Sometime in mid-July, Stan Watson will return to the property he has lived at for more than 10 years, to a brand-new home that was donated to him.

Watson’s previous home was destroyed in April 2007. Flood waters sent 3 feet of water through his property.

“I got out with a couple of bags of clothes and my dog,” Watson said. “I carried my dog out of the road. I can’t wait to close the door and know I am home again.”

On June 17, a miracle happened for Watson when a group called “No Place Like Home,” an offshoot of Grace Community Church in Rochester, delivered a modular home to his property at 60 Clement Road.

The home was delivered and finished by members of the church and students from Dover High School. The organization works with area students to give them the chance to help people in need.

Jan Fowler, a member of Grace Community Church said No Place Like Home started after the devastating hurricane Katrina hit Louisiana.

“We helped by sending water and other supplies,” Fowler said. “Our pastor, Bernie Quinn, stayed for two weeks in a shelter counseling people. When he came back, he said we need to think out of the box. We need to help people affected by situations like this.”

The church community recruited help from area businesses for labor and supplies and sent two houses to Cut Off Louisiana, delivered by the National Guard. Their path was set. Since then, the church group has donated a house in Goffstown, one in Barrington, another in Bennington and now the house in Allenstown.

Dover High School junior Nick Lytle said he likes helping even if it is a lot of work.

“A lot of my family are in this kind of business and I have the experience to help,” Lytle said.” It’s a good feeling.”

Nick Tweedie, a senior at Dover High School has been involved in some of the other projects.

“It’s hard work.” He said. “But you meet new people all the time and you know what you are doing is helping people. I worked on a barn. We basically gutted it and added new stalls for animals.

Watson couldn’t be more grateful.

“I have spent over 26 months at my parents’ house in Merrimack,” he said. “I don’t even know what I would have done if they were not around. People keep calling me to ask about the house. I am so grateful and cannot wait to be home.”

If you would like to make a donation to “There’s No Place Like Home” or would like more information on how to get involved, call 332-9689 or visit www.placelikehome.org.

Allenstown will hold a special Town Meeting on Saturday, June 13, to see if residents will approve a bond issue for $1,625,000 to upgrade the town’s aging wastewater treatment facility, with half the money to be reimbursed by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) and the other half to be paid from the Suncook Wastewater Treatment Facility (SWTF) construction and improvement fund.

In back-to-back meetings Monday, May 18, selectmen and the Budget Committee gave their support to a proposed warrant article for the bond. The article needs a two-thirds majority to pass.

About 50 people attended the public hearings Monday, May 18, in Allenstown Elementary School. After a brief introduction by selectmen Chairman Tom Gilligan, Michael Trainque, an engineer with Hoyle, Tanner and Associates, presented the need for an upgrade of the facillity, followed by his company’s design for the upgrade.

The facility, built in the 1970s, is at capacity, Trainque said. It currently processes 1,050,000 gallons a day. While the Department of Environmental Services has placed a moratorium on new sewer construction in Allenstown, the upgrade would allow the facility to process an additional 300,000 gallons per day.

“For the time being, it would give us additional capacity,” Trainque said.

Representing the Sewer Commission, Dana Clement said the town had had an article on the warrant for “the past few years” asking voters to pay for a full upgrade. Those plans amounted to $15 million, and were defeated, Clement said.

“This is our Plan B -- it’s more modest,” he said.

How it works
“How many of you have ever used an Etch-A-Sketch?” Trainque asked the audience. The main ingredient for the drawing toy, magnetite, is also what makes BioMag, the process used in the proposed sewer upgrade, work.

The magnetite provides ballast, Trainque said. The wastewater materials stored in the feed tank are compressed, allowing the system to handle more waste.

“This allows us to have additional expansion without adding big concrete tanks,” Trainque said. The magnetite is cycled through the system and eventually recovered out of the “sludge,” he said.

The BioMag system is state of the art, Trainque said. It was piloted in Sturbridge, Mass., and was found to provide an increased flow of waste products, better treatment performance, better removal of nitrogen and phosphorus, and a smaller footprint for the entire system. It was eventually made part of Sturbridge’s full-scale upgrade, Trainque said.

