Anthony Toscano of Northwood, a freshman, was named to the Dean’s List for the fall 2013 semester by maintaining a grade term point average of at least 3.50 on a scale of four at Franklin Pierce University in Rindge, NH.

Congratulations, Anthony!

REMINDER

Northwood Community World Day Of Prayer

This year’s service will be on March 7 at 1 p.m at Northwood Advent Christian Church  at 113 School Street (Route 107) “handicap accessible” to join the women of Egypt in prayer and song to support ecumenical efforts toward justice, peace, healing and wholeness.  The annual offering supports the work of World Day of Prayer USA and helps meet the needs of families in Egypt and around the world who are victims of many forms of poverty, violence, and justice.

Besides the above mentioned church, other participants are the Northwood Congregational Church UCC and the St. Joseph Catholic Church.

Town Reports Are In! 

The annual town report for the Town of Northwood and the Northwood School District is available during regular business hours.  We ask that you take only one per family or household.  The annual report is also available on the town website under Forms and Documents.

REMINDER

Northwood Softball & Baseball Registration

Registration is underway for the 2014 season of Northwood Softball & Baseball. The Northwood Softball Baseball Association continues to offer online registration. Look to the upper right corner of the website for the links. Baseball & Softball each have there own form. You can pay online with credit, debit or PayPal. Multiple registrations can be done per division before you checkout and pay. Registrations are due by March 31, 2014. Spring clinics will begin March 15, 2014 for softball & March 16, 2014 for baseball. Clinics are free and available for registered players. 

We are now accepting coaching applications. Deadline for coaching applications is March 8, 2014.

Please visit our website at nsbanh.org for more information.

MAS Offering Virtual Dementia Tour

At The Inn At Deerfield Tuesday, March 18, 2014

There are approximately 35 million Americans age 65 and older and more than 5.4 million suffer from Alzheimer’s disease.

The Virtual Dementia Tour is a proven method designed to build sensitivity and awareness about Dementia.  The Virtual Dementia Tour is for anyone seeking to understand the physical and mental challenges of those with Dementia and create a community of acceptance and support for dementia.  MAS is the only certified agency in the state of New Hampshire to offer this program. 

This is an opportunity for you to experience dementia first hand and be part of increasing the level of care and commitment to this shifting societal issue.  This experience takes approximately 15 minutes per group but will change your view of dementia forever.

Tours start at 3:00 pm and run throughout the afternoon.  Please call Kelly at The Inn at Deerfield (463-7002) to set up a time slot. There is no cost associated with the tour.  The purpose is to promote awareness within our community.

Northwood Recreation Update

By Kathy Boudreau, Recreation Director

Saturday, February 22nd was a perfect day for ice fishing.  Many members of the community participated in the Ice Fishing Derby. The derby was held on Harvey Lake from 8AM to noon.  29 children competed to win prizes in 4 categories in the following age brackets: 6 years & under, 7 – 10 years old, and 11 – 15 years old. 

The early birds caught the first fish of the day.  The winner of the first fish was Sam Lauze, 4, at 8:36. The winners of the longest fish were Skylar Nelson, 6, fish length 12 3/4”; Carson Hodgdon, 7, fish size 12”; and Dylan DeTrude, 13, fish size 15 1/2”. 

Participants then competed for the 2nd longest fish.  The winners of the 2nd longest fish were Spencer Conway, 6, fish length 11 3/4” and John Difeo, 11, fish length 13”.  The winner of the last fish caught was Zacharia Nelson, 3, at 11:36. 

Congratulations to all who participated.  Don’t forget to check out the web site for information about upcoming programs at www.northwoodnh.org  or contact the Recreation Department at 942-5586 x209.

Letter To The Editor

On Tuesday March 11th from 7:00 am to 7:00 pm voters will have an opportunity to reduce unnecessary increases to our school and town spending requests by about $827,000 without having any adverse impact to services.

Mark your calendar now to make an effort to vote. Maybe you can afford these tax increases but there is a strong likelihood that your neighbors or our senior citizens living on a fixed income cannot. 

Although the number of residents voting has increased since the town went from the traditional town and school district meetings to SB-2, there is still much room for improvement. It’s always easy to complain about your property taxes going up, so here is your one opportunity to do something about it.

Most of the unnecessary spending requests come from the school side - $622,000 versus $205,000 for the town. A vote for the school default budget will save $262,000. Since teachers have presented another ‘pie in the sky’ proposal for their contract, voters should vote no and will save an additional $188,000 by doing so. There are four other warrant articles that create surplus accounts for so-called emergencies. A no vote will save taxpayers $127,000. 

Based on research and as we saw in a recent letter in the Suncook Sun, establishing an all-day kindergarten program would be a lose-lose situation for our children and taxpayers. Voting no would save another $45,000.  

On the town-side the proposal to build another highway building for $145,000 has not been very well thought out. Until a cost/benefit plan is positive, this project should be postponed. There are several other warrant articles (#4, 9, 10 & 13) that would add to our reserves but are not necessary at this time that would save $60,000.

Your vote can make a difference on March 11th.

Sincerely,

Jim Hadley

Kayla Pollak (8th grade) defeated Derek Capo (7th grade) in the Northwood School annual spelling bee in late January.  Kayla correctly spelled the word “sapphire” in the 13th round of spelling.  Kayla represented the school at the state spelling bee on March 1st.

