Windham News : town meeting

Windham track and field bond to be top money item at session

Salem Editor — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 20:58:00 GMT

With the opening of the new high school coming up fast, the School Board is asking voters to consider a bond for the construction of a $2.7 million track and athletic field at the Feb. 6 deliberative session at 7 p.m. in the Golden Brook School.

With $500,000 of that coming from the interest earned on the investment of bond proceeds, taxpayers are being asked to raise $2.2 million for the addition to the new high school.

A similar $1.5 million bond for the construction of a second gymnasium at the high school was cut by the School Board last month. Voters rejected a combined request for a second gymnasium and track and field on the ballot last year.

An $800,000 appropriation to cover the architect and engineering fees associated with completing a building study for the district is also up for discussion.

The district is also asking residents to approve a $40.4 million operating budget for the ensuing year. The district’s default budget - should the proposed budget fail before voters in March – is $39.8 million.

Fire needs debated in Windham

Salem Editor — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 01:13:00 GMT

BY DARRELL HALEN

Adding four new firefighters by using a federal grant to offset some of the cost was one of the issues debated during Windham’s deliberative session of Town Meeting.

Selectmen are seeking to bring on the additional firefighters, who would also be emergency medical technicians, if a warrant article is approved by voters in March.

Passage of the warrant article would also allow selectmen to use a federal Security Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) grant to defray some of the costs through 2012.

Roger Hohenberger, the sole selectman to vote against recommending the article, said during the Saturday, Feb. 9, session that the town would spend roughly $1.1 million to receive $421,000.

Hohenberger said he believes that the department is running efficiently with the manpower it has now.

“The need for the firefighters is in the future,” he said to a small group of voters gathered in the Golden Brook School gymnasium.

Another selectman, Margaret Crisler, supports the hiring, citing the town’s fast growth and new commercial development. The town could use the extra firefighters now and acquiring federal money to add them is prudent, she said.

Deputy Fire Chief Robert Leuci Jr. told the audience that in the past 10 years, service calls to the department have increased 69 percent. Currently about a third of the calls come in when workers are already out answering calls.

A large increase in calls is expected when the state Department of Transportation begins to widen I-93, Leuci said. While demand for service is rising, fewer call firefighters are available, and other communities who provide mutual aid are experiencing their own growth, Leuci said.

“We don’t think it’s fair to expect that from other communities,” he added.

Voters considered 28 other articles during the meeting but only a few of them generated debate. Voters added language to an article specifying that a proposed transfer of 16 acres of recreation and conservation land to the school district is to be used specifically for a football stadium, athletic fields and ancillary support facilities.

School Board members are asking voters to accept the land, to accommodate the stadium and three additional fields, in exchange for 40 acres of school district land. Some residents didn’t like the idea of giving up the land, while others supported the swap.

“They have a demonstrated need for this land,” said Planning Board member Ross McLeod.

Voters also made minor changes to a revised blasting ordinance. Under the proposed rules, blasting would be permitted only between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. weekdays and not allowed on weekends and town-observed holidays.

Without any debate, the selectmen’s proposed $11,645,020 operating budget, taken up at the end of the meeting, was forwarded to the March 11 ballot. If the budget and all money warrant articles pass, and officials receive the revenues they expect, the town’s share of the property tax rate will increase roughly 34 cents per $1,000 of assessed valuation.

During the meeting, Town Administrator David Sullivan presented the Volunteer of the Year award to Larry Kaufman, who drives a town-owned van that brings residents to stores and medical appointments.

Capt. Patrick Yatsevich, who returned to work last year after taking a leave of absence to fight cancer, was honored as the town’s Employee of the Year.

High school focus of debate in Windham

Salem Editor — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 01:12:00 GMT

BY DARRELL HALEN

Following a lengthy debate, voters consolidated requests for additional athletic facilities for the new high school into one bond article during the Windham School District’s deliberative session.

Originally, $900,000 for a second gymnasium, $778,500 for three extra fields, and $3,819,980 for a multipurpose sports center were proposed in separate bond articles on this year’s school warrant.

