BOW, N.H. — The town of Bow may have to renumber nearly every home and business in town and rename nearly a dozen streets to improve safety.

Officials said making the changes should improve response time of emergency crews. In one case, officials said, a mail carrier overturned his Jeep, and it took 15 minutes to find the road he was calling from.

Read more at WMUR

The election of Selectman (2), School Board Members (2), Budget Committee Members (2), Library Trustees and other elected positions. I am up for reelection to the Select Board and would appreciate your vote.

The one election that has controversy is for School Board. Mr. Coe is a candidate for a three year term on the School Board. Mr. Coe’s wife is the Dean of Humanities at Bow High School. I have heard from several people in town who believe this is an obvious conflict of interest.

Voting will take place from 7AM to 7PM on at the fire station

Wednesday March 10th – Town Meeting

At this meeting registered voters decide the town budget and every other warrant article, one article at a time.

There is likely to be an extended discussion over the warrant to rescind any unused funds from the $12 million dollar Water and Sewer Bond.

The town budget itself calls for less spending then this year and both the Select Board and the Budget Committee are in complete agreement.

There are more then two dozen warrant articles dealing with issues like new trucks and putting additional money into the town’s multimillion dollar Capital Reserve Fund.

I suspect voters will hear impassioned discussions on the need to reduce spending given the economy, loss of jobs and home foreclosures.

Voting will take place at the High School
The meeting begins at 7PM

Friday March 12 – Annual School District Town Meeting

This is the meeting where voters decide the size of the Bow School District’s annual budget.

This is likely to be the most divisive meeting this year.

Issue 1: Will there be a secret ballot? The answer is yes. Last year both registered and non registered/non-resident people were allowed to sit together throughout the audience. The problem occurred on both voice votes and show of hand votes. There was no way of verifying only legal voters were voting. The process produce many angry residents.

Issue 2: Both the School Board and the Budget Committee voted to adopt a budget that holds the line on increased spending.

The School Board looked at current and projected declines in school enrollment and determined that a teacher reduction was prudent. The board decided to increase core class sizes from around 17 to 22. The Budget Committee agreed with the School Board and defeated several motions by committee members Dee Treybig and Kally Abrams to avoid lay offs by increasing the budget more then a quarter million dollars. This issue will be decided by those registered voter who attend this year School District Annual Meeting.

Voting will take place at the High School
The meeting begins at 7PM

Breaking the myth that higher school taxes result in higher home values.

Tuesday February 2, 2010 at 7:00 PM
Thursday February 4, 2010 at 7:00 PM
Tuesday February 9, 2010 at 7:00 PM

Agenda for February 4:

Kally Abrams Cindy Martin
Eric Anderson* Deb McCann *
Peter Cheney Dee Treybig
Rick Hiland George Lagos

1. Call Meeting to Order 7:00 p.m.
2. Review/approve Minutes for Meetings of January 26 and 28, 2010
3. Vote on Town Budget and Warrant Articles
4. Updates
• School District
• Board of Selectmen
5. Open Business
• CIP Process – Communication
6. New Business
7. Meeting Schedule
8. Adjournment

Comments below.

It could be a while before Bow firefighters can move out of their dilapidated fire station on Knox Road.

Until then, they’re sleeping in a camper outside.

At least for the next month, that is. Many firefighters grew concerned about exposure to asbestos as crews continue for the next four or five weeks to remove the cancer-causing substance from tile floors in portions of the building, which is also home to the town’s Parks and Recreation Department.

Read More…

Wednesday @ 7:00 PM @ the High School – Session #2 of this years town meeting will commence.

Thursday @ 5:30 PM Selectman’s Meeting will be held. Although I do not yet have the agenda I suspect the Police Dispatch problem will be a topic of discussion.

Town Meeting #2 remaining Warrant articles:

#7 – To raise in new taxes $350,000 for additional paving (standard repairs are included in the operating budget). If passed this will constitute about $90 in taxes on a $300,000 home.

#8 – To raise in new taxes $249,000 to be added to the capital improvement fund for Public Works. DPW has about $700,00 in the fund. The total fund has in excess of $3million in it. If passed this will constitute about $65 in taxes on a $300,000 home.

