Monday, October 27, 2008

Derry Polling Places

I have had many phone calls asking me where people are suppose to vote in the Upcoming Nov 4Th Election. Just thought people should be aware of the locations because some district polling places have changed.

Voting Hours are 7Am to 8pm on November 4Th 2008

Districts 1 and Districts 3 will be voting at PINKERTON ACADEMY

District 2 Will be voting at Calvary Christian School on East Derry/Hampstead Rd

District 4 Will be voting at Hood Jr High School.

Please make sure you tell everyone you know about where to vote.!!!

Thursday, October 23, 2008

25.53

$25.53

This is your new tax rate Derry. I just received word that the new tax rate is now official and its time to take a look how this will affect you this December tax bill.

I'm told the Avg home that was valued at $300,000 in 2007 is now $267,000. and that with the new values that just came out a few weeks back you will need to do some simple math to see how much more you will pay.

The Average homeowner will go up in taxes by 3.3% over last year. However if you want to see how it will affect you personally you will need to do a little research.

Here is the breakdown of what makes up that $25.53 amount.

Town side services ONLY! $8.81/1000 of value
School side $13.19/1000 of value
State $2.54/1000 of value
County $0.99/1000 of value

And there you have it!

I'm also told that the town lost 10.8% of value from the previous year.

For those of you that thought when values went down that taxes would go down well...
Not so.

To find your homes value go to www.derry.nh.us (towns website) and below you will see new valuations link. This takes you to Vision Appraisal web page. Click on NH and then Derry. Put in the correct criteria and you will see what your home is worth to the town.

Your thoughts are appreciated!!!

Wednesday, October 08, 2008

Fire Contracts approved!

Well last night 3 hour dog and pony show is now history and the firefighters contracts have been approved. After 18 months of negotiations, stall tactics, hard feelings going all around between council members and fire fighters and the long hours and much extra town money being spent frivolously... its now over.

I have been criticized for not speaking much at the meeting and to that I will just say that A) this was a public hearing for concerned citizens and we were there to listen to them.

How do i view this whole process? Well 18 months ago we (as a total group) councilors gave perimeters of what we expected in this up coming contract and as the HR director told us last night, this was accomplished twice in 18 months.
Now I will admit that individual councilors had individual parts of the contract that they were concerned about, including myself, however reading the charter states that no individual councilor shall act alone in creating policy. As a group, we all stated that if we come to the table with a group package under 3.5% we would have a deal. In my business, my word means everything. I don't change negotiations after the fact and try to then leverage an even better deal- That's what lawyers do!
My father who owned a family business taught me one thing.. your only as good as your word. Look someone in the eye, tell them what you expect from them and what they expect from you and keep your word. I did that last night.

Next, let us look at the fact that the first year is a 0% cost of living however they received a lump sum of $860 because this was suppose to be done 18 months ago and there is no retro pay.

Second, this contract dollar wise has been in the budget already passed in March. For anyone who comes up and says gosh, darn now are taxes are going to go through the roof is not being genuine. Remember that we have a tax cap in this town, town side went up .18 cents this year and part of that .18 was this contract. The remainder of the following years will still be UNDER THE TAX CAP. Our charter mandates this!! The ADT and their followers want to scare people, they always have and always will.

Are we going through tough times, yes no doubt.. but to blame the worlds problems on this contract, come on.. Lets be real for once.

At the end of the meeting, I have called for a town wide hiring freeze and that it should take council to break that freeze. I also called for an Overtime freeze town wide as well. These two things could help us in trouble times a hell of alot more than trying to slam our fire dept. And in the end, we must now be ready for the next rounds of future contracts by identifying those areas were we need or feel must be changes, but keep in mind in 2011, with our tax cap, many issues will work themselves out naturally.