Epsom News

Property taxes up in Epsom despite school cuts

Hooksett Editor — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 23:37:00 GMT

The Department of Revenue Administration has set Epsom’s tax rate for 2009. Residents can expect to see an increase of 39 cents per $1,000, in a year where the town portion of the bill went up and the school portion went down.

Epsom’s current rate is $17.35 per $1,000 of taxable property. It breaks down into $2.60, town portion; $2.51, county; $10.09, local school; and $2.15, state school portion.

The new rate, set Oct. 15 by the Department of Revenue Administration, is $17.74 per $1,000. This breaks down into $4.03, town share; $2.41, county; $9.13, local school; and $2.17, state school portion.

The Epsom School District increased its revenues this past year, and even turned approximately $94,000 back to the town, financial adminstrator Nancy Wheeler said.

There are “a couple of reasons” the town portion went up, according to Wheeler. First, the town passed a budget in March 2009, after three years of being on a default budget. The total appropriations went up $207,000 when the operating budget was voted in, she said.

In addition, Wheeler said, the town did not use any surplus funds to mitigate taxes. In previous years Epsom would use its undesignated fund balance to offset taxes, but this year, she said, “there wasn’t that much to play with.” The Department of Revenue Administration requires that a certain amount be left in the fund, she said.

Epsom also saw a decrease in its anticipated revenues, which are down by $142,500, Wheeler said. These include car registrations, dog licenses, building permits, the land use change tax, the timber tax, and other licenses, permits and fees. A decrease in auto registrations was responsible for the biggest part of the drop, she said.

The town also saw reduced revenue from state highway block grants and the rooms and meals tax, and saw state “shared revenue” completely eliminated. Peter Aubrey, business manager for School Administrative Unit 53, credited the lower school portion to two factors.

First, he said, the town’s assessed value went up by $6 million in 2009. Second, he said, the school district actually returned $94,955 to the town to help offset taxes.

This was the result of good budgeting by Epsom Central School Principal Patrick Connor, he said.

“The principal is very frugal and runs a tight ship,” Aubrey said.

Vandalism has Epsom police on alert

Hooksett Editor — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 20:16:00 GMT

By Kathleen Bailey

The Epsom Police Department is responding to several recent incidents of vandalism, though Police Chief Wayne Preve warns that the nature of the crime makes it difficult to pin down a perpetrator.

While the vandalism is not widespread, Preve said he’s received several complaints. Selectmen Chairman Bob Blodgett reported a drive-by BB gun shooting, the second this year. In addition, Preve said, two or three mailboxes have been damaged, the side of the American Legion Hall spray-painted and several town signs defaced.

The problem isn’t just Epsom’s, Preve said. He’s spoken

to chiefs in surrounding towns who said many of the incidents were similar.

“We think it’s people of high school age,” he said, “and we think it’s a group of them.”

But small departments and the hit-and-run nature of vandalism slows the process.

“If we only have one or two guys on at night, it’s hard to catch them in the act,” Preve said of the vandals. “We’ve come close, but they’re never exactly where we are.”

But based on some of the graffiti, he and neighboring chiefs have begun to piece together an identity for the vandals. He puts on extra patrols when he can, and has told his officers to be especially vigilant.

Blodgett said he’s been targeted by vandals twice this year. His wife Anne was washing windows on a recent Saturday when the vandals drove by and fired several shots at one of the windows. Last Nov. 23, the Blodgetts received a BB attack to a kitchen window. That was a little too close for comfort, he said.

“If I’d been sitting there, I would have gotten it in the shoulder,” he said.

While Preve said Blodgett’s was the only BB gun complaint, Blodgett doesn’t think he’s being singled out, either for his role with the town or other reasons. He thinks it’s random, “probably bored kids.”

In his 30 years in Epsom, Blodgett has been the target of vandalism several other times. At least three mailboxes were damaged, someone sprayed the side of his house and someone “egged” his wife’s car.

Preve also advises neighbors to look out for each other, “though people in Epsom do that anyway,” he said. It’s difficult because some houses are far back from the road, he said. But anyone who sees an unfamiliar vehicle, or notices a car filled with cans of spray paint, should get the plate number and call the department, he said.

For more information, or to report an incidence of vandalism, call the department at 736-9625.

Grant may be part answer to shifting Suncook River

Hooksett Editor — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 19:46:00 GMT

By KATHLEEN D. BAILEY

The town of Epsom has completed its paperwork for a grant which Department of Environmental Services river specialist Steve Landry said will put the town and the Suncook River on a better course following the “Mother’s Day Flood” of 2006.

The Suncook River, which has its headwaters in Alton and Gilmanton, changed its course during the 2006 flood in an action river experts call an “avulsion.”

The avulsion, the largest event of its kind in New Hampshire history, affected businesses and homes in Epsom, Allenstown and Pembroke. It’s too big a problem for the towns or the state to address on their own, and Landry, colleague Steve Couture and the Epsom selectmen have been working to find funding.

The Suncook, a tributary of the Merrimack River, rose to flood level May 16, 2006. Before that time, it split around the northwest and southeast sides of Bear Island. The river veered to the southeast, then broke through an active gravel pit, a half mile to the east and continues to move east, eroding land. Since 2006, it has moved 140 feet to the east, affecting property and property values along its route.

Selectman Keith Cota, a professional engineer who is working with Landry and Couture, said Monday, Sept. 28, that Epsom has done its part of the paperwork and returned the application to the local office of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

DES and the town will pursue two grants, Landry said. The first, an Emergency Management Progress grant, will be for $400,000 for designing the project and the permitting process. There will be no cost, not even a grant match, to Epsom or any of the towns affected, Landry emphasized. The “match” will come from the state of New Hampshire, which will provide in-kind services to complete the design and permit process.

The current plan calls for in-stream structures such as rock veins and rock weirs to control erosion, and culverts to release pressure, Landry said. There will also be new snowmobile crossings at Layton Brook and the Little Suncook River, he said. The culverts will give the “new” Suncook access to a flood plain, he said.

When the first grant is completed, Landry, Couture and the town will apply to FEMA for a second grant. While the Pre-Disaster Mitigation Grant was rejected last year, the stakeholders hope that a repackaged request, including a lower bottom line, will succeed this time. Last year’s request was for $5 million for design, permitting and construction, and was denied.

“Now we’re cutting out a half million of that, which is funding from the first grant,” Landry said. “We’ve also changed the scope of the project, and won’t do so much channel dredging downstream. That was $1 million by itself.”

