Winchester likely to face flood repair bill without federal help

By Meghan Foley Sentinel Staff

WINCHESTER — What took torrential rains hours to wash away, the town’s highway crew will try to rebuild in a week.
The Winchester Board of Selectmen gave the go-ahead to the town’s highway department Monday morning to begin rebuilding a large section of Old Westport Road that was annihilated by flash flooding last week.

The goal, selectmen Chairman Roberta Fraser said Monday afternoon, is to have one lane of the road open to through traffic by the end of the week.

Meanwhile, it appears unlikely that the town will be able to receive funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency despite the widespread damage caused by the storms that began the night of July 15 and ended the next day on July 16.

Of all the Monadnock Region’s communities, Winchester sustained the worst damage, with at least 12 roads washed out and residents living in 26 homes off six of the roads being stranded for some time.

Of the 26 residences affected, only three at the top of Purcell Road remained inaccessible by car as of Monday, town officials said.

Selectmen Sherman Tedford said Monday a contractor is scheduled to tend to that section of Purcell Road Friday, which needs to be ground up and resurfaced.

Some flooding was also reported in other areas last week, including Keene.

Damage costs must meet both county and state thresholds for a community just to be considered for FEMA assistance, said Michael D. Todd, public information officer with the N.H. Department of Safety.

Based on early estimates, the amount of damage Winchester received would be enough to reach the $269,000 threshold for Cheshire County, but not the $1.8 million threshold for the state.

In Winchester, early damage estimates are in the range of $600,000 to $700,000, but town officials have yet to receive final numbers, Fraser said Monday afternoon.

For the 2014-15 fiscal year, which began July 1, the town has an operating budget of about $3.3 million and a highway department budget of roughly $500,000.

Town officials hope they can get most of what needs to get done finished by just using the highway department budget, Fraser said. But without federal emergency funding, they expect they’ll have to look at other options — include bonding and asking the state to allow the town to use its unreserved fund balance, she said.

“We’re probably going to be looking for hundreds of thousands of dollars we don’t have,” she said.

At this time, four road paving projects planned for this year have been put on hold as well as some water and sewer work, Tedford said.

Selectmen have yet to discuss whether spending in other town department should be put on hold, he said, but the town needs to continue to operate for its residents.

For the remainder of the week, pending any emergencies, the highway department has been asked to focus on Old Westport Road so it can be reopened as quickly as possible, according to Fraser.

Highway crews are limited to opening one lane on the side of the road opposite the Ashuelot River because engineering work must be done before the road on the river side is rebuilt, she said.

Cars and large vehicles can get to residences and businesses on Old Westport Road and connecting streets that are south of the washout. But north of the washout, access is limited to vehicles under the weight and height restrictions of the Coombs Bridge.

As a temporary solution, town officials got permission from Mitchell Sand and Gravel off Route 10 to have highway and fire trucks cross the property to get to Old Swanzey Road, which connects to Old Westport Road.

But that solution isn’t working as well as town officials had hoped, as highway and fire trucks were having trouble getting through the area, Fraser said Monday.

“We need to get the road reopened,” she said. “It’s come down to a public safety issue.”

It appears the section of Old Westport Road was first undermined by the Ashuelot River before a tributary on the other side overflowed, taking out the rest of the roadway, she said. The area that washed out didn’t have a culvert or any other drainage structure.

Road Agent Dale Gray said the washed-out area is the length of “a couple hundred feet.”

Gray and other members of the highway department spent Monday afternoon cutting and removing trees that had fallen into the gully during the flood. The gully, which was filled with crashing and fast-moving water last week, is now a pool of calm water with rising dirt and stone cliffs on either side.

Fraser and Tedford stood along the road pulling aside tree branches as they were placed at the top of one of the cliffs.

Both said residents, along with local businesses and contractors, had come forward over the past few days with donations of equipment, materials and manpower to help rebuild Old Westport Road and other streets.

State highway crews have also come forward to help, they said.

In a statement this morning, William H. Boynton, public information officer for the N.H. Department of Transportation, said, “The Town of Winchester is doing an excellent job in repairing the damage to local roads from the recent storm. The NH Department of Transportation is providing expertise and limited assistance with three or four trucks from Highway Maintenance District 4 being used to transport materials.”