Northwood Garage Supports Dover Children’s Home

We’re very grateful for Northwood Garage’s generous gift to Bill Stevens with the Dover Police Charities bowling team.  These funds actively support our commitment to improving the lives of the children placed in our care.  We offer a wide array of experiences, services, and opportunities that celebrate individual strengths and address personal needs.  As other residential treatment programs close their doors across NH, it’s become more important than ever for Dover Children’s Home to provide a safe haven where children can learn to reclaim their lives, recover their dreams, and achieve their potential. 

Thousands of NH’s most vulnerable children have received exceptional care at Dover Children’s Home for the past 121 years.  Many of these young people have endured incredible hardship such as sexual and physical abuse, depression, abandonment, homelessness, mental illness, and poverty.  While in our care, many children gain self-confidence and experience significant improvement in family relationships, decision-making skills, and school performance.

Your gift through the 6th Annual Dover Children’s Home Bowl-a-thon is an important piece of our mission.  If you would like more information about our mission or upcoming events, please contact Pamela Schmuhl at [email protected] or (603) 742-4289 x 22.

Your support will make a difference

To learn more about Dover Children’s Home  visit doverchildrenshome.org

Your Vote Is Important!

Northwood Election Day is Tuesday, March 11 at the Parish Center of St. Joseph’s Church, located next to the Town Hall. Polls will be open from 7 am to 7 pm. Voters in Northwood will consider ALL warrant items as ballot votes under SB2 for both the town and school district. This is the time for citizens to make their voice heard on the election of town and school officials, and warrant articles, including the proposed operating budgets for both town and school for the coming year and several petition warrant articles.  There are several contested races including planning board and police commission.

If you have not already received one, be sure to pick up a copy of the voter’s guide, available at the Northwood Town Hall during regular business hours: M-F 8-4, or the guide may be viewed on the town website:  www.northwoodnh.org   If you were unable to attend any of the following: town or school deliberative sessions, or Candidate’s Night, copies of the DVD are able at the Chesley Memorial Library. The videos may be taken out and watched at home at your convenience; they are also shown randomly on the local cable channel.

Letter To The Editor

Penny Wise

I’m not a numbers person, but I did a little numbers crunching on the Northwood Town and School Warrants.  Here’s what I found: if we vote “yes” or for the higher number in every single warrant article, we will be spending over $1,600,000 more than if we vote “no” or for the lower number.

That 1.6 million dollars includes items saying “No tax impact.” “No tax impact” means that an expenditure will be funded by fees or from the surplus in last year’s budget.  Although the expense will not cause an increase over previous taxes, in some cases not spending this money would reduce taxes. All expenditures have tax impact.

Other items say things like “tax impact $.01.” These no-impact and penny increases end up rising to a cost of more than one and a half million dollars in Northwood property taxes.

Voting is March 11 from 7 AM to 7 PM at St. Joseph’s Church.

Michael Faiella

Northwood

Letter To The Editor

To the Editor,

It’s here. Time to vote. Tuesday, March 11 at the Church right next to the Town Hall from 7am to 7pm. There are somewhere around 2800 of you that are eligible to vote in Northwood, and should. Most won’t. I would like to give you one more reason to, that is to show appreciating to the many, many folks who volunteer their time, gas money and much more to make sure that you and your families have what you need. Very little would get done in this town without their incredible dedication to you and yours. No one gets paid on the many committees and sub committees. The education of our children would go downhill and cost more without our volunteers wonderful help. Get out on Tuesday, it won’t take more than 15 minutes of your busy day to show that support. Whether it is a volunteer for the town or the school, they will work harder for you if a little support comes their way. Voting is just one way to show it.

Please, just consider me, I gave you several hundred hours of my time absolutely for free and I enjoyed doing it. Get out and vote. Need a ride, call me (942-5463) and I’ll get you one.

Tim Jandebeur

Northwood

Letter

To the Voters of Northwood:

I’m Joseph McCaffrey, running for the volunteer, unpaid positions of  both Planning Board and Budget Committee in Northwood.  ( I know, I know, the sanity of anyone volunteering for grief and hassle is up for consideration...). I don’t consider them fun positions either, interesting, but not fun.

I don’t like telling other people how to lead there own lives. Some do.  Furthermore I think free citizens should be left alone to live their own lives with minimum government interference.  Reasonable law for a reasonable  people.  Believe it or not this kind of thinking, you know, this liberty stuff,  begins at the local level.  So being involved, granted in just a in a small way, has given me a chance to see how things work, or not work. 

I figure as long as I’m paying taxes, I’d like to see how the money gets spent while remaining constantly mindful that when called on to vote town budget items, it’s other peoples’ money.  Maximizing effectiveness, at the least possible cost.  Your money is part of your liberty - to act, say, and do.

Regarding the planning board, I believe all applicants should be treated fairly and equally - the same rules for all - with the spirit of encouraging prosperity in Northwood.

So I ask for your vote for both the Northwood Planning Board and Budget Committee.  Thanks for your vote and please do make the effort to come out, I’ll be at the polling place, probably all day if you have any questions.

Sincerely,

Joseph McCaffrey