I 've seen this same story over and over, many times in newspapers and on television about someone with multiple DWI charges being caught once again Driving while under the influence. I'm always saying to myself when are the laws going to be tough enough before someone goes out and kills someone. Well today we learn that both the drunk driver and the person who almost got killed were both from Derry.
How in the world, in this day and age do we as a society give people who have lose their licence, a licence to go out and act irresponsibly and maybe kill a person today, or maybe a family enjoying a vacation. This is ludicrous.
One of our boys in blue is very lucky to be alive today! We pray for his quick and speedy recovery.
Officer Robert Moore was on special detail in windham were he was directing traffic on Rte 28 close by to Rte 111 when he was struck. The reports say he slipped in and out of conscioness and he was med-flighted to a Boston hospital were he is recovering.
As for the fate of the drunk driver- we must make sure she is not able to get behind the wheel of a vehicle again. Remember driving is not a right it is a privileged and when you abuse the privilege and endangers other lives, the laws should be strengthened to make sure this kind of thing does not happen again.
What are your thoughts?
Thursday, July 26, 2007
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Being Criticized
Going into my fourth year as a town councilor, I realize that you can not make everyone happy. I have taken my fair share of criticism and tried to learn from it. Could I have done things better or should I have voted a different way on some votes, perhaps.
Ah but politics are not always easy and many times hard decisions must be made. I knew this running for re-election and accepted the fact that people will disagree or not like the way I vote or the way I handle some issues.
Recently, I have been criticized for my comments about the "MET" closing it's door. The "MET" as many know is the children's museum that is located in the downtown.
It has been reported that lack of funds has set them back and they are unable to pay their rent and bills and are forced to close their doors.
I want to first say that I wish that they could stay and they are an asset to the downtown and community, in fact when they first started in Londonderry, my oldest daughter at the age of six enjoyed the many activities they had to offer. When we first learned that were moving to Derry, everyone embraced them and helped support them in their new surroundings. This is what a community should do.
Now, I first learned that they were closing their doors from a news reporter just last week. I had no idea what they were paying for rent, if they were late paying rent or anything like that-nor did i expect to know the private details between the private non-profit or the private holding LLC company.
Now I get criticized because my comments when asked about the MET closing was it would have a ripple effect- some businesses come and some go. And so I get slammed by two letters for being insensitive and one for not being pro-active in trying to save the museum. In fact, a comparison to Dover and Dover's mayor was made and naming me the past chairman for the previous year as the bad guy.
At no time, when i was chairman or even the last six months as a councilor had anyone from the MET come to me or any councilor and ask for any help ( we just finished budgets and no one came looking for town dollars) I am not saying I would of voted or not to give taxpayer money, I am saying I knew nothing till the very last minute. My comments were also taken out of context. I merely stated i felt bad, however I choose to look at the bright side of things and said something else would come in. Just because i choose not to start pointing fingers or using the closing to bad mouth the DEDC doesn't mean I'm disappointed they are leaving!
In fact, being a business owner myself and growing up in a small family business, I know full well that its tough being a small business owner and many times venture fail. That's America! The beauty of it is that people can start all over again. That's what i meant from my comments in the paper, not that I don't care I do. But just like in nature, the fit survive.
Also I do not believe that government is here to subsidy private businesses.
And to compare Derry to Dover is two different entities. I think before anyone starts talking about using taxpayers money to help private businesses we need to see Derry's tax rates come down!
What are your thoughts about the MET closing?
Ah but politics are not always easy and many times hard decisions must be made. I knew this running for re-election and accepted the fact that people will disagree or not like the way I vote or the way I handle some issues.
Recently, I have been criticized for my comments about the "MET" closing it's door. The "MET" as many know is the children's museum that is located in the downtown.
It has been reported that lack of funds has set them back and they are unable to pay their rent and bills and are forced to close their doors.
I want to first say that I wish that they could stay and they are an asset to the downtown and community, in fact when they first started in Londonderry, my oldest daughter at the age of six enjoyed the many activities they had to offer. When we first learned that were moving to Derry, everyone embraced them and helped support them in their new surroundings. This is what a community should do.
Now, I first learned that they were closing their doors from a news reporter just last week. I had no idea what they were paying for rent, if they were late paying rent or anything like that-nor did i expect to know the private details between the private non-profit or the private holding LLC company.