With a four-person highway department, the offers of assistance have been appreciated, Winchester officials said.

Besides the short-term repairs, there is now the long-term to worry about too, Tedford said.

Last week was the third time this summer Winchester fell victim to flash flooding. Besides road washouts, flooding has damaged some homes and properties around town. And more rain is expected this week with thunderstorms predicted for today and Wednesday.

The town’s drainage infrastructure, including culverts, is likely something officials will have to look into, especially following the most recent flooding, Tedford said.

And funding for that will be tough to come by, too, he said.

Meghan Foley can be reached at 352-1234, extension 1436, or mfoley@keenesentinel.com. Follow her on Twitter @MFoleyKS.

Do the public's business in public

Sentinel Editorial

Alstead’s selectmen made it clear this week the town’s finances are in trouble.
Though the town has only six full-time employees, the board sent letters to all six, advising them to seriously consider alternative employment if they can. It was an unusual move that could be interpreted as either an extraordinarily generous heads-up or, more cynically, as a scare tactic aimed at voters heading into the next budget cycle.

Selectman Matthew Saxton insists the letter was meant only to give the town’s workers notice that next year’s budget may call for cuts, so they might want to jump on any employment chances that come their way. To elaborate, the board then scheduled a meeting with those employees — behind closed doors, in clear violation of the state’s open-meeting laws.

Whether the board has the right to meet privately with employees might depend on circumstances and legal interpretation. There are, of course, exceptions to the requirement that elected boards do their business in public.

The board eventually emerged from behind closed doors with a claim the private meeting was to discuss personnel issues and/or matters that could adversely affect the reputation of people not on the board. However, those exemptions are meant to protect individuals; a meeting called for the purpose of discussing the possible future employment of ALL of the town’s full-time workers would not seem to qualify.

As Rob Bertsche, general counsel to the New England Newspaper and Press Association, put it: “… the exemption upon which the selectmen rely applies only to personnel actions of specific, identified employees.

… It is not a reference to a meeting to discuss the mass possibility of not rehiring any and all public employees.”

In any case, Alstead’s board did not, as is required under state law, meet publicly first to vote on such a move, nor did it cite, until after the fact, what exemptions to the state’s open-meeting law it felt warranted the session. Pressed by a Sentinel reporter beforehand to justify closing the doors, it dismissed any need to do so.

To call the board’s actions disappointing would be underselling the importance of the public’s role in good government. Selectmen Saxton, Joel McCarty and Michael Jasmin slapped the voters and taxpayers of Alstead in the face Tuesday.

All three have been on the board for years, Saxton and McCarty for a decade or longer. Situations involving the Right-to-Know law have undoubtedly come up repeatedly during their tenures. They have no excuse for not following the law.

In closing the doors without a valid vote and without justification, they told the town’s residents: We don’t care what you think. You have no place in this discussion.

They are, of course, mistaken. The town’s residents have every right to be involved in the running of the local government, and to hear the reasoning behind such an unusual letter.

In this case, we imagine Alstead taxpayers are wondering why their town, which is not unlike many others in the region, is facing such a dire fiscal future. They might wonder how much trouble the town is in, and what steps the selectmen have taken to try to head off having to let workers go, if it comes to that. The public has the right to know why, and how, and when and who.

Civics matters. What the government is up to, at every level, matters. It’s not just a case of protecting against corruption and malfeasance, though those are certainly important. It’s also about being able to understand the decisions that are made, and to question those decisions.

The state, in enacting the Right-to-Know statute, showed agreement with these principles.

However, the law is also unwieldy. It involves suing those who break it, something that is costly in time and money, and most often yields only a stern rebuke and a warning to do better.

Because of that, legal challenges based on the statute are few these days.
And that’s led, far too frequently, to officials choosing to duck public discussion simply because they don’t want anyone listening in as they make hard choices.

Alstead’s selectmen have served the town’s interest well in the past. That doesn’t give them a pass on following the law and letting the townspeople in on their decision-making.

 

Winchester selectmen to meet again in flood's wake

By Meghan Foley Sentinel Staff

WINCHESTER — Selectmen will meet again Monday to discuss how to address the damage caused by flash flooding this week, according to town officials.
Meanwhile, as of Thursday afternoon, all but three houses on roads that were washed out could be accessed by car, Town Administrator Shelly Walker said.