The new, scaled-down grant request will be “more attractive” to FEMA, Landry said. In addition to the first grant proposal, Landry and Couture have also drafted a request for qualifications for firms to do the work should the grant be accepted. The application will be filed through Dick Verville of New Hampshire Emergency Planning, who manages the FEMA grant programs for New Hampshire, Landry said.

“We’ll see where this goes,” Cota said of the first grant. “I’m a little disappointed at the slowness of the process,” he added. “This is very important -- it affects three communities.”

Selectmen Chairman Bob Blodgett hopes the second time will be the charm.

“It’s eroded a lot of property,” he said of the wayward river. “Every time we get a severe rainstorm, it eats at even more of the land. Once we get the grants, we hope that will stabilize it.”

Help still needed to finish historic building

Hooksett Editor — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 20:27:00 GMT

By Kathleen Bailey

Richard Frambach made a sweeping gesture that took in the rebuilt deck area at the Epsom Historic Meetinghouse.

“This is what they call a ‘reception deck,’” he said. “There’s room for people to line up for a receiving line. We hope someday to use the building for weddings, concerts, things like that.”

The meeting house, a fixture in Epsom since the 19th century, is settled into its new home after being moved in February 2007.Many longtime residents were baptized, married or worshipped in the building, which has been a Freewill Baptist Church and the Epsom Bible Church. The Friends of the Meetinghouse envision the structure once again taking its place at the center of town life. But they need two things, money and manpower, to make it happen.

Much about history When the Epsom Bible Church moved to new quarters on Black Hall Road, the Cumberland Farms Corp. purchased its Route 4 property, including the old church. Cumberland Farms offered to donate the meetinghouse to the town, along with $10,000 toward its relocation. Townspeople raised another $95,000 to move the building to its current site in a complex with the new library and old Town Hall.

The Friends of Epsom’s Historic Meetinghouse Committee applied for and received two grants, a $191,000 LCHIP grant for exterior work, heat for the upper level and the electrical connection, and a $10,000 moose plate grant to repair two vandalized stained glass windows.

Town historian T.J. Rand said the Free Will Baptist Society was established in town in 1834. A first meeting house was built and used for several years, though Moses Quimby, who would pastor the flock four separate times, complained that it was “old and ill-constructed.” In 1861, it was replaced by the current one, and the older one hauled to Gossville, where it eventually became the second story of the Gossville General Store.

“The building was moved by oxen, who got stuck in the mud,” Rand said.

And those early churchpeople didn’t skip a service just because their building was being moved: they worshipped in the old building while it was in the middle of the road, according to Rand.

The new building was dedicated Dec. 25, 1861; held its first worship service Dec. 29; and its first communion service Jan. 5, 1862. The structure was different from the one known today, Rand said: it had no central door, but a door on either side; and no belfry, bell or vestibule. The windows were plain -- the stained glass came later. The building still has pews installed in 1894.

Matching funds Penny Graham represented the committee at a recent LCHIP (Land and Community Heritage Investment Program) meeting. She originally planned to ask for just enough money to paint the interior. But on learning that LCHIP requires a minimum project of $10,000, she and the committee added electricity and exit doors to their “to do” list. The electrical panel is in, but the hook-ups need to be made, committee member Dick Frambach said.

Graham said the projects, including painting, are estimated at $20,000. If the town’s application is approved, LCHIP will contribute $10,000; the town will be expected to come up with $5,000; and they will accept $5,000 in in-kind donations.

Graham planned to meet with selectmen to discuss the project and the town’s potential share of the cost. The deadline for the LCHIP application is Oct. 16, she said.

Graham said between historic preservation and conservation, there are about 120 projects competing for LCHIP’s $3 million.

If the grant is received and the work done, Frambach said, there’s little left after that to make the building usable. Two restrooms and septic systems are needed and some wainscoting needs to be replaced. But the furnaces are up and running, he said.

Frambach has talked with several local contractors who are willing to give the town a discount on their labor rates to finish the job. He’s also had one contractor volunteer to design the septic system and another volunteer to put it in. But the committee doesn’t have the cash right now for the materials or diesel fuel for the machines, he said.

The main floor consists of a vestibule and a meeting room, entered through double wooden doors. The original pews are intact, and the tall stained-glass windows memorialize outstanding early citizens.

Pressed-tin ceilings add to the ambience. While it’s a little dusty right now, Frambach envisions the auditorium as a bustling part of town life.

While some of the work requires licensed contractors, volunteers can work under them, Frambach said, adding, “I can operate a nail gun.”

But there are projects requiring more attitude than skill.

“Anyone who wants to can come over and sweep, polish the pews,” he said. “Anyone with a weed whacker is welcome to come by.”

He’s planning a town work day in the near future to spruce up the inside, he said.

And Frambach reminds citizens that the meeting house belongs to them. As one contractor told him, “If it means it’ll cost me less in taxes, sure -- I’ll donate my time.”

Town historian Rand has compiled a book about meeting house history. It’s available for $5 by calling him at 736-9695.

Donations for the meeting house can be sent to the Epsom Historical Association Meetinghouse Fund, P.O. Box 814, Epsom, NH 03234. For other information or to volunteer, call Frambach at 736-9295 or Graham at 736-9044.

Residents say part of historic wall is missing and town should replace it

Hooksett Editor — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 20:17:00 GMT

When is a stone wall not a stone wall, what do you do about it, and who pays?

The town of Epsom is grappling with this issue after long-time residents Edward and Glenna Nutter alleged that DBU, a construction firm hired by the town to repair roads after last summer’s tornado, damaged the historic stone wall on their property. While Road Agent Gordon Ellis and his crew repaired the wall, the Nutters are “going to the wall” for it, insisting that only the original stones will maintain the integrity and “iconic nature” of their wall.

But selectmen contend that Nutter does not have sufficient proof that the town is at fault, and they also say it is illegal for the town to pay to repair private property. At a recent selectmen’s meeting, the Nutters said they will pursue legal action against the town.

Wall woes
According to Ed Nutter, 600 feet of the wall “disappeared” when DBU, a local firm owned by Adam Towne, repaved Center Hill Road after the tornado. The road repair happened a year ago this past July. At the time, he brought the issue to Ellis and Towne’s foreman, saying, “We want our wall back.”

