Northwood native Taylor Pelletier graduated from Ithaca College’s Roy H. Park School of Communications with a degree in Film, Photo. Video & Vis Arts. The degree was awarded in December 2013.

Congratulations Taylor!

Congratulations to Yvonne Dean-Bailey of Northwood for making the fall trimester Honor Roll at Phillips Exeter Academy.  Yvonne will graduate from  Phillips Exeter Academy this June after completing her spring trimester as an Intern in Phillips Exeter Washington DC Internship program. 

Letter To The Editor

To the Editor,

About “If you like your tax rate” (1-29-14) here’s a different perspective, I believe, as an elected School Boart member, it would be irresponsible of me to not try and avoid spikes in our taxes or to have an issue so severely deplete the current operating budget as to jeopardize the education of our students. 

It’s happened. Having a little money in reserve accounts for areas of the budget that history has proven difficult to project exactly is very prudent. Four high school students moving into town at over $14K each, a major facility problem, one $250K special education student, a group of retiring employees with benefit packages approved by you, etc. can and has been catastrophic to a budget and our students education.

The town of Northwood has done a wonderful job over the years building up reserves from surplus to take the angst out of the bumps in a road. Now that we can, your School Board would like to also.

We have presented a budget for next year, with great pride, that is $364K less than this year’s budget. In addition, I believe that we will have a surplus in this current year and would like to use some of it to build up reserves so as to smooth out those bumps in the future. 

A little planning for a rainy day is good management. Keep in mind that we start budgeting in October for a school year that is between 8 to 20 months away.

Thank you for your support.

Tim Jandebeur

Northwood

Northwood Garage is proud to support Ready Rides

Ready Rides is a community-based effort to help seniors and the disabled get to medical appointments and other essential services. Ready Rides serves residents of Barrington, Northwood, Nottingham, and Strafford.

Currently, Ready Rides is an independent program of the Northwood Congregational Church, UCC.  As the program develops, Ready Rides will transition away from NCC and establish itself as a nonprofit organization.

To help support Ready Rides…Saturday evening February, 22 at 7pm the Northwood Congregational Church will be hosting an evening of Comedy & Tale Telling.  Your donation will directly help others in our community.  For tickets call 603-244-8719, to learn more about Ready Ride go…. readyrides.org

Chesley Memorial Library News

Free Workshop on Secrets to Obtaining Scholarships for your Child’s College Education  Saturday, February 15, 2014, 1 p.m. at the Chesley Memorial Library.

Unless we are millionaires, we probably need financial assistance for our children’s college years. That takes preparation and planning —the earlier, the better. We hear about scholarships and other educational opportunities that are available, but not many people bother to apply for them because they do not have proof of their eligibility requirements ahead of time. The way to acquire these eligibility documents gets done one paper at a time. If we are able to schedule in time on a regular basis, like taking an at-home course, and begin this when our oldest child is in middle school, we will be in great shape. Don’t despair if you’re late getting started, but don’t lose any time either. Jump on it! Reality Check: If we think we are all set financially for our child’s future educational journey and do not need to do any of this, please think again. Learn from the best! Take some time to “sit at the feet” of an expert who’s lived the reality of securing scholarship money for her daughter and eventually for many other families as they navigate the uncharted waters of scholarships. Joan Ryan has figured out the fine points of making this happen and will share with you how to get started on the journey. She’s just released her new book, Scholarship Matters.

Tar Sands Oil Coming Through Our Own Back Yard?

Many people in NH have heard about the Keystone XL Pipeline proposal.  But did you know that there is a proposal to transport the same tar sands oil in a 50-year-old pipeline from Montreal to Portland, Maine, 35 miles of it through New Hampshire?   A slide show produced by NH Audubon and The National Wildlife Federation will be presented by a representative of 350NH, illustrating the basics of tar sands oil production and the risks that a pipeline carrying the worlds “dirtiest oil” poses to the environment and health of NH citizens.  Please join the Northwood Democrats at this presentation at the Northwood Community Center, 135 Main St., Northwood Narrows, on Wednesday, February 26, 2014 at 7:00 pm.  For more information call Jo Chase at 942-8940.  

The Veterans Corner

Feb 1, 2014

Richard Doucet

What a novel concept: Help yourself!  Vets try to in NH

“Kindness is the language the blind can see and the deaf can hear”  -Mark Twain

Two disabled veterans in NH are trying this concept out. Basically some are saying: “Don’t give me fish every day…let me have a place to fish so I can take care of myself.”