#9 – Raise and appropriate $170,000 to purchase an ambulance. Concord has 3 ambulances and receives approximately 10,000 calls per year. Bow has 1 ambulance (NEW in 2005) and receives about 1,000 calls per year. Historically Bow has used mutual aid when a second ambulance is needed.

If passed this would be the second new ambulance within four years.

#10 Spends $143,000 for a new DPW dump truck. NOTE: #8 ADDED $249,000 to this fund and now #10 spends $143,000 and a later article #18 spends another $35,000 of the $249,000. If the proposed warrants pass the net amount added to the capital reserve fund will only be $71,000. Not recommended by the budget committee 3-5

#11 – Raises another $66,000 to capital improvement fund for the “police equipment” capital reserve fund.

#12 – Establish a new category within the Capital Reserve Fund for bridge repair. New taxes totaling $60,000. A bridge capital reserve fund is necessary to receive state matching funds.

#13 – to raise and appropriate $49,000 for our annual town property reevaluation. This action moves money from one fund to another. The point of annual property evaluations is two fold. 1. Reflects the current housing market 2. Cost less then doing an evaluations every 5 years.

#14 – Raises another $48,500 to the capital reserve funds this time for Municipal Grounds and Building fund.

#15 – Raises another $42,000 to the capital reserve funds this time for Fire Department Equipment Capital reserve fund.

#16 – Raises another $42,000 to the capital reserve funds this time for Fire Department Truck fund which includes “pumper truck, ladder trucks, tanker trucks, forestry trucks, rescue trucks, and ambulances”. It is worth noting that the language includes “ladder trucks”. We currently do not have even one ladder truck let alone ladder trucks. Several of the other categories of trucks have mention of multiples when we currently only have one. This appears to be a sweeping change on what we will be saving money for future purchases.

#17 – Spend $40,000 from existing funds to purchase a new air compressor to fill the new self contained breathing tanks.

#18 – Spend $35,000 of the capital reserve fund for a new pickup truck for the DPW. This relates to articles #8 and #10.

#19 – Spend $27,000 of existing saving to upgrade the library computer system.

#20 – Spend $12,500 of existing saving to survey Alexander Cemetery.

#21 – Raises another $12,000 to the capital improvement fund this time for Parks & Recreatoin.

#22 – Raises $5,000 to fix the Community Building rest rooms.

#23 – Move $11,000 from an account originally set up to buy a vault protect the town’s historical documents to the general fund. The purchase of fireproof cabinets (not a vault) is covered in the operating budget.

#24 – This article is a new ordinance dealing with septic system design and replacement.

# 25 – CHANGE TOWN MEETING BACK TO THE MIDDLE OF WINTER

MY OPINION: I believe moving the date back to March will reduce voter participation. A couple of weeks ago the town experienced the third highest turnout in the last 30 years. This is proof that there is nothing wrong with the current May elections. Move town voting back to the dead of winter will actually suppress voter to turn out.

#26 – This is a vote to require elected officials to show the public the vote count (4 in favor 3 against) on the official town report and any other similar materials. A majority of the Budget Committee voted to NOT show the budget committee votes on School warrant articles. Voting yes on this issue will insure the general public knows how many members support or opposed a warrant article.

Tom Keane
8 Heidi Lane
715-1875

Incumbent Steve Elgert was defeated by tax-fighter Tom Keane by a 54-46 despite the huge amount of money to keep the incumbent in office.

Budget Committee

Fellow tax-fighter Cindy Martin held her seat.

Bankruptcy List and Amounts – Total Claims $7,490,501.50
Bankruptcy – Amount Repaid – $135,743.99

Trustee Report Page 1
Trustee Report Page 2

Certificate of Service
List of Court Filers

Assessment Card Page 1
Assessment Card Page 2

Deed First Page
Deed Last Page

Newspaper Accounts

Berlin Daily Sun
Berlin Daily Sun – 2
Berlin Daily Sun – 3
Berlin Daily Sun – 4

Victims of a Corrupt Legal System

Bosa Berlin Daily Sun – Page 1
Bosa Berlin Daily Sun – Page 2
Bosa Berlin Daily Sun – Letter

Berlin Reporter
Berlin Reporter – 2
Berlin Reporter – 3

Specific Claimants

James M. McFarlane – $6,600,000.00 [largest single claimant]
Frontier Communications – $1,955.50