After Nutter complained to the town, Ellis and his crew did put new rocks on top of investigationwhat was left of the old wall. The new rocks were donated by DBU and put in by Ellis at the town’s expense. But that’s the problem, according to Nutter: they put “gravel rocks” instead of the old-fashioned stone, and you can see the difference, according to him.

“They are little round stones, horrible looking. It’s a makeshift stone wall,” Nutter insisted.

A year ago, he wrote a letter to the town saying he was unsatisfied with the new wall. The town asked for photos and documentation, which he supplied. He also met with selectmen and Ellis for a site walk Aug. 1 of this year.

Nutter’s attorney, Todd Fahey, said the original wall is a “classic, iconic” New England stone wall.

“The town was good enough to put the wall back,” he said, adding, “But it’s not the wall he lost.” Like a rolling stone Selectmen don’t think the town is at fault, and contend that a “100-year flood” could have been responsible. In a recent meeting with the Nutters and Fahey, they pointed out that the wall could have been damaged by the force of the April 2007 flood.

“I have seen a lot of stones moved in a river,” Selectman Keith Cota, a civil engineer, pointed out. “A lot of water can move good-sized stones.”

When Nutter and Fahey said they had a good idea who had taken the stones, Chairman Bob Blodgett countered, “If you did not see them do it, how can you tell me who did it?”

“I think I know where they are, but I don’t have proof,” Nutter said.

He later said that he had people willing to “come forward” as to the location of the stones.

Adam Towne of DBU donated the replacement stones, Cota said, and maintains that his staff did not take the original stones.

Nutter and Fahey shared photos from the storm event, allegedly showing that the wall was still there in April 2007. Nutter also said neighbors walked along the wall while they were out inspecting storm damage. But selectmen argued that the smaller or “top” stones could still have been moved, with Cota saying, “The ‘act of God’ in 2007 did quite a bit of damage. It removed stumps -- it could have also removed stones.”

Selectmen also contend that it’s not necessarily the town’s responsibility to restore private property.

”Is there justification for spending public funds for something someone percieves as damaged?” Cota asked. And Selectman Joanne Randall said, “Until Mr. Nutter shows us absolute proof that the town is responsible, it’s not our responsibility to replace the wall.”

The state constitution prohibits towns from spending public funds for private property unless there is proof the town was negligent in some way, Randall said.

Nutter offered a “compromise” to the town, saying the town could repair the wall with stones from other parts of his property, at town expense and with Ellis supervisiing.

The selectmen agreed to send a letter to Nutter detailing their position on the matter, and to listen to the compromise “if it is agreeable to the board,” Cota said.

“We have a ‘standard of care’ as town officials,” Cota said. “Did we do our due diligence? I think we did.”

Epsom Old Home Day tradition

Hooksett Editor — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 19:42:00 GMT

By Kathleen Bailey

Epsom is throwing itself a party, and you’re all invited.

Gary Perry, the new chairman of the Epsom Old Home Day celebration, has been working to get Webster Park ready for the annual celebration of all things Epsom. Perry, who took over the chairmanship this year from Kevin Reeves, said the Aug. 8 festival will include many traditions from years past, plus a few surprises that he hopes will also become traditions.

The national recession has come home to Epsom, with many local merchants unable to donate as much as they have in the past. “We have not had a lot coming in for funds,” Perry said.

While this has hampered his ability to bring in “outside” groups and shows, Epsom residents have volunteered their time and talent in a number of areas, according to Perry.

The fun actually begins Friday night, when Linwood Marden of Chichester comes to Epsom to produce his bean hole beans for the supper the next day. It’s a painstaking ritual in which Marden and his two sons bury pots of beans in deep pits covered with sand. The beans bake all night in the natural heat, and are served in juicy perfection at the annual ham and bean dinner Saturday. But the Friday night prelude is communal, with members of the Marden family and Old Home Day committee hanging out to watch the process.

A Saturday community breakfast, sponsored by the Lions Club, is new this year, Perry said. It will be held from 7 to 9:30 a.m. at the big pavilion in Webster Park, and offer pancakes and sausage, he said. The meal is $4 per person. Perry said he hopes the breakfast will be a permanent Old Home Day fixture.

The parade steps off at 10 a.m. and takes about an hour to complete, according to Perry. This year’s parade, coordinated by Scott Hahn, will include the Epsom Town Band, fire trucks, floats, politicians and children’s “bikes, buggies and baby carriages,” Perry said.

Hahn said parade entries are being registered with him “slowly but surely.” He has some new entries and some old staples, he said. There will be classic and antique vehicles, old tractors, fire and emergency vehicles and more. Scouts and sports groups will march, he said. The parade will open with the traditional American Legion color guard, followed by Police Chief Wayne Preve, he said.

The Old Home Day will officially open just after the parade, Perry said. At 12:30 p.m., the Citizen of the Year will be announced along with the winners of the winners of the classic and antique car shows. In the afternoon, the mainstage will host folk music with Just Plain Folk, a dance demonstration, and children’s activities.

There will be plenty of physical activity, with a climbing wall, horseshoe tournament and bounce houses for the children. There will be family field games in the afternoon from 3 to 4:30 p.m., featuring old-fashioned games like the sack race, spoon race and three-legged race, Perry said.

Throughout the day, fairgoers can snack at a variety of booths sponsored by Scouts and community organizations such as the Odd Fellows and Rebekahs. And the ham and bean supper, featuring Marden’s beans, will take the edge off people’s hunger before the evening activities, Perry said.

It will also give them strength for the closing events of the festival. After a concert by the Town Band, 6:30 to 8 p.m., there will be ballroom dancing until 10 p.m.

Perry is pleased, so far, with his first term as chairman.

“Where it was ‘lean,’ we tried to do the best we could,” he said, adding, “I work with a great group of people. Every town organization is represented.”

For more information on Old Home Day, call Perry at 496-7485. To enter a float or marching unit, call Hahn at 736-9735.

A year after shocking event, recovery continues

Hooksett Editor — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 19:34:00 GMT

By Kathleen Bailey

Last year on July 24, Epsom Selectmen Chairman Bob Blodgett was investigating a blasting complaint when his wife, Anne, called, informing him that a tree was down on Goboro Road. Blodgett went to Goboro Road, discovered that the downed tree was on the Chichester side, and waited until Chichester town personnel came to cut up the tree. While waiting, his cell phone began to ring, with calls as far away as Atlanta, Ga. But Blodgett still didn’t know what his town was facing. When he got a call from Gov. John Lynch’s office to meet him at the junction of routes 4 and 107, he went -- and after fighting his way through a knot of emergency vehicles and roadblocks, he learned that Epsom had been hit with a tornado.