The system would be housed in a 20-foot-by-20-foot building, he said.

Trainque also showed a video of two beakers filled with waste material, euphemistically called “mixed liquor.” The beaker on the left was filled to the brim, while in the one on the right, with the magnetite, the waste compacted to about a quarter of the other beaker’s. The crowd did not ask to see the video twice.

Stimulus funds
Clement pointed to the urgent need for this project. In 2002, DES told the town it was at 80 percent of its capacity, and in 2005 DES declared the moratorium.

Since the article was defeated this past March, the ARRA funds have become available, Clement said. Allenstown was approved, and its sewer project is 18th in priority on a DES statewide list of approved projects.

But it’s a number-one priority in Allenstown, and Clement, Sewer Commission Chairman James Rodger, and selectmen urged voters to take advantage of this money while it’s available.

“If we don’t take it, the money will go to someone else,” Clement said. “The taxpayer is not at risk for having to pay the bill.”

But community member Sandy McKenney wanted it in writing.

“I was at the last two meetings where you discussed this,” she told selectmen. “The residents can’t afford to spend the money, and I’m glad the Sewer Commssion found the money in the budget. But I’m still looking for the word ‘guarantee.’”

The wording is there, Rodger told her.

“The warrant article says it will be paid out of currently available sewer funds,” he said. “If the Sewer Commission double-crosses you, this deal will not go through.”

Eric Ranfos asked why the town even needed a bond, if half was paid for by stimulus and half by sewer funds. Clement told him the money is reimbursed through a system called “principal forgiveness,” and the town has to incur the entire debt first.

Barbara Bilodeau asked when the project would be completed, and Clement told her late spring or early summer of 2010. The commission first has to do a water quality study of both the town’s water and the Merrimack River, and they have to wait till the river is low enough and then take samples at least two weeks apart.

“We’ll be OK,” he quipped, “if the creek don’t rise.”

The selectmen’s public hearing was followed by the Budget Committee public hearing and approval of the warrant article. The special Town Meeting will take place Saturday, June 13, beginning at 9 a.m. at Allenstown Elementary School. For more information, call the Sewer Department at 485-5600.

It’s a tough year to ask anyone to spend money, but Allenstown sewer commissioners are hoping voters will find investing some money in a new process at the wastewater treatment plant will benefit them all in the long run.

Commissioners Dana Clement and James Rodger are proposing a $1,550,000 bond to finance a new process at the plant which will increase capacity by about 1,200 hookups, allowing both Pembroke and Allenstown to move ahead with commercial development. Such development said Rodger, would help hold down the tax rate in the long run.

While Allenstown voters must approve and be responsible for the $1.5 million bond, Pembroke would share half that cost and be allowed half the hookups.

The new process While Rodger and Clement both say a new plant needs to be built, they realize the cost is beyond Allenstown’s reach. Instead, they are proposing to install equipment that would allow a “Biomag” process to be used. This process uses iron ore powder, which attaches to solids in the wastewater and makes them sink fast.

“It’s nowhere near the upgrade we do need, but it will give us a few more years, maybe 10 or 15 years,” said Rodger. “For us, the most cost effective way is to do the whole plant.”

Rodger said there are other bottlenecks, such as the capacity of the headworks, the room where all the wasterwater from both towns first comes in. “We’re almost at capacity in that headworks area,” he said. “In fact, this process could give us more capacity if we could expand the headworks.”

The cost Just what this proposal will cost taxpayers depends on a few things. With no help at all, the $1.5 million bond would add an estimated 42 cents to the tax rate, said Clement. Each year of the 10-year bond, the rate would decrease, to 29 cents on the rate by year 10.

With a possible 20 percent grant, that cost is reduced to 34 cents in the first year and 23 cents in the last year.

For the owner of a $200,000 home, that translates to $84 extra in the tax bill in the first year on the bond.

Rodger also pointed out that the federal government’s stimulus bill could reduce the cost by as much as 80 or 90 percent, but the town would have to approve the bond in the first place to be eligible for such help.

What’s in it for me?

Rodger said voters need to look at the long-term benefit to the town as a whole to understand the need for the bond. Those already hooked up to the system may feel no one else needs to be hooked up, and those on septic systems may say they don’t want to pay for a system they don’t use.