Now I get criticized because my comments when asked about the MET closing was it would have a ripple effect- some businesses come and some go. And so I get slammed by two letters for being insensitive and one for not being pro-active in trying to save the museum. In fact, a comparison to Dover and Dover's mayor was made and naming me the past chairman for the previous year as the bad guy.
At no time, when i was chairman or even the last six months as a councilor had anyone from the MET come to me or any councilor and ask for any help ( we just finished budgets and no one came looking for town dollars) I am not saying I would of voted or not to give taxpayer money, I am saying I knew nothing till the very last minute. My comments were also taken out of context. I merely stated i felt bad, however I choose to look at the bright side of things and said something else would come in. Just because i choose not to start pointing fingers or using the closing to bad mouth the DEDC doesn't mean I'm disappointed they are leaving!
In fact, being a business owner myself and growing up in a small family business, I know full well that its tough being a small business owner and many times venture fail. That's America! The beauty of it is that people can start all over again. That's what i meant from my comments in the paper, not that I don't care I do. But just like in nature, the fit survive.
Also I do not believe that government is here to subsidy private businesses.
And to compare Derry to Dover is two different entities. I think before anyone starts talking about using taxpayers money to help private businesses we need to see Derry's tax rates come down!
What are your thoughts about the MET closing?
Poll results
The poll results are in.
The Question: should the town build a new recreation facility?
Blog readers voted this way
NO=28 votes
Yes=12 Votes
Thank you for those who participated.
The Question: should the town build a new recreation facility?
Blog readers voted this way
NO=28 votes
Yes=12 Votes
Thank you for those who participated.
Friday, July 20, 2007
The DOT Band-aid approach
I just don't understand the logic behind the DOT's massive scale down of the highway project on Rte 93. We have collectively been strategizing regionally for the widening of I93 from 2 lanes to 4 lanes in both the North and South bound traffic. For years, we have heard that it is important to do for many reasons and mostly because of safety reasons. How many times and how many stories have we heard about traffic deaths on Rte 93. Year after year, the stories get worse. Commuters are jammed in on a daily basis moving from job to home and talk about bumper to bumper, Its not difficult to see how the next set of accidents will be multi-car accidents. 5,10,15 cars at at time. Could you not see in the future a deer running out and someone hitting the brakes during commuter times, Yikes!
Now comes the DOT in their infinitive wisdom, saying we just don't have the money to do the I93 project completely. They want to stop at Windham. So from Salem to Windham they will fix and postpone From Derry/Londonderry and Manchester. Folks does it make sense to postpone the project from the communities with the most populace? Are not the most accidents between Exits 5 and 4 already?
Band-Aid approaches are not the way to go here- We are talking about peoples lives, and livelihood's. The "gateway into NH" if you will. The DOT should stay the course of doing the whole 93 project, today and lets find a way to make it a priority!
What are your thoughts??
Now comes the DOT in their infinitive wisdom, saying we just don't have the money to do the I93 project completely. They want to stop at Windham. So from Salem to Windham they will fix and postpone From Derry/Londonderry and Manchester. Folks does it make sense to postpone the project from the communities with the most populace? Are not the most accidents between Exits 5 and 4 already?
Band-Aid approaches are not the way to go here- We are talking about peoples lives, and livelihood's. The "gateway into NH" if you will. The DOT should stay the course of doing the whole 93 project, today and lets find a way to make it a priority!
What are your thoughts??
Thursday, July 12, 2007
Londonderry wants new weapons?
Alright, I know I'll catch some flack for this however it's just too funny to pass up on. In todays UL the Londonderry police are asking for Tazer guns. Why? It'll be kinder and gentler to use on anymore escaped goats! and with less fall-out too...
Council Meeting 7/11
It's been about three weeks from the last meeting and It has been a very nice little break after the March elections and April May budgets and workshops that we had. However the peoples' work never stops and so we had a interesting meeting last Tuesday night.
I will point out that it was interesting to see many of the "frequent attendees" in the audience. especially when it was our new town administrator's first night. A kind of meet and greet the regulars you may say.
The big topic of the evening was the extension of the sewer to shutes corner for the new development ( Gas station, bank, and pharmacy ). In doing so, there will be about 8-10 home owners affected. 4 of them MUST tie into the system because of the age of their present private septic systems. A betterment fee of $5000 was proposed of the cost per homeowner for this service. We did have a homeowner who did not like the fact that he would have to tie in at that cost and was concerned about how to pay for this improvement.
