Downtown Parking Meters

Does Derry need downtown parking meters??
What would be the benefits? The downside?

This was a question asked at a forum for council candidates recently and the questions and answers need to be looked at.

My response: NO. I was the only one who was against this idea. Some said yes, others gave the fluff answers: ( we should look into it. )

I suppose we can make an argument that it would bring in revenues, especially now with a tight budget upcoming.
It would also free up some time for the patrol officers who are using the white chalk on the tire routine to check for parking problems

However, I said no for a couple of reasons. The town has done 2 parking studies recently ( 1 no/cost to town) and found that there is plenty of parking- Problem is nobody wants to walk- we all want front row parking. It's true we need to do a better job with lighting and sidewalk issues to these municipal parking areas.

But more important! if economic development is key to lowering taxes then I believe it would be a Hugh mistake to put meters in the downtown. at least for now while we need to make it more attractive for both businesses and shoppers. It would be nice to park the car and walk to multiple shops without digging in my pockets for loose change or worse yet, swipping a credit card through!

What do you think? I'm interested in what you have to say?

Economic Development Race

After reading this mornings paper and reading an online article about Economic Development we are in a race with other communities.

The candidates in Londonderry's council race spoke about it and were surprised it didn't get more discussion. Seems like it is and will be in the forefront of Londonderry issues.

In Hudson, the news was about a mall that would match the largest mall in the United States in Minneapolis. It also includes office space and over 200 55+ homes all near the Pelham town line ( Pelham is concerned about traffic impacts)

Raymond is looking at doing a major project at exit 4 off of Rte 101 and looks like major retailers.

In Derry, we must be prepared to compete and best be prepared to put away the negativity and start working with each other to move forward in this town.

Its very disheartening to see that the Derry Taxpayers Assoc is against exit 4A and what this project means for our future. Not only does it take traffic off of our downtown area, it will also open up some industrial land.

We need to get focus on our downtown area. We are looking at doing a charette to help identify what we want to see and how to bring business and re-development to it. This is a good start. We need to establish a main st type group again and get vested business owners involved again.

TIF district needs to get going and bringing in Super Walmart is just the beginning in that stretch of Manchester St and Ashleigh Dr. Walmart acting as an anchor should attract some other big name retailers in as well.

The DEDC has said they are very close to selling the last and largest Ash st lots. with that being done-Derry will be given its last installment $465K from the original agreement. It will then have 4 new industrial buildings paying taxes. By the way, for the TIF detractors, this TIF was scheduled to be done within 11-12years and it actually got done in 4-5yrs.
This is much better than seeing the over 200+ homes that was proposed for this site!

We now must get very serious in bringing water & sewer to Rte 28 from the flea market south to the Windham line. The sooner the better so that we can attract more business here. This has been in the Master Plan and CIP for some time and the blue prints are there- the town must act sooner vs later.

With 93 being widened very soon and with that more people looking to move to NH- it is imperative that we be pro-active in bringing businesses to Derry and if we keep bickering about the little stuff and our eyes are off the prize then it will get scooped up by Londonderry, Hudson or Raymond.

We have only one chance here folks as we get closer to build out of Derry. The choice is ours and yours- Do you want more residential and higher taxes or bring in businesses and try to get tax relief?

Some want the town to go back to that little sleepy town Derry once was but reality tells us we can't fool ourselves- We can't afford to stand still and wait to see what happens.

Positive, pro-active action is what is called for and at a critical time!

Claiming your money

It's been said that politicians only take your money. Well, I want to make sure you get some money. ( of course if it's due to you)

I searched, and was surprised to find that the state has some of your money waiting for you.

Click on this link http://www.nh.gov/treasury/Divisions/APSearch/ and search for your name. I found many names I recognized that were due money. It's yours go claim it!!!!!

P.S. If you have a friend or neighbor that you see on the list, make sure to let them know.

I hope this was a service to you. -Drop me a post and let me know how you made out!!!!

P.S. Even the Coyle and Lund family are due money- See I do care!

Elections March 13th

I'm sure most know by now who is running for town and school boards. Just in case you don't know here is the list:

Councilor-at-large: Frank Mazzachelli, Rick Metts, Paul Hopftgarten

District # 2: Virginia Roach,Brent Carney

Distrcit #4: Joseph Dichiaro , Brian Chirichiello

For School Board: Brenda Willis, Kevin Gordon,Ken Linnehan,Doug Newell, Frank Sapareto

Questions will be: Charter Revision Yes or No
School Budget Yes or Default Budget

Please mark it on your calenders and come out and exercise your right to vote. It only takes 10 minutes of your time and lets hope for a large turnout!

Deal or No Deal

Anyone watching the last council meeting should look real hard at what happened with the walmart agreement and ask some questions. We must go to the beginning of the TIF story so that many can follow along.

The council in a 5-2 Vote, voted to approve a TIF district and bonding for the TIF.
Remember that it was a heated debate from two camps. The speakers filled the room for a public hearing that night and in the end the majority voted to make an Economic Development Move.

The detractors, whom had a common theme came out to A) bash Walmart first and then bash the majority for voting, because they saw nothing in writing from Walmart and that we were trusting them at their word and that was not good enough for them.

Mr Marcoux then proceeded to ask the Walmart reps for something in writing so that the detractors would feel better about the project ( even though they voted against it) and Walmart came back with what I will admit was "boiler plate" agreements which basically said "here you go, here it is in writing that we want to come and build a super center"

Also in the agreement was the fact that WALMART would give us $500K of the 1 MIL that they pledged UPFRONT and as you might expect it had a clause that said for any reason, Walmart does not move forward or lets say planning board did not give them approvals, that they wanted their money back- Does this surprise anyone?? If the project does not go forward-Walmart will not be giving us any money and because they were going to give us $500K upfront to get the project moving, it was subject to them coming to town. ( That's a no brainer folks, Walmart has plenty of money but they don't give it away.)

