Store dispute: Swanzey sued

When they won't take no for an answer ..

By Garrett Brnger Sentinel Staff

SWANZEY — The developers of a Dollar General store rejected by the Swanzey Planning Board have appealed that decision in Cheshire County Superior Court.
Zaremba Group LLC asserts in the court documents that the board ignored expert evidence and public utility laws in making its decision.

It also alleges the board acted in bad faith by having inaccurate minutes and referencing reasons for denial in the official decision that were not included in the motion.
Zaremba asks for a reversal of the decision by either the board or the court and for the town to pay for its attorney fees.
The land developer applied to build a Dollar General store at the corner of Route 10 and Cobble Hill Road. The 9,100 square-foot proposed building raised a multitude of concerns from residents, many of which hinged upon traffic safety.
However, it was fire protection that was behind the planning board’s decision on Aug. 9. The board found the developer had not secured a source of water for the store’s sprinkler systems and voted 6-1 to deny the application.
Prior to the board’s decision, the West Swanzey Water Company had denied water access to the project for its sprinkler system. West Swanzey Water President Sally Brown said the water system could not handle the additional stress, due to aging machinery.
Zaremba argued, to no avail, that pressure tests of the system show the system has the water to meet project needs, and because it’s a public utility, West Swanzey Water must provide the project with water.
However, as board Vice Chairman Scott Self noted during the board’s decision, “that sounds like it’s going to be a court battle and in the meantime you’re going to go ahead with your plans, but you should have an alternate in place providing that case does not go the way you plan.”
With no such alternate plan, Zaremba’s proposal was denied.
The developer asserts in its court petition the board relied “on personal opinions despite both the legal requirements placed upon public utilities and the field data establishing that the West Swanzey Water Company provided adequate water for fire suppression for the proposed use.”
As a result, Zaremba asks in its petition for the board to reverse its decision within 30 days. Failing that, it asks the court find the board’s decision unreasonable or illegal.
Zaremba also says the minutes from the board’s Aug. 9 meeting do not accurately reflect the discussion between members, the motion or the reason for denial.
The group made a transcript of the meeting and submitted it to the board, noting the errors, the document says.
Zaremba asks to be awarded its attorney’s fees, saying the board acted contrary to expert testimony and its records of the decision are inaccurate.
The Swanzey Dollar General project is one of several the Zaremba Group has been pushing for in the area. Other towns include Marlborough, Jaffrey, Bennington and New Ipswich.
The group’s proposal in Winchester was rejected in July on the grounds that its proposed 9,030 square-foot building was too large for the district in which it was proposed.
Zaremba did not appeal that decision.
Garrett Brnger can be reached at 352-1234, extension 1436, or gbrnger@keenesentinel.com.

EEE reaches region

By Jacqueline Palochko Sentinel Staff

FITZWILLIAM — Two emus in town have tested positive for eastern equine encephalitis (EEE), a serious disease transmitted by mosquitoes.
As a result, the risk level for EEE in Fitzwilliam has gone from remote to high, according to a news release Thursday from the N.H. Department of Health and Human Services.

The surrounding towns of Richmond, Troy, Jaffrey and Rindge have been elevated to moderate risk level for EEE.
The two emus, and a horse in Derry that also tested positive for the disease, are the first animals with EEE in the state.
There have been no positive tests for animals with West Nile virus, another mosquito-borne disease, according to the Health and Human Services department.

Symptoms in humans may include high fever, severe headache, stiff neck and sore throat. They usually occur four to 10 days after a mosquito bite. There is no treatment for the disease, which can lead to seizures and coma. There is a high mortality rate for those who contract the serious encephalitis form of the illness.

The N.H. Public Health Lab tested 4,018 batches of mosquitoes so far this season, according to the news release.

In 2009, state officials confirmed EEE in an emu in Alstead and an alpaca in Greenfield.