The three homes are on Purcell Road, and people are able to get to them on foot, she said.

In total, at least 12 roads were damaged during the deluge late Tuesday night into Wednesday, with some of the worst being Fosgate Road, Jantti Road, Old Swanzey Road, Old Westport Road and Watson Road.

Old Westport Road remains closed as of this morning to through traffic, as a roughly 120-foot section of it is missing.

Arrangements have been made for ambulances and fire trucks to get to homes on the section of Old Westport Road that is only accessible by crossing the Coombs Bridge, Winchester Fire Chief Barry Kellom said this morning.

Ambulances can cross the covered bridge, which has a height and weight limit, but fire trucks can’t, he said.

Fire trucks responding to calls will be sent through Mitchell Sand and Gravel off Route 10 and onto Old Swanzey Road, he said. From there, they can access Old Westport Road and other connecting streets, he said.

Local and state officials continued to assess the damage Thursday, and met with town officials, Walker said.

Town officials are awaiting a cost estimate of the damage, and whether the town is eligible for any aid.

For images of the flooding’s aftermath, visit SentinelSource.com

Meghan Foley can be reached at 352-1234, extension 1436, or mfoley@keenesentinel.com. Follow her on Twitter @MFoleyKS.

Winchester School Board mulls withdrawing from Keene

by:  Kaitlin Mulhere
WINCHESTER — A breakup could be brewing for the Keene and Winchester school districts.
Winchester school board members here once again voiced their displeasure Thursday with their relationship with Keene High School.

Board members agreed with a committee report that Winchester should tell Keene it's unhappy and that it will continue look at other high school options.

Board members also decided to have an independent lawyer review the district's 20-year contract with Keene.

The report comes after a withdrawal study committee, approved at town meeting in 2012, spent about a year looking into whether a contract with the Keene School District provides the best option for Winchester students.

The town has been sending its high school students to the 1,450-student Keene High for more than a decade, but the relationship has often been tense.

Winchester paid more than $3 million to Keene for its 177 students this year.

That tuition price has grown every year, and that, along with concerns the small town's students are lost in the sea of students at Keene are two of Winchester's top issues.

The board also is growing frustrated with what it describes as a lack of information and poor communication from Keene High School.

Those frustrations were especially evident last month, when outgoing Keene High Principal Lynda C. "Lynne" Wagner visited Winchester.

Board members questioned her then for nearly three hours, and told her repeatedly that the report she gave them was essentially useless.

Wagner told them their report was the same one all towns who send students to Keene received.

Winchester board members sent her home with a laundry list of questions looking for more specific information on how Winchester students perform academically and socially at the high school.

Member Trevor S. Croteau said the board has been telling Keene for three or four years that it wants more detailed information in the high school's annual report about how Winchester students are fairing in Keene.

The information the board wants has never come, he said.

"I really don't think they care that we're unhappy," he said.

As part of the withdrawal study, a Winchester team toured the high schools in Keene, Monadnock and Brattleboro school districts. Members also reached out to Hinsdale School District.

School board Chairman Rick Horton said he'd like to see Winchester be able to offer its students a choice of where they attend school. But the contract with Keene has an exclusivity clause that doesn't allow that.

The group also collected preliminary information about what'd it take to bring students back to Winchester to attend high school.

Still, Winchester wants more information before making a concrete decision to stay at Keene or leave.

Some of that information — particularly detailed cost estimates about reopening a high school in Winchester — will cost the district some money up front, Horton said.

One key piece that's still missing is what students think of Keene.

Winchester designed a survey earlier this year to gather students' opinions and sent it to Keene High last month. But board members don't know if the survey ever made it to students, as they didn't receive any responses.

Board members are hoping some of their questions are answered next month, when Keene officials are scheduled to come to Winchester for a meeting.

Besides Winchester, students from Chesterfield, Harrisville, Marlborough, Marlow, Nelson, Stoddard, Sullivan and Surry attend Keene High.

But Winchester easily makes up the largest block outside of Keene students, and therefore, pays the highest tuition bill.

Winchester board members say the service they get from the high school ought to reflect that.

