 meeting. It seems that the selectmen have authorized a tax anticipation note borrowing for two million dollars!!! It would seem that they aren't able to pay the bills without some extra pocket change available these days. They borrowed last spring ,too. A combination of inflated budgets combined with taxpayers that are strapped, and not paying their tax bills on time? Hopefully, there will be someone on the budget committee that will at least ask about it before growing the tax rate too much more. Of course, that might be more of a miracle for them to perform, than their job description duties would imply.
Anonymous November 11- Conant Library budget is much more than $1500.
There is an absurd idea being studied seriously right now as to whether the previously not supported by Winchester taxpayers Thayer Library in Ashuelot should become a tax supported "branch" of the Conant Library.
Apparently Ashuelot is just too far away from Winchester and needs its own library.
What about Westport Village? Certainly that area is further away and needs a branch library as well.
The sprawling metropolis of Keene does very well with one library, but the tiny town of Winchester needs 2.
If this merger is approved the town will have to put the Thayer people on the payroll and pay for their books and building utilities.
The idea behind this thinking came from the selectmen, not the people of Winchester and the real reason behind it is an attempt by them to get their grubby paws on the Thayer Trust Fund and control of money that has eluded them for years. Thayer Library is a vital park of Ashuelot Village and it's history, used by people from that area and though not as much as Conant, nor as big, it's a lot easier to go there than drive to downtown Winchester in inclement weather.The people who work there are volunteers, not paid by the town and are locals who are dedicating their time to straighten out the mess the library became because of past leadership and a paid employee who never did his job. As for Westport Village, you'd better look at a map, that's Swanzey.
I don't think the poster was referring to Conant, according to the minutes on the towns web site Thayer is going to ask to increase their budget to almost 18,000 from 1500. Looks like they want to start paying their volunteers and by the looks of the grounds and gardens in recent years hire a landscape company.
This gem of a place for the village has been serving the village for over 100 years without tax payer support, why do they need all this money now? As far as the comment about the select board getting their hands on the trust it cant and wont happen, the select board can control what goes on with the building but they legally can never touch the trust fund. doesn't matter anyways, with the way the group is burning through money, it will be gone in a few short years anyways.
Wouldn't it be nice if who ever is in charge of posting the BOS Minutes on the town web site did it in a more timely manner. I would imagine its tough getting much work done with all the 3 day work weeks. Thought maybe new management might make a difference.
The BOS minutes usually make it on in a timely matter, compared to the other boards, HDC seems to be the biggest culprit, no minutes since last March??? Seems like they don't want us to know what they are up to. Planning and zoning aren't to bad, but do fall behind sometimes. BC minutes takes forever and Conservation commission has never posted minutes PERIOD. Both Thayer and Conant are up and down, Thayer just posted some new ones but over half from the spring/summer/fall are missing? It makes me angry, I work 2nd shift and cant go to meetings, we have a town web site, I do not feel that I should have to go to the town hall and pay for copies of minutes so I can stay informed on what's going on.
I understand that the secretary for the budget committee is a personal friend of the chairperson, so that might be the problem. The chairperson is part of the click and would not go against the select board for any reason.
So how does everyone like their December tax bills? Bet we're close to having the highest tax rates in the state. Nice that we all have extra money to pay for the best insurance money can buy for our town employees and their raises and thank God we had deep enough pockets to pay higher school salaries too. Hopefully we haven't spent all of our money yet because I'm sure we'll be paying out the nose for some more expenditures real soon. So glad I live in a town where people give a shyt and our elected officials are so diligent and frugal with our tax dollars, ain't ir grand?
Once again Winchester leads the pack!
"In Winchester, which at 64 percent has one of the highest rates of eligibility for free or reduced lunch in the state, the percentage increased about 58 percent since 2002. "
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