Town loses with deal

Besides screwing up a workable budget, the Select-board is also morally bankrupt..

Submitted in the Opinion Section of the Keene Sentinel and published today June 08,2012

When I was a selectman, the most heart-wrenching responsibility was the possibility of having to take someone’s property for nonpayment of taxes.

Fortunately, the law allows selectmen discretion in this area, and I was pleased that in several cases I could be instrumental in working out solutions that both settled the tax debt and allowed people to keep their homes. Those are called win-win situations.

Sadly, not all members of the board were so eager to find such solutions, and one was almost lustful in his zeal to seize property.

There were also many pieces of property that the town had owned for years and had just sat off the tax rolls. Most were little bits and pieces. Some of these were auctioned, and it was common practice that abutters, as the most likely competitive bidders, were made aware of the auctions.

One decision the board made was to auction the tannery property, taken for taxes many years earlier. The town manager chose to ignore the board’s direct instructions and instead listed the property with a Realtor.
“Back room” support of board members allowed his action to stand unchallenged, and the property still sits idle, yielding neither sales revenue nor taxes.

Recently, the select board voted to auction off a small lot with a double truck garage at 50 Rabbit Hollow Road, earlier taken for taxes. The board also decided to set no minimum bid.

Although the board may have met the bare legal requirements for posting, the auction came and went with hardly anyone knowing about it.

Abutters, who might have been willing to pay the most, were not notified.

The property was purchased by Selectman Gus Ruth for $12,533. The assessed value is $119,300. (Back taxes, at 18 percent annual interest, are forgiven when property is auctioned).

Although it may not be illegal for a selectman to vote to take property, to vote to auction it with no minimum bid, and to quietly snap it up at bargain basement prices, is morally repugnant.

This was a lose-lose situation. The property owner lost and the taxpayers lost, first by not recovering back taxes and then by not receiving a better price for the property.

The only winner was Ruth. It will be interesting to see whether he benefits from use of the property, or if he just flips it for a tidy profit.

 SUSAN M. NEWELL

Winchester

The Selectmen in Winchester blew it !

What really happened in 2011?


As the late Paul Harvey would have said:  ... Now for the rest of the story.

When the new Winchester Budget Committee came together in the fall to work on the town’s budget they collectively came to the table armed with the knowledge that their neighbors were relying on them to make serious cuts to the budget.
As the chairman of the budget committee, I requested that the selectman and the school board submit their requested budgets early.
The budget committee always starts with the town’s proposed budget, but we had to wait for several weeks for them to complete it.It was presented to us piecemeal, often without documentation requested, and not in order that we asked.

Several officials and employees got “hot” when we made changes or cuts to their proposed department budgets, but we forged on.

When it came specifically to the water and sewer budgets, a majority of the budget committee members wanted to put some of the money from user fees into saving for emergencies and suggested so.
The selectmen refused, insisting that they wanted to be able to spend all of revenues that would come in for the year. We did not agree with their line of reasoning, so we made approximately $40,000 in combined cuts to the budget.

Although completely segregated finances, the water and sewer departments have always been part of the town’s overall operating budget. In an unprecedented move, the board of selectmen came to the budget committee and informed us they had removed water and sewer department funds from the operating budget and were placing them on the town warrant as special articles at the higher amounts.

This left the budget committee shocked!

Clearly, this was done to override the statutory authority of the budget committee to set the base budget before deliberative session. 

The budget committee has no authority to remove articles from the warrant, or to amend the amounts in the articles, or to recommend different amounts. If the budget committee restored the funds to the operating budget, it would have been double budgeting.
Clearly that wasn’t an option. After asking numerous questions, we were informed that selectmen were basing their decision on information they had received. The committee then moved on with the rest of the proposed budget.
Before the town’s deliberative session in February, it was up to the budget committee to recommend or not recommend each of the money warrant articles.
The budget committee made some hard choices on each article. At this point, both the water and sewer were easy to decide. Since the selectmen had increased the amounts well beyond what we believed to be necessary, we could not with consciences honestly recommend them.
Historically, selectmen have paid out a great deal of money each year to get legal advice on the warrant articles. This time they either acted without advice, chose to ignore it, or perhaps even received bad advice. Simply put: They blew it!

To those people who expended the time and energy to place money warrant articles on the ballot (not tied to the selectmen), those funds are no longer approved by the Department of Revenue Administration.
This includes the E.L.M.M. Community Center and Forest Lake funding. It is unfortunate that they are the victims of the selectmen attempts to override the budget committee.

