Time for a Change!

Three years ago today, two new faces to town politics came into the political picture seeking a change. The incumbents at the time were two people who had many years experience at that time and were two well known politicians.

Those two new comers were Kevin Coyle and Janet Fairbanks. Both ran on a pro-economic development platform and both said it was important to bring businesses into town to help offset the residential/commercial/industrial mix that was keeping the town side taxes high. Both Coyle and Fairbanks won there seats as "fresh faces" that would bring "fresh ideas" to the town and that they did..
However, Lets examine what either of these councilors have done to bring in the promised economic development into town.

I can't think of one thing that helped bring in business can you?? I can tell you that both fought very hard against Walmart coming in. Both fought hard and waged a battle with the DEDC at that time. Both making it well known they did not like the DEDC at all and was instrumental in pushing them out the door. They both thought the the Ash St Development was a failure, when in fact, just recently our finance director, who's dept has won many awards and regarded as a top notch dept recently said in his financials that in fact the Ash St development was a big success.. Who do you want to believe??? I'll take the experts opinion.

Now lets talk about what the two councilors did approve in their three years.
Mr. Coyle's motion to spend $500,000 on engineering work for Rte 28 near Folsom Rd and the Londonderry line. That's 1/2 a million spent and he will tell you that he is against a TIFF district to attract new business. Ms Fairbanks? Is she for the TIFF? Doubt it.
Then we have the Quid pro qua deal that Kevin has admitted was such a deal, arranged with others beforehand, where they purchased downtown land ( old oil property) in exchange for the council to take $225k of your tax dollars for a 2 mile pavement of bike path. $225k in a bad economy? What were they thinking. The spent 500K in short order.

And then we have the 80K (whoops, I mean 125K) Manning Street extent ion when the engineering firm who did the study said it was a waste of money.. Kevin & Janet still voted in favor. Do we see a pattern here?? They know better than the experts.

Its interesting that both are running this year on a "I'll be the taxpayers protectors" platform when both spent money foolishly. Both have to understand that even if re-elected they can not muster other councilors support and therefore next year would be a continuation of this year. As Kevin stated in a meeting not to long ago " This council has accomplished nothing"

Both Kevin and Janet supported bringing in a economic development director in house at a cost of $100K year for the last two years... What did we get for that money?? In fact Kevin said in public that it was a mistake.

Folks it time for a change. Please look at the backgrounds of Joel Olbricht and Maureen Heard against the two incumbent and after reading them tell me its not time for a fresh change. Tell me its not time to get some "expertise" for the town at the council level.

We need change and a team effort to get things going in the right direction. We don't need stagnation in bad times...Please support Olbricht and Heard as the next councilor at large and Dist #1 councilor.

Open Forum II

More open forum for all to make some of the post following a little bit easier.

Please leave a message!

Open Forum

Lets open it up to anything you want to talk about?

Will KC and JF run for their seats on the city council? And who else may run?

How will the 0% upcoming budget effect town services? your thoughts?

Or anything else that is on your mind. Lets hear it.

Real Estate Bubble and more.

If you have a chance to see this video. It about sums it up on the ecomomy the last few years. Take a look at it and then come back and share your comments.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNmcf4Y3lGM

40,000

Just wanted to thank the many visitors to Derry NH Politics Blog! It reached its 40,000 visitor mark a couple of days ago and its because of people like you it has found staying power.
There have been other blogs that have started and then have stopped for various reasons and I can tell you first hand that maintaining and keeping a blog going is not a very easy thing to do. I appreciate all the comments that come in and I post 99% of what you send ( the other 1 % I do not dare put in )and again would like to thank you for using these mediums.

If you have any ideas that may make improvements, please pass them along.

Thanks Again!

Take back the money

This post will make some people very upset and I can fully appreciate that fact because of all their hard work and great effort into getting the Town of Derry a bike path that would connect with the town of Windham's'.
However we are in an economy like no other and with the last couple of town council meetings discussions talking about possible lay-offs, hiring freezes and freezes in overtime as well as a demand of our town administrator to come in with a 0% increase, how can we in good conscience spend $225,000 on a bike path at this time?
It just does not make sense does it???
I would not want the efforts of the bike path committee and the hard work in raising the other money go unnoticed either, however it can wait until the economy is much better don't you agree.

The right thing to do here is for the council to rescind the vote that gave them the $225,000 and use this money to lower the taxpayers tax rate for next year. Could you just imagine that the town administrator comes in at 0% tax increase for next year and then we use the $225,000 to actually LOWER THE TAX RATE.
What are your thoughts on this! agree? disagree? and tell us why!

Derry's major ice storm

Another unforgettable major storm has made it's impression on all of us here in Derry. This one ranks right up there with the "blizzard of 78".

I would like to thank our Emergency Operations Center for performing an outstanding job and they are still at it as this blog is being written. This storm was devastating with knocking down trees and power lines snapping. Frigid temps and lack of electricity made for rough days and nights as people were scrambling to stay warm and get to the basic necessities such as food and water.

In some spots, it looked like a war zone. Warner Hill, English Range road and Windham road. In this blog, I would like to hear from you how this storm effected your life. How did you cope, and what you will do to prepare yourself for future storms.

If you have picture you would like to share, please send them along as well.