Northwood
Santa’s Helpers
Request forms to participate in the 2016 Northwood Santa’s
Helpers sponsored by the Northwood Fire Rescue Association are
available at the Ridge fire station, Northwood town hall at the
reception window and through the food pantry and on the
Northwood Parks and Recreation website. Forms are also
available on the community board at the Northwood Post Office.
To participate in this community
program, you and your children (ages birth to 18 years old) must
be residents of Northwood at the time of application and at the
time of delivery. This program was started to assist families
having difficulty in being able to provide Christmas gifts for
their children.
If you wish to assist Northwood families, watch for our
donation boxes the first week in December in location businesses
clearly marked Northwood Santa’s Helpers. We do not
receive assistance from similar organizations providing gifts.
Thank you in advance for helping to make this community project
possible.
Letter To
The Editor
A Cornucopia of
Gratitude
Occasionally some of us will wonder
what the grocery stores do with all the rejected food.
Five years ago I approached
Hannaford’s in Northwood where I live and farm. I asked them if
I might be able to have some of their “ bumped and bruised” food
for my farm animals. They kindly put me on a waiting list. One
year later I was told to “come and get it.” My animals thought
they’d died and went to Heaven!
So I have been collecting outdated,
bumped, bruised, and rejected food from Hannaford’s for four
years now, and while collecting, I have noticed virtually no
waste. I have seen food set aside for the food pantry, fat set
aside for soap makers... they have it covered. However, not once
have I heard Hannaford boast. So I do a lot of boasting for
them. I love you Hannaford’s. Thank you for making a difference
in my life as a farmer, and my animals thank you, too. Happy
Thanksgiving!
Love,
Farmer T,
of The Fairy Farm
CBNA Sophomores Selected In VFW Voice Of Democracy Contest
CBNA Voice of Democracy winners from left to right:
third place winner Alice Ewing, second, place winner Taeva
Ahern, first place winner Olivia Farrar with Mr. Daniel Barnhart
of Northwood VFW.
Coe-Brown Northwood Academy proudly announces the local winners
of the Voice of Democracy Essay Contest sponsored by the VFW.
This year 64 Coe-Brown students participated in this annual VFW
speech and writing competition. Coordinated through Mr.
Daniel Barnhart of the Northwood VFW Post 7217, sophomore
students in Mrs. Biery’s English classes submitted their audio
and written essays based on this year’s topic “My Responsibility
to America.” At a recent school assembly, Mr. Barnhart
presented first place winner Olivia Farrar with a prize of $100
and announced that her entry will be submitted to the next level
of competition. Second and third place winners Taeva Ahern
and Alice Ewing also received monetary prizes. Established
in 1947, the Voice of Democracy audio-essay program provides
high school students with the unique opportunity to express
themselves in regards to a democratic and patriotic-themed
recorded essay. Each year, nearly 40,000 9-12 grade students
from across the country enter to win their share of $2 million
in educational scholarships and incentives awarded through the
program.
Letter To
The Editor
It’s interesting to look back at some
of the quotes made by Republican members of Congress following
the election of President Obama in 2009. Republican senate
minority leader Mitch McConnell summed up his plan to the
National Journal by saying, “the single most important thing we
want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term
president.”
House minority leader Republican John
Boehner said about the President’s agenda, “we’re going to do
everything, and I mean everything we can do, to kill it, stop
it, slow it down, whatever we can.” It was all part of the GOP’s
‘no-compromise’ pledge.
Fast forward to October 2016 and Senator John McCain saying, “I
promise you that we will be united against any supreme
court nominee that Hillary Clinton (if president) puts up.”
Senator Richard Burr, Republican from North Carolina stated, “if
Hillary Clinton becomes President, I am going to do everything I
can do to make sure four years from now, we still got an opening
on the supreme court.”
It has been months since President
Obama nominated federal appeals judge Merrick Garland, the most
qualified nominee ever nominated to the highest court. The
Republicans have refused to even consider his nomination.
According to the Congressional
Research Service, of the 67 times during the past 45 years that
the filibuster was used on a judicial nominee, it was used 31
times (46%) during the Obama administration. The Republican
senate also has 150 other judicial nominees waiting in limbo.