I have been told that the town cannot operate if these cuts stand as ordered by the DRA. I say if the elected selectmen who made bad decisions can’t make it work, then it’s for them to step down.

I have talked to many business owners in town and I believe that with responsible management we can make it work.

Call and let me know what you think: 239-8952.
BRIAN MOSER
168 Clark Road
Winchester

Settlement reached in fatal Winchester crash

A civil settlement in a fatal motor vehicle crash last year in Winchester moved forward in court this week, while a criminal trial stemming from the crash is expected to start in September.

In April 2011, 17-year-old Kelsey E. Hopkinson and her friend, 21-year-old Melissa A. LaBrake, both of Keene, died in a head-on collision on Route 10.

LaBrake’s then-20-month-old daughter, Emma M. LaBrake, and another passenger in the car, 22-year-old Heather McCormack of Winchester, survived the crash with serious injuries.

James R. Couch 3rd, 40, of Swanzey, who was driving the other vehicle involved, was also injured and survived.

Police said an investigation led them to believe Couch was suffering from a medical condition when he crossed the center line, colliding with the car driven by Hopkinson.

Couch’s insurance company has agreed to pay a $300,000 settlement to be divided among the Hopkinson and LaBrake families and McCormack, and a hearing Wednesday in Cheshire County Superior Court was required to finalize the details, according to court documents filed in the civil case.
Emma LaBrake, who suffered a cut on her forehead and a spleen injury in the crash, now lives with her grandparents, court documents showed.

Couch was indicted and pleaded not guilty in superior court to two counts of negligent homicide. A pretrial hearing is scheduled in August, with a trial tentatively slated for September, according to court documents filed in the criminal case.

The trial was delayed last month after attorneys for Couch filed a request for prosecutors to provide more information about the basis of the indictments, which claim Couch was negligent based on speed and crossing the center line. Couch was suffering from a diabetic condition at the time of the crash, court documents show.

By Sentinel Staff

WARNING .. PASS ALONG TO YOUR NEIGHBORS

Though there have been no reports here in our area, you can bet that once the word has spread on You Tube and Facebook there will be some knuckleheads that will think this is funny. Be ever vigilant when picking trash off of your lawns and along the roadside in front of your home.


Subject: Warning from Enfield Police Dept.

Kids are putting Drano, tin foil, and a little water in plastic drink bottles and capping it up - leaving it on lawns, in mail boxes, in gardens, on driveways etc. just waiting for you to pick it up intending to put it in the rubbish, but you'll never make it!!!  

If the bottle is picked up, and the bottle is shaken even just a little - in about 30 seconds or less it builds up enough gas which then explodes with enough force to remove some of your extremities. The liquid that comes out is boiling hot as well.
Don't pick up any plastic bottles that may be lying in your yards or in the gutter, etc.  
Pay attention to this. A plastic bottle with a cap. A little Drano. A little water.
A small piece of foil. Disturb it by moving it; and BOOM!!
No fingers left and other serious effects to your face, eyes, etc.

 

Richard A. Crate Jr.

Chief of Police

Enfield Police Department

Judge will not stop demolition

WINCHESTER — A judge has denied a request to stop the demolition of a 200-year-old building in the town’s historic district.

The plaintiffs, composed of five residents and local grocery store Kulick’s Inc., filed for an injunction in December.

In October, the town’s zoning board agreed to allow the demolition to make way for a new Dollar General store. The plaintiffs first appealed to the zoning board to rehear the issue, but it denied the request.

They then filed action in Cheshire County Superior Court, requesting the court invalidate the decision and send it back to the board for further review.

In court documents, the plaintiffs argued the board held illegal, secret meetings to make its decision and did not properly consider the effect of the building’s removal.

They also argued replacing the house with a Dollar General would “undermine the historical, cultural and architectural value of the Historic District.”

The building at 71 Main St., called the Wheaton-Alexander House, was built about 1810 and was home to prominent doctors in the community.

Superior Court Judge Kathleen McGuire ruled April 25 there was no evidence of secret meetings, an argument that the application had regional impact wasn’t valid and the plaintiffs had no direct stake in the fate of the private building and were not eligible to receive a judgment. McGuire also wrote in her decision that the case only involved the building’s demolition, not any plans for the Dollar General.

