NEW Hours as of July 5, 2016
Town Hall Hours
Monday through Friday
7:30 AM to 4:30 PM
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About Me
- the Winchester Informer
- I am part of a group of Winchester citizens completely opposed to dirty and hazardous businesses, like asphalt and wood burning plants wanting to come into town at the expense of our quality of life. I am concerned about preserving the rural character of Winchester. These types of development have no benefits for Winchester citizens and they create many health hazards and will cause the destruction of green space. Our Winchester is known for its precious natural resources; dramatic rocky slopes, unique wetlands and abundant wildlife. I feel there are many questions concerning these proposed projects that outweigh any benefits. The increase in traffic along existing streets and noise and air pollution would be very significant. I am also concerned that the town infrastructure cannot cope with the problems these types of businesses will demand. Furthermore, I am very discouraged with the Planning Board and Zoning Boards and feel they have been negligent in their duties to protect neighboring residents from health hazards and safety issues that will surely arise and affect the lives and livelihoods of many citizens.
37 comments:
Good job Board, after this gets ironed out, maybe a sat morning and a fri night might be a big help to the working taxpayers of Winchester. The town hall jobs are service jobs and they needed a wakeup call. With a couple of part timers, maybe 5 10 hour days for town business would not be out line when it comes to service convenience. Sure would make Winchester a leader instead of a laughing stock.
Great job, Board, long overdue. Time clocks next?
About time for a lot of things. 5 days Great, an hour for lunch good idea, because they were taking an hour anyway. After all these years we find out 2 full timers aren't not needed in finance, just the way they tax collector-town clerk office is over staffed. Time for Time clocks, I think so.
Excellent. Long overdue
Hooray for the Board! With an ever-changing schedule, it's been hard for me to get town business taken care of at times. Later evening hours would help, but having someone there daily during the week is a good start.
On an unrelated topic, thanks to all who made the June 25th "Megapalooza" (a celebration of Margaret Conant's contributions to the community) such a great event! Kudos to Danielle and Steve for getting everything together, and all the other planners, coordinators, and wonderful cooks who contributed to making it a very special day for Meg and her family.
I understand the employees are not taking this well. Well there are a ton of HELP WANTED signs out there, maybe you can make a better deal. Probably one of the few and maybe the only town clerk in the state with full benefits, Jim you might want to evaluate just how good a job you have.
With the service industry you always make some personal sacrifices, the police on this holiday weekend would like to be home or at the beach with there family, and its the same with store clerks, health care, and a million other people that work nights and weekends to make this economy work and our lives easier. Five days a week would seem like a cake walk to those of us who work six and seven days a week, so like a former poster said, there are a lot of Help Wanted signs out there, go for it.
Some of our town employees have had it very good for a long time, living off us taxpayers for years. There really is not a lot of foot traffic at town hall daily to even justify full time work at every station. Our welfare office, which offers help to our less fortunate citizens, those with small children and elderly that rely on those services to survive is only open a few hours a week, yet other offices, really non-essential are open 40 hours a week and the clerks are reading newspapers or in some cases a book or visiting and not even at their desks .. ludicrous!
The town should make all town hall positions part time, be open a couple nights a week to accommodate it's citizens and half day on Saturday. If our current employees revolt and don't like it, let them go seek out other employment. I'm sure there are people in this town who would relish a chance to have a job and in some cases, provide better service.
Speaking of revolt, I understand Winchester taxpayers have and are applying for the opening in the HWY dept. If anyone who lives in town qualify for the position they should have priority over any out of town or out of state applications. Some of our taxpaying residence are not happy with the way this has been handled in the past.
