Letter
Dear Northwood Community families and friends,
We
understand how challenging this unanticipated transportation and
change in schedule is for your families. It is equally as
challenging for our families and job schedules as well. As a
staff, we are sacrificing hours from second jobs (e.g. wages we
need to pay our mortgages, child care, food bills). We, too, are
losing attendance to our children’s events and hours from our
families; but as always we will continue to be there for your
children, providing as much normalcy and positivity as we have
in the past.
We appreciate our principal, vice principal,
superintendent, and school board for their support as we bridge
the gaps and solve the problems that our district currently
faces. Additionally, we thank you, our Northwood families and
friends, for your support and understanding.
To quote Dr.
Seuss: “UNLESS someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing
is going to get better. It’s not.” -The Lorax
We care “a
whole awful lot” about your children and you.
Respectfully,
Northwood School Support Staff
Letter To The Editor
I met with our selectmen on 8/22 and
informed them that our state representatives (Brian Stone) had
agreed to file legislation on my behalf for the state to
establish a property tax commission. NH has the third highest
property tax rate in the country. Local representative Yvonne
Dean-Bailey is very much interested in working on this
commission. The state is notorious for downshifting costs to
municipalities.
There are 610 Northwood residents age 65 and
older which is 14% of our population. Many have to choose
between heating their homes, buying food and medicine and paying
their property taxes. Only 56 of them have filed papers to take
advantage of the elderly property exemption program. The elderly
population in NH is expected to increase to one-third of our
total population by the year 2030.
I presented our
selectboard with a 5-year analysis of Northwood’s full-value
property tax rates as compared to nine surrounding towns. While
our rate has gone down by 2% from 2012, Deerfield, Strafford and
Candia have all gone down from 11% to 15%.
The Town has taken
over by tax deed, $2.5 million in property (land and buildings)
for non-payment of taxes over the years. Given the Town’s large
portfolio of possible income-producing surplus real estate,
there is an opportunity for selectmen to implement a ‘best
practices’ plan for the orderly disposition of most of these
properties over a 5-year period to put them back on the tax
roll. The proceeds could go into the Town’s undesignated,
unreserved fund balance to be used to offset our tax rate.
The Town should not be large holders of real estate. Rather,
the selectmen should manage the Town’s real estate activities
for the greatest benefit to Northwood residents. Other towns
have done it successfully and we should try.
Sincerely,
Jim Hadley
Letter To The Editor
In an effort to bring our Northwood
community together during the school bus driver shortage, I have
created a Facebook group dedicated to those parents and
community members looking to connect and create carpools and
before school care. Anyone in need of child care or a
carpool is welcomed, as is anyone wanting to offer childcare or
has availability in their carpool. The name of the group
is “Northwood NH Carpool and Care Exchange.”
For those not on
Facebook, I am more than happy to post your contact info and
needs and/or offerings for you. Please reach out to me via
call or text. Together, as a community, we will get
through this challenge.
Cheryl Dean
Letter To The Editor
To the Editor,
“Northwood will not
provide bus transportation to students.” So says Union Leader
reporter Kimberly Hass. Not true, of course, but the truth
wasn’t sensational. It reminded me of a really poor reporting in
The Forum some years ago concerning a selectman meeting. I
called the editor, asking if I could provide a video of the
meeting and then would they publish a correction. They declined
and the reporter still rails her biased crap. She hasn’t been to
one meeting regarding the bus issue but knows more than anyone
about it. Eh!
I’ll have more to say when things settle down
because this issue underscores how damaging the ceding of our
local control can be. This board has completely ignored what
residents vote for, their ideas and rights to a say. Kudos
abound for everyone, even though all failed and we went with a
plan that should have been approved two months earlier. Notable
is who was missing throughout, who did the “negotiating” and why
they both forgot a wonderful axiom, “don’t try to bs a bser.”
Very notable is who, while Northwood was in need of their help,
panhandled for themselves. Very disappointing.
I reiterate my
disdain of closed door negotiations. Northwood should be privy
to all negotiating. I can say with no reservation that
negotiating would be far cleaner if done in the light because
the absurd requests would never be made. A legal “Right to Know
Request” of all correspondence relating to this issue back to
the school start date in 2016 would be enlightening.
Making sausage, ugly work. Talk to ex-drivers of local bus
companies in and out of business. You’ll see the light.
Tim
Jandebeur
Northwood
Letter To The Editor
Dear Editor,
I am a local high school
student/resident of Northwood, New Hampshire. I am a very active
young citizen in my community and rely on Coe-Brown to be able
to be as active as I am in just a few of the many opportunities
it has.
I cherish the opportunities like being a part of
Coe-Brown’s science club and robotics team, as well as being an
active member of the FFA chapter. In all my youth experiences I
have been taught to lead by example and to stand up for what is
right and just.
I write today, because our community has been
facing an issue with getting transportation for our school. I
don’t blame any single person or even a specific group of people
for this. I do, however, recognize that people are stepping out
of line in this debacle. Things have been said that perhaps
shouldn’t have been, but lines have also been crossed that
shouldn’t have been. So I ask, for the betterment of our
community and for the sake of our youth, that everyone keep a
level head reconsider what the problem is here.
Companies
should always be willing to hear out their employees and reason
with them to meet their needs. And no one should be using a
license and children’s education as a weapon for arguing to get
anything they want. I, personally, don’t enjoy having my
education used as a threat in what is turning into an
educational hostage-type situation. So, before this escalates
any further and we all suffer, let’s work together as a
community to figure this out.
Patrick Murray
An
Invitation From The Northwood Congregational Church
Home Coming
Sunday - September 10
Come on home. We will all be
here. Sunday school students, choir members, summer
vacationers, travelers, and wanderers will gather to give God
praise and to get ready to work together. It is a coming
because we will all be here. It is a home coming because
our church is home – the place where everyone is always welcome
and where people get the support and other things they need.
