REMINDER
The Pittsfield High School Class Of 1966 50th Class Reunion
will be held in the Pittsfield Congregational Church vestry on
July 23rd from 3-6 p.m. Light refreshments will be served. If
you can attend call Pete Riel at 603-269-8861.
The Northwood Parent Cooperative Preschool (The Center School)
has openings for this fall. We also have exciting changes
happening! We have two new teachers, Ms. Danielle and Ms.
Kelley, starting this fall and extended hours! Please check out
our website
www.northwoodcenterschool.com for information about tuition,
curriculum, our new hours and to access our registration packet.
We also invite everyone interested in
information about The Center School to come by our booth at The
Bean Hole Bash, Saturday July 30th at the Northwood
Congregational Church next to CBNA. We hope to see you there!
Saturday
June 25
8 am – 1:30 pm
The Northwood Congregational Church is
having their annual Strawberry Festival with pancake breakfast,
lunch on the grill and lots of baked goods.
Huge yard sale under the tent and
tours of the church.
Sunday June 29
9am
Sanctuary Dedication and Worship
The Northwood Congregational Church is
holding a sanctuary dedication to celebrate the rehabilitation
of the church.
Letter To The Editor
The recent letter included in our tax bill got me interested in
looking at the comparative numbers between towns in NH. I
did an analysis of total valuations, tax rates, and money raised
for town education based on the 2015 numbers published by NH
Department of Revenue at
http://revenue.nh.gov/mun-prop/municipal/documents/15-final-tax-rates.pdf.
What I found is that the average local education tax rate for
incorporated towns and cities is $12.13 per $1000 valuation.
Northwood’s local education rate is $16.34 per $1000, which is
35% higher than the average incorporated town (not 40%),
however, Northwood’s total assessed valuation of $452,652,316 is
approximately 29% lower than the average town’s valuation (which
is $636,175,127). This means that Northwood raises
$7,396,338 in taxes for local education (which, at 635 students,
is about $11,650 per student). The average town raises
$7,715,553, which means that Northwood’s total taxes raised for
local education are actually 4% less than the town average.
What does this all mean? Honestly, not much, in my
opinion. Towns are all very different with differing
valuations, populations distributions, numbers of students, and
other extenuating circumstances (special education costs, school
bond payments, etc.). Comparing towns based on raw numbers
is not a very useful exercise, but if one chooses to do so using
accurate numbers, one finds that Northwood, other than having a
low assessed valuation number, is in-line with (and actually a
bit lower) than the average NH town when it comes to the local
funding of education.
I understand these numbers are a bit different than what has
been published in other letters and included in the tax bill,
but I encourage everyone to look at the actual data and I’d be
happy to walk you through the methodology used to come up with
these numbers. I hope you find this useful.
Respectfully,
Keith McGuigan
The Northwood Astros Minors team won
the BYA League Championship led by coaches Brett Heppler and
Peter Heigis.
Letter To The Editor
I was appalled at the letter accusing
Joe Gunter of sending out “anti-education propaganda.” I, as
well as others in town, am thrilled with the informative chart
that came with our tax bills. It’s a much needed accurate visual
that shows where our money is going.
That document shows where tax money is
being spent. Comparing it to any other town is irrelevant. When
I do my home budget, I do not compare it to my neighbor’s
budget, that would be silly. Every town, just like every
household, has a certain income and budget they must stay
within. Justifying spending more because your neighbor is, is
irresponsible. There are things we cannot afford.
We have people struggling to keep
their homes and to keep food on the table. Our food pantry is a
very busy place and some of our townspeople depend on it. They
cannot afford their taxes to go up, they will lose their homes.
Do you have any idea how much food could have been bought for
the food pantry with the $300 per bat that was spent at our
school?? We need to spend responsibly with our townspeople and
budget in mind.
I remember seeing a post online, after
the full time kindergarten warrant article passed, that accused
our townspeople of being too cheap and that the state of NH
needed to make it mandatory so that our townspeople would be
forced to pay for it. After reading that post, I thought how
selfish and sad that one of my neighbors cared so little about
the people in our town who could not afford that tax hike, yet
be forced to choose between paying it and putting food on the
table or worse, losing their home.
Cheryl Dean
Chesley Memorial Library Summer Reading Programs
We have four
different summer reading programs, one for every age!
Registration begins on Wednesday, June 22, this year.
Summer reading programs will end on August 3 and all
participants will be invited to a party to celebrate. If
you need more information about any of the programs listed
below, check our web site at www.chesleylib.com or
call us at 942-5472.
Exercise Your Mind. Read! (adults)
Even grown-ups read over the summer, so why not join the fun?
Just register at the front desk to get a raffle ticket for
signing up and then fill out a raffle ticket for every book you
read. One lucky reader will win a gift assortment package
at the end of the program…it’s that easy!
On Your Mark, Get Set…Read (grades 1-5)/Get In the Game – Read
(Grades 6+) We are combining the youth and teen summer reading
programs this summer for your convenience. Participants
can join Librarian Diane Kizirian on Wednesdays from 1:30-4:00
p.m. or Librarian Regina Planchet from 4:00-6:30 p.m. for
drop-in craft and/or activity sessions. Many of you have
to read for school anyway so why not have some fun while you’re
at it and maybe even earn a prize while you’re at it!
