Major
Waldron Sportman’s Association*is offering the *NRA Basic Pistol
Shooting Course *on *March 16, 2019*. This course is for all
individuals, regardless of previous shooting experience, and
includes gun safety rules, proper operation of revolvers and
semi-automatic pistols, ammunition knowledge and selection, storage,
shooting fundamentals, inspection, maintenance, marksmanship,
shooting range safety, and live fire training.
You
will receive a certificate upon successful completion of the
shooting qualification and a short exam. Details and registration
are available at: *https://www.nrainstructors.org/CourseDetails.aspx?Courseid=522414&seats=10&State=y&SearchState=NH&id=56&bsa=&youth=&women=
The
Lead Instructor will contact you soon after you have registered.
A
Potluck and Presentation about the Big Woods, Jenness Pond Area, &
Beyond of Northwood will take place at the Northwood community
center in the Narrows on February 27, at 6 p.m.
Enjoy
the cheeriness of a neighbor get-together and learn more about the
natural world around you! Photos of wild animals in the area will be
shown. Scouts welcome!
Private
well water isn’t regulated, so it’s up to the homeowner to know
what’s in the water. There are natural, tasteless, odorless hazards
in some water in Northwood, so protect your health by analyzing your
water.
Learn
about the water quality in Northwood, how to sample the water in
your private well and which analyses to order. The DHHS and
DES will give a presentation on March 5th at 7:00 p.m. at Northwood
town hall. Sample containers will be available at town hall all
week, March 4-8. Instructions will be available (please
don’t ask town hall staff, who will not be able to help).
DES
recommends analyzing your water every three years.
The
Gulf Road Project… A Collective Success
Submitted By John Duffy, President, Pleasant Lake Preservation
Association
Background/History
The
Pleasant Lake Preservation Association (PLPA) has been monitoring
water quality conditions of the lake since 1989. In 2014 we secured
funding with a Water Quality Planning Grant from the Southern New
Hampshire Planning Commission (SNHPC). We interviewed a number of
environmental engineering firms and hired FB Environmental to
prepare a Watershed Restoration Plan. This Plan provided the basis
for our understanding of the causes and impacts within the watershed
to our water quality and support for our applying for subsequent
grants.
In the
fall of 2015 the PLPA applied for a DES 319 grant to address the
area around the NH Fish and Game boat launch on Gulf road that was
identified as the most serious threat to water quality in the
watershed. In 2016, we successfully received $90,000 in funding to
implement recommendations from the Watershed Restoration Plan to
reconstruct 900 feet of roadway (Gulf Road) from NH route 107 to the
lake’s public boat launch. The best management practices (BMPs) put
into place would help reduce the phosphorus load coming into the
lake by as much as 14.2 kg/yr or nearly 10% of the total annual load
in the watershed.
Project
Implementation
The
PLPA formed a Gulf Road Project Team under the leadership of Ann
Scholz and Tim Mallette. Ann and Tim provided expertise and
leadership in the effort to secure funding needed to resolve a major
storm water runoff issue on Gulf Road. They spent countless hours on
multiple weekends designing and supporting the implementation of the
project. The design itself required working with town government as
well as multiple state agencies to work out a functional concept
that met the constraints of each. The project was completed on time
and under budget. Ann is now the Chair of the PLPA environmental
committee and Tim holds a seat representing PLPA members not living
on the lake.
Results
It may
take a few years before we are able to measure the specific results,
but at this time it is readily apparent to anyone traveling Gulf
Road how much better things look.
Acknowledgements
Like
most projects of this scale it takes many hands. At the risk of
missing some of the parties that went to making this project
completion possible I want to acknowledge the following agencies and
individuals that collaborated with us to make this success possible:
(Please accept my apology for any omissions)
Southern New Hampshire Planning Commission (SNHPC): Jack Munn,
Sylvia von Aulock; FBEnvironmental: Forrest Bell, Laura DIemer and
team, DK Water Resourced Consulting, Hoyle and Tanner & Associates;
NH DES: Steve Landry and Jeff Marcoux, NHDES Watershed Assistance
Section, NH Fish and Game: Garrett Grasskamp, Richard Fink, Randy
Curtis NH State Senator: John Reagan Town of Deerfield: Board of
Selectmen, Conservation Commission Kate Hartnett, Serita Frey ,
Planning Board, Police Department, Road Agent Mark Young and John
Harrington town administrator Town of Northwood: Board of Selectmen,
Conservation Commission and Police Department, Eversource; Robert
Berner Regional Arborist, who donate their services to cut and
remove MANY trees along Gulf road. Tyler Reese: Who’s Eagle Scout
Kiosk project was a key component of our getting the grant. Special
thanks to Town of Deerfield road agent Mark Young. Ann and Tim’s
contributions have both solved a real problem and enabled others in
our organization to do the same. Their impact will be felt for years
to come.
