1283 POSTS 0 COMMENTS

T.P. Caldwell is a writer, editor, photographer, and videographer who began his career as an apprentice printer at a weekly community newspaper. During his career as a journalist, he gained experience in all aspects of newspaper production, including working as a reporter, editor, publisher, and weekly newspaper owner.

Fireworks At School Board Meeting

October 12, 2018

School Board Chair Jeff Levesque, left, and Vincent Paul Migliore, second from right, argue their positions during the Oct. 9 meeting of the Newfound Area School Board.

BRISTOL — An attempt to introduce a compromise ahead of an anticipated budget showdown exposed the serious rift that has developed among members of the Newfound Area School Board amidst expressions of deep taxpayer dissatisfaction.

Board Chair Jeff Levesque of Groton characterized the three-option suggestion, aimed at returning decisions on large capital expenditures to the voters, as a “temper tantrum” on the part of Vincent Paul Migliore of Bridgewater.

Sharon Klapyk of Danbury joined the criticism, saying, “I’m calling your tantrum a lack of professional ethics.”

Both called Migliore out for changing his position on a board policy which states that, once the board has made a decision, each member must stand behind that decision, regardless of his personal views.

Migliore said the reason he changed his mind was the way things had played out this year after former school administrator Archie Auger of Bristol questioned the inclusion of money for a one-time expenditure in the following year’s default budget.

The school board had exploited a provision of RSA 40:13 that allows the board to define what constitutes a “one-time expenditure” to say Auger’s $800,000 amendment the previous year to provide money for the repair the high school roof — a project identified in the district’s capital improvement plan — was not a stand-alone project but part of ongoing maintenance, allowing the board to place capital projects in the default budget in subsequent years.

Auger said he had made it clear that his budget amendment to override the district’s tax cap was intended as a one-time expenditure to address a critical need, and he pointed out that the school district did not adopt the capital improvement plan until after that school district meeting. There had been no public hearing on the CIP, so voters had not had the chance to weigh in, he said.

Auger did not notice that the administration had included $712,300 for capital improvements in this year’s default budget until after the deliberative session, and asked the school board to reconsider its action before it went to a ballot vote.

Migliore supported holding a special school board meeting to address Auger’s concerns, but Levesque said the matter could wait until the next regular meeting.

When they subsequently cast their ballots, voters defeated the proposed budget, which put the disputed default budget into effect.

It would not be until several meetings later that Levesque put the discussion about the default budget on the agenda, and by then residents of the member towns were angry, saying the board had made them distrustful and that if they did not reconsider, it would have consequences when it came time to vote on the next year’s budget. They also threatened legal action because of the precedent the board’s action was setting.

Capital Improvement Project plans are established as guidelines to address needs over a period of years in such a way that it will not cause spikes in the tax rate. Yet, traditionally, during the budget process, those priorities may shift to take into account changing circumstances, and not all items on the plan are funded. By making the capital expenditures part of the default budget, it is the school board, and not the voters, who are deciding what gets funded.

Migliore pressed Levesque to call for a special school district meeting to address the budget dispute as a way of heading off a potential lawsuit. The Official Ballot Act gives SB2 communities that option as an alternative to imposing a default budget, but Levesque refused to do that. Other school board members also doubled down, saying the school district attorney said they were within the law to put the capital items in the default budget.

With a special meeting out of the question, Migliore attempted to introduce a policy change that would set a threshold for capital expenditures: Capital projects exceeding a certain amount would be placed on the warrant for voters to decide. Levesque finally allowed Migliore to make a formal request of the board at the Oct. 9 meeting, then labeled the presentation a “temper tantrum.”

The Options

Migliore, who previously objected to attempts to “get around” the tax cap, suggested doing just that with his first option. Using a chart, he explained that the school board could build a budget within the tax cap that did not include capital expenditures of $25,000 or more. By not including those large expenditures in their budget proposal, the board would be able to address more of the academic needs of the school district, he said, and not risk having voters reject it and end up with a default budget that, because of recent changes in the law, is likely to be significantly less.

To address the pressing capital needs identified in the capital improvement plan, Migliore proposed that board members as individual taxpayers could propose amendments on the floor of the deliberative session — just as Auger had for the high school roof — to increase the budget beyond the tax cap. As a board, they are prohibited from proposing spending beyond the cap, but as members of the public, they can ask for an override.

That proposal, Migliore said, would allow them to seek the funding they need while also returning to the voters the decision on how much to spend.

As another option for the board to consider, Migliore asked that the policy committee review his proposal a new board policy: “Any and all expenditures deemed in any way to be an expenditure of capital for the planned maintenance, improvement, one-time expense, or for an otherwise newly established purpose in the Newfound Area School District in excess of $24,999.00 shall be presented in a formal warrant article for consideration of, and a vote by those registered voters attending its next Deliberative Session to be placed on the Official Ballot.”

Migliore said that, because of the long delay in allowing him to make that proposal, there was little time for the committee to review and adopt the policy. He therefore had a third option for a parallel track while the policy committee did its review: He would be submitting a petitioned warrant article to do the same thing.

That remark prompted Levesque and Klapyk to challenge Migliore’s ethics.

