New Town Administrator for Derry

With the recent hiring of MRI to begin a search for Derry's new town administrator in the beginning stages, we learn that over 125 applicants have applied. Of the 125 resumes received, it is estimated that 22-25 of those have the skill set and experience for Derry's top job. That is great news for the taxpayers of this town!
The next steps are to get more specifics from the group and to set up committees to begin the vetting process.
Once we get the top 5, the council will have the final decision on who to replace out going administrator Gary Steinhouse.

At its last meeting the council approved extending Gary's contract until October as the process of picking a new TA would take a little longer than originally planned and because of the time frame spent on budgets.

Your thoughts?

Your thoughts on the new council

I'm back! Sorry everyone, I have been very busy and wanted to get back into the blogging. I would like to know what you think of the new council make-up. The 5-2, The super majority.

How about the job Councilor Benson is doing as chairman?

If you have been watching the budgets, how are we as councilors doing with YOUR tax dollars?

BC

Election Results!

Its a sweep! The people of Derry have spoken! All three winners are 4A supporters and TIF supporters. Not only does this mean that the town can move forward, having a 5-2 Council gives the majority a "super majority" and that means we can get some things done for the Town of Derry.

I want to thank everyone in Dist #4 who voted for me. Thank you very much! The opposition brought their "A" team to try and stop me, Ms Fairbanks, Mr Coyle, MS Rose, Mr Cooper and even Doug Newell was seen at Hood most of the day.

But I think at the end of the day the good people of Derry were smart enough to be disgusted with their " smear" campaign.

PS Thats all for now on my blog/diary!!!!!!! See you all next Tuesday night!

Want to hear from someone who knows about 4A?

OK so you want more about 4A Go to the video of the last council meeting. Click on the wording " watch here" and you can fast forward the meeting.. Go to 114:44 to 121:50 and listen to someone who knows whats really going on in this town.

Oh and by the way after viewing the video there...fast forward to 2:27:00 to 2:29:29 to see your councilor at large...you know, the man with the integrity.

Lets get some facts straight on 4A

Seems that the 4 A subject is one that most want to chime in on. After yesterdays Political Connections show many of the candidates had opinions on the subject and felt that there just is not enough information and that leads to wild rumors. Lets take a look at some of them.

I keep hearing Joe DiChario say that something must be done that papers and documents went missing..

Those documents went missing back in 1992. Why? The new mayor at that time was a opponent of 4 A.. Then Mayor was in favor of a Rte 3A. So those documents went missing right after the new mayor took office. Should an investigation take place???? Why not if its not too costly and makes sense after all this time.. But please don't hang this on any council over the last 10 years.

Another rumor is that I or any other councilor would spend millions more on 4A is just an all out lie.. I have stated that after the money the town is obligated for is done not one more dollar would i spend on the project.

And the last rumor is that it would benefit only Londonderry and not Derry. To that one I say that if 4 A were to come to fruition. Derry will have many benefits in that many jobs will be created and some well paid ones i may add. The Londonderry/Derry area will be well known in a wide geographical area and be a thriving economic engine for both towns.

The alternative???? Well I'll let the naysayers answer that one for you. What are there plans for economic development...Nothing they all said they would stand pat. Nothing ventured nothing gained! enjoy your high taxes with them in office!

Who's actually running?

Watching the Kevin and Janet show one would think that Kevin and Janet are running for election. Looks like they feel that the candidates they are backing are not that well known and cant carry their own weight on the issues. Tag team by association I believe the term is called. If that wasn't the most obvious forced feed interview and question and answers session from the candidates anyone has ever seen. Geez.

And then the ADT group are backing Joe DiChario and not the guy who is an actual member of the ADT Al Dimmock....What? They're endorsing a non member over a member? Whats up with that? And Joe DiChario has been to how many meetings lately??? Or is it just that Kevin wants Pastor Joe in so that he will do Kevin's bidding. Interesting.

On top of that Kevin comes out and says that I have no integrity and said it twice. It didn't come out of Joe's mouth but Kevins. See who is really running folks.

Well I got news for you Kevin. You are the biggest hypocrite I've ever seen. You have no integrity! E-mailing a taxpayer who was critical of you and telling her to "shove it" and then volunteering to negotiate on a piece of land that Poor Mr Bonner who was frail and needed to get out of his house for health reasons and then you vote "no" after leading him to believe a deal was done. His house still is on the market after 2 1/2 years. And then You have the nerve to sign off on your own abatement as a councilor and you have the nerve to say I have no integrity???? Look in the mirror Kevin!

In the Running

I just signed up for another run at Dist#4 Councilor. After thinking about this very hard for the last three weeks, I decided to once again run for the Dist 4 seat. I think it will be very important for someone with experience on the budgets to be able to handle a very tough upcoming budget process.
Services will no doubt be effected in the next budget and I plain on using my six years of knowledge to make the least amount of interruptions to core services. We all know the economy is still trying to find its way to some positive news and right now its tough for many. However, people expect certain services in a town our size and I believe I know where we could save some money.

Also, once again, we will need to find a new Town Administrator. I have had the chance to work with 3 Town administrators and 2 acting administrators and so I will be able to help select someone with experience and knowledge in municipal affairs.

I am asking for support of the people who live in District 4. I will need sign locations support so please let me know if I can have your support.

Talking Business

The latest buzz all around town is once again economic development and last night the town council and Derry's state reps got together to see how we can all communicate better to help bring business to our community! The meeting went well and some actions plans came from the meetings that I think will benefit all of us.

Last night I thought about something that hit me while sitting on the planning board while dealing with the Robert Frost Farm issue. You may of read that the planning board was dealing with land surrounding the Robert Frost where some owners wanting to change zoning to Commercial zoning and then the issues of where and what that does to the historical site!

We had many people making a stand but what I did learn was that people from all over the world will come to Derry to see the famous poets old homestead. We should be promoting this in our town a little bit better and getting to those people who do come to stay and spend money in our town!

These are just some of the little things we can be doing to attract business. Sometimes we over think and think too much about the big picture when in fact its these small things that are right in front of us that we are missing.

I'm sure others have good ideas that they want to share and here is a good forum to see what others are thinking and want to share.

March Elections

I want to start by saying Happy New Year to everyone! I'm excited about a optimistic 2010. In the Chinese New Year, Its the year of the tiger! Chinese New Year starts around Feb 14th this year.

So to start off my New Year, I received a Google e-mail alert which came in because the Derry News wrote an article which stated that I had already made my decision NOT to run for Dist 4's Council seat. What I do not understand is that NO one from the Derry News called or e-mailed me to ask if I was running for re-election.

I immediately sent an e-mail to Bill Gilman, editor of the Derry News to tell him how irresponsible he and the paper were to print that without first checking with me. No response back from Mr.Gilman as of this posting.

I will say this.. I have not made up my mind as of yet and will be thinking about it over the next few weeks.. I have in the past said that I believe in term limits and that still holds true, however it doesn't have to be two terms, it could be three.

I will also try and become more active in the blog postings as they once were more frequent in the past and I would like to keep things going in a positive direction as much as possible. I do think that this current council has made strides in being more civil lately and I believe we have been able to get better results for the community. Not that everyone always agrees, however we do get to listen to both sides and think things through better without personal attacks for the most part.

I did also read that Mr.Newell will put his hat into the ring for a council seat this year. I will be interested to hear some of his ideas as to where he thinks the budgets direction we should go in for 2011.

Not sure if Councilor Carney has made up his mind yet if he will be running for re-election or Councilor Metts as well.

I would like to hear from you who you would like to see run for council. Anyone??