Congratulations to Gretchen Elizabeth Hilton, who has been named to
Husson University’s President’s List for the Fall 2017 semester.
Hilton
is a sophomore who is currently enrolled in Husson’s Bachelor of
Science in Healthcare Studies/Master of Science in Occupational
Therapy program.
Students who make the President’s List must carry at least 12 graded
credit hours during the semester and earn a grade point average of
between 3.80 to 4.0 during the period.
Letter To The Editor
Select
board meeting 1/9/18- Most of this week’s meeting was once again
taken up with budget review. We got through the entire book and will
be voting on each department, some with adjustments being proposed,
next Monday, the 15th. After our vote, the budget will pass on to
the Budget Committee, who will then have the final say as to what
end result will go to Town Meeting. That is where anything can
happen, as the will of the voters will prevail.
In
other business, two junkyard licenses were brought before us for
last year. For various reasons, they were not ready until now. We
approved one and denied the other due to continued concerns that we
felt had not been addressed.
Ted
Mitchell has resigned from the Transportation Advisory Committee and
the Central NH Regional Planning Commission.
Three
local businesses have made generous donations to the Parks and
Recreation basketball program, which were accepted with thanks.
Carl
Anderson
TOPS News
The
holidays have come and gone and we are well into January. Have
you made any personal goals for a healthier you? Do you want to shed
a pound or two that you may have put on during the holidays?
If so,
we would love to have you visit our TOPS chapter. TOPS stands for
Take Off Pounds Sensibly. We hold weekly meetings on Tuesdays at
6:30 at Joy Church, 55 Barnstead Rd., Pittsfield.
We
share ideas for healthy food choices through sharing articles or
programs focusing on a particular topic. Members are very supportive
to other members as we work toward our goals. For questions, call
Pat 435-5333 or Beth 435-7397.
Everyone at the Pittsfield Youth Workshop wants to thank
Eddie Couturier from Hey Eddie’s Thrift Shop for donating this
beautiful Foosball table, we love it!
Letter To The Editor
Dear
Editor,
The
following context is located within a business update from a local
selectman in the January 3rd edition of The Suncook Valley Sun:
“We
received a letter from NH Lottery regarding a presentation for KENO
which can be adopted by individual towns. We are hoping for a public
hearing in early February. It is our feeling that KENO should be
decided by the voters in March. A percentage would go to education
on our local level, which we could certainly use.”
Upon
closer research it is clear that (after years of debate) our
lawmakers have voted to allow KENO (gambling) in retail businesses
that sell alcohol, of course in the name of the kindergarten bill
(“Keno-Garten”). If you want to see the new law, it can be found
buried within NH RSA 284 (Horse and Dog Racing) 41-51.
Agency
staff is soliciting municipalities to get on board. We citizens will
be posed with the question at Town Meeting, do we want to allow such
“gaming” in our community. I would urge you to vote no on this
article in March. According to the North American Foundation for
Gambling Addiction, the U.S.A is in the top list of countries, where
a huge part of the population (2.6% or almost 10 million people) has
an addiction problem because of gambling. Overall, compulsive
betting behavior costs about 6 billion dollars per year for U.S.
economics. We have an overabundance of poverty, addiction and other
domestic issues we are continually working to overcome in
Pittsfield. Why add insult to injury? The end will never justify the
means and will probably end up costing us more money in the long run
for intervention programs.
“A man
with an evil eye hastens after riches, And does not consider that
poverty will come upon him.” Proverbs 28:22
Respectfully,
Linda
Small
Pittsfield
Letter To The Editor
Time to
Pay the Piper
We are
now an SB2 town, along with many others in our state. So now what?
Well
it’s not that complicated. It is a form of town meeting that has two
sessions instead of the one. Session 1 is a discussion, debate,
explain and amend the articles meeting. Session 2 following 30 days
later is the time to vote on the official ballot. All registered
voters may vote.
Voting
takes place from 7AM to 7PM or by absentee ballot at the town hall.
The 30 days gives time to learn about the issues so voting can be
done in an informed way. And voting is done in the privacy of the
voting booth. Hope you can make both sessions!
Sharon
Matras
From the Farm - Shivering Calf
Submitted By Carole Soule
My
fingers hurt. The plastic wrap on the hay bale was frozen and so
were my fingers. Bruce got out of the Bobcat to help me, the
one-woman ground crew, release the bale from its wrap and feed it
out to the cattle. We were on day six of the arctic blast and the
cattle needed food, lots of food.