“The question is whether the citizens would like to see further development occur in Allenstown,” said Rodger.

He points out that Pembroke has a lower tax rate than Allenstown due to more commercial development.

“They have brand new fire department, police department, library.. They’re ahed of the curve. They developed that whole (Route) 106. So they’ve got a lot of things going for them,” he said. “It seems like Allenstown is a little bit behind the curve. We’re stuck with the plant, and tha’s why we have to pay the bond. But we don’t have commercial development.”

Rodger said the sewer system benefits everyone in town. “As it is now, we do have system that’s benefiting all citizens in town,” he said. “The school is hooked up to sewer, Town Hall, Bi-Wise, Irving gas.”

The vote The vote on the bond will take place on Election Day, Tuesday, March 10. The bond is Warrant Article 4, and it will require a three-fifths majority to pass.

When Ryan D. Provost of Allenstown received his tax bill, he knew he couldn’t stand idly by any longer. His property had lost value, but his tax bill went up anyway. That’s when he decided a tax cap was the only answer.

The tax rate
The Allenstown tax rate has increased 18 percent, despite a virtual sweep of “no” votes on the school and town ballots last spring.

The current tax rate is $27.19, up $4.19 from last year’s rate of $23.00. At least part of that hike came from greatly decreased property values.

“We lost $3 million in assessed value,” said town clerk Diane Demers.

The town portion of the tax rate went from $5.59 to $6.38; the school portion from $12.70 to $15.89; and the county portion from $2.33 to $2.56. The state school tax actually decreased from $2.38 to $2.36.

The tax cap petition Provost, 31, lives with his wife and three young children in a home he recently remodeled to add a second floor.

“The taxes in Allenstown have become out of control,” he said. “The taxpayers can’t afford it. You can’t bankrupt the residents of a town by taxing them.”

His home, which was previously assessed at $184,000 was reduced to $180,000, but his tax bill rose from $4,200 for the year to $5,600.

“I don’t understand how you can reduce the assessment value on my property and increase my taxes,” he said.

Provost decided a tax cap is the answer, and he has circulated petitions at the Bi-Wise Market and GE in Hooksett, where he works as a welder and where many other Allenstown residents work.

His petition does not specifically ask for a percentage or dollar amount limit, but does ask for a tax cap. It also asks for help in moving the project forward.

To that end, Provost has formed the Allenstown Concerned Taxpayers Organization.

Those wishing to help or get more information can contact Provoat at 485-7497 or rdprovost@verizon.net.

Provost said his job prevents him from attending budget committee meetings and deliberative sessions, but he does vote. “It all has to do with them meeting their budget,” he said, “They need to amend their budget.”

Franklin capped taxes
Franklin was the first place in New Hampshire to enact a spending and tax cap, in 1989.

Mayor Kenneth Merrifield claims great success with the cap, resulting in stable, predictable growth in taxes each year.

In a statement posted on The New Hampshire Advantage Coalition’s Web site, Merrifield notes there are provisions for emergency or exceptional costs, but the cap has forced Franklin to reorder its prorities. Franklin has renovated its high school, paid off a middle school bond and expanded its elementary schools under the cap.

“We have never had a layoff of personnel associated with the tax cap,” said Merrifield. “In recent years, we have increased salaries to market median and added some positions.” Merrifield reports no disastrous results due to the cap. “Why must local government increase its cost to taxpayers at a faster rate than everything else in the general economy?” he said. “The simple answer is: because we allow it to happen. The tax cap is a sensible and moderate means to change that.”

Is it realistic?
Having a default budget does not necessarily mean the amount spent by a town stays the same or decreases. Often the default budget does increase because there are legal obligations that force more spending, such a union salary increases and insurance increases.

“We have to increase the budget for those items which we have a contracted service for, and those contracted services go up,” said Allenstown Board of Selectmen Chairman Tom Gilligan. “One of the items which is protected are health insurance costs.”