With the tables now turned, will
senate Democrats thwart President-elect Trump’s judicial
nominees? Will they threaten all of Trump’s nominations to the
Court, not just to fill Justice Scalia’s seat but any other
opening that might occur? Will Democrats resort to a filibuster
to do so? Be careful what you wished for Republicans.
Jim Hadley
Northwood
Letter To The Editor
To the Editor,
It’s a rigged system. Donald Trump was
not my first or even tenth pick. I thought there were several
(many) from either side that were better. I would have voted for
anybody but Hillary. I liked that both Obamacare and Common Core
were in his crosshairs, but I really didn’t warm up to him until
he started talking about the rigged system.
Boy is the system rigged. I hope to
bring several examples to you in the next few weeks.
One example is non-renewals and/or
resignations in lieu of firings. So let’s say that a principal’s
contract is not going to be renewed for a variety of excellent
reasons. Often the principal is allowed to “resign” so as to not
have a blemish (non-renewal) on the record. Or maybe a police
officer is caught in a compromising position with a person
underage or not his partner. The officer is allowed to resign.
Both are very prevalent in local government. Often the reason
given is humanitarian, or the expense of lawyers in a legal
battle. Small towns are too often the recipient of bad
management practices like these. We have been on both the
receiving and sending side of this hideous practice.
I’ve seen three hirings in Northwood
that come under this rigged system. In all three we were
screwed, pardon the pun. I was a part of one, never again.
Tim Jandebeur
Northwood
Letter To
The Editor
Gracious in
Victory
I appreciated Miss Yvonne
Dean-Bailey’s letter to The Sun, thanking voters and her
opponent, Hal Rafter. And I will hold her to her promise “to
pass good, job growing [sic] reforms for NH families.”
One such reform I would encourage her
to support is fully funding kindergarten.
Currently, state aid provides only
half the amount for kindergarteners as it does for Grade 1-12
students. This may have made sense when most kindergarten
programs were half-day, but more and more towns now offer
full-day K.
The Northwood School Board has now
voted to implement FDK in 2017-2018.
With the 20-year school building bond
now paid off, over $200K is now freed up to devote to this
initiative.That will make 3 of the 4 towns in Miss Dean-Bailey’s
district that have FDK - Candia and Deerfield being the others.
If she wants to support NH families -
and end the down-shifting of education costs to the towns she
represents - she should support an increase in state aid to
kindergartens.
Maybe when she has children, she’ll be
glad she did.
Tom Chase
Northwood
Letter
Two Important
Meetings
Both the Northwood School Board and
the Northwood Budget Committee appear to be on track to include
full-time kindergarten and a full-time curriculum coordinator in
the budget this year.
Each was rejected by Northwood voters
last year. Kindergarten had also been voted down the previous
year. Embedding these big ticket expenditures in the budget
instead of presenting them as separate warrant items means
voters may have not have a choice this time round.
Northwood residents concerned about
our town and school budgets should try to attend the following
two public Budget Committee hearings, both at the Northwood Town
Hall:
Town Budget: Saturday, December 3rd,
at 9 AM.
School Budget: Saturday, December
10th, at 9 AM.
Michael Faiella
Northwood
Letter To
The Editor
Full Day Kindergarten and Full Time
Curriculum Director will be put into the Operating Budget and
not on Warrant Articles, even though both items have been
rejected at the polls by Northwood voters.
A big thank you to school board
member, Bree Gunter, for listening to constituents last Monday
and voting against the inclusion of Full Day Kindergarten and a
Full Time Curriculum Director in the budget. However, probably a
majority on both the School Board and Budget Committee will be
voting against these concerns.
School Board Vice-Chair, Barbie Hartford, was correct in saying
that the board has been discussing this openly, in fact; the
Budget Committee Chairperson has recommended to the School Board
that they put these items into the Operating Budget. Betsy
Coburn, a BC Member, was at this meeting and expressed her
opinion that she is for Full Day Kindergarten and that it should
be part of the Budget. She also said that some costs would
be offset by not having to run the midday buses.