Besides
food, livestock need water to survive cold temperatures so when we
aren’t feeding we’re checking water. When the temperatures stay
frigid for so long even water heaters won’t work. We have to check
four troughs at least three times a day and sometimes heat the water
with a kerosene heater I call the “Salamander” after breaking up the
ice.
Cattle
can freeze too. I brought one shivering steer named Xander into the
barn away from the wind where I duck-taped a wool horse blanket on
him. Wool keeps livestock (and people) warm and wicks away moisture
but despite these efforts, his temperature plummeted to 97.5; it
should have been 102. Relief came when, for two hours, we heated him
with the “Salamander,” the torpedo heater. His internal temperature
finally rose to 103.2, an acceptable level, but I’ll continue to
watch him. I check all the cattle every day, but mostly the young
stock, for shivering. If a calf is shivering it needs help. Adult
cattle with plenty of food and water can handle the cold, but I
still check them for shivering or odd behavior. Cows that don’t show
interest in food or separate themselves from the herd can be in
trouble even if they are not shivering. Snow cover on a cow
indicates that animal is well insulated and protected from the
weather.
So far,
except for Xander, all the cattle are coping with the cold but we’ll
all be grateful for a heat wave. I’m ready for 20-degree weather,
are you?
Carole
Soule is co-owner of Miles Smith Farm, in Loudon, NH, where she
raises and sells beef, pork, lamb, eggs and other local products.
She can be reached at [email protected].
Cara
Marston, Pittsfield Town Administrator accepted an Eversource rebate
check in the amount of $13,900 from Randy Perkins and Donna Keeley
of Eversource Energy. The rebate is the result of the town’s
recently completed LED street light conversion, a project that was
approved by the voters in 2016 and will save the town upwards of
$9,000 annually on their energy costs.
Become a 4-H Mentor!
Youth
Ages 10-14 Need You
To grow
into healthy adults young people need positive adults in their
lives. They need someone to trust and someone who trusts them.
Someone like you. New Hampshire 4-H seeks mentors for Youth and
Family with Promise, our new initiative to connect adults with youth
for meaningful, positive experiences.
Can you
commit to one hour per week of mentoring? Let’s talk! Contact Laurie
Field at 603-796-2151 or by email at
[email protected] to
discuss how becoming a mentor will benefit youth in your community.
Learn more at:
www.extension.unh.edu/YFP
Pittsfield School District Proposed Budget for 2018-2019
Submitted By John Freeman, Superintendent of Schools
The
Pittsfield School District proposed budget for the 2018-2019 school
year reflects an increase of $517,461 and increases from the current
year budget of $10,105,763 to $10,623,224 (an estimated tax rate
increase of $1.50/thousand). While this is a greater than
usual Pittsfield single-year increase, the ten-year increase (since
2008-2009) has been about 7%, or about half the rate of inflation.
The proposed budget includes no new programs or services to
students.
Additional expenses in this proposed budget over the current year
budget include the reinstitution of a behavior support position, the
addition of a student assistance program (drug and alcohol)
counselor, the replacement of two and a half positions back into the
budget that are grant-funded this year (all had previously been
district-funded), increased special education costs, technology
equipment replacement, and modest salary increases for non-union
employees.
Savings
in this proposed budget over the current year budget include
electricity and oil savings due to energy efficiency measures and
changes in suppliers, the elimination of one administrative
position, the elimination of the school resource officer position,
the hiring of three teachers to replace nine support staff
positions, the replacement of health insurance plans in favor of a
less-expensive plan, and the increase of the employee contributions
to health insurance plans.
The
district has also developed a default budget, which is the budget
that would be adopted if the proposed budget were to be rejected by
voters. The default budget is intended to mirror the current
year budget with certain allowable increases that include contracts
and other obligations incurred or mandated by law.
The
default budget reflects an increase of $96,756, or an increase from
the current year budget of $10,105,763 to $10,202,519 (an estimated
tax rate increase of $.37/thousand). Adoption of the default
budget would effect a reduction of $420,705 from the proposed
budget, 4% of the total proposed budget.
Additionally, the warrant will include a proposed new collective
bargaining agreement between the district and the teacher bargaining
unit. The proposal represents a one-year agreement that will
cost an estimated $99,885 (or an estimated tax rate increase of
$.38/thousand). Terms include a salary guide increase of 1.5%,
the replacement of health insurance plans in favor of a
less-expensive plan, and the increase of the employee contribution
to health insurance plans.
In the
larger picture, Pittsfield’s annual funding struggles and conflicts
reflect inequities built into the state’s school funding scheme that
disadvantage property-poor towns and school districts.
