Those Celebrating Birthdays are: January 29, James Hetu, Bill
Provencal, Andrea Riel; January 30, Wesley Ward; February 1, Donna
Webber.
A Very Happy Birthday to One and All!
Tony
Bryant of Highland Ranch, Colorado, spent a week recently with his
parents, Jim and Martha Bryant, at their home on Loudon Road.
Also spending the long Martin Luther King holiday weekend with Jim
and Martha while Tony was here was their son, Darrell and daughter
Jaden, of Brocton, MA, and their granddaughter Milisha and husband
Tyler Brown with their two sons, Kobe and Nathan of Oxford, MA.
A great family reunion.
School Lunch Menus January 31-February 4, 2011
PMHS Monday -
Hot dogs, rolls, beans, cole slaw, fruit, milk. Tuesday -
Spaghetti, meat sauce, garden salad, garlic bread, fruit, milk.
Wednesday - Pizza, corn, fruit, milk. Thursday - Nachos,
cheese, meat, tomatoes, fruit, milk. Friday - Chicken nuggets,
fries, veggies, fruit, milk.
Letter To The Editor
To the good citizens of Pittsfield:
Attention: young and old residents of Pittsfield who don’t vote.
I figure the reason you don’t is the feeling that it doesn’t make a
difference or there’s nothing to vote for.
Well, everything
changes on March 8th, between the hours of 7 am and 7 pm at the Town
Hall. You will vote because it’s going to make a difference
and you will have something to vote for.
On the ballot that you
will be handed, will be the question: “Are you in favor to
repeal the Zoning Ordinance?”
I recommend you vote yes.
This will allow folks (this means us) to open any business anywhere
and eliminate the hurdles that the Zoning and Planning Boards put
up. This really scares some folks (this doesn’t mean us).
What scares me is the fact that our country borrowed 3 to 4 billion
dollars today, for operating expenses. I hear $.43 out of
every dollar we spend is borrowed.
When the other folks start
writing to keep zoning, I hope they tell us their solutions, aside
from doing the same old stuff.
If you know someone who is
eligible to vote give them this letter and smack them beside the
head to get his/her attention, and if you are reading this and you
don’t vote, I’m begging you to start.
The way I see it is, we
outnumber the folks who are scared into doing nothing by 3 to 1.
Let freedom ring.
Dan Schroth Piermarocchi
Local Student Honored at Franklin Pierce University
Sheila
Vargas-Torres of Pittsfield, NH was named to the Dean’s Honors List
for the fall semester at Franklin Pierce University in Rindge, New
Hampshire.
Vargas-Torres, a junior majoring in Mass
Communication, earned Dean’s Honors List status by maintaining a
term grade point average of at least 3.65 on a scale of four.
Circle Of Home And Family Group To Host
“Genealogy With The McGuigans”
The Pittsfield Circle of Home and Family Group will
meet on Thursday, January 27 at 7 pm at the Pittsfield Community
Center, lower level function room. Our program will be
“Genealogy with the McGuigans.”
The McGuigans will present a
basic, general overview of how to start tracing and recording your
family roots. If you are interested in genealogy please be
sure to join us for this fun (and free) program. The public is
invited and encouraged to attend. For more information, please
call Andi Riel at 435-6346.
Aubuchon Hardware Sponsors U14 Girls Softball Team
The new
year is looking bright for girls softball, thanks to a generous gift
from Aubuchon Hardware in Alton. For the first time, Alton
Youth League will be hosting a U14 Girls Softball team for the 2011
season. Aubuchon Hardware, already a corporate sponsor of Alton
Youth League, stepped up with an additional donation of $500 to help
purchase uniforms and equipment. This donation helped fully
fund the U14 softball team for the 2011 season.
The U14 softball team will be open to local girls who are aged
14 and under as of January 1, 2011. While Alton will be the
host town for this team, girls from other towns in the area are
encouraged and invited to sign up, including girls from: Alton,
Barnstead, New Durham, Chichester, Northwood, Pittsfield and Epsom.
The regular season team will be a pay-and-play team (no
tryouts), and games will start in late May to avoid conflict with
Junior High softball team schedules. The U14 softball
team will have access to indoor practice space on weekends starting
in February and will hold some indoor practices until weather
permits outdoor activity.
At the end of regular season, a U14 All-Star team will be
selected with a try-out and the All-Star season will commence
sometime in late June. All girls who meet age requirements are
welcome to try-out for the All-Star team.
Sign-ups for the Alton U14 Softball team will be held in
conjunction with the Alton Youth League sign-ups on February 5, 2011
from 9:00 am - 12:00 pm at Alton Central School. The
registration fee is $55.00 and the Registration Forms are available
on the Alton Youth League website (www.AltonYouthLeague.org)
or at sign-ups. Please bring valid birth
certificate to sign-ups.
Any questions can be directed to
Rodney Taylor, Manager of the U14 softball team, at 435-7472.
Josiah Carpenter Library News
Join us on Facebook for Josiah
Carpenter Library Online Book Review Club Josiah Carpenter
Library Delivers
“Josiah Carpenter Library Delivers” is a service
offered at the library, in conjunction with the Meals-On-Wheels
program in town. Pittsfield residents may obtain library
membership and access the resources of the library through this
program.
A letter explaining the program was delivered to each
Meals-on-Wheels client who lives in Pittsfield at the end of
February,” says Judith MacLellan, Assistant Librarian Adult
Services. The program began March 7, 2010. For more
information call the library and ask for Judith MacLellan.