To prevent EEE and West Nile, the state agency advises people to remove standing water, old tires, tin cans, plastic containers and ceramic pots because mosquitoes breed in water.
When outside at night, Health and Human Services also recommends wearing long pants and long-sleeved shirts. People should also use an insect repellent. The threat diminishes with the first frost.
For information and questions about EEE and West Nile virus: 1-866-273-6453 or visit www.dhhs.nh.gov.
Jacqueline Palochko can be reached at 352-1234, extension 1409, or jpalochko@keenesentinel.com.

Larry Hill should resign from the PB for his actions

Dissenter hits Winchester board 

 

 By Garrett Brnger Sentinel Staff 

By Garrett Brnger Sentinel Staff

 

WINCHESTER — A planning board member’s call for three other members to resign went unheeded and mostly undiscussed Monday night.

Board member Larry Hill delivered a three-page letter to the board calling for fellow board members Brian D. Moser, Kim G. Gordon and alternate Jennifer Bellan to resign from the Winchester Planning Board and any other town boards or committees.

Calling their actions “vandalistic” and “slanderous,” Hill alleges in his letter that the three “are determined to disrupt the board and attack the integrity of the remaining board members for reasons unknown.
“Unless the disruptions, attacks and unfounded allegations stop immediately, I am very tempted to bring forth a petitioned Warrant Article to dissolve and eliminate the Planning Board.”

Hill’s letter, meant to act as a motion, was not seconded by any of the other six board members at the table, including Moser and Gordon. Only Moser responded.

“The fact that we don’t agree all the time is not (a) reason to say that people should not be on the board. A board that agrees all the time is a joke,” Moser said.

Although Hill writes he had “decided to put everything on the table,” the only actions he attributes to a specific person are to Moser and his Aug. 25 letter to the editor, which Hill calls “slanderous.”

In his letter to The Sentinel, Moser accused another member of the board, whom he didn’t name, of being “a rubber stamp for certain interests.” He also repeated comments he had overheard in a restaurant from an unnamed businessman that “those people in Winchester can be bought off with a bag of groceries.”

Hill called out Gordon for failing to recuse herself from recent deliberations over a proposed Dunkin’ Donuts, because she is a friend and walking partner of Stanley S. Plifka Jr.’s wife. Plifka, owner of Kulick’s Inc., opposed the project. The board rejected the plan and the applicant is now appealing the decision.
Gordon said this morning she and Plifka’s wife do not discuss town business, including the Dunkin’ Donuts proposal, and said there had been no reason to recuse herself during the deliberations on the proposal.

Hill accuses “an alternate” of disruptive behavior and contributing to attacks against the town land use assistant and former planning board member Margaret Sharra.

The incident he refers to occurred during the board’s July 16 meeting, when Bellan objected to being denied the right to speak while she was sitting as an audience member. She was eventually allowed to voice her concerns about the Dunkin’ Donuts project, which Hill believes was the wrong decision. Hill writes that Bellan unfairly blamed Sharra for blocking her from speaking.

Reached after the meeting, Bellan said she believes she was correct in addressing the board with her concerns.

Some of Hill’s other unattributed allegations include wearing hats in a public forum and frequently voting in the negative “even on such matters as approving the meeting minutes.”

After the meeting, Moser, still wearing the black hat he donned in the meeting, said he had voted against approving the meeting minutes since he began serving on the board, because they were not accurate.

Similarly, Gordon said she had voted against approving the minutes for three years because her suggestions for changes or corrections are ignored.

Gordon, Bellan and Moser all said they would not resign. Their terms finish in 2013, 2014 and 2015, respectively.

Moser also serves on the budget committee, and Gordon is the planning board representative on the Historic District Commission.
Garrett Brnger can be reached at 352-1234, extension 1436, or gbrnger@keenesentinel.com.

Principal Promoted

By Kaitlin Mulhere Sentinel Staff

WINCHESTER — School board members have appointed Winchester School’s principal as interim superintendent for the 2012-13 school year.
James M. Lewis took over the administrative position in the district Monday, when former Superintendent Kenneth R. Dassau’s contract expired.