I am not just against these items from a pure budgetary stance.
I am against Full Day Kindergarten because of my experience as
an educator and through research I have done. I brought
two articles-- I could provide many more resources as well. One
mother at this meeting stated we need Full Day Kindergarten
because kindergarten is the new first grade and first grade is
the new second, etc. This is true and this is just part of
the problem.
As for the Full Time Curriculum Director, the School Board has
approved the purchase of 2 Curricula for reading and math.
Therefore, I think the expert teachers should just have time to
implement them.
Concerned Citizen,
Marie L. Correa
Lakes
Region Public Access Tv Offers:
“All The Fixings”
On Thanksgiving Day!
If you’re looking for something to
watch on Thanksgiving that isn’t football, why not tune into
Lakes Region Public Access Television (LRPA-TV)? Join us
starting at 2:00 p.m. for a wonderful lineup of alternative,
Thanksgiving-related programming. We’ve got the MGM classic
cartoons “Tom Turkey and His Harmonica Humdingers” from 1940 and
“Jerky Turkey” from 1945. We’re airing the seldom-seen MCA/Revue
Studios “Calvin and the Colonel” cartoon “Thanksgiving Dinner”
from 1961. We’ll also serve up some extra helpings of funky
educational filmstrips from the past. Too fun! Then, just when
you’re hungry for more, we’ll serve up some vintage television
shows such as “The Dick Van Dyke Show,” “The Andy Griffith
Show,” “What’s My Line?,” and much more. Top off your evening
with Two vintage MGM musicals: 1947’s “Till The Clouds Roll By,”
and 1951’s “Royal Wedding.”
And don’t forget: Mark your calendars for the annual CruCon
Greater Lakes Region Children’s Auction, December 6-10. Join
LRPA for minute-by-minute coverage all week long on MetroCast
Channel 25 and also on LiveStream through our website:
www.lrpa.org.
This
Weekend’s LRPA After Dark Feature:
1950’s “The File
On Thelma Jordan”
Join Lakes Region Public Access
Television at 10:30 p.m. this Friday and Saturday night
(November 25 & 26) for our “LRPA After Dark” presentation of
1950’s filmnoir crime drama “The File on Thelma Jordan,”
starring Barbara Stanwyck and Wendell Corey.
Assistant District Attorney Cleve
Marshall (Corey) is having marriage problems, which aren’t
helped by the fact that he’s gone on a drunken bender and missed
his anniversary celebration with his wife. Enter into his office
the seductive and mysterious Thelma Jordan (Stanwyck), to whom
Cleve feels an immediate attraction. She’s there to report an
attempted burglary at the house of her elderly Aunt Vera. Cleve
can’t get Thelma out of his mind, and the two begin an affair.
Meanwhile, Thelma has also been seeing Tony Laredo, a thug and a
thief. Of course, she lies to Cleve about their relationship.
Sometime later, Aunt Vera is shot by an intruder. Thelma calls
Cleve to the house to help, all the while casting suspicion on
Tony. Cleve gets assigned to the case. The evidence points to
Thelma, and Cleve does everything he can to defend her, putting
his reputation on the line. Although the odds are stacked
against Thelma, Cleve chooses to believe her – but in the
shadowy world of film noir, is anything ever the way it seems?
Barbara Stanwyck made her share of
famous films noir, including two infamous films -- “The Strange
Love of Martha Ivers” and “Double Indemnity,” – so it’s an
interesting footnote that “The File on Thelma Jordan” is a
relatively obscure film. It was generally well received by
critics in its day, with Variety noting that it “…unfolds as an
interesting, femme-slanted melodrama, told with a lot of
restrained excitement.” It features very strong performances
from both Stanwyck and Corey, the latter of whom was often
relegated to supporting character roles.
“The File on Thelma Jordan” deserves
to be better known by film fans everywhere. So grab your popcorn
and meet us after dark for this seldom-seen crime thriller from
the past.
You can’t find television like this it anywhere but LRPA TV,
MetroCast Channel 25. Not a subscriber? Then log onto Live
Stream through our website (www.lrpa.org)
where you can catch all the fun.