“If you don’t agree with it, you don’t have to vote that way,” Migliore responded. “I’m proposing a solution that I think the school board should consider.”

“It sounds to me as if you’ve given up any pretense of working with the board,” Levesque said.

“I brought it to your attention in March that we could fix the default budget situation, and you chose not to. The gamble you made was lost,” Migliore said.

“So you’re saying this was my fault?” Levesque responded.

Christine Davol of New Hampton, chair of the policy committee, said she would take the policy to the committee for review.

Sue Cheney of Alexandria, also serving on the policy committee, said her fear is that, because they are under a tax-cap budget, the capital items would get defeated.

Klapyk pointed out that the school district’s history has shown that voters will not support building projects in the outlying towns. By putting in separate warrant articles that allow the voters to decide what gets funded, towns like Danbury would likely fail to get projects funded.

A separate discussion supported her claim. The school board is preparing to negotiate a renewal of the lease agreement with the Bridgewater-Hebron School. Those two towns had formed a separate village district to build a new school after district voters had repeatedly turned down building projects aimed at addressing crowded classrooms. The village district built and maintains its own school, in Bridgewater, and leases the space to the Newfound Area School District for $1 per year.

Despite all of the rancor expressed earlier, when it came time to make decisions, the school board unanimously approved a motion to send Migliore’s policy proposal to the committee for review.

Bristol Offers Public Tours of Potential Future Town Hall

T.P. Caldwell

September 24, 2018

BRISTOL — Public tours of the former Newfound Family Practice at the intersection of School and Summer streets are scheduled for Monday, Oct. 1, and Saturday, Oct. 6, so taxpayers have an opportunity to see the building that town officials hope to purchase as a new municipal building.

Barbara Greenwood, who serves on the space needs committee, said there will be tours at 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. on Oct. 1, and at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. on the 6th. She said people may also contact her for tours at other times.

A public hearing on the proposed purchase is scheduled for Tuesday, Oct. 9, at the Old Town Hall on Summer Street.

Selectmen have petitioned Grafton County Superior Court for permission to hold a special town meeting on Thursday, Nov. 1, when voters will be asked to purchase the building from LRGHealthcare at a negotiated price of $335,800 and put additional money into renovations to make it suitable for town offices. Plans also call for creating an 800-square-foot meeting room that can accommodate larger gatherings and potentially serve as a voting location.

Acting on information from the New Hampshire Department of Revenue Administration, Town Administrator Nik Coates initially said that voters would have to give an up-or-down vote on the warrant article, but another official with the DRA said the information given to Coates was wrong and that voters would have full authority to increase or decrease the appropriation, the same as at any regular town meeting.

Recycling and Ayers Island

During their Sept. 20 meeting, selectmen discussed the negative response they have received to their announcement that the town would stop its recycling program on the 24th. It costs twice as much to handle recycled materials as it does for regular solid waste and the selectmen had decided earlier in the month that continuing to recycle was not sustainable under current market conditions.

They will continue to accept glass bottles and jars in a separate container at the town’s transfer station, because they can be crushed to serve as a base for road work. Selectmen noted, however, that plates and other ceramics cannot be accepted with the glass.

Selectman Wayne Anderson said he has been speaking with New Hampton officials about the possibility of bailing recyclables, but wasn’t sure where the discussions would lead.

Coates said he had preliminary discussions with Barbara Lucas, his counterpart in New Hampton, about strategies for dealing with the new owners of the Ayers Island Dam, which straddles the two towns. Eversource recently sold the hydroelectric facility as part of its state-mandated divestiture of generating facilities. An affiliate of Hull Street Energy, LLC, of Bethesda, Maryland, has purchased Eversource’s nine hydroelectric facilities, including Ayers Island Station, which has an 8.4-megawatt generating capacity. It paid $10,500,000, which is less than what the two towns have been assessing the property for tax purposes.

Eversource has agreed to cover the difference in taxes between the old and new assessment for the first year, then paying two-thirds of that amount in the second year, and one-third in the third year. Coates said that, in order to qualify for the stabilization fund, Bristol and New Hampton would have to agree to assess the facility at its sale price.

The portion of the property in New Hampton has the greatest value, so that town has a greater stake in the decision, noted board chair Rick Alpers.

The two towns will be setting up a joint meeting to exchange their views and attempt to settle on a strategy for taxing the property.

Sewer Rates

Water and Sewer Superintendent Jeff Chartier has been reviewing the user rates and concluded that water rates are fine where they are, but that sewer rates may need to be adjusted.

His immediate proposal was to establish a separate fee for water meters used in irrigation. Regular water users pay a sewer fee based on water usage, but those who have the town hook up a separate meter for outdoor water use incur no sewer fee, since the water goes into the ground. Chartier said the setup fees also should be less than for setting up the main water meter.

He also discussed setting up a credit card payment option to make it easier for customers to pay their bills.

Reporting on the upgrade at the wastewater treatment plant, Chartier said the new dewatering system is working well on one side, but the second line is not working efficiently. The company that sold the new system is standing by its performance guarantee and is working to solve the problem, he said.