They were at work, at the store, or home with children on summer vacation. Each resident of Epsom, Deerfield and Northwood has a story about where they were when the 2008 tornado cut its way through their town. The twister changed the landscape -- and their lives -- forever.

The tornado tore through towns from Free-dom to Epsom. It produced winds of 111 to 135 mph and was categorized as an EF2 to EF 1 on the Enhanced Fujita scale, which measures damage from wind speed. An EF5, more than 200 mph, is the highest rating. And no one saw it coming: the National Weather Service did not issue a tornado warning until one person had already been killed.

Talk of the town
Blodgett, born and raised in Penacook, had never seen a twister before. The closest he’s ever come, he said, was the 1938 hurricane.

Routes 4 and 28 were the only main roads open, with the junction of 4 and 107 congested by emergency vehicles. Echo Valley and Griffin roads, shared with Deerfield, were completely blocked off. The town decided to open the Center Hill Road bridge, even though it still needed some backfill and paving, so people could have a way to and from Route 4. As a town father, Blodgett went right to work to help his people. He stayed at the emergency shelter at the school until evening, making sure there was enough of everything. He and Road Agent Gordon Ellis took water, paper products and canned goods to isolated families.

Other volunteers opened roads for traffic, checked on seniors, and searched through the debris. Chainsaws buzzed as town workers tried to clear the roads and homeowners tried to clean their yards.

“We worked steady for a week,” Blodgett said. But it showed him and Epsom what they could do.

“They did a great job,” he said of his fellow townspeople. “Everyone pitched in.”

While the town already had an emergency management director, Rick Bilodeau, who “dug in and took over,” the twister gave Epsom an impetus to fine tune its emergency management operation.

“We’ve been updating it all the time since then,” Blodgett said. “In the future, no matter what it is, we’ll be prepared.”

Fellow selectman Joanne Randall agreed. The town had already begun working on emergency management plans, due to three successive floods. But they weren’t “mentally prepared” for a tornado, she added, and the twister called for even more planning.

“It forced us to think on a bigger scale,” she said. “Now we know we have to prepare for anything.”

Randall was at work July 24. Running an errand at lunchtime, she heard a radio item about a tornado passing through Epsom. It was a “weird” thing to hear, she recalled, especially since it wasn’t raining in Concord. She called it a day and tried to get home to her town and family.

The week of July 24 had already been a rough one for Epsom, with a shorthanded police department, a barn fire that turned out to be arson, and a fatal motor vehicle accident.

Randall had trouble getting through the vehicles and emergency personnel at routes 4 and 107, but finally made it. When she reached “incident command,” she learned of the death of Brenda Stevens, who lived just over the town line in Deerfield.

“That’s when it hit me,” Randall said.

The town was in shock for a day and a half, she said.

“We all wondered, ‘What just happened to us?’” But there was work to do. Fire Chief Stewart Yeaton took the helm at Incident Command, with help from Police Chief Wayne Preve and Bilodeau. But there was more help, Randall said: about 30 other towns and agencies pitched in to help.

Most of the property damage was personal, not municipal, she said. No town buildings were damaged, and FEMA allotted $25,000 to Epsom to clean up roadways, ditches and downed trees.

Since the twister, Epsom has taken several steps to be more prepared, she said. In March, the townspeople passed a budget allowing for better police wages and the hiring of two or three new officers.

This is a direct result of the tornado, Randall believes.

“They knew we were short-staffed during the disaster,” she said.

Fire Chief Stewart Yeaton has begun an Explorer post, so the young men and women will be trained to help out in emergencies, she added. And with FEMA and town funds, they’ve improved culverts, ditches and bridges.

“Drainage -- that’s huge,” Randall said.”

Epsom did recover from the tornado, and a few weeks later held its annual Old Home Day. That’s when Joanne Randall finally knew the storm was over.

“It was,” she said, “our biggest turnout in years. People were so glad to be there. It was as if they dug in their heels and reinforced their commitment to Epsom. It was a celebration of our community.”

Home front
On that July 24, Aileen Jones of Old Ritchie Road, in Deerfield near the Epsom line, was relaxing at home with her three children. Her husband, Bill, was working at his diesel business on the property. Her oldest son, now 13, wanted to ride his bicycle, and Jones said no. “I just had the feeling,” she said, “that I didn’t want him outside.”

At 11:30 a.m. she heard a loud “boom,” and her older son went out on the back deck.

“We saw a green wall coming toward us,” she said. She locked the back door just as all the trees ringing the house fell down at the same time. She had seen the majestic pines bend before storms before and thought, “Surely they’re going to come back up.” But they didn’t.

She saw the largest pine tree in the yard ripped from its roots and come flying through the air. That was enough for Jones, who grabbed her infant daughter and told her older son to take the younger downstairs. With her baby on her hip and holding her dog by the collar, she and her family tumbled down the stairs to the basement and Bill’s workshop. She rushed her brood into the half-bath and laundry room Bill uses when he’s working, and put the two older children in a corner where two concrete walls meet.

“If I had to, I was going to lay my body over them,” she said. With the baby in her arms and the dog by its collar, she sat down on a pile of laundry.

As they put their lives and home back together, with help, Jones got a fresh sense of what matters. “It’s family and friends,” she said, adding, "I'm so grateful."

Epsom Town Offices face end of lease; selectmen hope for permanent home

Hooksett Editor — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 18:37:00 GMT

By Kathleen Bailey

Lee Bartlett, welfare administrator for Epsom, puts out a sign when she’s meeting with a client. It reads, “Please meet with the next available clerk,” and she props it up several feet away from her office and Town Clerk/Tax Collector Dawn Blackwell’s service window. Sometimes it works, and she can meet with a client without Blackwell’s customers overhearing. But she still hasn’t figured out a way to get people in and out of her office, a converted supply closet, without them being seen.

The Epsom Town Offices are housed in a rented building on Black Hall Road. With its lease up in June 2010, the selectmen are exploring ways to bring more of that rental money back into town coffers, and to give officials like Bartlett and Blackwell the space and privacy they need to serve Epsom. Selectman Joanne Randall recently guided a tour of the current facility.

Bartlett works out of a small rectangular room, a former walk-in closet, that also houses her canned food collection.

