Several people have asked me who is running and what I know about the candidates. Below are the names and my observations based on what I have heard them say at various School Board, Selectman or Budget Committee meetings. The incumbents are **
I am running for reelection to the Select Board and am asking for your vote and support.
Please let me know if I can put a sign in your yard. It will be up for 10 days.
Tom
Select Board – Elect 2
**Tom Keane – I have served on a number of town committees and am fortunate to have been elected to both the Select Board and School Board. There is no doubt that I am a fiscal conservative who believes in cost effective and efficient government services.
Rick Hiland – Rick is a long time active member of the Town Budget Committee and as such he has extensive experience with both the School Budget and the Town Budget. I have seen Rick at other committee meetings and he is an active member of the Bow Business group. Rick voting record is that of a fiscal conservative. He owns an automotive engineering specialty company located in Bow. I have not seen Rick at either School Board or Selectman meetings.
Colleen Hunter is a former Bow town employee who managed the town’s day care program. To my knowledge she has attended only one Select Board meeting three years ago to defend her position that town should compete with the private sector and operate a child care program. I can not recall seeing her at any meeting of the School Board or Budget Committee.
Jill Desrochers – Jill is an active member of the recycling committee. She is an adjunct faculty member at the Technical Institute (NHTI). She is a lawyer by training. I n three years I do not recall ever seeing her at one Select Board, School Board or Budget Committee meeting.
Leon Kennison decided NOT to run for reelection.
School Board – Elect 2
**Pansy Bloomfield is running for reelection. She has continuously served on the School Board since before there was a Bow High School.
Robert Louf is heavily involved with Bow youth programs and has attended many Select Board and School Board meetings.
Shawn Coe works for the Londonderry School system. His wife has appeared before the School Board in her role as the Dean of Humanities at Bow High School. I have repeatedly questioned the need for a Dean of Humanities especially when student enrollment has dropped so dramatically. It is apparently Mr. Coe’s judgment that he sees no conflict of interest problem with him sitting on the board. On his face book page he explains that the Superintendent and not the School Board determines administrative salaries therefore there is no conflict of interest. Even given Mr. Coe’s perspective, who hires and fires the Superintendent? The School Board.
Warren Fargo decided NOT to run for reelection.
Budget Committee – Elect 2
**Kally Abrams is running for reelection. In her three years on the Board she has voted most often to increase spending or against proposed reduction in spend. This year she voted to support increasing the School Boards Budget by more then a quarter of a million dollars.
Jim Hoffman is retired and has attended many School Board, Selectman, and Budget Committee hearings. He often presents well researched opinions that suggest a commitment to cost effective government. Mr. Hoffman’s previous experience was in private sector manufacturing.
Ginger Fraser is unknown to me. She and Ms. Abrams share yard signs so I would conclude she also supports increasing town and school budgets. To my knowledge I have never seen her at and Budget Committee, School Board or Selectman meetings.
Rick Hiland decided NOT to run for reelection to the Budget Committee but rather to run for the Select Board
Other candidates
Moderator -2 year term
Peter Imse -A member of Bow Rotary, lawyer and longtime Town Moderator. .
Trustee of Trust Funds 3 year term
Robert R. Blanchette Jr. – Unknown to me.
Supervisor of Checklist 6 year term
Susan Stevens – Has worked on the check list for several years.
Library Trustee 5 year term Select one
Norman Williams
Ingrid White
By the sounds of things, it looks like it is a vote to increase the size of town government, increase spending which increases taxes OR a vote to reduce the size of government, reduce spending which reduces taxes.
My choice is the later to reduce spending and taxes.
Thank you, Tom Keane.
Check out the signs around town going up. The spenders are grouping themselves which now makes it easier to deside who the spenders and non-spenders really are.
Green signs with Kally Abrams and Ginger Fraser named on them must mean green for money and they are big spenders???
Also saw that school spender Pansy Bloomfield has teamed up with Shawn “conflict of interest” Coe on signs going up around town. So I guess that Mr. Coe is a school big spender also. Remember that it was Pansy Bloomfield that insisted a few years back that enrollments were going up and we needed to spend lots of money to build a new middle school. How wrong she was!!
That only leaves Bob Louf who can separate the wants from the needs using common sense approach to future budgets.
On the Selectman side of the election it sounds like we have the same situation as the school side. Our choices are spenders and non-spenders? Higher taxes or lower taxes?
Tom Keane is a proven fiscal conservative on the Select Board along with Rick Hiland on the Budget Committee. What more can I say, they both have a proven record.
Then we have Jill Desrochers, an unknown in experienced candidate, but do we need another lawyer on the Select Board? We really need some experience going forward in this economy and not on the job trainees. Was she a Harry Judd and Jack Crisp (both lawyers) tag-along?
The other candidate, Colleen Hunter, was a former director of Celebrating Children. You know the private day care program that was operating under the recreation department (getting free rent, electicity, liability insurance, at taxpayer’s expense approved by the liberal Selectman spenders, Judd, Crisp, Kenison) disguise that was then taken under the selectman at the time and is now a program within the Town’s municipal budget to the tune of $80,000 and growing. That’s correct $80,000!!
This is a small business venture that should rightly be in the private sector and not subsidized by the Bow taxpayers under the disguise of recreation.
They claim it is an educational program. If that is the case it should be in the school budget and not in the recreation budget of the town.
I also understand that many of the participating students are from outside of Bow as well. Our taxes subsidizing non-residents??
This is just like the nationalization of the auto industry right under our own noses here in Bow.
There you have it. Spenders and higher property taxes against non-spenders and lower property taxes.
I personally cannot afford higher taxes in this economy.
I personally support Tom Keane for Selectman, Robert Louf for School Board and Jim Hoffman for Budget Committee.
All of these folks have proven to me that they understand the fact that we are in a bad economy and that government in general has to control and/or reduce its spending in order to keep taxes down and the help the people that are really hurting in this economy.
Remember
Increased spending = increased taxes.
Decreased spending = decreased taxes.
Simple math!
I support Rick Hiland & Tom Keane for Selectman. I am only going to vote for Jim Hoffman and Robert Louf because if I vote for the other candidates running against them my vote could be the one vote that defeats these two great candidates.
Don’t forget too, that Pansy has an agenda. It’s called IB.
Pansy Bloomfield needs to go. She has ALWAYS rubbed me the wrong way and that’s when ever she opens her mouth at town meetings.
Tom Keane & Rick Hiland for Selectman
Robert Louf for SB
Jim Hoffman for BC
I think it’s time to see what Jim can bring to the game. We all have seen his wonderful presentations at town meeting, he dedicates his time to go to the meetings and has done his ‘homework.’ I feel bad that the BC will lose Rick Hiland as ultimately it is the BC that sends a budget to the voters to change or approve.
enoughalready: I agree with you on Jim Hoffman. I believe that Jim can bring a lot of needed business experience to the table when elected. He is very articulate and does his homework as you say. He has my support and vote.