Residents Seek To Halt Renovation of Hebron Academy

T.P. Caldwell

September 23, 2018

HEBRON — A group of residents that is seeking an alternative approach to the renovations underway at the Hebron Academy failed to win a federal court injunction to halt the project, but lead plaintiff Jonathan Karlsen said their attorneys are preparing a more detailed argument to convince the judge that what voters approved in 2017 would violate the criteria set out for historic districts.

Town officials, meanwhile, are asking the U.S. District Court to dismiss the case and award the town legal fees to cover its cost in defending against the civil lawsuit.

In their filing with the court, the plaintiffs — Karlsen, John Hilson, William Nobles Jr., and Gordon Matthews — argued that raising the building, removing the foundation stones, and creating a poured-concrete basement would create “irreversible destruction to the historic fabric of the Hebron Academy Building.”

U.S. District Judge Landya McCafferty issued an order on Sept. 4, finding that the plaintiffs had failed to identify the historic preservation guidelines they say are being violated by the town, or how the addition of a poured concrete foundation would fail to meet those guidelines.

“More importantly, the petition does not explain how these guidelines entitle the plaintiffs to bring this lawsuit,” McCafferty wrote.

“In light of plaintiffs’ failure to show a likelihood of success on the merits or irreparable harm, the court need not discuss the remaining factors,” the ruling concluded. “Plantiffs’ request for a temporary restraining order is denied.”

History of the project

The renovation and expansion plan that finally got underway in late August has been eight years in the planning. The town has been setting aside $150,000 annually to cover the cost, and it hired Christopher P. Williams, Architects, of Meredith — a firm known for historic preservation projects — to come up with a design that would preserve the integrity of the building while meeting the town’s space needs.

Built as a school in 1839, Hebron Academy was absorbed by the Newfound Area School District when it formed in the 1960s. The school district subsequently closed village schools in Bridgewater, Alexandria, and Hebron and absorbed those students in the remaining elementary schools.

In 1999, after the district had stopped using the Hebron school, the town moved its administrative offices into the building. By 2010, the town was feeling a space crunch and voters that year began setting aside money toward an eventual solution.

The architect came up with plans over a series of public hearings and voters in 2017 passed a warrant article to go forward with what was estimated to be $1,442,379 project.

Eleanor Lonske, a former selectman and member of the Hebron Academy Advisory Committee, said that, when the town hired an independent surveyor to verify the work done by a local surveyor in 2012, officials learned that there was no deed turning the property over from the school district to the town. They contacted the school district which was able to verify that voters had agreed to turn the building over to Hebron, but they also could not find evidence that the deed had ever been conveyed. At this year’s school district meeting, voters agreed to pick up the cost of conveying the property to Hebron.

The second unwelcome surprise came when abutters claimed ownership of the playground area. Lonske said the surveyor from 2012 had indicated that the boundary was between the playground and the property to the south, but four years later, he “impugned his own survey … and convinced the neighbors that they owned the lot that had been used as a school playground by generations of schoolchildren.”

She said, “The independent surveyor raised serious questions about this claim, but the Town negotiated a settlement with the neighbors to avoid the delay and expenses of legal action.”

When selectmen were finally able to put the project out to bid, the prices exceeded the original estimate of $1,442,379, ranging from $1,769,363 to $2,249,000. Conneston Construction, Inc., of Laconia was the low bidder. (Other bidders were Milestone Engineering and Construction, Inc., and Meridian Construction Corporation.)

The cost of materials had risen significantly since the vote in the spring of 2017, and to bring the cost down, the architect suggested some adjustments, such as eliminating the elevator that was planned for the building, but putting in the shaft and infrastructure so the town can add the elevator in the future without having to do major reconstruction.

Opposition

The Academy building lies in an area of the Hebron Common that, in March 1985, was designated on the National Register of Historic Places as part of the Hebron Historic District, consisting of 13 buildings in all.

The town maintains in its objection to the civil lawsuit that “there are no requirements or prohibitions arising from that listing that interferes with the town’s decision making on the future use, alternation [sic] or renovation of its building.”

Karlsen, however, said the current plans violate the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for Rehabilitation.

The town said that even the removal of the original granite capstones does not affect the historic integrity of the building because some of them had already been removed, with concrete taking their place.

The remaining granite will be sliced into slabs that will be affixed to the exterior of the new concrete foundation, the town writes in its motion to dismiss.

Karlsen said his group has started an online petition to persuade the town to answer its space needs in other ways. Some of those supporting an alternative approach had attended Hebron Academy, he said, and they do not want to ruin the building.

One suggestion they are offering is to purchase the property next door, which recently came on the market, to provide the extra space needed for the town offices.

Donald Hall Offers Candid Thoughts While Facing Death

T.P. Caldwell

September 19, 2018

A Carnival of Losses: Notes Nearing Ninety, by Donald Hall

A Carnival of Losses: Notes Nearing Ninety, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2018

September 20 would have been Donald Hall’s 90th birthday, but he died three months earlier, on June 23, just weeks before the publication of his final book, A Carnival of Losses: Notes Nearing Ninety.

Death is something Hall, the former United States Poet Laureate, has met head-on throughout his career, and in Carnival of Losses he continues to do so; but, as he did in his previous book, Essays After Eighty, he does it with sometimes wry humor.