“This is where the people sit,” she said, gesturing to two metal folding chairs. She has room for a desk and a laptop. She’s steps away from Blackwell’s counter, and her clients can be overheard by anyone paying taxes or licensing dogs. Sometimes she’ll take clients into the conference room, but that depends on other groups not using it, Bartlett said. Most town boards and committees use the room, and, Randall said, “Lee never knows when she’ll need private space.”

The conference room is also “big and intimidating” to clients, Bartlett said, and it contains files for various departments. “Sometimes,” she said, “people need to get at their files.”

Randall’s wish list for a new building includes better quarters for Bartlett and her people. “She needs the space, she needs the privacy, and a separate entrance would be nice,” Randall observed, adding, “It’s hard enough for people to get themselves in here to ask for help.”

The main office space houses selectmen’s secretary Debbie Tibbetts, financial administrator Nancy Wheeler, Barbara Clark, who oversees the property files, and zoning compliance officer Jay Hickey. While there’s enough room for the four professionals, it gets noisy, Wheeler observed, often with four conversations going at once.

Randall pointed out the employees’ lunch table, which is also where she works when she’s on official business. She plugs in her laptop and uses her cell phone -- there is no room for a private office for selectmen. And with a three-person board, if another selectman shows up, it gets tricky: they’re not supposed to hold unposted meetings.

“We could get called on the carpet,” Randall said.

Blackwell’s office is big enough for her and a deputy, but she doesn’t like the full glass window separating her from customers. There are only small openings in the window, and it’s hard to hear or be heard, she said, especially when the matter involves someone’s credit card being rejected or other personal information is given. But they need the glass because climate control is poor, she added.

“Whenever anyone opens the outside door, we freeze,” she said.

The tiny hallway in front of her counter gets clogged when selectmen go into nonpublic session, she added. “Everyone else traipses out here and stands around,” Blackwell said.

Storage is a huge issue, Randall said, opening the door to a small cinderblock room. There are vertical file cabinets, larger horizontal drawers for building plans, and metal shelves full of copy paper and ink cartridges.

“Every file cabinet is full,” Randall said. “ The law requires us to keep records forever.” Historic handwritten town records are neatly piled on top of a file cabinet. They should be in a climate-controlled facility, according to Randall.

“We need secure, safe storage for all our town records,” Wheeler said. “If tax or property records got destroyed by fire or water, there would be some real issues.”

With the lease up next June and the town paying its last obligation on the library bond, Epsom has a “golden opportunity” to buy, build or renovate its own facility, Randall said. The town pays $2,000 a month for the Black Hall Road space, and she and fellow selectmen Bob Blodgett and Keith Cota can easily see that going toward a permanent building. A building committee is currently researching options. Among other things, they’re talking about a possible addition to the historic Meeting House, now part of a complex on Route 4 including the library and the Old Town Hall.

For more information or to help, call the Town Office at 736-9002.

Epsom Town Band carries on long tradition

Hooksett Editor — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 18:34:00 GMT

By Kathleen Bailey

The band members, all in concert black-and-white, tuned up as the setting sun flashed off their golden trumpets and trombones. As parents set up their lawn chairs or blankets, their children ran to the nearby playground, while younger siblings tumbled in the grass. Band members conferred about a difficult passage and senior citizens sprayed on mosquito repellent. With the Epsom Town Band all in place, conductor T.J. Rand waved his baton, and the “Star Spangled Banner” filled the air. As the 30 or 40 people on the grass got to their feet, one woman snapped a picture of the band with her cell phone.

The Epsom Town Band has weathered social and technological changes since forming in the late 19th century. But they still get together, 25 strong, to play four public concerts every summer. The faithful listeners who sit in, on or near their cars reflect the band’s central truth: “If you play it, they will come.”

On a recent Friday night, Bruce Graham unpacked his drumsticks. Graham and his wife, Penny, now manage the band, he said. They both play percussion. Penny Graham’s father, John B. Yeaton, managed the band before the Grahams, and her family involvement goes back to the early years. Two of her great-uncles are featured in an early photo, he said.

The band plays for three Friday nights in July, plus on the Saturday night of Old Home Day. All concerts are in Webster Park. It’s the greatest show in Epsom on a summer Friday, and possibly the only one. Admission is free. Cars start pulling onto the grass at around 7:15 for a 7:30 start. People unpack coolers or munch on take-out. Lawn chairs snap open.younger or more agile often sprawl on blankets, or the hoods of their cars. Anything goes.

The music is like comfort food for the ears: marches, light classical and show tunes. Some of the arrangements are simple, some more complex. In the July 10 concert, Rand brought the best out of the musicians with “Another Opening, Another Show” from “A Chorus Line,” “Hello, Dolly” from the same, and a rousing “The Bear Went Over the Mountain.” “Some Enchanted Evening” brought a moving clarinet solo before the brass built to a finish. Between numbers, the band members were relaxed, joking with Rand and each other.

Though members range from 80-somethings to 10-year-old Paul Bennett, there’s no great divide of age. They chat back and forth, the older helping the younger with a difficult passage, the younger helping the older with the fine print. Bennett said he’s the youngest in the orchestra.

“My sister’s 11 and she plays,” he said. “So does my mom.” Bennett joined “just for the fun of it,” and though his peers are playing different tunes on their mp3 players, he doesn’t find the band music dorky.

“I like it,” he said with a smile.

As the sun set, a breeze came up and the windbreakers went on. An intermission brought the band members into the audience to visit with friends and relatives. In the silence, night birds and crickets could be heard. As the band assembled again, the stage was the only spot of light in the park. The music drowned out the shouts of children from the playground and the noise of cars from Route 28. Rand pulled out all the stops for the song “More,” with a driving brass line and a drum solo by Graham. The audience warmed up, adding catcalls to their clapping. Fans who stayed in their cars tooted their horns in approval, and the band members tooted theirs with even more vigor.

While many of the fans are from Epsom, the concerts draw people from all over the region. Paul Larivee of Northwood attended for the first time with his friend Sandra Martin of Epsom. It won’t be the last, Larivee said. “I just like the fact that they’re here -- and doing such great music!” he said.

“This is real music,” Flo Burgess of Manchester said. “We’re ‘groupies,’” she added jokingly. Burgess drives over from Manchester with a friend, Denise Brissett of Allenstown, to support Brissett’s father, one of the percussionists.

The band also draws players from around the region, who want the chance to play patriotic music and show tunes, or simply to play outdoors. Ralph Turmelle of Rochester said what he likes is “I get to play!” Turmelle also toots his horn with the Strafford Wind Symphony, groups in Rochester and Wolfeboro, the Exeter Brass Band and as a “sub” with the Seacoast Wind Ensmble.