Lewis will continue some of his duties as principal, and Assistant Principal Pamela B. Bigelow will take on some new responsibilities, school board Chairman Trevor S. Croteau said.
“We feel that he’s more than capable of doing a great job at that position, and he was more than happy to fill that role for us,” Croteau said. “His heart is in our school, and we want to find someone like that who’s going to put their full effort into making things work, and Jim is doing that.”
Lewis started as principal of the kindergarten-through-8th-grade school in 2009. Prior to coming to Winchester, he worked as an assistant principal in Candia for seven years.
Board members will begin a search in January or February to hire a permanent superintendent, Croteau said.
Dassau served as superintendent of the district for about a year after N.H. School Administrative Unit 38 — which covered the Winchester, Hinsdale and Monadnock Regional districts — dissolved. In June, he notified the board of his intent to resign.
He continued in the position throughout the summer to help the board search for candidates to replace the director of technology and the business administrator, who also resigned in June.
The technology director and business administrator jobs were two of the central office positions whose salary and hours were reduced, without a reduction in job responsibilities, for the 2012-13 school year. Those cuts were in response to a voter-approved $10.8 million budget — about $675,000 less than what the school board recommended and $250,000 less than the previous year’s budget.
Earlier this month board members hired Lori Schmidt as business administrator, and last week the school board approved contracts for Wes Vaughn as technology director and Suzanne Cooper as director of student services to oversee special education.

Kaitlin Mulhere can be reached at 352-1234, extension 1439, or kmulhere @keenesentinel.com

Fight the Winchester wall

Fight the Winchester wall
When Ronald Reagan told the USSR to “take down that wall,” I don’t think anyone thought he meant to move it to New Hampshire (Winchester).

Maybe the actual wall isn’t here, but it’s close to that. The selectmen have tried to close the gates against the people’s voices.
As taxpayers and citizens, you can no longer go to a selectmen’s meeting and ask a simple question. You must put your question in writing and submit it to them for review. Then they will decide if they will let you speak at a meeting. They will “let you know” ... Sometime.
It gets better than that!
In towns like Winchester, the town pays a set membership fee to the Local Government Center. The center offers a variety of services, including group insurance plans. But mostly it provides legal advice to help all town officials obey the laws, which are very complicated and confusing.
The legal service has always been used by any member of any town board, commission or standing committee, to ask questions about RSAs, and also the proper operation of town government.
Now the selectmen have decided that only the selectmen can call or email the center. All the questions have to be screened through them.
This means we are paying for a service they are trying to stop us from using. What don’t they want other elected and appointed officials to know?
How many boards and committees will get in trouble now that they can no longer get quick answers to sticky procedural problems?
Can you say, “Bring on the lawsuits”?
If you think this is going to make things better, it won’t.
If you don’t care about higher taxes, wasted tax dollars, and special treatment for the obedient lackeys, stop reading.
“We the People” means we are supposed to get what we choose. Selectmen are not supposed to be the bosses of other elected officials.
The people know where I stand and what I believe. Am I the only one who thinks this is wrong?
If we let the selectmen do whatever they want, we might just as well put a wall around the town, cut our phone and Internet lines and do what we’re told to, like obedient little subjects of our self appointed dictators.
Not me.
BRIAN MOSER
168 Clark Road
Winchester

Appeal filed over gas station plan

By Garrett Brnger Sentinel Staff

WINCHESTER — Developers for a proposed combination Dunkin’ Donuts and gas station rejected by a town board are taking their case to court.
Project applicant S.S. Baker Realty Co. LLC filed an appeal of the Winchester Planning Board’s decision in Cheshire County Superior Court. The company alleges the board’s decision was based on perceptions, rather than facts, about traffic concerns, and that some planning board members had conflicts of interest and were biased against the proposal.