“When I was young,” he writes, “my language wore coats and shirts and trousers, neckties, bespoke shoes. In my lifetime as a writer I have cast off layer after layer of clothing in pursuit of nudity. … As I write toward my nineties I shed my skin. … Why should a nonagenarian hold anything back?”

If the book does hold anything back, it at least drops hints. There may have been a gentle rivalry between him and his wife, Jane Kenyon, a former student of his who quickly rose to a prominence that sometimes overshadowed his own. Yet any envy was dwarfed by his admiration of the “sensuous beauty” of her writing.

She certainly was his inspiration, both while they were together and in the decades since her death. For years after she died, his works were passionate with grief and rage, and she remains alive in his mind even as he pens his final words.

“The year Jane brought out her first book, I brought out my seventh,” he writes. “Kicking the Leaves was a breakthrough for me, deriving its force from the ecstasy of marrying Jane and the life-changing departure from university teaching to freelancing in New Hampshire.”

And he is honest: “My bland first collection in 1955 had been overpraised. When the second book followed, and the third, the fourth, the fifth, and the sixth, no one paid much attention.”

Hall makes reference to brilliant poets of the past whom most people have forgotten and implies that he expects to be similarly forgotten, with many of his own books of poetry no longer in print.

Perhaps the most telling chapter is “Solitude Double Solitude,” in which he recalls Kenyon’s death. “Twenty and twenty-one years ago, every day of her dying for eighteen months, I stayed by her side. It was miserable that Jane should die so young, and it was redemptive that I could be with her every hour of every day. Last February I grieved again, this time that she would not sit over me as I died.”

Along with the darkness, however, come moments of self-effacing humor, when Hall writes about false teeth that won’t stay in, pants that fall down, impaired driving skills that take down his garage door, and friends who forget who they are.

“In your eighties you are invisible,” he writes. “Nearing ninety you hope nobody sees you. At nineteen you were six feet two. At ninety-one you will be two foot six.”

In talking about the pitfalls of using dictation to write letters, where sound-alike words can be mistaken, he recalls that Stephen Jay Gould wrote to him at “Ego Pond Farm” rather than Eagle Pond Farm. Yet he admits that his penchant for listing the number of drafts it takes to complete a poem or a book of essays is something that satisfies his ego. (During our single visit together last year, he boasted that he had completed more than 80 drafts of A Carnival of Losses.)

Revelations

Hall provides the background to The New Yorker’s decision to publish his essay, “The Wild Heifers,” his first effort at prose (written in 18 drafts, he notes) while living in England. The New Yorker initially rejected it, but Hall later included it in his book, String Too Short To Be Saved, which caught the attention of E.B. White and, through him, Roger Angell, who had become a New Yorker editor. Angell contacted Hall about publishing “The Wild Heifers” and another essay from the book in The New Yorker.

“In delight and revenge,” Hall writes, “I told him that The New Yorker had rejected ‘The Wild Heifers.’ … He apologized with chagrin and asked me never, ever, to tell anyone this story.”

Hall offers candid views about his contemporaries, including Stephen Spender, with whom he co-edited The Concise Encyclopedia of English and American Poets and Poetry.

“Stephen talked well on any subject other than poetry,” Hall writes.

On James Dickey: “Often Jim Dickey, like John Berryman, was drunk when he read his poems.”

Allen Tate: “My recollections of some poets are brief. Allen Tate always looked grumpy.”

Hall turns a similar spotlight on himself and the creative process, confessing “the worst thing I ever did” — “I recollect shameful moments in my first marriage, and in behavior with my small son,” he writes.

Living outside of Boston, he wrote his poems on a desk in the cellar. One day, when he was eager to get back to a poem, his son, Andrew was standing in the way, and Hall brushed past him. Andrew hung to Hall’s leg, calling, “Daddy, Daddy!”

“‘You’re a bad boy,’ I told him in rage,” Hall writes. “I hooked the door shut, climbed down to my desk, and picked up my pen.”

Coming to the end of his life in the farmhouse that been in his mother’s family for generations, Hall worried that no one would take over the property when he died.

“After Jane died and the grandchildren aged toward college, I realized that nobody would. None would be freelance writers. Only retired rich folks live deep in the countryside. After I died my offspring would empty the house,” he writes.

Then, after staying alive and staying alive, he said, his granddaughter, Allison, took him aside during one of his birthday parties, and said she and her husband, Will, would move into Eagle Pond Farm when he died.

“And those were the happiest words I ever heard,” he says.

School Board Provides A Windfall For Taxpayers

T.P. Caldwell

September 12, 2018

School Board discussion — Business Manager Michael Limanni makes a point during the discussion of the Newfound Area School District's unexpended fund balance.

BRISTOL — The Newfound Area School Board voted, 5-2, to return $1,069,556 of a $1.5 million year-end unexpended fund balance to the taxpayers, while retaining $438,593 to cover unanticipated expenses.

Those voting against the motion said there was no need to double the amount the district held back simply because they could, and argued for turning back more money to lower the tax assessments that had increased after voters broke the tax cap two years ago in order to replace the high school roof.

Board members originally agreed to retain $275,000 — the same amount as last year — and thus return more money to offset taxes when the New Hampshire Department of Revenue Administration sets the tax rate next month. Superintendent Stacy Buckley said that would be “a safe amount” to set aside against any dips in revenue or unanticipated expenses that might arise over the course of the school year.