A Cleveland development company, the Zaremba Group, had applied to demolish the house at 71 Main St. and replace it with a Dollar General store. The Historic District Commission denied the application in July. Since the house is part of the town’s historic district, Zaremba needed the commission’s approval to remove it. Zaremba appealed to the zoning board, which approved the house’s demolition. However, it left the decision on the future building’s design in the hands of the Historic District Commission.

A date for that decision has not yet been set.

The plaintiffs have made a motion to reconsider, and the judge’s ruling on that is expected soon.

Garrett Brnger can be reached at 352-1234, extension 1436, or gbrnger@keenesentinel.com.

Public Meeting Notice

PUBLIC NOTICE

TOWN OF WINCHESTER

The Supervisors of the Checklist will be having a public meeting Tuesday June 5, 2012 at 7:00 pm, at the Town Hall per RSA 654:33 and 654:32.

This will be the last day to change party affiliation before the state primary in September.  You may pick up and drop off forms at the Town Clerks office before that date or at the Supervisors of the Checklist meeting on June 5. Per RSA 654:34  

Supervisors of the Check List

Winchester officials at odds over spending

By Garrett Brnger Sentinel Staff

WINCHESTER — State-mandated cuts to the town’s 2012 spending has selectmen blaming the budget committee and taking legal action. The N.H. Department of Revenue Administration this month invalidated $418,956 of the spending voters approved at March’s town meeting in the wake of a disagreement between the two town boards over water and sewer funding.

That funding was initially not recommended by the budget committee.
But the state agency says when the money ended up getting approved by voters in March, it exceeded the state-allowed spending limit for official-ballot towns — 10 percent over the budget committee’s original recommendation.
Though the budget committee changed its recommendation to include the $537,802 funding by Election Day, the state holds to an original recommendation when determining spending limits.

Selectmen have now petitioned Cheshire County Superior Court to permit the spending, saying the budget committee failed to provide appropriate funding for water and sewer operations.

If the spending does get cut, that means more than $170,000 would be chopped from the town’s operating budget, along with money for the ELMM Community Center, Conant Library, road and bridge construction and a number of other items.
The state agency informed the town in a letter dated May 1 that voters appropriated nearly $419,000 more than state law allowed based on the budget committee’s original $3.1 million spending recommendation.

Then-Chairman Brian D. Moser said Thursday the committee chose to leave out the water and sewer operations, which are funded by user fees, as a form of protest against them being listed as separate warrant articles instead of within the operating budget.
Moser said the committee had requested the departments put some of their user fees in an emergency fund. When they said no, the committee cut their budgets, Moser said.
Moser said this prompted selectmen to pull out the funding as separate articles on the warrant where the budget committee would have less control. Selectmen also recommended a combined $47,822 more than the committee had allotted for the departments.
Town Administrator Joan Morel, however, said selectmen separated the departments’ funding from the operating budget because they are self-sufficient departments and do not need to draw on general-fund money.
After the deliberative session in February, Moser said, committee members were worried about talk that they had done something illegal and voted to change their recommendation.
By then it was too late, as the Department of Revenue Administration used the original recommendation to calculate the town’s appropriation limit.

Because the town protested to the state agency that the water and sewer systems are vital, they are not being cut to get down to the 10 percent limit. However, every other warrant article involving money is being cut.

Items cut by the state include:

• $173,505 from the town’s operating budget.
• $56,000 for the police youth aid officer.
• $50,000 to create a Conant Library repair and maintenance fund.
• $28,450 for property assessment.
• $20,000 for road and bridge reconstruction.
• $5,000 for emergency services and relief.
• $4,000 for the annual Pickle Festival.
• $3,000 to treat exotic, invasive plants in Forest Lake.
• $1,000 for future town computer upgrades.
• $28,000 for the Evergreen Cemetery care fund.
• $50,000 to the ELMM Community Center.

The selectmen’s court petition argues the budget committee did not originally set an amount for the water and sewer departments it “honestly believes is appropriate,” as it’s required to do by law.
Therefore, selectmen say, the the spending limit should be raised to $4 million — which would allow for what voters approved in March.
Selectman and attorney Barton L. Mayer could not be reached for comment.
The budget committee must file a written appearance to the court by June 5.

Board of Selectmen Regular Minutes 5-2-12

Board of Selectmen Regular Minutes 4-25-12

The shell game continues with your tax dollars. Also pay close attention as to how our town ambulance has been pulled from service to transport at the race tracks .. 11 seasons !!