"Shame on us for never pushing as hard as we are now," Horton said. "But we're on track to get some information and get our answers."

Kaitlin Mulhere can be reached at 352-1234, extension 1439​, or kmulhere@keenesentinel.com. Follow her on Twitter @KMulhereKS.

Wouldn't it be nice if ours had common sense too ? ..

Alstead selectmen warn town employees of cutbacks ...

ALSTEAD — Worries about next year’s budget have prompted the Alstead Board of Selectmen to warn employees of possible staffing cuts next year and to encourage them to seek jobs outside the town. 

In a letter sent with employees’ paychecks last week, selectmen told the town’s six full-time employees their jobs face cutbacks after the 2015 budgeting process.

“We are just one medium sized economic surprise away from drastic and immediate changes,” the letter said. “It is certain that town staffing will look different in 2015, perhaps sooner.”

The selectmen also warned that the town could not guarantee continued health care coverage for its employees.

The selectmen held a nonpublic meeting of the town’s employees at the town offices Tuesday night to discuss the details of the letter and possible changes to staffing and health care. While the state’s Right-to-Know law allows for the board to meet in secret for some personnel-related matters, the selectmen did not cite such an exemption before holding the meeting, and did not vote in public to enter the nonpublic session, as required by state law. A Sentinel reporter’s objection to the handling of the matter was dismissed by the three selectmen.

At a public meeting following the nonpublic meeting with employees, the town’s three selectmen — Joel C. McCarty, Michael Jasmin and Matthew D. Saxton — said they have made no plans to cut specific positions, and they are researching possible alternatives to the town’s health insurance provider before making any decision to cut benefits.

Saxton said the announcement was prompted only by the board’s desire to give ample warning to employees who might be offered employment elsewhere.

“The potential is for Alstead to not have anything like the staffing it has now,” he said at the meeting.

The town employs six full-time workers who receive health insurance benefits, and more than 50 part-time workers. The town has already notified two part-time plow drivers they will not be hired this winter.

Alerting the employees now to the staffing and health coverage uncertainties is better than waiting until next year’s budget deliberations to tell them, Saxton said.

“That’s not fair to them,” he said at the meeting.

One full-time employee, who worked in the town’s transfer station and the highway division, will leave Alstead after this week to work in another municipality. He will not be replaced.

“That helps our situation a little bit because we’re not paying him or buying his health insurance,” Saxton said. “There’s been enough uncertainty over this that if it were me, I’d be looking elsewhere, too.”

The board has requested help from a “navigator” employed under the federal Affordable Care Act, who will advise it on possible alternatives to town-provided health insurance under the new health care law for full-time employees who do stay with the town next year.

In an interview before Tuesday’s meeting, Saxton cited public pressure from Alstead residents to cut spending as a reason for the uncertainty.

Of the town’s roughly 1,200 registered voters, 178 came to a February deliberative session of the town meeting to push for more than $344,000 in cuts to the budget and eliminate a number of proposed allocations. They passed a slimmed-down 2014 budget largely as a reaction to a 2013 tax hike of 19 percent over the previous year.

“There is this constant drum of less, less, less,” Saxton said.

He also said that two spending requirements that will likely be in next year’s budget — workers compensation dues that were offset last year by a refund, and the projected cost of a five-year property revaluation — would tighten the budget further.

Alstead Department of Public Works Director David L. Crosby said he had received the letter, and that he had taken the news in stride.

“It’s business as usual,” he told The Sentinel after the meeting. “We’ll get through it.”

Martha Shanahan can be reached at 352-1234, extension 1434, or mshanahan@keenesentinel.com. Follow her on Twitter @MShanahanKS.

Covered Bridge Celebration, July 12th

 The Winchester Historical Society

celebrates 150 years of

 

New Hampshire Covered Bridge #1

(The Ashuelot Covered Bridge)

1864-2014

Antique fire pump wagons

 

Photo contest (enter your image of Winchester for $5)

 

Local organizations and vendors on exhibit

 

 

 

Space is still available for craft, farm, garden, or food vendors!

 

$15 a space

 

Registration deadline: July 10, 2014

 

For more information, please call Erin Robb (603-239-8919)

or Jenn Bellan (602-239-7206)