Either way, by returning more than a million dollars to the voters, it would more than make up for the disputed $712,400 that the board had included in the district’s default budget for the coming year.

Taxpayers had not realized until after the district’s annual meeting that the school board had taken the precedent-setting step of including money voters had never appropriated in the default budget in order to cover facilities improvements identified in a capital improvement program adopted without a public hearing. Although residents asked the school board to remove the $712,400 from the budget, the board took no action, prompting the threat of a lawsuit.

School Administrative Unit 4 officials have maintained that the school district’s attorney, Barbara Loughman, has advised that including capital improvement projects in the default budget — never before attempted by an Official Ballot district — was a legitimate move.

At the board’s Sept. 10 meeting, Board Chair Jeff Levesque of Groton said that having a year-end unexpended fund balance of $1.5 million would allow them to return the money saved on the high school roof project, which cost $200,000 less than they had anticipated, as well as the capital improvement money included in the default budget.

“We have to give that back,” he said before advocating for retaining $200,000 to $250,000 for unexpected expenses.

The consensus fell apart when Business Manager Michael Limanni argued for retaining the maximum amount allowed by statute.

Why the surplus?

Limanni explained why the unexpended fund balance was so high: Through careful management, the school district ended the year with almost $800,000 in savings, some of it due to final expenses coming in at a lower cost than anticipated and some due to higher than anticipated revenues. He said $60,000 of the savings could be attributed to canceling a contract for a venting project that the contractor could not complete according to specifications.

The district has never had to draw from the retained funds, so the $275,000 appropriated last year got added to the calculation, he explained. The formula also takes into account the $337,646 that the school board returned to reduce last year’s taxes. The net result was the unexpended fund balance of $1,508,149.

Having adopted the state statute that allows the district to retain up to 2.5 percent of that balance to cover unexpected costs, the school board had the option of keeping as much as $438,593, Limanni said.

In arguing for retaining the maximum allowed by law, Limanni told the board that it was a way to stabilize the tax rate. Just as revenues came in higher than anticipated last year, they could come in lower next year, he said. Expenses might be higher than anticipated. If the board were to return all but $200,000 this year, it might not be enough to offset next year’s costs, resulting in a spike in taxation that would seem even larger because of the reduced tax impact this year. Having a larger retained fund would allow the district to cover costs without increasing taxes, similar to the way municipalities operate, he said.

Vincent Paul Migliore of Bridgewater and Christine Davol of New Hampton said there was no reason to retain more than last year, and that the board should return as much as possible, since the current tax rate is elevated, due to the tax cap override two years ago.

“It would be absolutely insane to keep $438,000 in additional dollars in the retained fund balance, which is [only] an option for us to consider,” said Migliore.

Davol said she supports avoiding spikes in the tax rate, but she agreed with Migliore that stabilizing the tax rate at its current high level is the wrong thing to do, particularly at a time when the school board is facing strong criticism for its decision on the default budget.

Sharon Klapyk of Danbury and Sue Cheney of Alexandria argued for withholding as much money as possible, rather than returning it to offset taxation.

Klapyk said, “I’m for the students,” adding, “I’m a planner. … We all have a savings account. We plan for emergencies in our own life, and we don’t have a budget of $22 million. I feel we have these numbers available, and that’s exactly what we should be doing.”

Cheney compared the retained fund to an insurance policy. “You hope you’ll never have to use it.”

Migliore said the highest unanticipated expense would likely be for special education, which might cost $100,000, so there was no need to set aside four times that amount. He warned of a voter backlash next year because of the high default budget, after voters had rejected the proposed budget in March.

Both Klapyk and Cheney dismissed those concerns, with Klapyk saying there was no way to know why residents voted as they did, and Cheney noting that many who would have voted in March stayed home because of the bad weather.

Buckley deflected comments about the default budget, saying it was a settled issue, and the majority of board members agreed. By providing the million-dollar tax cut, they take away much of the incentive for a court challenge, and if left unchallenged, the district will be able to put capital project funds in the default budget every year going forward.

Migliore is working to make sure that does not happen. In a letter to area newspapers, Migliore is asking voters to rally against the higher retained funding before board members sign the state MS/25 budget form at their next meeting on Sept. 24, and to press for an answer on whether the board acted properly in including the $712,400 in the default budget.

Early-Morning Fire Leaves 24 Without A Home

T.P. Caldwell

September 4, 2018

090418 Beech Street Fire 1 — Bristol firefighters train a stream of water from the department’s aerial apparatus onto the rear of 40 Beech Street on Sept. 4. The steeple of the Tapply-Thompson Community Center is in the background. (Tom Caldwell Photo)

BRISTOL — An early-morning fire on Sept. 4 at 50 Beech Street, which spread to the adjacent apartment building at 40 Beech Street, forced two dozen people to seek alternative shelter, but Fire Chief Ben LaRoche said everyone was able to get out of the buildings unharmed.

Two cats apparently perished in the fire, which started in the rear portion of the 50 Beech Street property shortly before 5 a.m. There were five apartments in each of the two buildings, according to LaRoche.

The nearby United Church of Christ opened its doors to the displaced tenants, and volunteers from the American Red Cross set up an emergency intake center there to determine whether they had an alternative place to stay and what their food and clothing needs might be.