If
you participate in Meals-On-Wheels in Pittsfield, you may have your
library books and audio/video materials delivered, once a week, with
your meals. Borrowed items will be picked up and returned for
you as well. For more information call 435-8406. Coffee Time!
It is always Coffee Time at Josiah Carpenter Library!
Suggested donation 50 cents per cup! Special “On-The-House
rates for Town Department employees and Pittsfield-based non-profit
Volunteers. Tea and Cocoa is available too, but sorry, no
doughnuts. Preschool Story Hour
Josiah Carpenter Library
Preschool Story Hour, with Children’s Librarian, Carol Grainger, has
resumed for the 2010/2011 school year. Story Hour is conducted
on Thursdays at 12:30 pm. Stories, Activities, Crafts, and
light refreshments await your preschooler. Please call to
preregister at 435-8406.
There is no Story Hour when
school is closed for holidays, vacation, or snow days.
Preschool Story Hour participating parents may partake of
their favorite hot beverage “on-the-house” at the “Coffee Time”
station on the main floor.
Letter Know The Agenda
In December, 2010, Mr. Piermarocchi
published a letter thanking the Free State Project for setting an
example, and offered an open invitation to the Free Staters on
behalf of the town of Pittsfield. Naturally, this begs the
question: what does the Free State Project have to do with
repealing Pittsfield’s entire zoning ordinance?
I’m
writing to suggest that all voters, both ‘for’ and ‘against’ the
complete repeal of our zoning ordinance, at least spend time
reviewing - www.freestateproject.org. This is a nationwide,
pro-liberty activist organization whose goal is to have 20,000
members move to New Hampshire. While on the website, please
use their search engine to find the following article:
Leveraging the spirit of the west. This article will help you
understand the connection between the Free State Project and the
repeal of zoning laws.
Another article to search while on
the website was originally published in the Boston Globe:
Antigovernment activists putting down roots. This article was
written in 2009 and, while it does not represent all Free Staters,
it certainly provides some insight as to the potential extremes.
I personally don’t believe Pittsfield would benefit by repealing
our zoning ordinance. There is no question, however, that the
content of our zoning ordinance must overcome the struggle for
balance. The Planning Board’s revised zoning ordinance is
available at www.pittsfield-nh.com . Are the revisions an improvement?
There is a meeting January 31st to discuss the revisions.
Remember: Filing period at the town hall for the four Planning Board
positions: January 19- 28.
God Bless Our Troops, Rachel Wood
Pittsfield
Mr. & Mrs. Dana Elliott of Pittsfield, NH announce the engagement of
their daughter Tiffany to Jesse Malm, son of Paul Malm and Nancy
Sweezey of Barnstead, NH.
Tiffany graduated from Rivier College
in May 2010 with her bachelors degree in nursing. Currently she
works at Havenwood Heritage Heights in Concord, NH. Jesse graduated
from Prospect Mountain High School in 2007 and joined the US Navy.
Currently he is deployed overseas on the USS Carl Vinson from their
homeport of San Diego, California. An October 15, 2011 wedding is
being planned.
Pittsfield Forms Hazard Mitigation Planning Committee
A Hazard
Mitigation Planning Committee has formed to update the Town’s
adopted 2007 Hazard Mitigation Plan. Its update is required to
enable the Town of Pittsfield to retain eligibility for federal
reimbursable disaster funding.
Natural, technological, and human
hazards will be reviewed. Community leaders will identify objectives
and actions for reducing the impact of these hazards to Pittsfield’s
people, buildings, and land.
The Committee has rescheduled their
first meeting to Wednesday, February 2, 2011 at 9:00 AM at the Town
Hall at 85 Main Street, Pittsfield. Additional meetings will
be scheduled at this time. All are invited to attend and
participate.
The Hazard Mitigation Plan is anticipated to be
completed by summer 2011. For more information, please contact Chief
Robert Wharem, Hazard Mitigation Plan Coordinator, at 435-7535.
What I Have Learned at the Pittsfield Budget Committee Work Sessions
Part 1 by Carole Richardson
In October I decided to attend
Budget Committee work sessions to learn more about our town and
school budgets. It has been very educational, as well as
enlightening, to see how our town and school administrators and
department heads function. I would like to share some of the
information I have learned during these work sessions, and would
like to thank the Budget Committee members, particularly Chairman
John Kidder, for always taking public input at the beginning and end
of these work sessions. Since wages and benefits for employees
are the largest part of any budget, in this week’s article I will
attempt to share information on contracts and benefits of our town
officials and employees. In future articles I will share
information on contracts and budget numbers regarding the Pittsfield
School District and SAU #51.
Pittsfield’s town employees are
unionized and all but three individuals are covered by these
contracts. Our Town Clerk is eligible to receive all the same
benefits if she so chooses but is not allowed to be part of either
union because she is an elected official, and our Town Administrator
and Fire Chief have separate contracts, which I will discuss later.
The two unions are the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Local
#633 of New Hampshire, which covers 12 employees of the Police
Department for the years 2007-2010, and the AFT-NH Local #6214, AFT,
AFL-CIO, which covers 21 other town employees from January 1, 2008
through December 31, 2010. All part-time employees are also
part of these unions. I am told that contract negotiations are
now in mediation. It would be impossible to cover all the
specifics in these contracts but if you would like to see what our
employees receive for benefits you should go to the New Hampshire
Public Employees Labor Relations Board’s website (nh.gov/pelrb) and
all union contracts are listed by town and city.
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