S.S. Baker Realty proposed building the combination convenience store, gas station and Dunkin’ Donuts on its property at the northeast corner of the Routes 10 and 78 intersection.
The planning board denied the company’s application 4-2 at its July 16 meeting, citing a concern the proposal “overwhelms the lot” and three safety issues: the left turn onto Route 10, cars possibly parking on the highway shoulder, and the potential overflow from a drive-through onto Route 78.
Board member Larry Hill abstained, saying he did not understand parts of the motion.
Teofilo Salema — the manager of S.S. Baker Realty and the owner of five other Dunkin’ Donuts, in Keene, Swanzey and Hinsdale — says he has done everything the board has asked of him.
The application’s traffic study was approved by the N.H. Department of Transportation, but was disregarded by the board because of anecdotal concerns, he said.
“They had nobody. They’re assuming they know better than the (Department of Transportation) and the people on the traffic study,” Salema said.
“Why did I spend so much money on traffic studies when they already knew what was going on?”
The appeal also alleges during the public hearings, “it became clear certain members of the Planning Board were acting improperly, had conflicts of interest or were otherwise biased against the Application, and these members should have been disqualified from hearing the Application.”
The petition does not directly accuse any board member or outside influence but asserts the board’s failure to remove biased members or those acting improperly resulted in unlawful hearings, deliberations and votes.
The appeal makes only an oblique reference to specific incidents through a quote from the board’s July 16 meeting minutes:
“(Gus) Ruth reminds the board of certain happenings of this board during the public hearing process such as (Kim) Gordon passing papers to Kulick’s attorney and other members passing ‘personal’ papers from one member to another then another. He does not believe this will look good in court.”
During the May 21 meeting, Gordon handed attorney Kelly E. Dowd a folder of site plan review regulations, according to the meeting minutes.
“She (Gordon) was sharing information with the other attorney in front of everybody,” Salema said in an interview. “That’s unacceptable.”
Kulick’s opposed the project through its attorneys during the public hearings. The store, located on Route 78 less than a half-mile from the intersection, runs gas pumps.
Owner Stanley S. Plifka Jr. told The Sentinel in July that if the proposal were to go through, “you’re going to have three gas stations you could physically throw a baseball to, and that makes no sense to me.”
Salema and his land use agent, James P. Phippard of Brickstone Land Use Consultants, implied a connection between Plifka and Gordon on at least two occasions during the public hearing and deliberations process.
Minutes of the the board’s May 21 meeting show when Gordon asked Phippard if the applicant would consider removing the gas pumps from the proposal, Phippard “replied no he would not do that for Mr. Plifka.”
And when Gordon introduced the motion to deny the application at the board’s July 16 meeting, and a fellow board member advised her to include her reasoning, Salema, who was in the audience, supplied one for her.
“Kulick’s,” he said.
Reached Sunday by telephone, Gordon and Plifka said it was the first they had heard of the appeal.
Plifka declined to comment, and Gordon denied the implied bias.
“There’s no bias for me ... there was no reason to recuse myself,” she said.
No hearings or conferences on the case have been scheduled yet.
Garrett Brnger can be reached at 352-1234, extension 1436, or gbrnger@keenesentinel.com.

Severe Weather Warning

WMUR Weather Updates

 

Severe T-Storm Watch Until 11pm for ALL of NH. Storms will race across NH this evening. Any storm may be accompanied by damaging wind in excess of 60 mph, large hail, torrential downpours, and frequent lightning. There is a small chance of a tornado. If any storm approaches your area, seek shelter in the lowest interior room of your home and stay away from windows. You can track any storm with our Interactive Radar through the link below. Stay safe! --
http://www.wmur.com/weather/radar?id=wxfb

Board of Selectmen Regular Minutes 8-22-12

Board of Selectmen Regular Minutes 8-15-12

Standing firm on board

Standing firm on board In reference to Larry Hill’s recent letter to the paper about Winchester Planning Board.