In response to "Get over it," I have worked two jobs per year (and one time, three jobs for almost two years) and I have greatly appreciated the extended hours, so I could come in to pay my water bill very early in the morning and handle the registrations late in the day, in my "between time." There is no need to criticize people who have worked hard to make things run smoothly. You can be sure, if it looks easy, there are people who are working to make it that way. I doubt you understand the job description well enough to know how organized and responsible the town tax collector has to be. I am thankful for how nicely I have been treated when I've had to go in to pay. You sound jealous that they are employed, but I respect your right to expression. As a taxpayer, I like the consistency of a full-time employee and think we should provide benefits, so we can keep good people.
Well good for you, though I find it very hard to believe that someone would work 3 jobs and not complain, they must have all been part time, couple hours a day. I'm sure the employees at town hall appreciated your support. You are obviously one of them as we all know just how hard they work, walking around the building, reading, standing outside smoking 10-20 times a day, leaving to run errands during business hours or other personal business. We are so in awe of these organized and responsible people. Your cl;aim that you go into town hall to pay your taxed is confusing as all you simply have to do like the rest of us is send a check, no need for a visit, nice try. As for keeping good people, if we had more no one would be complaining constantly.
Who would even have the time to watch someone "standing outside smoking 10-20 times per day?" "Get over it" should do just that. I don't believe anything he/she is saying.
To Get Over It:
Of course you go to the town hall to pay your taxes. You need to make certain that you get a stamped receipt and the check is credited correctly to your account. I was supposed to get a mailed receipt this past year and it never happened. I will say that I am smart enough to make certain that the check had been processed through the bank. We all need to pay attention to the small things so that we are not shafted.
To the poster above.. If your cancelled check isn't a good enough receipt in your eyes, then perhaps the problem is simple, you don't trust anyone, especially at town hall. As for not receiving a receipt in the mail, a simple phone call to remind would have saved you a trip downtown.
To anonymous July 3rd 10:16am
As someone who does business at thew town hall daily, I can tell you by simply counting the number of cigarette butts in the urn behind the building by the parking lot door, that a certain someone has a real smoking issue and spends more time outside than she does inside. But who's counting, it's obvious our BOS doesn't care either who's at their desks working. Oh, and believe what you want, I could care less.
Remember the hwy crew hanging off the pickup truck bodies goofing off on dump days a few years back, well they got smart and goof off somewhere else these days. The chosen few in the town hall haven't figured it out yet, maybe they should.
To Get Over It
You said you send your payment in by check (in the mail)and were critical of people going in (in person) and making the payment. Then you say you do business in the town hall daily and count all the butts in the urn. Which is it?
You may indeed "care less" but it isn't nice to slander hard working people and then say that anyone who disagrees with you must "be with them." I, for one, am not "with them" but greatly respect the people at the window who go out of their way to help residents. May I suggest you treat people with kindness, when you are there on your daily business, (the next time you decide not to use the mail) and see how you are treated.
I have no problem with treatment with town hall employees, but all I do is register my car and pay my taxes. I don't think that is the issue, in my opinion the town hall should be open 5 days a week and a Saturday morning and 1 week night would be nice. 100% of the residents that have brought this issue up agree.
I wonder if the schools, hospitals, and even Kulick's have any idea how much money they could save by being open 4 days a week. This is tongue in cheek, but you get the idea.
I have never seen anyone downstairs idle. They are HARD workers and I never saw Shelley idle as well. I miss her and hope she is in a better place and did not lose her job to cover the wrong doings of another town employee. Hats off to Carey for all she is doing to fill in to cover her job and Shelley's!!!!!!! Jim never stops either. The smoker...... well we all know about that. Yet she promoted the work of the Smoke Free Coalition at DHC for landlords.
Five days a week is just fine. Many town halls do far less. I hope now that the BOS will move on to other issues like how does a Health Inspector do their job by just driving around and NEVER getting out of the car??? Sorry if he is not well but how does an inspection get accomplished? And what are they going to do about the ambulance service???? Diluzzio needs to set up a branch in Winchester. And how about trimming intersections before there are accidents??? Why should townspeople be forced to get out their weed wackers to do the Highway Depts job?
Has anyone offered to help find the missing teenager? That is as important as counting the butts in the can. Let's channel our energy and priorities.