The Newfound Area Senior Center, which operates out of the church and provides a senior meal on Tuesdays, opened an hour early to serve the tenants a hot meal.

50 Beech Street fire — Bristol firefighters train a stream of water from the department’s aerial apparatus onto the smoldering remains of the fire that destroyed an apartment building at 50 Beech Street. (Tom Caldwell Photo)

LaRoche said the fire department received a call about the fire at about 4:50 a.m. By the time firefighters arrived, the three-story wood-frame building was fully involved, with the fire extending from the rear of that building into the rear of the 40 Beech Street building. The first building was a total loss, but firefighters were able to keep the fire from spreading through the second building, also a three-story wood-frame building. However, LaRoche said that building also probably would be uninhabitable due to smoke damage.

There was one disabled resident who needed assistance in getting out, he said.

Because of the size of the blaze, firefighters called second and third alarms to augment the water supply from hydrants with tankers pumping water from the nearby Newfound River. Central Square was shut down for a while to give the trucks space to maneuver. Soon after, a fourth alarm was called to bring in additional personnel.

One firefighter was treated for exhaustion, but they had the fire under control around 7 a.m., with crews remaining on the scene through the morning to continue hosing down hot spots.

The State Fire Marshal arrived to help determine the cause of the fire which apparently started in the rear portion of the 50 Beech Street property. LaRoche said that neither building had sprinklers and he thought it was smoke alarms that alerted the tenants of the fire.

James Basford Jr. is the owner of the worst-damaged building, at 50 Beech Street. His address is listed on town records as 50-B Beech Street. The building was built around 1900 and has an assessed value of $149,500.

The 40 Beech Street property is owned by Peff Corp of North Andover, Massachusetts. Philip Petschek of Hebron is the registered agent for the property, which also dates to 1900 and has an assessed value of $190,600.

Attempts to reach the landlords for further information were unsuccessful.

Lloyd Ziel, communications officer for the American Red Cross of New Hampshire, said volunteers from across the Lakes Region and across the state — including from as far away as Berlin and Portsmouth — took down information about food and clothing needs, as well as whether the displaced tenants had a place to stay. The Red Cross provided preloaded credit cards to the tenants so they could take care of their immediate needs.

“The Red Cross works because of volunteers who were able to scramble and get there, but there is a need for volunteers all the time,” Ziel said, noting that people can sign up as volunteers by going to redcross.org.

Gail Shaw of the Grafton County Senior Citizens Council, which operates the Newfound Area Senior Center, credited cook Valerie Cilley and her sister, Leann, who volunteers in the kitchen, for opening up the congregate meal to the displaced tenants.

Shaw said that, despite their losses, the people seemed to be in good spirits, which could be credited to the support they received from the community.

Tree Topples And Sends Car Into Newfound Lake

T.P. Caldwell

September 4, 2018

Car in lake — A Volvo ended up in Newfound Lake, at the area known as The Ledges, when a tree fell from the cliff overhead. The driver managed to escape.

ALEXANDRIA — A Hebron man passing the area of West Shore Road known as The Ledges experienced what many drivers on that stretch have feared, but in the form of a tree rather than a boulder.

Richard Abenna was on his way home from sailing on Newfound Lake on Sept. 4, about 1:30 p.m., when a large tree tumbled from the cliff over the highway and struck his car, sending it — along with the boat and trailer — into the lake.

Abenna said he was traveling with the windows open and heard what sounded like an earthquake, and the next thing he knew, he was upside-down in the water.

Although the accident happened at the deepest part of the lake, where the water is 182 feet deep, the car got hung up on a rock and, because his windows were open, Abenna was able to escape from the vehicle with only minor cuts and bruises.

A young man in a car that was following Abenna’s 2003 Volvo scrambled down the rocky shore to help him out of the water, but Abenna did not get his name.

A tow truck responded to pull his Volvo from the water.

Alexandria police later posted on Facebook, “The vehicle has been removed, we have given the driver directions to the public boat launch for his next trip and the road is open.”

Gilford Musician Sets Sights On Stardom

T.P. Caldwell

August 26, 2018

Katie Dobbins performs with Marie Kettenring on violin and Mike Moran on bass at Pitman's Freight Room in Laconia NH.

Performing to an intimate audience at Pitman’s Freight Room in Laconia, 29-year-old singer-songwriter Katie Dobbins showed she has the ability to mesmerize the crowd.

From her sticky-note inspiration that led to the creation of a music video to her passionate “Bring On the Fire”, Dobbins engaged her audience and interspersed some modest humor which made them feel that they may have known her for years.

Dobbins, who grew up in Gilford but now teaches in the Boston area, was joined on some songs by Marie Kettenring on violin and Mike Moran on bass, and she did one number with Jack Polidoro, who opened the show for her.

“I’ve been playing as long as I can remember,” she said during a recent interview. “We had a piano in our house, and I took lessons. Dad always had guitars, and I sang in a choir. We didn’t have a car radio — it was broken — so we’d make up stories and songs as we drove. That’s where my creativity came from.”

She was writing songs in seventh and eighth grade, but set her music aside while attending college and then while working with autistic people at a nonprofit organization in the Boston area.