One of these men is a  resident of Northwood, Mr. Albert Peel, and the other is a minister friend of his, Pastor Peter Macdonald of Lee NH. They have some novel ideas to help the estimated over 600 homeless veterans in NH.

Pastor Macdonald has been ministering to homeless and disabled veterans in all over NH since 1974 an now heads the Veterans Resort-Chapel (VRC), a registered non-profit ministry in Lee NH. Pastor Macdonald is 100% disabled from Vietnam, Marine Corps, who suffers from PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) as well as TBI (Traumatic Brain Injury) as a result of his combat experiences. Pastor Macdonald and his wife purchased eleven acres of land in Lee and turned it over to the VRC to build a cabin to be used by a homeless vet.  They would like to build several more cabins to house homeless veterans including some who have been diagnosed with PTSD.

Mr. Peel is “officially a homeless  resident” of Northwood who suffered injuries while on active duty with the US Coast Guard during the Vietnam era (1965-1973).  Mr. Peel asked Pastor Macdonald for some guidance with his idea to help homeless vets in NH help themselves. I  sat down with both men for coffee one cold morning last week to see what they had in mind.

Mr. Peel opened by saying:  “When I became homeless I tried to find help and it did not take long that I had a note book full of telephone numbers of where to get information; but no place to live.”  

Pastor Macdonald added that most homeless veterans want most, especially those suffering from TBI and PTSD, is to find a quiet place where they can regain their dignity while they try and put the lives back together; a safe place until they can get out on there own again.

Albert Peel had an idea:  “Why not build a number of cabins on State or municipal property in rural areas and let vets stay in them without rent?”  He pointed out to me that there are a number of abandoned rest stops, on which a cabin could be built.  He pointed out that places like closed rest stops are not only an attraction for nuisance  juvenile activity, drug deals and good locations for secondary crime scenes especially after an abduction, as many law enforcement and security professionals will attest to, but also use up patrol time by law enforcement to make checks on them. Locations like that become very unattractive when the location has constant activity such a person living on the site.

Even if his idea were to take root, these cabins would cost money. Al Peel had and other idea.  He and pastor Macdonald visited the owners of L&K trucking on Route 4 in Chichester.  They were both told by Ron Wroblewski, the owner, that he had a number of insulated refrigerator truck bodies ranging up to eight by 24 feet that he would sell at scrap prices to be used as “cabins.” Pastor Macdonald told me:  “You can take a well insulated truck body like that and for about $5,000.00 dollars it can be converted to essential shelter, a mobile home without wheels, with modest living accommodations  for one veteran while he or she tries to get back on their feet. Then if you add support services such as ministries that supply food and other services a vet could have a much better chance of becoming a productive citizen again than if he or she is living in a park in Concord or under a bridge in Manchester…add to the tax base not be a burden to it.

“But the most important thing I want to do is to help provide a chance for these people, who fought for their country,” Al Peel added, “to regain their dignity.”

On its face his idea may have a great deal of merit, especially if done on private property, but certainly would have significant logistical hurdles if executed on public property. 

There is also the problem of citizens who have valid, and some who have less than valid, reasons  to object to any such project even on church property. 

Some of these people I like to call the: “Not in my neighborhood” crowd. They are the people who are all for some type of social project to do something about something or other as long as that something is not in there neighborhood.  The most common reason is that they don’t want these “dangerous” veterans, many of whom suffer from PTSD,  in their town.  Or they fear that a “vet center” will lower their property value.  This thinking is often promoted by our own government officials as in a Department of Homeland Security document issued by Janet Napolitano in April of 2009 that warns law enforcement officials to be alert to returning veterans (from Iraq and Afghanistan) who may be dangerous radicals with extreme right wing opinions against the presidents political agenda.  This kind of rhetoric only inflames the very wrong misconception that all veterans…especially those with mental issues such as PTSD, are all dangerous, crazed, killers.

Others who may object may have more sinister reasons ranging from some with a profit motive, to political aspirations, to extremist groups who place their cause above the welfare of wounded and homeless veterans.

Pastor Macdonald certainly has seen these objections; at the time of this article is waiting for a hearing in the Strafford Superior Court in the case of Veteran Resort-Chapel v. the Zoning Board of Adjustment of Lee to be able o complete his one cabin for one veteran.  He has had to resort to using Public Law 106-274, Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA) signed into law by President Clinton on Sept 22, 2000.  The law provides protection for religious groups to use their land for their ministry purposes when the municipality may be trying to impose overly burdensome or discriminatory requirements on their projects as a means of stopping the group.