The next argument was that by signing this contract, Walmart controlled the project and that if they decided not to come they could still tell us what do and when to do it.
Lets think about that for a second. Do you honestly believe that Walmart has nothing better to do and if it does not come to Derry that they would say -Hey just for laughs lets play around awhile and mess with the town of Derry, lets give them a hard time and tie them up for years to come. Come on folks- they got better things to do

So at the meeting, when the naysayers keep picking and picking, they ( Walmart) said "you are the ones who requested something in writing and if you don't like it, don't sign it

Councilor Coyle made the motion to not sign the document and instead use 500K of taxpayers dollars from unreserved fund balance to get the ball rolling.

Is Walmart still coming- I think they are and as reported in a local paper I'm 99.9% sure they will.

Will they give us the 1Mil as promised- Yes the will once everything is in place and agreements are signed

The toughest part to swallow is this: 1) We just went around in a big circle- First the minority wants an agreement and in the end doesn't want an agreement- This cost the town a very valuable 2 months at the very least. We could of started this 2 months ago. ( Waste, I hate waste)

2) Instead of using $500K of Walmart money, we will use $500K of taxpayers money from unreserved fund balance- which by the way is dangerously edging below the state recommended minimum. ( this could effect future bond ratings)

Don't get me wrong here, we need to get the project going right away but all I see right now is Howie Mandell saying deal or no deal and in the briefcase from Walmart was 500K and we told them we don't want that case

Hopefully, we learned a valuable lesson here!

Open Discussion Time

It's time for you to post whatever is on your mind. Whats important to you about our community. What would you like to discuss??Click below to get started" under comment"

Comparing Sister Towns

I thought it would be interesting to compare Derry with our closest border town of Londonderry. Many times we hear people say that Derry will do these things but Londonderry does that and many times we try to compare ourselves to each other so that we can find out which town does things better in different areas.

Now, the first thing that comes to mind is the football rivalry between our two high schools. The fever is so high sometimes, that we have heard of the unpleasantries that sometimes happens at these events. ( it reminds me of the Bruins vs Canadians of the 70's & 80's)

You have heard about this one. Londonderry has a great mix of businesses and that they are lucky enough to have the airport close-by, which helps off-set thier taxes

Derry has a traditional Downtown that has great potential.

Derry wants to grow its town commercially to off-set taxes
Londonderry wants to maintain that quaint New England town feel.

Derry has a unique form of government, a hybrid of a city and town form of government which no other town or city has.
Londonderry has the traditional town official ballot-council form of government.

Now when it comes to outsiders looking at our area we hear Derry getting negative rumblings and Londonderry we hear is the place to move to. Why do you think this is...One reason, I believe is that outsiders have been doing this for years.. you know ...like the Peter and the Wolf story.. it said so much it must be true right????
We need to start talking positively about our town a little bit more.

Let me tell you something folks, If you think the tax cap was the greatest thing since slice bread for the town of Derry you may be right... But I want to tell you a little known secret and give credit to the people who created it, our GMO ( Growth Management Ordinance ) these planners, had the wisdom and foresight and have done a great service for our town in which we owe a large amount of praise. Together the tax cap and GMO have done wonders for Derry.

Now having said that, Its been an uphill battle from the late 80's and early 90's to get where we are today and it's moving in the right direction. Please follow along on this exercise:

Derry's tax rate is $22.15 and Londonderry's is $18.55. Now lets see a tax bill comparison on a $300K home. Derry would be $6645/yr and Londonderry would be..........Don't tell me you said $5565!!!! You did! Well you are wrong it is $6307. I know, your saying, what math is he doing, right!

If, I owned a 300K home in Derry and picked it up and moved it over the line, the same home is $340K. As a matter of fact, depending on what town you moved it to, the value would change. This is not a secret and every professional appraiser knows this.

Are you surprised that there is only a $338/year difference! OK, Lets be fair Londonderry has Kindergarten and trash pick-up for its residents and we don't... but $338 is all that separates us. I have to start to wonder if we had the taxable business values Londonderry has, how much lower taxes we would have compared to them. ( I'll try and get those figures and put them in so we can see that comparison.) and I'm figuring it would cost us about .60 cents on the tax rate to get the kindergarten and trash pick-up service they have. ( I'm trying to compare apples to apples as best I can here for the sake of this exercise)

Folks, we really need to thank our GMO for " closing the gap". The GMO is very interesting ( perhaps boring to some ) and we will go over it in another post- By the way, it is my opinion, that if the charter changes are passed- Say goodbye to our GMO as we know it.. More later on this important topic.
( Londonderry does have a GMO but nothing compared to ours )

I found it interesting that some in Londonderry want to revive an old "taxpayers group"and in the article it states that they are tired of seeing "no voter participation" and want to do something about it. Nobody showed up to their school deliberative session.. nobody!

In Derry, We have had our taxpayers group for at least 16 years as I remember, I mean the names have changed but some of its core people have been there from the beginning. Interestly enough... They want us to change our current form of government to yes you guessed it, increase voter participation....

If we look just over to our neighbors.... we see it's not happening. In fact, It is a true fact that we are not unique in this situation. It is really to bad especially when we live in a democracy and many men in women sacrificed for what we have and our right to vote.