Although our Supreme Court mandated that the legislature fix this
system back in the 1990’s, there has been no fix; voters might be
interested in the non-partisan report on this critical issue at:
http://www.nhpolicy.org/report/education-finance-in-new-hampshire-headed-to-a-rural-crisis. The
legislature may exacerbate this local funding crisis with the
tuition bill now under consideration in Concord:
https://reachinghighernh.org/2017/12/06/reaching-higher-nh-study-sb-193-finds-disproportionate-impact-cities-property-poor-districts/
Voters
are strongly encouraged to join the deliberative session of the
annual school district meeting at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday, February 8,
at the Pittsfield Elementary School for explanation, discussion,
debate, and amendments to the proposed operating budget and warrant
articles.
Obituaries
Craig
“Stubby” St. Laurent
Craig
“Stubby” St. Laurent passed away unexpectedly Wed., Jan. 10 at
Concord Hospital with his family by his side.
Born
with congenital heart disease on March 29, 1969, he was a Pittsield
native and life long resident of Dowboro Rd., South Pittsfield. He
graduated from Pittsfield High in 1989 where he received the Richard
Brooks Memorial Award.
Craig
survived several heart operations from birth on, but he could not be
kept down. He led a full rich life and was cherished by his friends
and family to whom he gave as much or more than he received.
An avid
ox teamster and devoted spectator of both ox and horse pulling
contests at fairs throughout New England, Stub was a fixture in the
cattle and horse barns where he felt more at home than anywhere. His
prescence was enjoyed by countless competitors which were his
extended family. During the winter he loved watching tapes of the
past years pulling contests and talking on the phone with friends.
Once in a while he’d squeeze in a John Wayne tape.
At home
Craig had a flourishing pig business, raising and selling hogs, and
he took great care of the many broods of piglets that were born in
his barn. Animals and people were his joy and his life was full on
both counts.
Craig
leaves his mother, Pam St. Laurent, his father, Raymond St. Laurent,
aunts, Loretta Emerson, Jean Brown, and Virgie Locke, and uncle
Arthur St. Laurent, all of Pittsfield; little brother, Daniel, and
wife, Linda, nephew, Dan Jr., and niece, Diana St. Laurent, and
aunt, Sylvia Locke, all of Barnstead; aunt, Muriel Warburton, of
Gilmanton; uncle, Dale St. Laurent, of Chichester, and many cousins
in Barnstead, Loudon, Concord, Manchester and North Haverhill, NH.
He was
predeceased by his maternal grandparents Ralph and Ruth Emerson, of
Barnstead and his paternal grandparents Edgar and Betty St. Laurent
of Pittsfield, to whom he was a devoted caregiver for many years.
A
celebration of Craig’s life will be held Sat., Jan. 20 at the
Pittsfield High School auditorium, 23 Oneida St. Pittsfield, 03263
between 1 and 4 PM. Craig’s friends from far and wide are welcome at
this informal gathering to do what he loved best- reminisce with
friends.
Donations can be made in his name to Boston Children’s Hospital,
Dept. of Cardiology- Michael Landzberg, MD, 300 Longwood Av.,
Boston, Ma. 02115
Arrangements by Still Oaks Funeral Home, Epsom. Condolences can be
expressed at www.stilloaks.com.
James
Elliott Derosier Sr.
PITTSFIELD - James Elliott Derosier Sr., 71, of Pittsfield, NH
passed away Saturday, January 6, 2018. He was born in Concord
and lived in Pittsfield for over 40 years. He worked as a meat
cutter in the Concord area for 30 years and was an evening manager
for Bell Brothers Convenience Store for over 20 years.
He was
involved in the Pittsfield Youth Baseball Association for several
years. An avid animal lover he enjoyed taking his dogs for
long rides in his truck. Fishing was a hobby for years.
He liked to spend time working around the house and being with his
family.
Members
of his family include his wife of 53 years, Susan; his children,
James Derosier, Jr. and his wife, Stephanie of Belmont, Darlene
Conte of Penacook; Lisa Clark and her husband, Kevin of Pittsfield;
James Thomas Derosier and his wife, Jessica of Epping and Crystal
Hutchinson of Vermont; a sister, Nancy Young and husband, Alan of
FL; 16 grandchildren and 3 great-grandchildren.
James
was predeceased by a brother, Dale Derosier and a sister, Sally
Jellerson.
A
graveside service will be held in the spring at the convenience of
the family.
In lieu
of flowers memorial contributions may be made to the Pope Memorial
SPCA in Concord, NH.
Arrangements are entrusted to the Bennett Funeral Home of Concord.
Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at
https://www.BennettFuneral.com
for the Derosier family.
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