Is the problem real?
Or is it simply ignoring responsibility to the public in order to promote a personal agenda?
Well let’s talk about it.
First the PA system in the Winchester Town Hall works just the way it should. All that people have to do is use the mikes properly. That means talking directly into them.
Now to a member of the planning board, who was appointed, not elected, and made a mistake by not voting the way he was told to because he wasn’t paying attention, and wanted a do over: If you’re not going to listen and ask questions, why be on the board?
Do you think of yourself as a rubber stamp for those with certain interests? You also can’t abstain from the vote when you think the fix is in and your vote isn’t needed.
You also have to listen to and understand, the motions being made to be sure you say yes or no at the right time to please your handlers.
Here’s a radical idea: If you don’t know what you’re voting on, don’t vote.
Now for the fun stuff. While I was in a restaurant in Keene, across the bar from me a group of people were talking and laughing when one person asked a businessman how it was going with the planning board in Winchester, and I heard him say, ”Those people in Winchester can be bought off with a bag of groceries.”
At the time, all I could think of was “why would someone who put the fix in brag about it while he was drinking?”
Be assured, some of us members can’t be bought off at any price.
BRIAN MOSER
168 Clark Road
Winchester

WINCHESTER- NEW FROM ARCADIA PUBLISHING!

I am pleased to announce the upcoming release of LOCAL authors Carol Lamprey Poole and Dorothy Doolittle Farnan’s pictorial history book Winchester, from Arcadia Publishing.  Set to publish on Monday, September 10^th, this new title reconnects people with their past through vintage images – images that may even include you, your family and your friends.  We would be honored to have this new book featured on your website to help spread the word about its release!  I have attached a press release and a JPG of the book cover for your perusal.

If you have any questions or need more information, please feel free to contact me directly.  I can be reached at 843-853-2070 x 181 or cjeffers@arcadiapublishing.com.

Wishing you every success!

                                                                                                                                           

Chanler Jeffers

Sales and Marketing Specialist, North and MidAtlantic

Arcadia Publishing

ph: 843.853.2070 x181 and fax: 843.853.0044

Explore more than 8,000 titles at www.arcadiapublishing.com

 

MORE censorship by our town leaders

In the past, members of boards and committees could contact the LGC ( Local Government Center .. http://www.nhlgc.org/ ) to seek advice regarding procedures, revised statutes, state regulations and any other questions that come up during hearing processes. Our Town Administrator and Board of Selectmen now want to stop this from continuing and censor legal advice and information from the LGC to board members who have questions. Our tax dollars pay for this service and it should not be up to those questionable people in power to determine who has the right to seek out information. Once again they show exactly what their agenda is and along with Tedford's attempt to do away with due process, the public's right to be heard at their meetings, it's quite obvious what they seek is COMPLETE CONTROL !

Sneaky moves in Winchester

The only part of the doughnut the folks of Winchester will get is the hole. It appears that four members of the Winchester Planning Board are absolutely intolerant of any mistakes.

When one member immediately acknowledged that he had mistakenly voted (probably because of the horrendous audio conditions in the town hall) and asked to change his vote, he was denied. At the following meeting, there was a motion to reconsider the motion in question to allow him to record his vote as he intended.
The member was not at this meeting due to emergency surgery.
An alternate was asked to sit in his place at this meeting. The motion for reconsideration was made, which would have allowed that member to record his vote, along with all other members, at the next meeting he would attend.
There are four members who saw to it that this would never happen.
While some may wonder if the four members who voted against reconsideration was self serving, either for themselves personally or for a friend, the fact remains that our taxes may now reflect an increase to pay unnecessary legal expenses and our revenues will not increase by the taxes generated had the project been approved, not to mention the 10 lost jobs.
Just some food for thought the next time your are in the voting booth.
LARRY HILL
107 South Parish Road
Winchester

What Are You Afraid of Sherm?

 I gotta call them as I see them and this is just plain wrong and 100% censorship. It looks like our town Selectmen and women have something to hide and don't want to answer any questions about their questionable conduct in allowing transgression after transgression by town employees and themselves. Talk about censorship. If this doesn't get under the skin of every single tax paying voter in town and get them thrown out of office I don't know what will. Light up the town's switchboard and tell them what you think about this proposed new policy ... 239-4951

.. and remember who NOT to vote for if you want an open and honest town government.

Winchester board reviews comment policy 

Posted: Wednesday, August 15, 2012 12:15 pm | Updated: 11:34 am, Wed Aug 15, 2012.