Turmelle said he played trumpet originally, but got into the euphonium “when a bnad I was in ran out of euphonium players.” “That’s how a lot of us get started,” 16-year-old Eric Chase, also a euphonium player, said.

Concerts continue Fridays, July 17 and 24, at 7:30 p.m., in Webster Park. Admission is free. Bring bug spray. A concert will also take place Saturday, Aug. 8, during Epsom’s Old Home Day.

Goboro Road plan criticized

Hooksett Editor — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 19:29:00 GMT

By Kathleen Bailey

The proposed Towle Farm Estates housing development off Goboro Road, near the Epsom/Chichester line, is receiving critical reviews so far from a cross-section of Epsom residents.

Developer Roger Bartlett hopes to put 42 single-family homes in a cluster development on part of the 275 acres. The land has been in his family for years. The property is at Tax Map R-13, Lot 36-1. The back 160 acres will be conservation land, with the easement held and monitored by the New England Forestry Foundation.

But residents have concerns ranging from water to traffic, and a standing-room-only crowd expressed their misgivings in several public meetings. Judy Gibson, who lives off Goboro Road, worries about runoff from the new homes to the Suncook River, which borders the development.

“They will fertilize their lawns,” she said of her potential new neighbors, “and every house will have a septic tank. I asked about it in the meeting, and the response was, ‘We’ll put in catchbasins with filters.’ I asked, ‘Who will take care of the catchbasins?’ and they said, ‘The town.’ That’s another tax burden on the town, and it was kind of a surprise for me.”

“The property does slope down to the river,” Bartlett said, pointing out, “It’s been a wetland for hundreds of years.”

He submitted his wetlands application to the Department of Environmental Services, who reviewed it. He said he is required to deal with drainage issues, and is doing so through culverts, swales and catchbasins. The engineering firm hired by the town, SSC, is comfortable with his drainage plans, he said.

While there may be runoff to the river, the development itself doesn’t have water, Jim Breagy, a 31-year resident of Goboro Road, said. He’s checked with two plumbers, both of whom told him wells would have to be drilled.

“You’re going to shove 40 houses in an area with no water?” Breagy asked rhetorically. Bartlett countered that he’s done test pits and perc tests, and “there is enough water.”

Traffic is also an issue with Breagy. Goboro has deteriorated over the years and is “like a bubble,” higher in the middle, he said.

There is already a problem with truckers passing through to Route 28, even though the road is supposed to be posted. “They do it to avoid the weight check,” he said.

In the summer, the road is filled with young moms with strollers, joggers and people walking their dogs. He’s concerned about the impact of cars from 40 more homes, he said.

“I understand the concern,” Bartlett said, “and it’s well-founded. The Planning Board has had the same concern for a while.”

A traffic study was done and reviewed by SSC.study found that 80 percent of the traffic generated by his development would head toward Route 28, he said, and he’s already talked with the state about his role in improvements to Route 28.

“It is a legitimate concern, and the board is looking at offsite improvements I can do.”

Traffic, he said, is an “open issue.” Police Chief Wayne Preve wanted additional signage on the road, he added.

Breagy is also concerned, he said, that there has been no engineers’ report on the planned development.

“They need to tell us: Is it feasible or not feasible?” he said. And Bartlett doesn’t “know where he’s coming from” on that. “I could not have submitted my application without the engineering work already done,” he said.

He’s contracted with Northpoint Engineering to do the engineering studies. In addition to their studies and those of SSC, Keith Cota, selectmen’s representative to the Planning Board and an engineer, has done a “careful and methodical” review, Bartlett said.

Other residents worry about school children and their effect on Epsom’s public school system. Bartlett said he has provided his “school projections.” Some people object to the strain on town services such as police and fire, but Bartlett said Preve and Fire Chief Stewart Yeaton haven’t come up with any major issues.

“The town zoning,” Bartlett said, “allows for this type of project in this type of area.” And the town may actually benefit, he added. The property is in current usage, with a portion of the taxes abated.

“If it comes out of current usage, the town gets paid – as much as $200,000 to $300,000,” he said.

Planning Board Chairman Dan McGuire sees the situation as “an objection to building in general” on the quiet rural road. He said, “We’ve received more opposition to this development than to any other since I’ve been on the board.”

Developer Adam Towne is working on a 25-house subdivision in another part of town, and hasn’t seen any controversy. But for Goboro Road there is, McGuire concluded, a “general anti-development feeling.”

And for Jim Breagy, that is part of the issue.

“You go on Goboro Road and all the houses are a good distance apart,” he said, adding, “It’s a very homey environment.”

The Planning Board will hold a public hearing on Towle Farm Estates Wednesday, July 8. For more information, call the Town Office at 736-9002.

No money to fix Suncook River

Hooksett Editor — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 19:39:00 GMT

By Kathleen Bailey

Steve Landry, Merrimack County Watershed Supervisor, has a simple answer for when the Suncook River should have been stabilized: “About two years ago,” the staff member of the Department of Environmental Services said.

But there are no simple answers for the Suncook, which changed its course in the Mother’s Day flood of 2006. Landry, fellow DES staffer Steve Couture and the town of Epsom are applying for alternate funding after a grant application to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) was rejected recently.

Water under the bridge The Suncook changed its course, and the face of Epsom, on May 15, 2006. The storm event, now known as the Mother’s Day Flood, rerouted the river, which originates in Alton and Pittsfield. The river used to split at Bear Island in Epsom, with a larger tributary running around the northwest and a smaller one around the southeast, before they joined up again. With the rerouting, called an “avulsion,” all the water went to the southeast, leaving the northwest high and dry.

The change of course resulted in a process known as “head-cutting.” When the level of a river drops, the river “wants equilibrium,” according to Eric Orff, wildlife biologist and longtime Epsom resident. So the river “eats at” the bed of the river upstream, trying to reduce the grade, and sending sand, silt and sediment downstream.

The avulsion has created problems ranging from recreational to real estate, according to Epsom Selectman Chairman Keith Cota. Property values have dropped, resulting in both a loss of equity for homeowners and a lower tax base for Epsom. The town has lost its flood storage capacity, he said. A second avulsion, at Round Pond near Epsom Central School, has affected a wildlife habitat and is near the Epsom Municipal Well. The town beach, on Short Falls Road, has been closed for two years due to sediment from the avulsion.