Diluzzio in Winchester, serving Richmond, Hinsdale, and Swanzey might be a good idea. Its been mentioned before and got shot down. I would think Hinsdale might like an option on having to deal with the Brattleboro railroad tracks and which hospital they prefer. As for the town employees, as in any business the managements first priority should be leadership not friendship. We are down 1 at hwy and 2 in the town hall and it looks to me like we are doing just fine, so it looks like the board is doing there job along with everyone else.
Guess the town hall employees are trying to prove a point. No BOS minutes posted for almost a month. No one is buying it, but I guess that's the game we have to play.
If we are 1 down in the highway department does that mean that finally Dale has to work instead of riding around all day? Novel thought! The "boys" might have to stay in town and not take an hour for lunch.
If we can get the inside employees to continue to work together we might be ahead of the game.That's what work is all about being a team player; oops that is something that sometimes the town hall does not practice well. It looks like they are trying.
Also, if you are that curious about the minutes stroll on down to the town hall and read them. It looks as though they have established priorities-about time. Kudos people.
Have a great day!
Gee, give them a break, they have ruled for a long time. I imagine it takes a while to learn to take directions again.
I would be thinking of the wages, benefits, and time involved commuting to Keene or Brattleboro and get over it.
As for the minutes........... give Karey a break. She is wearing way too many hats and trying to keep up. What the hell happened to Shelley anyway? For the first time in Winchester history, no one is talking.
Perhaps they do not need to talk as they know that they threw Sheely under the bus and they are embarrassed. Now maybe the town will come together. I know that I am not spelling Sheely's name correctly but pardon me. She did great job. Fix this selectman-and you know how to do it.
New BOS Minutes posted on the towns web site and they are very interesting.
OMG................... does anyone proof minutes before they are approved and posted????? Pretty scary!!!!! Heard that was quite the meeting
Someone definitely needs o go back to school and learn not only how to spell, but learn sentence structure and punctuation as well. Hell, at least use spellchecker.
Disgraceful
I know this has nothing to do with the Town Hall hours - Who are the Blind ones with this continuous situation?
Minutes of the Board of Selectmen Meeting Wednesday June 15, 2016
Selectman Fraser reads James Meacham and Peter Bower's letters of resignation from the police department. Selectman William would like to do exit interviews with these officers. He would like to know why we keep losing officers. Selectman Kilanski makes a motion to accept the letters. Selectman Stephens seconds.
It seems to me that most police dept. employees in most towns play musical chairs. They seem to move from town to town, and I doubt its always a money issue. Don't think the Chief will have a hard time replacing them, just hope it doesn't mean sending more people to the academy for training at our expense. By the way, how much of our uniforms and gear did they leave with?
Would someone please tell me why we need a shooting range in Winchester? We need to do a hell of a lot better. We have two racetracks so when they get done racing they can go shooting? What is wrong with the BOS? Oh, I forgot a yellow streak up the middle of their back!
It's not the BOS, it's the LUA, she's the one going out of her way to bring every noisy, polluting, disgusting business to this town she can because she has such a hate for those who oppose her. She has made sure she has all of her lackeys on the boards and committees that could vote to stop these projects. Just look who is on the PB, ZBA and Historical District Commission.. do the names sound familiar? You want change? Petition the BOS to remove her and do away with this unnecessary position put in place by Tedford and Fraser. Also, she wears way too many hats in this town and attempts to influence every decision made by offering her "expert" opinions during meetings
Then, perhaps the town should ask Bob Davis and Brian Mosher to share their insight. We need all the help that we can get. Should they decide to help the town we do not need to talk nasty about them. These are the guys that helped cut the budgets. Enough negativity we truly need help. I am sick and tired of paying $39,000 for special ed kids at Keene High. I still say we could send them to Keene State to get educated. We do not need to be holding the short end of the stick. Frankly, we are all smarter than that.
Have a nice day!
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