In my question, I asked Tom Carrier how much a replacement leach field/septic system would be without this public sewer improvement. Answer-$7500-$12,000
My thinking was why complain about public sewer at 5K vs replacement private at a larger cost? The homeowner would no doubt improve his home value.
Don't get me wrong I do understand that it can be hard to come up with an extra 5K however the town will do payments ( with interest) but the improvement in home value will be almost instant.
However we get into this subsidy thing the last time we did sewer improvements and swore we would stop this practice- Well not that night- this CAN NOT keep going on like this ( a motion was made to cut the fee to 4K with the rest being subsidised by the rate payers) and I basically caved because i didn't want to jeopardize the commercial project for short money. I won't do it any more though you may hear in the future " YOU DID IT FOR THEM WHY NOT FOR THESE" and quite frankly that will lead us down a very slippery slope.
Also the Well ordinance was re-vamped- I voted for no changes because i believe that buyers of new homes should have the right to test for whatever they want to. why should government tell builders what they must test for. it just adds another layer of bureaucracy. we don't need that do we?
The Police dept was awarded a grant which they will purchase equipment with- That's a good thing.
And then the always entertaining public forum. Mr Benson started the night off with the never ending battle of Manning St. seems like this goes like the energizer bunny it keeps going and going and going. Not to be the only voice on that subject Mr Dimmock spoke in favor of it and then Mr Cooper. Mr Cooper wants all to know that the air quality in the downtown will be gone away once we put Manning st in. Folks, this is the most laughable thing i have seen since being a councilor. If you believe this, I got some great buildable land to sell you in the everglades.. cheap....and who of us thinks that Albert Dimmock is the expert on this subject please speak now.. I mean, who writes this stuff? Funny.
One new face had asked for us to look into a noise ordinance for the town. We will look into that as she has good points as well as others on the subject.
And then council requests- When I brought up the fact that the town could sweep the side walks in the downtown of the trash and cigarette butts, Mr Metts immediately looked at me and said " what about my business, is anyone coming to sweep over at Clam Haven" in a facetious manner.
NO RICK your business is a private business that you need to sweep yourself- the sidewalks of downtown is OWNED BY THE TOWN!- yes it would be nice if the business owners would help out i agree, however by turning the other cheek the sidewalks stay dirty and I for one think using a couple of seasonal workers to sweep for a couple hours is a good investment in our trying to get a vibrant downtown being more attractive. Just my thoughts, what do you think?
I will point out that it was interesting to see many of the "frequent attendees" in the audience. especially when it was our new town administrator's first night. A kind of meet and greet the regulars you may say.
The big topic of the evening was the extension of the sewer to shutes corner for the new development ( Gas station, bank, and pharmacy ). In doing so, there will be about 8-10 home owners affected. 4 of them MUST tie into the system because of the age of their present private septic systems. A betterment fee of $5000 was proposed of the cost per homeowner for this service. We did have a homeowner who did not like the fact that he would have to tie in at that cost and was concerned about how to pay for this improvement.
In my question, I asked Tom Carrier how much a replacement leach field/septic system would be without this public sewer improvement. Answer-$7500-$12,000
My thinking was why complain about public sewer at 5K vs replacement private at a larger cost? The homeowner would no doubt improve his home value.
Don't get me wrong I do understand that it can be hard to come up with an extra 5K however the town will do payments ( with interest) but the improvement in home value will be almost instant.
However we get into this subsidy thing the last time we did sewer improvements and swore we would stop this practice- Well not that night- this CAN NOT keep going on like this ( a motion was made to cut the fee to 4K with the rest being subsidised by the rate payers) and I basically caved because i didn't want to jeopardize the commercial project for short money. I won't do it any more though you may hear in the future " YOU DID IT FOR THEM WHY NOT FOR THESE" and quite frankly that will lead us down a very slippery slope.
Also the Well ordinance was re-vamped- I voted for no changes because i believe that buyers of new homes should have the right to test for whatever they want to. why should government tell builders what they must test for. it just adds another layer of bureaucracy. we don't need that do we?
The Police dept was awarded a grant which they will purchase equipment with- That's a good thing.
And then the always entertaining public forum. Mr Benson started the night off with the never ending battle of Manning St. seems like this goes like the energizer bunny it keeps going and going and going. Not to be the only voice on that subject Mr Dimmock spoke in favor of it and then Mr Cooper. Mr Cooper wants all to know that the air quality in the downtown will be gone away once we put Manning st in. Folks, this is the most laughable thing i have seen since being a councilor. If you believe this, I got some great buildable land to sell you in the everglades.. cheap....and who of us thinks that Albert Dimmock is the expert on this subject please speak now.. I mean, who writes this stuff? Funny.