Cota said he is “extremely disappointed” at the rejection of the grant. The grant wasn’t regular FEMA reimbursement, but from FEMA’S Disaster Mitigation Fund, a funding source for projects “so this kind of thing won’t happen again.”

But the process was simply too competitive, he said, with the “little Suncook River” up against projects from all over the country. The town has $50,000 set aside from a Community Development Block Grant, but will need another $3.5 million to do the job properly, he said. And the town doesn’t qualify for federal stimulus funds, he added, because the project is not “shovel ready.”

Job specs
“It is a big job,” Landry said.

The town of Epsom and the DES co-funded a study on the best ways to deal with the river, Landry said. They had public forums and formed a Suncook River Restoration Task Force. They came up with four or five different options, and decided option 3 to be the best.

Landry said option 3 involves installing grade controls, made of large stones, in the main channel of the Suncook. These are very large stones designed and sized specifically to stop erosion, he said. They are placed in structures called “rock veins” or “weirs,” and provide the river with resistance to further erosion.

“They arrest the head-cutting,” Landry said. Ideally, the grade control needs to be installed as soon as possible -- “as of two years ago,” Landry said.

The channel also needs access to a properly sized flood plain, which it doesn’t have now, Landry said.

Over geological time, Landry said, the river would eventually right itself. But that would take decades,and Epsom doesn’t have decades, he said.

“The infrastructure is at risk,” he said.

And residents, especially those living downstream, are frustrated, he said.

Cash flow crisis
While the river is flowing, the cash is not. The estimated cost for the “full-blown” project, is $4 million, Landry said. Since FEMA denied the grant, he expects to see the town scale back and just do the highest priority item, which is the grade control. But design and permits for that should run $400,000 to $500,000, he said, “just to get it ready for construction.”

Cota and the other selectmen, Bob Blodgett and Joanne Randall, are firm in their resolve not to ask taxpayers for the money. Epsom can’t afford it, Cota said, and the river is actually a state-owned entity.

Landry and Couture are seeking other funding options for the town. They have applied for a grant from the Department of Homeland Security for the design and permit phase, and Landry said, “I feel pretty good about this one.”

The grant is actually from the DES Dam Bureau, for the costs of maintaining dams in the Suncook River Watershed, but Landry thinks Epsom will qualify. And, he said, if the grant is given, it should go through fairly quickly.

Both Congressman Paul Hodes and Sen. Jeanne Shaheen are also concerned, and have made river stabiilazation funds part of their requested appropriations for 2010 -- in the full amount, Landry said.

While he’s waiting for the federal and state funds to come through, Landry will continue to explore other ways of creative financing.

“It’s what we do,” he said.

And Cota hopes they do it well and soon.

“It’s very disappointing,” he said, ‘that we can go from 2006 to 2009 without a solution.”

Epsom Central School has computerized check-in system

Hooksett Editor — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 19:16:00 GMT

By Kathleen Bailey

Epsom Central School parent Tracy Rondeau moved the mouse over the computer screen of the school’s new computerized registration system, and clicked the red “finished” icon. Rondeau, who will have four children in ECS next fall, said the laptop- based system will save her check-in and check-out time.

“If I have to sign them all in individually, I’ll be here for 10 minutes,” she said.

ECS brought in the system, made by the Ident-A-Kid company, over the winter. The program streamlines the check-in process, creating fewer paper piles and automatically entering the visitor/volunteer/student into the system. It’s good for the environment, good for the front office staff and good for Epsom checkbooks -- Ident-A-Kid donated the system to the school.

On a Friday morning, receptionist Carol Neely watched Rondeau and other parents check in. Neely, who has been at the school 21 years, said nothing in technology surprises her any more.

“When I started here, we had typewriters.”

The computer doesn’t affect her job that much, Neely said, because the parents did most of the sign-in work themselves anyway. But it’s a boon to the parents and volunteers, who can complete the process at the click of a button.

The computer has icons for visitors, volunteers, staff arrival and departure, substitute teachers, student early dismissal and late arrival, and vendors. The machine takes a photo of the user to be stored in the system, and a printer spits out a personalized visitor pass.

But there’s more. Neely pointed out the central icon on the screen: the “Instant Predator Check,” a link to the National Sex Offender Registry. At the click of a mouse, staff can tell whether or not a visitor is welcome.

Principal Patrick Connors said Ident-A-Kid donated the software, printer, labels and camera, approximately $500 worth of equipment. The school used a laptop it already had. The school is the first one in SAU 53 to have the technology, he said, adding, “Ident-A-Kid came to us and offered it.”

As she logged herself in to volunteer, parent Lisa Canning said, “I think it’s great. I’ve got three children in this school, and I’m in here just about every day.”

Big toys for big boys at the tractor pull in Epsom

Hooksett Editor — Wed, 20 May 2009 20:07:00 GMT

By Kathleen D. Bailey

Rick Belanger maneuvered his vintage John Deere tractor in a 360-degree turn.

“I have to go add more weight,” he said.

Belanger wasn’t going off to drink a milkshake. He was adding weight to the rear of the machine to help him pull 11,000 pounds of cement before a cheering audience. It’s a ritual that takes place several times a year at Belanger’s Ponderosa Salvage Yard in Epsom.

While most of the pulls are one-day affairs, he held his annual two-day pulling festival the weekend of May 16.

Belanger takes his pulls seriously. He’s created an arena on a back lot at the Ponderosa, complete with bleachers, a dirt track for the pulling, and a tent where scorekeeper Terry Hillsgrove announced the winners by microphone.

Charles Mewkill of Pittsfield is the pullmaster.

“Basically it’s like a horse pull, with different weight classes, he said. “You keep adding more weight until you can’t pull any more.”

Mewkill runs tractor pulls for Belanger and at various Old Home Days and fairs around the state. “They get two tries, and the goal is to pull it at least 10 feet,” he said.

The huge machines waited just outside of the pulling area. A vintage Farmall backed up to the pulling area, and volunteer Ray Hillsgrove attached it by chain to the skid full of cement blocks. The Farmall spun its wheels, smoke belching from its metal chimney, as the two front wheels left the ground. Volunteer Steve Bennett stood at the rear with a tape measure, and called the results to Terry Hillsgrove. Hillsgrove wrote the measurement on her clipboard, and as the Farmall lumbered off, two more volunteers raked its tracks out of existence for the next competitor.