What’s
Next
The
Gulf Road Project was a major milestone in our history as an
organization. It has defined a path forward and a set of actions
that will significantly improve our effectiveness in addressing
environmental challenges. Just as important as what the team was
able to accomplish is what we have learned from Ann and Tim’s
leadership. They exposed us to the opportunities that exist to
obtain grant funding for projects that would help us protect and
preserve the health of Pleasant Lake.
We are
following in their footsteps and have applied for additional grant
funding to address other high priority storm water runoff and
pollution issues. In the fall of 2018 we applied for 2 grants:
1.
Route 107 Inlet: In September under the leadership of Patrick Brochu
we applied for a 2019 Watershed Assistance Grant offered through the
State of NH Department of Environmental Services. The goal is to
help reduce and filter stormwater runoff coming down route 107 to
the inlet at the south end of the lake. At the same time we are
working with NHDOT and the Town of Deerfield to make significant
improvements outlined in our report. We expect to hear back from DES
by May of this year. This project has been led by Patrick Brochu
with a PLPA support team consisting of Ann Scholz, Tom Brennan, Joe
Coronati, Jim Irish and John Duffy.
2. Also
in September, we applied for a Moose Plate Grant;This grant is made
available by the New Hampshire Conservation Commission. Onni Irish
is the lead on this project with a goal of Stormwater Education and
improvement on shoreline properties.
Congratulations on a splendid performance of the Nursery Rhyme Show
by the students in Mrs. Magnusson’s and Mrs. Boudreau’s Northwood
School kindergarten class. Bravo to all students!
Letter
To The Editor
My name
is Stephanie Arroyo and I am running for one of two open seats on
the Northwood School Board. I have served and advocated for the
educational needs of children for 22 years as a former
Educational Technician III and Elementary Special Education Teacher
(Maine), Special Education Senior Specialist developing alternate
statewide assessments, and currently, as the Education Coordinator &
Training Specialist for KNOW & TELL with the Granite State
Children’s Alliance.
My
family, which includes my husband and three children (1st and 6th
grades at NWS and a CBNA graduate), moved to Northwood about 21/2
years ago because of the education my oldest daughter received
during her high school years at CBNA. We wanted our youngest
children to have the same, if not more, opportunities by being able
to grow and learn with the curriculum at the elementary/middle
school level to prepare them for high school.
I am
running for school board as a parent and extension of my current
job, so that I can continue working and advocating for the
education/needs of all students, educators, and the community. I am
committed to improving the quality of our school system and believe
that serving as a policy maker is one of the most direct ways to
make that difference.
If
elected, addressing topics such as the direction of curriculum,
assessments, and reporting, the safety of our students and staff,
and maintaining a tax balance are top priorities for me. To continue
moving Northwood forward in a positive manner, we need a school
board who will be responsive to needs of students, staff, and the
community as a whole, will balance needs vs. wants, and exhaust all
avenues to provide a balanced, well thought-out budget, seeking out
all funding opportunities.
I am
here to be your voice!
Letter
To The Editor
To the
Editor,
I’d
like to talk about property taxes. As you know, we have no personal
income tax or sales tax in NH. Most revenue to manage our town and
school comes from property taxes instead.
While
we are one of the least taxed states in America, our system can make
it hard for senior citizens on a fixed income. TC found out that 4%
of Northwood property owners are behind in their taxes. In pimping
for an $8.5m total cost safety complex he didn’t think that 96 %
should suffer for the 4%. Of course a safety complex for under
$3m, one that we could afford, would be out of the question for him.