Bringing some of these ideas to help vets and information on how to fight unreasonable objections, such as the use of the RLUIPA law, is another project Mr. Peel has taken on by starting  The United Veterans of NH.  His organization is a “mostly still on the drawing board” effort but he explained it to me this way:  “There are thousands of veterans in NH and  there is no one social media for them to turn to communicate in simple clear terms with each other.  If we had  a web site where veterans, their families, and those non-veterans who support us could meet online and exchange information we would have better access to issues as well as advice on how to put forward a veterans’ friendly agenda. We could become a voice that would be heard in Concord and maybe Washington.”

Mr. Peel helps support himself by selling carved granite items in the Northwood Country store.  Anyone interested in helping him set up the UVNH can get his contact information and see his work at the store.

In an effort to be absolutely transparent here I must mention that, at this time, Mr. Peel’s organization has no board of directors, no fiscal oversight, and is not a registered or recognized organization yet.  While I encourage anyone who may have an interest in helping his idea grow, I recommend caution if considering financial support until these conditions are met.

These two men may have ideas that may not be workable in the long run, but they most certainly deserve the ear our municipal, state and national leaders, at least as much attention as getting free needles to drug addicts, making another intoxicant legal in NH, and getting gambling in NH.

We in NH have a saying that reflects our “olde” time New England spirit: “Live free or die.”  Those who fought to allow us to live free and came back “broken” should not now have to die alone and homeless in some shanty camp by the river or under a bridge.

Coe-Brown Northwood Academy

Quarter 2 Honor Roll

January 21, 2014

Headmaster David S. Smith is pleased to announce the honor roll for the second quarter.

Grade 12 – Highest Honors

Jessie Carney, Samantha Corwin, Cassidy Gagne, Julia Helton, Kyle Turcotte

Grade 12 – High Honors

Emily Blad, Willden Butler, Matthew Cunningham, Domenica DeLuca, Justin Demers, Samuel Fortier, Jessica Gallant, Emilee Gancarz, Erik Gunderson, Katlyn Hanson, Trevor Harcourt, Hannah Heyliger, Alexis LaChapelle, Derik Landry, Reno LaPanne, Tyler Lebel, Ashley Lewis, Nicholas Locke, Hailey Mann, Zachary May, Donald McCallion III, Amy Morrow, Emily Reiff, Samantha Rogier, Nathan Rouff, Megan Rouillard, Sheryl Saunders, Virginia Scarponi, Eric Shorten, Jon Shorten, Peter Slowik, Daniel Somers, Elanie Trainor, Brandie Valentine, Sophia Wensberg, Alexander Wimsatt, Mariah Wright

Grade 12 – Honors

Samantha Bailey, Leanne Baratier, Connor Bell, Jayme Buck, Alexandria Buiel, Benjamin Butcher, Ashley Calef, Katharina Cozine, Emily Davis, Melissa Fallon, Benjamin Flood, Mary Fowler, Gwyneth Horne, Brittany Lachance, Allyson LaFrance, Andrew Lang, Aidan Leavitt, Abigail MacCallum, Jacob Mele, Shannon Mommsen, Liam Nunes, Erin Percy, Erik Rolser, Alexandra Savioli, Dylan St. Hilaire, Sadie Steffen, Zachary Wolf

Grade 11 – Highest Honors

Kerry Baratier, Audrey Getman, Katherine Martel

Grade 11 – High Honors

Alexa Barnes, Samantha Beaupre, Jillian Burrows, Ariel Clachar, Joshua Conrad, Liam Corless, Kyana Currier, Sarah Curtin, Gregory Doane, Nicole Durell, Emma Easler, Bryan Ekstrom, Brianna Ferreira, Caitlin Foley, Aurora Goodwin, Hannah Grady, Brianna Hanson, Katheryn Huckins, Jacob Jackman, Mason Jimino, Allison Jones, Quinn Kelley, Bianca Ketenci, Garrett Kunz, Samuel Langdon, Ashley LeBlanc, Alicia Lee, Elizabeth MacEachern, Lauren Montgomery, Gaelyn O’Dwyer, Ashley Perron, Marielle Pomerleau, Benjamin Porter, Borja Rodriguez-Gimeno, Cassandra Rogers, Haley Ruth, Carrigan Smith, Ashley St. Pierre, Jacquelyn Stevens, Veronica Swindell, Kate Tomaszewski, Nicole Torosian, Cameron Watson, Alexander Yonchak, Luke Zollman

Grade 11 – Honors

Abigail Ahern, Ronald Berry III, Megan Burgess, Sophia Chartier, Tyler Comte, Rachel Dallaire, Claire Decker, Hjalmer DeVarney, Olivia Drew, Hannah Eaton, Jeremy Fenerty, Molly Gibson, Erika Grand, Hannah Herter, Maria Jorgensen, Andrew Lambert, Lacey Locke, Hannah Mausteller, Jessica Ohrenberger, Dalton-James Reynolds, Kayla Williamson