Gilligan listed a few of the items that went up in cost that had to be accommodated:
• Elections increase of $7,000 (the town went from two elections to four).
• Financial administration increase of $16,679 (the town’s assessing contract moved from $40,000 to $56,000).
• Legal fees up $10,000.
• Personnel administration increase of $79,236 (this included an increase in health and dental insurances, an increase in the New Hampshire retirement employer contribution, and an increase in Worker’s Compensation insurance).
• Property insurance up $8,500.
• Library budget up $5,355 due to health insurance costs.

Worsening the problem, the town’s overall property value decreased by more than $2 million. “Using 2007’s assessed valuation, our 2008 tax rate would have been $6.335 per $1,000 of assessed value,” said Gilligan “The loss of $2,187,138 resulted in an increase in the 2008 town tax rate of 4.5 cents.”

Selectmen did try to cushion the blow by using money from the unreserved fund balance.

“If the Selectmen had not used any unreserved fund balance to reduce taxes, the town’s portion of the tax rate would have been $7.248 per $1,000,” said Gilligan. “By choosing to use $250,000, the board lowered this to $6.38. Therefore, it is factual to say that $250,000 of fund balance decreased the tax rate by 86.8 cents.”

If a $5 fine won’t get people’s attention, perhaps a $20 parking fine will.

When the winter parking ban kicks in on Nov. 15, those parking illegally in Allenstown will face fines four times higher than the current fee. Selectmen agreed on the hike at their Oct. 20 meeting.

There are fewer places for some residents to park their cars as well, with parking restricted to one side of the street only on Whitten, Ferry and Webster streets, as well as Granite Street from the intersection of Main Street to the entrance to the Rite Aid Plaza.

Sandra McKenney, a former Allenstown selectman and resident of Main Street, near the affected streets, is upset at the changes, especially given the downtown in the economy.

“I mean, give us a break,” she said. “Five dollars is enough. That kind of increase is ridiculous.”

“The objective with the new fine amount is to limit the amount of tickets written,” said Police Chief Shaun Mullholland. “The objective is to convince violators that the risk and cost is to high to violate the parking ordinances. We anticipate less tickets written and less fine revenue due to this increase.”

The town currently takes in about $3,000 a year in parking fines, said Mulholland, which barely covers administrative costs.

Restricting the parking on the four streets just changed is intended to make it easier for snowplows and other maintenance vehicles to get through.

In the minutes from the July 21 seletmen’s meeting, road agent Chris Roy talked about how he couldn’t get plows through some roads with cars parked on both sides of the street.

Roy and the police chief measured the paved portions of Granite Street, which are 25, 23 and 21 feet wide; Ferry Street, which is 21 feet; Whitten Street, which is 21 feet; and Webster Street, which is 24 feet. A small dump truck is 10 feet wide and a police cruiser is 7.5 feet wide, according to those minutes.

This past summer, Jennifer Morin, a resident of Granite Street, presented a petition to town requesting that no changes be made, but, meeting resistance, managed to get selectmen to agree to restricting the parking to the north side of the street. During the normal winter parking ban, no vehicle can be on the street overnight between Nov. 15 and April 15.

“We were able to convince them that keeping the parking on the north side was the right thing to do,” she said.

Signs restricting parking were in place since the early part of October.

“Plenty of people are receiving tickets,” said Morin.

If the problem was with snowplows getting through, though, said Morin, she couldn’t understand why the ban had to be year-round.

“I still think it’s not needed, but I did my part. I fought for what I wanted,” she said.

The new fine amount is based upon several factors, said Mullholland.

“We looked at what other towns were charging such as Pembroke ($20),” he said. “At $5, many people would have ignored the parking ban or other parking restrictions as the risk of receiving a ticket at worse is only $5. The objective of a fine is to impose a penalty that would convince people to comply with the law, the risks not being worth the price. The cost of administering the parking tickets is more than what we are taking in, in fines.”

While parking fines, particularly for those who ignore the first ticket, result in some income to the town’s general fund, it’s not an income-generator for the town.

“We are a small police department (and) our objective is to limit the time and resources spent on parking issues to the extent possible,” said Mulholland. “In larger communities, parking fines are a considerable source of revenue. That is not the case here and our hope is that we will write less tickets.”

Don’t ignore those tickets. Penalties for unpaid tickets move from $20 to $50, and if another notice is sent, the penalty goes to $100.