Where would our tax rate go if the complex and all of the other
ridiculous warrants were passed? Would then 8% or 10% of our fellow
citizens be underwater? I care.
Last
year an individual filed a right-to-know request and learned who
every delinquent taxpayer was. Her aim was to humiliate. It said
more about her than any taxpayer struggling to stay afloat. There
are many reasons to be delinquent. Illness, divorce, job loss, and
so many others. There is a property on Sherburne Hill Rd. where the
owner finally, not able to work with the select board, just gave up
and left. That property still sits rotting away years later.
This is
not the last that I am going to say on the subject. This town, our
school, can be managed for the benefit of everyone, not just a few.
Tim
Jandebeur
Northwood
Letter
To The Editor
Someone
using the transfer station recently asked Joe what I was talking
about when I mentioned mandatory recycling in the paper, he said
that we don’t have it.
Mandatory recycling has been in effect since 2002. Unfortunately, in
the last few years, no one in a position of authority has been
interested in enforcing the rules.
We are
supposed to be recycling! Those people taking the time and effort to
sort and depose of their trash properly are doing the right thing,
but unless we start enforcing the rules it’s unfair to those doing
the right thing. The BOS has been so lax and unconcerned with the
transfer station it’s a wonder we’re recycling anything.
One
example comes to mind, issuing new TS stickers is a joke! No one
knows when or where to get them. Tho BOS had the attendents handing
them out, willynilly, at the transfer station. This is not the
right way to do that. When there is a change of stickers it has to
be within a time frame not when you register your car.
As with
everything else there are rules. Without rules, we fall apart. The
transfer station is falling apart! With no support from the
selectmen, the attendants cannot do their jobs. We need better pay,
more hours for the supervisor and much more support from the
selectmen and the people using the facility.
It
would seem a shame to have the state step in and start shutting down
things that aren’t being addressed. There are definitely safety
issues and state rules that we are not dealing with.
The
selectmen have alienated evoryone on the recycling committee, so
that no longer exists. It’s beyond time to pay attention. to start
enforcing mandatory recycling and support our attendants when they
do enforce the rules.
Until
next time,
Viena
Dow
Letter
To The Editor
Still
the best way?
More
than 20 years ago, the citizens of Northwood confronted a situation
similar to that which confronts us now: the elementary school was in
need of expansion and the modular classroom units had deteriorated
to the point of becoming health hazards. Think mold.
A
committee of concerned citizens worked with architects to design an
addition to be built with a 20-year bond. I and others worked
to present this to the voters who passed the necessary warrant
article, over - as now - the vociferous objections of some.
But
there is one critical difference between then and now. Then,
the State had a School Building Fund with monies to support projects
such as ours. Now, such a fund no longer exists. Nor is
there state money to help us with the Public Safety Complex.
Instead, the State has down-shifted this and other costs to towns.
Towns have had to pick up the full cost of employee retirement when
the state stopped paying 30%. More recently, the State has
stopped paying ultra-property-poor towns - think Berlin and
Pittsfield - supplemental school support. It’s a long list.
The
withdrawal of State support and the resultant down-shifting of costs
over the last 20 years has left us with, among other things, the
highest state college tuition and the highest student debt load in
the country.
Help
may be on the way as the newly elected legislature considers bills
to restore supplemental school aid and increase the per-pupil
adequacy payment.
In the
meantime, we are left to fund a safety complex through local
property taxes. It won’t be easy for some, but necessary for
all.
Meanwhile, consider whether a tax system that relies so heavily -
40%! - on property taxation is still the best way to fund
governmental services.
Tom
Chase
Northwood
Celebrate The Academy Awards All Month Long On LRPA After Dark!
This
Weekend’s Feature: 1951’s “Cyrano De Bergerac”
Throughout February, Lakes Region Public Access Television will
celebrate the Academy Awards with a month of Oscar®-nominated films.