People will welcome each other again on September 10 as the
church bell rings at 9:00 AM.
Northwood Congregational Church
invites friends and neighbors to come home with them. Northwood
Congregational Church is a small but active church. The
choir though small in numbers is outstanding in voice and
performance. Sunday school classes are led by faithful
caring teachers. Our building is welcoming to the
differently abled with an easy to operate lift and spacious
corridors.
Worship is led by the Interim Pastor, the Rev.
Arthur Urie, who has a friendly manner and years of experience.
He provides good sermons and leadership while the church seeks
its next settled pastor. The church is not just waiting
for the next pastor; the church is busy living and serving.
Welcome friends and strangers!
The choir has been preparing
and rehearsing, church school teachers have been preparing
lessons and organizing classrooms, the worship team has the
sanctuary, and the readers, and the candles ready. All we
need is the rest of the family to celebrate home coming.
Reports are that following worship, there will be a picnic
brunch with sandwiches and ice cream. Everyone is invited
to come, join our home coming!
This Weekend’s LRPA After Dark Feature:
1947’s “The Red
House”
Join Lakes Region Public Access Television at 10:30
p.m. this Friday and Saturday night (September 1 & 2)) for our
“LRPA After Dark” presentation of 1947’s psychological film noir
“The Red House,” starring Edward G. Robinson, Judith Anderson,
Allene Roberts and Lon McCallister.
“The Red House”
introduces us to Pete Morgan (Robinson), a disabled farmer who
lives on an isolated farm with his sister Ellen (Anderson) and
Meg (Roberts), a teen that they adopted as an infant when her
parents died. Pete is having trouble keeping up with the farm,
so Meg’s classmate Nath Storm (McCallister) comes as a hired
hand to help with the chores. Meg is delighted, as she has a
crush on Nath, even though he has a girlfriend. The Morgan farm
is surrounded by Ox Head Woods. Pete forbids the teens to enter
the woods, and warns them of an abandoned building there known
as The Red House. One night, Nath takes a shortcut through the
woods, where someone knocks him out cold. As more strange events
unfold, Nath and Meg become suspicious of Pete’s obsession with
the woods and the Red House. They begin to ask questions and
explore on their own, which fills Pete with unspeakable rage –
and slowly drives him mad. Meg and Nath feel that their
lives may be in danger; what might have happened at The Red
House to turn Pete into such a jealous, unstable person?
“The
Red House” has all the makings of a film noir classic: great
stars (Robinson and Anderson), along with fantastic performances
from the supporting cast (including a young Rory Calhoun and a
gorgeous Julie London); a cool plot with psychological
surprises; creepy music that sets the film’s tone, etc. So why
hasn’t it become a cinematic classic? Some reviewers think it’s
because the pacing of the plot is a bit slow, while others feel
that it’s because the subject matter was, for its time,
distasteful. “The Red House” was well received by critics, who
thought that Robinson’s performance was very strong. This truly
is a film that is not shown very often, so grab your popcorn and
meet us after dark for this rare cinematic gem.
Letter To The Editor
Another suggestion
On Saturday,
August 19, the final resting place of the USS Indianapolis was
discovered, 18,000 feet down in the Philippine Sea. The news of
this was mostly overshadowed – or should I say ‘eclipsed’? – by
the impending solar theatrics. But fortunately, Ray Duckler
wrote about it three days later on the front page of the
Monitor.
Most of you know the story from the scene in Jaws
where Quint tells of surviving the sinking and spending four
days in the ocean as the sharks pick off his fellow survivors
one-by-one.
After delivering parts for the atomic bomb to
Tinian Island, the Indianapolis sailed on toward Leyte, when it
was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine on July 30, 1945, taking
400 of its 1,200-man crew down with the ship.
Of the 800 who
survived the sinking, only 317 were rescued four days later when
a bomber pilot spotted the oil slick by chance.
This story
has a personal connection for me because as this was happening,
my father was en route in the USS Numitor to Okinawa to prepare
for the invasion of Japan. He arrived on August 10, 1945, eleven
days after the sinking of the Indianapolis, and one day after
the second atomic bomb fell on Nagasaki, ending the war.
Many
years later, he moved up from Maryland to live with me. As part
of the move, he registered to vote. And I’m wondering if he
could still do so after the passage of SB3 this year. His
Maryland license had expired. He had no proof of residency –
other than my say-so.
SB3 makes it harder for some people to
register. I encourage our representatives to find ways to make
it easier to register and vote. In this on-line era, exercising
these rights should be more user-friendly.
Tom Chase
Northwood
Letter To The Editor
The Swap Shop has had an increase of
volunteers (nine now) who come in at various times when the
transfer station is open to make sure all is neat and
uncluttered. If you have stopped in, you know what a great job
they are doing.
I’m afraid our poor green building is almost
dead! This building was donated in the 70’s or early 80’s and
moved to where it sits today. The building was used as the road
agent’s office for quite a few years and then as a place where
the attendants could get in out of the cold when they were “on
the hill.” Its last job has been as the Swap Shop.
This
building has seen better days and has certainly served its
purpose for 50 years or more. For all who have been in the
building or just driven by, it is obvious the time has come to
let it go. We need a new Swap Shop.
We are recycling more and
more out of the building and this saves money for everyone and
keeps a great amount of stuff out of the landfill, not to
mention the re-use of things with lots of life left in them.
There is no downside to this new building. The Northwood
Transfer Station Expendable Trust Fund was established for
improvements to the transfer station and this would surely be an
improvement. This fund has a balance of $63,678.33
Viena Dow