One new face had asked for us to look into a noise ordinance for the town. We will look into that as she has good points as well as others on the subject.
And then council requests- When I brought up the fact that the town could sweep the side walks in the downtown of the trash and cigarette butts, Mr Metts immediately looked at me and said " what about my business, is anyone coming to sweep over at Clam Haven" in a facetious manner.
NO RICK your business is a private business that you need to sweep yourself- the sidewalks of downtown is OWNED BY THE TOWN!- yes it would be nice if the business owners would help out i agree, however by turning the other cheek the sidewalks stay dirty and I for one think using a couple of seasonal workers to sweep for a couple hours is a good investment in our trying to get a vibrant downtown being more attractive. Just my thoughts, what do you think?
Friday, July 06, 2007
Readers Speak.
The latest poll was. Should the town hire an in house attorney?
And the responses came back 17 NO and 6 Yes. Over a 2-1 margin.
Thanks for voting. Please make sure you vote on this weeks Poll.
And the responses came back 17 NO and 6 Yes. Over a 2-1 margin.
Thanks for voting. Please make sure you vote on this weeks Poll.
Thank-you Dr Moody
It's been a quiet last couple of weeks in Derry Politics. I must admit the "spotlight" has been off of Derry and onto our neighbors instead- reading about the town issues in Londonderry and Chester have kept the newspapers looking over there a little bit more.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank Dr. Moody for filling in as acting town administrator for the last 5 mos or so. He did a great job in my opinion. First he stepped up to the plate and said he would fill the temporary position because he quite simply wants to do whatever he could to help his community! Because he cares about his community.
Why else would someone put off his retirement to come into a "bees nest" in dealing with a town council who at the time was fighting with each other on every opportunity it could. ( It is getting better and Dr. Moody helped it to be so ).
And who else would of went without the benefits, health care, car stipend and all other benefits. You may say he did not need them and I say you may be right but I'm saying any one other than Dr. Moody would of wanted extra money in exchange for those benefits- wouldn't you agree?
Dr Moody also had no background in Town side government but handle the job quickly and efficiently and did a great job at that. Yes, we still are negotiating contracts with the unions and have no agreements as of this post- But Dr. Moody got the parties to come to the table and have a dialog.
The budget was no easy task either but he came through it with no problem.
The reason for his success i believe is that Dr Moody is simply a "people person"
meaning he enjoys people- talking with people-finding solutions with people and that in itself is a great trait to have.
Dr. Moody simply gave his time, effort,and Knowledge for the betterment of his town. And for that I thank him for being someone who cares about his town, the people who live and work here. THANKS JOHN.
PS THANKS JUDY MOODY as well. As she supported John and didn't talk him out of coming in. ( at least to my knowledge anyway.)
Derry has certainly benefited by John stepping up and helping out our town.
When you see him around- make sure you thank him as well.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank Dr. Moody for filling in as acting town administrator for the last 5 mos or so. He did a great job in my opinion. First he stepped up to the plate and said he would fill the temporary position because he quite simply wants to do whatever he could to help his community! Because he cares about his community.
Why else would someone put off his retirement to come into a "bees nest" in dealing with a town council who at the time was fighting with each other on every opportunity it could. ( It is getting better and Dr. Moody helped it to be so ).
And who else would of went without the benefits, health care, car stipend and all other benefits. You may say he did not need them and I say you may be right but I'm saying any one other than Dr. Moody would of wanted extra money in exchange for those benefits- wouldn't you agree?
Dr Moody also had no background in Town side government but handle the job quickly and efficiently and did a great job at that. Yes, we still are negotiating contracts with the unions and have no agreements as of this post- But Dr. Moody got the parties to come to the table and have a dialog.
The budget was no easy task either but he came through it with no problem.
The reason for his success i believe is that Dr Moody is simply a "people person"
meaning he enjoys people- talking with people-finding solutions with people and that in itself is a great trait to have.
Dr. Moody simply gave his time, effort,and Knowledge for the betterment of his town. And for that I thank him for being someone who cares about his town, the people who live and work here. THANKS JOHN.
PS THANKS JUDY MOODY as well. As she supported John and didn't talk him out of coming in. ( at least to my knowledge anyway.)
Derry has certainly benefited by John stepping up and helping out our town.
When you see him around- make sure you thank him as well.
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