A job well done

A job well done Regarding “Winchester water woes,”

Too often we hear stories about municipal workers hanging around doing nothing.
We never hear about the times when they earn their money, so here goes: Having been in underground utility construction for the better part of 45 years, I would like to commend Rick Meleski, Dale Grey and their crews for doing a great job under adverse conditions.
These guys deserve a big “attaboy” for a job well done
MIKE DOHERTY
Ashten Rue
Winchester

Garden Event at Thayer Public Library

1. 

Perhaps a financial audit is due here too

Is this the next step in our citizens vs school district saga too?

School district seals spending records 

By KATHY CLEVELAND and DEAN SHALHOUP The Telegraph of Nashua | 

WILTON — Rather than allow residents to review the results of a publicly funded analysis of spending on the school district credit card, the Wilton-Lyndeborough Cooperative School Board has decided to seal an attorney’s report for up to 50 years. The school board accepted Superintendent Trevor Ebel’s resignation during a nonpublic session Tuesday night. Ebel resigned amid the review of credit card expenses for such things as meals, movies, alcohol and limousines.

School board Chairman Geoff Brock called upon the 35 people in the audience to “trust the people you’ve elected. I think we have some very good, dedicated people.”
The financial analysis by attorney Dean Eggert was requested after an audit of school district expenditures turned up questionable expenses charged to the school district credit card, which was in Ebel’s possession and had his name on it.
A Telegraph review of credit card receipts charged to the district’s Citizens Bank credit card found charges for $200-per-night suites and meal tabs of up to almost $900. During one trip to San Francisco, Ebel signed two receipts for limousines on the card, one for $170 and one for $145.
Kristina Fowler, administrative assistant for School Administrative Unit 63, said Wednesday morning she couldn’t provide a copy of Eggert’s report because it was sealed by the board.
Asked how long it would be sealed, she said she thought it would be “for 50 years.”
The report was discussed in nonpublic session before the board meeting, and Brock announced that the investigation was complete.
The board not only sealed the report, it also sealed the minutes of the nonpublic session because the information could affect the reputation of a district employee, Brock told the audience.
At least some of the money spent on the trips to professional conferences was paid through federal grants.
“In general,” Brock said at the meeting, “the board supports use of federal funds for professional development. We are concerned about some of the things they bought.”
He didn’t elaborate.
Receipts showed that seven educators from the Wilton-Lyndeborough school district spent around $3,000 to stay at a Pittsburgh all-suite hotel, which involved commuting 70 miles round-trip to California, Pa., for a two-day conference, when they could have stayed much closer for much less money.
Among some of the other charges were:
$5,000 in room charges at Boston’s Park Plaza Hotel.
$3,600 for hotel rooms in San Francisco.
$724.35 for a meal at the McCormick & Kuletos seafood restaurant, including two orders of Chilean sea bass for $69.90 total and $123.75 for alcohol, when seven educators traveled to San Francisco.
$48 for a lunch for one person at the Cheesecake Factory restaurant in San Francisco that included two Ultimate Margaritas at $12 each. The lunch lasted 45 minutes.
$894.14 for a meal for 14 at Fleming’s Steakhouse in Boston, including nine servings of filet mignon; two of those orders were porcini-dusted for a total of $73.90. Other dinners on the meal ticket included a bone-in ribeye steak for $43.50, a lamb chop for $35.95 and a pepper steak for $39.50.
Despite the restaurant serving 14 people, only 11 teachers were enrolled at the educational conference.
Ebel, who has been superintendent since June 2009, wasn’t at the meeting. Before getting the job, he was principal at Wilton-Lyndeborough Cooperative Middle/Senior High School.
Current WLC Principal Brian Bagley will continue as acting superintendent until June 30, the end of the district’s fiscal year.
Ebel has agreed to stay on as a “consultant” to the school district for 30 days because his resignation didn’t meet his contractual obligation to give a certain amount of notice. He will be paid a per diem rate based upon his most recent salary — $98,000 a year — and will do only district work assigned to him. He will work from home.
Brock said a search would begin immediately for an interim superintendent.

 

Red-tailed Hawks Nest Cam

Live feed compliments of the Cornell  Lab of Ornithology

http://www.allaboutbirds.org/page.aspx?pid=2422&utm_source=Cornell+Lab+eNews&utm_campaign=d03c5597ed-eNews_HawkHatch_Flash_April2012&utm_medium=email

Status update: Two chicks are pipping their way out of their eggs. We expect them to hatch on April 22/23

Planning Board Minutes 3-19-12

Board of Selectmen Regular Minutes 4-11-12