Something went wrong during the state primary in Hooksett Sept. 9, and the New Hampshire Attorney General’s office is determined to get to the bottom of it.

According to three complaints received by the Attorney General’s Office, a number of Hooksett voters who thought they were unaffiliated with a political party were in fact declared as either Republican or Democratic. The computer system used by election officials during the state primary selected the designation based on the political ticket these undeclared voters chose to support during the presidential primary in January.

According to state law, undeclared voters are required to choose either a Republican or a Democratic ballot on primary election days. After indicating which ballot they select, those undeclared voters are also given the opportunity to fill out a short form expressing their desire to revert back to an undeclared status.

Although those forms were apparently filled out by about 150 Hooksett voters on Jan. 15 – the day of the New Hampshire presidential primary – the forms were not processed in the computer system correctly.

As a result, those voters were legally able to cast a ballot on Sept. 9, but they were only allowed to do so with the party they were affiliated with on the presidential primary day. Assistant Attorney General Jim Kennedy said he is not sure exactly how the problems may have occurred, but that his office will follow up with the complaints.

“It’s clear there were some problems,” Kennedy said. “We’ll be looking into it.”

Frank Gray is the local elected official responsible for overseeing the checklist of the registered voters in Hooksett. He processed the change-of-status forms in January and said he believes it was likely a computer error that failed to actually change the status of those voters. “Whether it was human error or computer error, it doesn’t really matter,” Gray said. “What matters is that we fix it.”

Gray said he would be looking carefully at the list of registered voters to make sure there will be no hiccups on Election Day in November, when the voter turnout is expected to be much higher than it was during the state primary.

Hooksett Town Clerk Leslie Nepvue, who officially sends Hooksett primary results to the state officials, said at the Hooksett Town Council meeting on Sept. 10 that she doubts it was a computer error that caused the multiple mistakes.

“It is not a software issue,” Nepvue said. “A reasonable person would have tested a few records to make sure.”

For voters who consider themselves independent, the glitch – computer generated or otherwise – threw them for a loop.

Hooksett resident Mary Farwell was one of those independent voters. She asked the town council to address what went wrong.

“I want to know what the town is going to do about the problem,” Farwell said. “I’m just looking for clarification.”

If there were any doubts about the suggestion that Route 3 in Hooksett -- between Benton Road and Martins Ferry Road -- needs repairing, the weekend’s storm cleared those up.

The many stores flooded in the Kmart plaza prove something underground isn’t working right.

That’s why state officials addressed the Hooksett Planning Board on Monday, Sept. 8, about ways to improve the highway.

“(The road improvements and the drainage concerns) go hand in hand,” said Michael Dugas, the New Hampshire Department of Transportation’s chief of preliminary design. State officials have secured a $4 million federal earmark to address the traffic and drainage issues, and yet that sum will not be enough to cover the full scope of the project. With the chance of receiving any additional funding for road work being slim, the state Department of Transportation and local Hooksett officials are in the process of determining which problems need urgent attention.

Dugas said no matter what type of improvement project they decide to pursue, installing two box culverts under Route 3, to replace two small pipes, is on the ticket.

“The culverts will have a much greater capacity,” he said. In this latest flash flood at the Kmart plaza, sections of the road had to be shut down, something that is happening more often as the weather changes.

Because floodwater was so deep from the storm, power had to be cut for the entire strip mall and only certain businesses had re-opened even as late Monday, Sept. 8.

David Katz of R.K. Associates, which owns the Kmart plaza in Hooksett, said the need for drainage improvement is dire. “We have been very actively involved in the process with the town, with the NHDOT and with some of our abutters to create some long-term drainage solutions,” Katz said. “We also need the DOT to execute the drainage improvement on Route 3. We’re extremely concerned about it.”

That state and local officials are in the midst of moving forward with improvement plans is a good sign, Katz said. “It’s all very timely, and we’re hoping to see some progress as a result,” Katz said.

On Aug. 27, state officials brought a plan to widen Route 3 to the Hooksett Town Council. The plan to ease traffic and drainage problems, if approved, would cost nearly $7 million, but the federal government has approved a $4 million earmark. Local and state officials are having a tough time trying to figure out the best way to spend that money.