Grade 10 – Highest Honors

Chloe Bettencourt, Molly Boodey, Megan Elwell, Tayla George, Ryu Kondrup, Brooke Laskowsky, Bailey Poland, Zachary Rheaume, Meredith Roman, Jake Scarponi, Julie Souryavong, Henry Turcotte, Hannah Woodward

Grade 10 – High Honors

Vanessa Anderson, Hannah Arroyo, Parker Aube, Ryan Bailey, Nicole Beaupre, Kayleigh Bounds, Callie Brochu, Alexia Brousseau, Jared Carlson, Nathaniel Chagnon, Nicholas Chase, Christie Clause, Dalton Colman, Julia Cormier, Laura Cozine, Elisabeth Danis, Casey Davies, Michael Davis, Gage Desrosiers, Bailey Docko, Erin Docko, Caleb Dowe, Noah DuBois, Jacob Dunkerley, Hayley Dunn, Sydney Fisher, Lavender Goodwin, Rosemary Goodwin, Quinn Grady, Brittany Guillemette, Arianna Gunderson, Michael Haddock, Claire Hammond, Julia Harcourt, Nicole Hodgdon, Colin Johnson, Cameron Lamarre, Ezekiel Langevin, Jolene Levesque, Damian May, Thomas Mellor, William Ohrenberger, Samuel Olewine, Kayla Patten, Meghan Percy, Blake Peterson, Hayley Pierce, Billie Pingree, Mackenzi Prina, Max Ravenelle, Ashley Reiff, Holly Roman, Tyler Schroeder, Kristina Seavey, Kayleigh Sherman, Micah Sims, Megan Spainhower, Liam Taylor, Drew Tessier, Andrew Therrien, Abigail Turcotte, Sydney Wilson, Dylan Wood

Grade 10 – Honors

Alexis Arsenault, Samantha Bruce, Hannah Carlson, Andrew Comte, Sebastian Flood, Christen Gallant, Taylor Goodwin, Brian Gordon, Emily Greene, Lily Hunt, Fergus Leclere, Bethany Levenson, Collin Levenson, Jordan Lippmeier, Ambar Mercedes, Jessica Miles, Joshua Moreshead, Jared Nelson, Brianna O’Connor, Ryan Oliver, Carter Rollins, Angela Ross, Kaitlyn Ross, Cole Short, Phaleap Taing, Emily Therrien

Grade 9 – Highest Honors

Summer Barnes, Emelia Cronshaw, Davio DeLuca, Jillian Gordon, Joshua Hall, Mallory Perron, Allison Pratt, Noah Wiggin

Grade 9 – High Honors

Miranda Adcock, Dylan Andrews, Brody Ashley, Cassandra Barnhart, Taylor Baxter-Orluk, Elizabeth Bisson, Amanda Bolduc, Matthew Brown, Nicholas Burleigh, Colin Cain, Kira Cameron, Camryn Chick, Donovan Corless, Damarah Cormier, Abigail Dupuis, Shane Fillion, Zacary Fraser, William Girard, Alexander Gray, Nathan Griffiths, Tristan Jardon, Nicholas Jensen, Arianna Jones, Jackalynn Joy, Maxwell Judge, Morgan Labrecque, Catherine Langdon, Caroline Lavoie, Samuel Lupinacci, Donald MacCallum, Rebecca Masison, Sophia Menjivar, Michael Mulligan, Sarah Murphy, Cassidy O’Dwyer, Noah Olewine, Anne-Marie Peacock, Zackary Pine, Caitlyn Pitre, Zachary Richards, Kerry Riley, Samantha Roche, Thomas Sheehan, Joshua Sims, Shawn Spenard, Ryan St. Hilaire, Patrick Thurston, Kaylee Toleos, Sarah Turmel, Kylee West, William White, Noah Wojtkowski, LilyGrace York, Abigail Zollman

Grade 9 – Honors

Ryan Barnard, Emily Barnes, Joel Boulanger, Kate Clinch, Abigail Devaney, Sheridan Gancarz, River Groves, Brenda Hayes, Callie Heselton, Emily Hughes, Amanda Lee, McKenzie Moehlmann, Steven O’Donnell, Jordain Pierce, Christopher Pratt, Tanner Richards, Jacob Snow, Emery Travers, Kelsey Wallace, Elizabeth Ward, Samuel Whitehouse