Belanger’s pulls are family affairs. Wives, girlfriends and noncompetitors cheered from the bleachers while children played with smaller tractors and trucks in a sandy area.

Ray Hillsgrove watched an antique Ford tractor strain at the load. He’s been pulling and helping with pulls for 15 years, he said. He owns two Allis-Chalmers machines, one a 1952, one a 1949. Tractors for the pull have to be made in 1965 or before, he said. He had already competed, garnering three firsts and a second.

“I pull in the lighter classes, so I’m done early,” he said, adding with a grin, “If you pull early, the track is in better shape.”

As the classes progressed, the drivers added iron weights to the rear of their machines. It’s important to get all the weight on the back wheels, Hillsgrove said.

“You want as much weight on the drive wheels, or back wheels, as possible,” he said. “But if the front end is up, that’s less weight to be transferred from the load.” It’s a balancing act, Hillsgrove concluded.

Belanger, wearing his trademark straw hat, maneuvered one of his machines into position. Smoke poured from his chimney, and his front wheels literally left the ground as he pulled. He braked, and Bennett called out his score. Mewkill flashed him a victory sign.

“You got it,” he mouthed.

The winning rigs in each class would receive a trophy with a golden tractor on the top, guarded by Terry Hillsgrove in her announcer’s tent. But everyone’s a winner on his “pull weekends,” Belanger said. There was a spaghetti dinner followed by entertainment.

“I’m going to put the band in my salvage shed,” he said, gesturing to a large metal building. “The acoustics are great.”

The sun began to slip behind clouds, and some of the spectators donned sweatshirts. But they stayed, watching and cheering as their favorites pitted their strength against the blocks. Dust flew as the machines spun their wheels. A small boy rode around in a toy John Deere tractor, and a larger boy hovered around to see if he could help. A forklift lowered another cement block through the air for a further test of strength, adding to the load on the skid.

As he hitched up another rig, Hillsgrove said he pulls at town fairs, Old Home Days, and at events in Maine. “Some people like to fish,” he said. “We like to do this. It’s just bigger kids playing with bigger toys.”

Three stabbed at party in Epsom

Hooksett Editor — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 17:55:00 GMT

BY LAUREN SAUSSER

An Epsom party that reportedly became “out of control” ended with the stabbings of three people, all of whom were brought to hospitals in Concord.

One teenage victim from Epsom remained in critical condition on March 30 in the Concord Hospital after sustaining multiple stab wounds from an Allenstown assailant at about 2:45 a.m. on Saturday, March 28.

Merrimack County Attorney Katherine Rogers confirmed that Mitchell Rideout, 18, of Allenstown, was arraigned in Concord District Court on Monday, March 30, and has been charged with one count of first degree assault and one count of illegal possession of alcohol.

Rogers said Rideout is being held on $1 million bail at the Merrimack County jail. A probable cause hearing is scheduled for April 6 at Concord District Court. If probable cause of the attack is established, the case will be transferred to Merrimack County Superior Court.

Rideout’s victim, whose identity has not been released by authorities because of the ongoing investigation, reportedly sustained multiple stab wounds and remains on the critically injured list at the hospital, where she was taken after the attack.

Rogers refused comment on the nature of the teenager’s wounds or the specific locations of the entry points.

Two other victims who also sustained stab wounds were transported to the Concord hospital on Saturday morning; one of those victims was later transferred to Dartmouth Hitchcock hospital in Concord. The identities of those two victims remain confidential, too. More information is expected to be released as investigators continue to unravel the case.

All three victims were reportedly close in age to Rideout – in their late teens or early 20s.

As of March 30, Rideout had not been charged with multiple counts of assault but Rogers confirmed that more charges could be forthcoming. She said it is still unclear whether Rideout was the only assailant. It is possible there was more than one attacker involved, she added.

Epsom police continue to investigate the incident but exact details of the circumstances remain unclear. Police Chief Wayne Preve reported that the attacks occurred at a party at 199 Mountain Road that “got out of control.”

Rogers reported that police determined Rideout had been illegally consuming alcohol at the time of the attacks.

Epsom keeps SB-2 - Allenstown says ‘no’ to almost everything

Hooksett Editor — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 18:23:00 GMT

BY GINGER KOZLOWSKI

Epsom voters were emphatic about keeping the official ballot vote but allowed both town and school budgets to pass as recommended.

Everything passed in Hooksett for the school vote, but nearly everything failed in Allenstown.

Candia passed a school budget and kept its Budget Committee, but put the town on a default operating budget. Auburn said yes to almost every question, including passing the town and school budgets.

SB-2 stays
Epsom will finally have a year where it is not on a default budget. Selectman Joanne Randall had blamed four years of default budgets on the ability of the general voting public to have a say on the town’s budget under the official ballot law.

Randall, as a private citizen, petitioned to rescind the official ballot law, commonly referred to as SB-2, and return Epsom to the traditional style of Town Meeting where warrant articles are discussed, sometimes amended, and then voted upon all in one meeting.

In a letter to the editor which came too late for publication for the vote, Randall said SB- 2 allows uninformed voters to make poor decisions.

“The problem is that, once SB-2 is in place, people generally become apathetic about the budget, since they know their vote at Deliberative Session is not a vote on the budget, but just to change it,” said Randall. “They’ll just vote in March. They show up at the polls and look at the bottom line, decide they don’t want to vote for higher taxes, and the budget doesn’t pass. They don’t even know what they have voted against! It might be something they really need.”

True or not, Epsom voters chose to stay with SB-2 with a vote of 171 yes to 606 no. This question required a two-thirds majority to pass, which would have required 512 of the 777 votes cast to be “yes” votes.

Lots of ‘no’ votes Overall, many towns are going to be facing what to do with defeated operating budgets and warrant articles.

Allenstown, in particular, voted “no” on virtually all questions, but did approve Article 21, a petitioned question asking for a tax/spending cap regulating the annual town and school budgets.

Allenstown voters also approved Article 22, another petitioned article, resolving that the property tax is unfair and the state should adopt a revenue system that is just and fair. Also in Allenstown, a $1.5 million bond to improve sewage capacity was nixed, 289 to 337.

Contested races
In the few contested races, here’s who won: Candia selectman: Carleton Robie and Richard H. “Dick” Snow.

Auburn School Board: Kathleen Porter and Christina Tarness. Auburn Police Commission: John McCaughterty. Allenstown Selectman: Jason Tardiff. Allenstown treasurer: Carol B. Anderson