But Chris O’Neil, chairman of the Athletics Committee, successfully moved at the Friday, Feb. 8, meeting to add funding for the fields and sports stadium to Article 2, the article that originally sought money only for the second gym. Article 2 will now seek $5,498,480 for all of them, with amounts in Articles 3 and 4 “zeroed out.” Article 2 needs a 60 percent majority to pass in March.

O’Neil argued that providing all the facilities fulfills a vision for the high school’s athletic program. That won’t happen if some of the articles, presented individually, don’t pass, he said. Another proponent of consolidating the articles, Mike Hatem, said there would be a construction cost savings by building the fields and the multipurpose center at the same time.

He also said that he didn’t want to pit parents of basketball players, who favor the gym, against parents of players of other sports by having separate articles.

Not everyone favored the idea. Margaret Case said she believes lumping the articles into one package together may jeopardize voter approval. And Mark Brockmeier noted that while the warrant for the proposed second gym can “stand on its own,” the extra fields and sports center depend on voters approving a separate article for a land swap.

“Everyone is intelligent enough to decide on each, on the merits of each one of them,” added *** Forde.

The three fields would consist of a baseball diamond, softball diamond and field hockey field. The sports center would consist on an artificial field surrounded by a track with bleachers, lights, outdoor scoreboard, a concession area, rest rooms and team rooms.

In order to have sufficient land to accommodate the stadium and fields, the School Board is asking voters to accept a transfer of 16 acres of town-owned recreation and conservation land to the school district. The district would exchange it for 40 acres of school districtowned land.

The School Board was not unanimous in its support of each of the three articles, and after the deliberative session it split on recommending them as a $5.5 million package. Beth Valentine, Bruce Anderson and Al Letizio, Jr. voted to recommend it, while Barbara Coish and Beverly Donovan were opposed.

“The benefit is great and the price is low,” Letizio said earlier in the meeting.

The $5.5 million package would be bonded over 20 years. A family in a $400,000 home would pay $68 a year. During the session, voters tweaked a $1.25 million bond article submitted by State Rep. Charlie McMahon. If approved in March, a second access road to Windham High School would be built.

An interest payment of $31,250 was added to the article, and the description of the road as a town road was dropped. By putting the road’s construction on the school ballot, McMahon said, the project would qualify for 30 percent state aid. And by law, he said, there needs to be another road for emergency vehicles.

“The school will not open unless we have a second access road,” McMahon said.

The road would be constructed over the area of the old London Bridge Road beginning at the entrance to the school and ending at Castlehill Road. Other warrant articles, including a proposed $34.45 million operating budget for the school district, generated little discussion during the session.

Windham candidates file for office

Salem Editor — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 19:15:00 GMT

By Darrell Halen

Two three-year seats on the Windham Board of Selectmen are up this March and four men are running: Bruce H. Richardson, former selectman Galen Stearns, Planning Board member Ross McLeod, and state Rep. Charles McMahon, a former selectman.

Alan Carpenter and Margaret Crisler are not seeking re-election.

Other candidates for town positions include: Philip LoChiatto, Rick Okerman, Planning Board, two seats, three years; Peter Griffin, moderator, two years; Gail Webster, Mark Brockmeier, cemetery trustee, one position, three years; Robert A. Skinner, supervisor of the checklist, one position, six years; Alphonse J. Marcil, Jr., trustee of trust funds, one position, three years; Thomas J. Murray, Zoning Board of Adjustment, one position, one year; Mark Samsel, Zoning Board of Adjustment, one position, three years; Anne-Marie O’Neil, Carolyn B. Webber, Joyce Wilt, library trustee, one position, one year; Mark Branoff, library trustee, two positions, three years.

Two three-year seats are available on the school board this year. Al Letizio Jr. and Elizabeth Valentine are not seeking re-election.

Christine Lane, Mark Brockmeier and Michael Hatem, who is making his third bid for the board, have filed their candidacies.

Also running for school district positions: Mary Ann Horaj, clerk; Elizabeth Dunn, moderator; and Maura Pennisi, treasurer. Those are one-year positions.