By Sentinel Staff 

WINCHESTER — The town’s selectmen are debating eliminating the public comment section of the board’s weekly meetings. Selectman Sherman Tedford made the suggestion during the board’s Aug. 8 meeting, according to draft minutes.

The public comment time allows residents to bring concerns or questions to the board during a meeting.
Anybody wishing to address the board would need to put their requests in writing in advance and be placed on the agenda, Tedford said.
Tedford’s reasoning is twofold: The limit would allow the board to determine if the matter was meant for public or nonpublic discussion, and would allow the board to invite anybody whose reputation might be affected by an item discussed to attend.
It would also allow the board to research the issue in question, he said.
Chairman Roberta Fraser said she understood the reasoning but did not agree.
Selectman Gustave A. Ruth said in a telephone interview this morning that the board’s main concern is protecting town employees’ reputations, but he did not believe the public comment section should be done away with entirely.
“We don’t want to hide everything, but certain things (you don’t know) until the discussion is over if they should be public or not,” Ruth said.
The board did not vote on the issue, and Town Administrator Joan C. Morel said selectmen would take it up again at tonight’s meeting.
Information that Morel received from the Local Government Center, Inc., a support resource for municipalities, indicates removing the public comment section would be legal.
According to the center, the board only has an obligation to accept public comment during a public hearing, but not during a regular selectmen’s meeting.

 

A voter ID law is a no-brainer

How does one begin to answer those who want to suppress a law for voter ID? A law that will guarantee the ability of all “eligible” citizens during an election to cast a safe ballot.

One would like to believe that any intelligent, law-abiding, “legal” citizen would want his or her vote protected. That each legal vote is not cast out by a vote from an “illegal” resident, a vote that is cast by a legal citizen, just not a legal resident of the city, town, or state they happen to be in on an election day.

Recently, a letter appeared in the paper stating that the Cheshire Republican Party did a voter fraud check and that is incorrect. It was a private citizen, and I am the citizen who did a very small mailing. It was done predominately in the area surrounding Keene State College following the 2004 election.

Out of 75 mailings, 35 first class post cards were returned undeliverable. With the assistance of Bill Gardner, secretary of state, and then-Assistant state Attorney General Bud Fitch, the voters in question were investigated. Five of the voters were found to be registered not only in Keene and Rindge, but also in their hometowns or state, although the investigation did clear them of voting in more than one location.

From this same group, the Attorney General’s Office notified the voters in question that they cannot continue to have an out-of-state, or town driver’s license while registered to vote in Keene and Rindge.

They were advised they had 60 days (RSA 261:44 -2005) to change their licenses to a valid New Hampshire driver’s licenses, and for those with out-of-town New Hampshire driver’s licenses, they have 10 days (RSA263:9 - 2005) to update them or risk being removed from the local voter checklists.

The AG’s office did find one case of fraud by a person who was not, nor ever, a resident of Keene. Once the information was validated, a bench warrant was issued. The remaining voters were primarily students who moved back to their “legal” residences and it was requested they be removed from local checklists.

This again brings us back to the persistent and serious problem of students voting in their “host” state, as opposed to voting in the state of legal residence. No student should be prevented from his or her right to vote and that is why we have absentee ballots.

The tired overworked mantras of those who want to go against the laws of our land are tossed around ad nauseam. Oh, the poor, minorities, infirm, and anyone in between will be disenfranchised!

Not a word of it is true: The poor are provided free identification, the infirm are provided absentee ballots.

Who would have thought in 2012 this country would need to rise up and fight for the rights of religious groups across the country.

The fictitious “war on women” is nothing more than a smokescreen to hide the outright anti-Catholic sentiment that is being promoted by the present administration.

We are witnessing untold damage by a “minority” of union thugs, and when we should have the assurance of our top law enforcement leader, Attorney General Holder, to protect our rights, he blatantly refused to prosecute those (Black Panthers) who physically prevented citizens from voting in the last general election.

What can we expect in the upcoming election?

MARILYN HUSTON
362 Roxbury St.
Keene