“I had a collection of songs I was working on, but in college, I was focused on school,” she said. “Then i was working.”

She admits that fear played a part.

“I considered it a hobby, and was afraid to actually pursue it,” she recalled.

That changed when she attended the She Is Free Christian Conference in New York City.

“I realized it was a part of myself, and decided I was going to make a CD. It was really important to me,” she said.

Then she booked and promoted her debut album, “She Is Free”, which she recorded in Gilford and released last year.

Her first real gig did not come until two years ago.

Collaboration

Jack Polidoro, who performs as “The Good Dr. Jack”, is a former Laconia resident now living in Gilmanton. He said he had not collaborated with anyone in 50 years of performing music, but that changed after hearing Dobbins.

“I listened to some of her [music], and saw she had some good stuff coming down,” he said.

Dobbins met Polidoro during an open mic at Ashland’s Common Man Restaurant. “Then I started seeing you everywhere,” she told him.

Polidoro suggested that she join other musicians at a music contest during last year’s Belknap County Fair.

“I lost and they all won,” he observed. “But I love your music.”

They decided to collaborate on a song and found they enjoyed working off each other’s suggestions.

“You have to let go of your music and recognize that you’re not in control all the time,” Polidoro said. “It takes a willingness to hear things you didn’t hear, and then you can decide to say yea or nay.”

They came up with the music on day one of their collaboration, Dobbins said.

Each generally approaches music from a different angle. Dobbins starts with the lyrics and then puts music to it, while Polidoro generally starts with the melody and comes up with the lyrics. In collaborating, Dobbins said, “I’m always honing in — what story do we have to tell?”

Polidoro said asking that question “exploded into lyrics, with the highway becoming a metaphor for seeking freedom.”

He noted that “Highway To A Memory” is a working title for the song that may change as they refine it.

Katie and Jack — Katie Dobbins and Jack Polidoro

“It’s about understanding yourself through a wider understanding of your past,” Dobbins said. “It brings out unresolved issues we didn’t know we had.”

“Inspiration can come from anywhere,” Polidoro observed. “My goal’s always been the music, not the business. … You hang in there and keep doing what you’re doing and hope somebody is going to pick up on it.”

Working with Polidoro is inspiring for Dobbins: “It’s encouraging,” she said. “He demonstrates that music isn’t something you grow out of. You just love it and find joy in it, and I hope I do that with my whole life.”

The music

Dobbins is working her second studio album, which she plans to release in the spring.

“It’s definitely therapeutic,” she said of songwriting. “It’s an exciting way for me to communicate my feelings and my thoughts to others.”

Now teaching at a public school, Dobbins said she still tries to make time for her “creative muse” and she noted that, having time off this summer, she was able to write four new songs.

“I’m blown away by how much music can move people,” she said.

Dobbins said she originally planned to make an EP album, “but just got too excited” and now has 10 songs for her new CD.

“My writing has evolved to be more personal as I’ve redefined who I am as an artist,” she said.

Bristol Petitions For Special Town Meeting

T.P. Caldwell

August 26, 2018

BRISTOL — The town has petitioned Grafton County Superior Court for permission to hold a special town meeting on Thursday, Nov. 1, to consider the purchase of the former Newfound Family Practice building and renovate it for use as a municipal building.
The one-article warrant calls for appropriating $899,637, of which $335,800 would cover the purchase of the building from LRGHealthcare. The remaining $563,837 would cover $438,000 in renovations plus architect’s fees, both of which include contingency amounts to cover unexpected costs that may arise.
Selectmen plan to apply $250,000 from the town’s unexpended fund balance to reduce the amount the town would have to borrow to $649,637.
Ned Gordon, who served as chair of the space needs committee that sought out options for the town offices and police station, questioned the selectmen’s approach, saying that instead of looking at overall renovations to improve the building, the town should look at priorities for making it suitable for town office use.
“I’ve gotten beaten up enough at the public hearings that I think I know where the people are,” Gordon said. “We all started out agreeing that the outside of the building is in good shape, and when we toured the building, we agreed that the town could move in tomorrow and use the building as it is, if we had to. … If all we were going to do is buy the building, I don’t think you’d have any problems, but now you tell people we’ll be spending $900,000 to buy the building and have it operational, that’s a different story.”
He questioned putting half a million dollars into a building that was appraised at $550,000. “That’s a concern,” he said. “It seems to me there are priorities, things that need to be done.”
He listed the $90,000 targeted for heating and plumbing upgrades as a priority, along with the work to open up an 800-square-foot meeting room, and addressing other issues with the offices.
“Maybe we should be be looking at what our priorities are and putting money where we need to make it work for the town,” he said.
Vice-Chair Don Milbrand admitted that the cost figures gave him “sticker shock” and suggested using more of the unexpended fund balance to reduce the amount to be financed.
Chair Rick Alpers noted that the impetus for finding new space for the town offices was the need to address space and safety issues in the Bristol Police Department, which also operates out of the Bristol Municipal Building. Once the town offices move from the current municipal building, the police department will be able to make the renovations it needs, such as adding a sallyport to safely bring prisoners in and out of the building.
“I’m very aware that department is not the most popular department in this town,” Alpers said, suggesting that it would be better to apply some of the unexpended fund balance to reduce the cost of police station renovations.
Alpers also took exception to Milbrand’s “sticker shock” comment: “We’ve kicked the can for 25 years, and we’re now trying to build a building in an economic boom, so we’re not going to get the pricing we got in ’08 when we built the library,” he said.