There are several alternative options to consider, including narrowing the scope of the project or attempting to secure more funds. State officials said at the Aug. 27 meeting that their plan was meant more to address traffic than drainage issues.

Hooksett Town Planner JoAnn Duffy said it is important for everyone to understand the issues at stake.

“I think that the Planning Board has decided they would like to open up the lines of communication with the DOT so there are more cooperative efforts,” Duffy said. “I thought it would be beneficial for the planning board to be aware of some of the options.”

At that meeting, state Sen. Ted Gatsas said a decision regarding the road repairs should be made. Unless the federal money is spent in a timely manner, the earmark will disappear, he said. “(The money) will go away in a few years if it’s not spent,” Gatsas said. “I think it’s important that we move as quickly as we can with the project because floods will come and then the traffic really stops.”

Allenstown and Pittsfield police busted a heroin ring after a long investigation that ended in the raiding of an Allenstown woman’s apartment on Wednesday, Aug. 20.

Police arrested eight people, including a family: two Pittsfield residents who were making runs from an Allenstown apartment back to Pittsfield, three people living in the apartment, and three teens facing marijuana possession charges who were also in the apartment when police entered.

A ninth person who allegedly also lives in the apartment is still being sought, said Allenstown Police Chief Shaun Mulholland. That person left before authorities hit the apartment.

Rose Watterson, 40, of 5 Whitten St., Apt. 5, was charged with possession of heroin with intent to distribute, a Class A felony, and with falsifying evidence after she attempted to hide the drugs inside her body, said Mulholland.

Watterson was arraigned in the intensive care unit at Concord Hospital on Thursday, Aug. 21.

While in the holding cell at the Allenstown Police Department, as police were in the process of obtaining a body cavity search warrant, Watterson removed the 48 “bindles” of heroin she had concealed inside her body and swallowed them, causing her to become ill and start vomiting, Mulholland said. “It shows you how desperate people are because that could have killed her,” said Mulholland, if one of the plastic baggies containing the drugs had burst in her stomach.

Police seized about $5,000 worth of heroin from Watterson and four other suspects, said Mulholland.

“That’s a very small amount compared to what’s been going on there,” Mulholland said. “That’s about a third of a day’s activity.”

The investigation started several months ago. The raid and arrests involved the Pittsfield and Allenstown police departments, the Merrimack County Sheriff’s Office, the Central New Hampshire Special Operations Unit, and the Attorney General’s Drug Task unit.

The apartment complex where Watterson lived is right across the street from Whitten Street Park, and the Allenstown Boys and Girls Club teen center.

Just before authorities entered the apartment, Suzanne Gross, 41, and Dennis Gross, 59, of 240 Dowboro Road in Pittsfield, had allegedly left the apartment with heroin. Surveillance officers observed the couple leaving the apartment, Mulholland said.

Pittsfield caught up with the Grosses and arrested them once they got into town. Suzanne Gross was charged with three felony counts of selling drugs and Dennis Gross was charged with transporting them, a misdemeanor.

At 9 p.m., about 40 police officers raided the Whitten Street apartment building from two different sides.

Along with Watterson, police arrested two other men who lived there with her: James Corriveau, 39, who was arrested on a felony heroin charge out of Massachusetts; and Kevin Folsom Sr., who was arrested on a misdemeanor drug charge.

Mulholland said Folsom is Watterson’s ex-husband and Corriveau is her current boyfriend.

Also arrested was the 19- year-old son of Watterson and Folsom who was living in the apartment, Kevin Folsom Jr., for possession of marijuana.

Police also arrested Brandon Millette, 18, of 36 Library St., Allenstown, and Daniel Millette, 17, of 56 Arlene St., Belmont, and charged them with marijuana possession.

Police believe the teens were operating their own pot business out of the home as well.

“It was like a department store. You went to one department and got one thing and went to the other department and got another thing,” Mulholland said.

This isn’t the first time Watterson has been arrested for drug activity, he said, adding she served time for heroin sale in the past.

This investigation was the result of anonymous tips from the Concord Crimeline, Mulholland said.