This weekend, (February 15 & 16) we present the 1951 historical
romance “Cyrano de Bergerac,” starring José Ferrer, Mala Powers and
William Prince. Cyrano de Bergerac (Ferrer) is a charming and highly
accomplished soldier, swordsman, philosopher, poet, provocateur … he
is an almost-perfect specimen with the exception of his absurdly
enormous nose. Cyrano believes that his appearance is too
objectionable to earn any women’s affection. Despite this, he falls
in love with the beautiful and intellectual Roxane (Powers), but she
is hopelessly in love with the handsome (but dim-witted and
tongue-tied) guardsman Christian (Prince). Devastated but ever the
stoic gentleman, Cyrano hides his feelings from Roxanne. He decides
to help Christian woo Roxane by supplying him with eloquent love
letters, rich with poetry that Christian could never have written on
his own. What starts as an innocent deception becomes
complicated, eventually leading to tragic results. José Ferrer had
only been in Hollywood for two years when he took on the role of
Cyrano de Bergerac. However, he was no stranger to the character,
having played him in a Tony Award-winning performance on Broadway in
1946. Ferrer won the Best Actor Oscar® for “Cyrano de Bergerac,”
making him one of only a handful of actors to win both the Tony and
the Oscar for the same role. He repeated his performance as the
doomed lover twice more on television, and once in an animated
short. Critics and moviegoers agreed that Ferrer made the movie; his
performance is spellbinding, and one that you won’t want to miss.
What are you waiting for? Grab your popcorn and join LRPA after dark
for this swashbuckling romance from the cinematic past.
Mark
your calendars as LRPA After Dark celebrates a month of
Oscar®-nominated films:
March 1
& 2: 1952’s “The Snows of Kilimanjaro” (Noms: Art Direction &
Cinematography)
From
The Desk Of The Northwood Police Chief
Respectfully Submitted By Chief Drolet
In the
last few weeks there has been a lot of discussion comparing the
Farmington Public Safety Complex to the one we are proposing here in
Northwood. In order to compare these two projects we need to
look at it as an apples to apples rather than apples to oranges
comparison.
There
are several issues we need to address with our complex that
Farmington did not or chose not to:
• The
first thing we need to look at is escalation of cost since
Farmington passed their building in 2016. The builder that built the
Farmington complex states that today he could build that same
facility under the same exact conditions for approximately
$3,000,000. That is $600,000 more than they spent in 2016.
• Now
let’s look at what we face in our project that Farming did not.
Farmington owned the 88 acre lot they built their complex on. We do
not own the land and need to purchase the land for $229,000.
• The
Farmington complex is on town water, so they did not need a well
($10,000), a fire pump ($50,000), or a Cistern ($85,000). We
do not know if they needed a new septic or not, but that is another
$25,000 potential cost that we need that they may not have being on
a town system.
•
Comparing their site costs to our budgeted costs is another
$264,310, as their lot had been a sand and gravel pit for many
years. So there were significant savings for them when it came to
excavation on their site.
• There
are two buildings currently on our site that will have to be
demolished. We have budgeted $25,000 to do this. Hopefully, we
can have the fire department use the buildings as a training
exercise and they can burn them, rather than having to demo them and
we can save $25,000 on that.
• Our
design is for a two-story building which requires us to have an
elevator, which Farmington does not have. Our site is narrow so a
one story building would not work, so we have budgeted $100,000 for
the elevator.
• We
are proposing an epoxy finish on the floor of the fire department
apparatus bay that Farmington did not choose to use. The finish is
budgeted for $36,000.
• Being
on Route 4, we anticipate NH DOT requiring us to upgrade Rt. 4 in
the area of the complex and have budgeted $75,000 to do that and
$40,000 to relocate the utility poles that are in the area that will
need to be moved.
•
Farmington did not budget for a generator or a Plymovent exhaust
system in their project. These two items are in our budget for
$110,000.
• From
what we can tell, they used $25,000 in contingency. We are
carrying $400,000 on the town side and $400,000 on the construction
manager side for this project. That is a $725,000 difference.
• There
are approximately five other areas that we believe we have budgeted
for that Farmington did not, in the amount of $607,200, for a grand
total difference between the two buildings of $2,381,510.
So
their building today, with the escalation costs and our expenses
figured in, would bring their building to $5,381,510. If we reduce
the contingencies on our side and the construction manager’s side by
$250,000 each, for a total of $500,000, our new project, not to
exceed budget, would be $5,475,000. That savings alone brings
us to within $93,490 of the Farmington price and I envision even
more savings.
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