Architect’s perspective
Cris Salomon of Samyn-D’Elia Architects said he had trimmed expenses where he could through “value engineering” of the proposed renovations. As examples, he said many of the carpets in the building can be used, rather than replaced, and while wall colors may not appeal to town office employees, rooms need not be repainted. A bigger savings involves merely building a shaft, rather than also installing a lift to the second floor — something that can be added in the future.
He said the latest plan incorporates employee suggestions without changing the scope or cost of the project — such as giving the town clerk/tax collector a separate office, moving the downstairs break room upstairs, and adding more storage space on the lower level.
Selectman J.P. Morrison asked whether the 800-square-foot meeting room would allow residents to vote there, rather than at the Old Town Hall. Salomon said they would have to nearly double the room’s size to achieve that goal.
“Every time we have a voting scenario at the Old Town Hall, we seem to have catastrophic weather conditions, and everyone parks at this parking lot anyway,” Morrison said. “Why not vote here? We might have to change the floor plan to make that happen.”
Salomon said he could look into that.
Susan Duncan, whose motion at town meeting had established the space needs committee, said, “We’ve spent two years talking to employees, and to have this much square footage is more than we dreamed we could do. We should take advantage of this opportunity, even if we do less initially.”
She suggested that local residents might volunteer to help make improvements to the building, as they did in renovating the Old Town Hall.
“The less we spend on this building, the more opportunity we will have to do what we need to do for the police station,” Gordon said.
Selectmen Les Dion said voters were prepared to spend “a pretty hefty sum” to build a new town hall before the professional building came up for sale, and commented, “I’d rather see us do it right out of the gate, rather than have to come back next year [and ask for more money].”
Alpers complained about those who have been saying the building is ready for occupancy. “There are things that need to be changed,” he said.
Soloman said the prices he gave to the selectmen were based on unit estimates that could be brought down as they get to the design phase. They then may be able to add back things like the lift, he said.
As the selectmen formed a consensus to seek the money in that plan, Gordon issued a stern warning: “Now you’re getting close to a million dollars, and the [earlier] idea of building a new building at a million and a half dollars was not very marketable last time around. I just think that’s a lot of money.… It’s not like you’re reducing the cost by applying the [unreserved fund balance], because that’s basically our tax money that would offset our taxes in other ways, so you’re actually spending those monies.”
Milbrand conceded, “Why spend that much money to move a couple of walls? That’s what people are going to ask.”
Alpers said the building is “noticeably tired” in some areas, and argued, “It’s the right price. I’m a little frustrated that after two years we’ve ended up here.”
Morrison said, “For us sitting here, it’s a great deal, but the folks at town meeting last year, I don’t think they would have gone for it. I’m sure it was way too much money for them then, and I think this might be too much now. I think it’s the right thing to do, but I don’t want to just throw it out there and expect them to go for it.”
Gordon suggested that the town find out whether the amount they request of the court in asking for a special town meeting can be amended on the floor. If it cannot be amended, it would be an up-or-down vote that might lose with the larger figure.
Town Administrator Nik Coates subsequently learned that voters will not be able to amend the amount on the warrant article. Milbrand said he wanted to find out if they could amend how much comes from the fund balance to reduce the amount to be bonded.

Woman Indicted On Charge of Hiding Dead Baby in Storage Unit

T.P. Caldwell

August 26, 2018

PLYMOUTH — Grafton County Attorney Lara Saffo will be seeking the arrest of a former Bristol woman following her indictment by a Grafton County Superior Court Grand Jury.

The grand jury found there was sufficient evidence to bring Gretchen Digman, 42, formerly of 170 Lake Street, Bristol, to court on a charge of concealing her baby’s corpse in a metal box inside a Plymouth storage unit.

The indictment states that the child, determined to be about 36 weeks’ gestation, was kept in “one or more storage units” in Plymouth following her death between Jan. 1, 2014, and May 9, 2016, and that Digman failed to notify authorities of the baby’s existence.

A baby is not considered to be full-term until it reaches 39 weeks of gestation.

Plymouth Detective Sergeant Aimee Moller conducted the investigation, but neither she nor Chief Stephen Lefebvre would comment on the case, referring questions to Saffo.

The county attorney said she could not say more than what was contained in the indictment, but she did clarify that there is no pending investigation into a non-indicted person, Clarence Digman. The indictment stated that Gretchen Digman “knowingly, acting individually and/or in concert with Clarence Digman,” concealed the corpse.

Bristol Police Lieutenant Kris Bean said his department’s involvement was only to verify Digman’s address, and that Plymouth police then went to her residence.

Bean does not believe she is currently living in Bristol and said he has not seen her since she ended her employment at Cumberland Farms a couple of years ago.

Lefebvre said his department is not likely to be involved in the case until it is time to testify when it reaches trial. The county attorney’s office has charge of the case and is responsible for notifying Digman of her indictment, he said.

1...123124125...129 Page 124 of 129