On Your Mark, Get Set…Read! (preschool-K) The single most
important thing you can do to prepare your children to read is
to read to them every day. Reading to children will increase
their vocabulary and their listening and narrative skills. Join
Librarian Annette Blake for simple craft sessions on Wednesdays
from 10:30 am-12:30 p.m. and pick out books you can enjoy
together at the same time. As an added bonus, the books
you read this summer count towards “1,000 Books Before
Kindergarten” if you are enrolled in that program; just ask us
for details if you would like to sign up.
Letter To The Editor
Northwood School Finances
As a former NH State of Board of
Education certified school business administrator, I wanted to
respond to some of the recent comments made by Northwood school
board members regarding school finances.
Within the NH Department of Revenue
Administration (NH-DRA) is an equalization bureau which
equalizes the assessed values for all municipalities annually to
bring them to 100% of market value. This process includes
compiling assessment data, conducting ratio studies and
preparing statistical reports.
The most common denominator used by
the NH-DRA is a comparison of “full value tax rates” to
determine what municipalities are paying in property taxes.
According to them the full value tax
rate represents the estimated tax rate for a municipality if all
the taxable property was assessed at 100%. Their full value tax
rates are ranked in ascending order from lowest to highest.
However, the full value tax rate can only be used to make a
limited comparison of what a property in one municipality would
pay for taxes to a property of equal value in another
municipality.
The last tax year currently available
from the NH-DRA to make this comparison is 2015. Northwood’s
total 2015 full-value tax rate was $23.73. This compares to
Nottingham which was at $20.67. This would make Northwood tax
rate 15% higher than Nottingham’s. Strafford’s rate was $21.60
or 10% lower than Northwood.
However, having said all of that, the
most cost-effective avenue available to the Northwood school
board is for them to put funds aside and to authorize a
financial performance audit to be completed on their K-8 regular
education programs. With 100 less students in K-8 when compared
to Nottingham, there are no valid reasons for them to be
spending hundreds of thousands of dollars more than Nottingham
on education.
Jim Hadley
Northwood
Northwood Congregational Church Serves God Through Service To
Others
The Church with a Heart is putting its words into action
with boots on the ground! Northwood Congregational Church, UCC
hereby announces its “Service” service, and we invite you to
join us. What’s a Service service? On every 5th
Sunday of the month, instead of holding a service in the church
sanctuary, we serve others, making our world a bit more of a
sanctuary.
For our first and most recent Service service on May 29th, we
helped a most deserving organization, Families in Transition
(FIT). FIT provides only the most innovative and effective
interventions to help homeless individuals and families exit the
cycle of homelessness. FIT’s building in Manchester is in
an obviously disadvantaged part of town. We made its
exterior cheerier by replacing a weed-ridden island and
plant-bare areas with mulched flower beds, using plants provided
by a church member.
We’d love to have you join us in our next Service service; or
any of them. We gather at 9 a.m. in the parking lot
of the church (Northwood Congregational Church is located
immediately east of Coe-Brown Northwood Academy on the south
side of Route 4). We spend the first few minutes
discussing the project and offering our work to God through a
short service of prayer and song, and then we are off to the
worksite. All are welcome to join us:
scout groups, individuals, families— if you plan to bring
a large group - just contact us at 942-7116 at least two weeks
in advance so we can plan accordingly.
We plan to hold “Service” services on the following dates: July
31, 2016 October 30, 2016, Jan 29, 2017, and April 30, 2017.
We will also post the dates on our website calendar, found
online at
http://www.northwoodcongregationalchurchucc.com
Looking for another opportunity to
serve:
Northwood Congregational Church offers a free soup lunch to the
community every Thursday from 11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.
Please stop by, say hello, and roll up your sleeves.
This Weekend’s LRPA After Dark
Feature:
1947’s “Angel And The Badman”
Join Lakes Region Public Access
Television at 10:30 p.m. this Friday and Saturday night (June 24
& 25) for our “LRPA After Dark” presentation of 1947’s’ romantic
western melodrama “Angel and the Badman, starring The Duke
himself, John Wayne, as well as Gail Russell and Harry Carey.
“Angel and the Badman” tells the tale
of Quirt Evans (Wayne), an infamous gunslinger who’s been
wounded and is on the run. He winds up at a farm run by a Quaker
family, where he collapses from fatigue. Quirt is taken in and
nursed by the family, particularly their lovely daughter
Penelope (Russell). As Quirt regains his strength, he is slowly
drawn to the family’s peaceable ways, and he and Penelope begin
to fall in love. When men from Quirt’s troubled past come
seeking vengeance against him, will he choose violence, or will
he find another way to confront them?
John Wayne was not only the star of
“Angel and the Badman,” but was also its producer. After having
been a contract player at Republic Studios for eight years, he
flexed his desire to have more artistic control over his films
and roles, and “Angel and the Badman” was the result. Although
not wildly popular with audiences of its day, it was a hit with
the critics. Variety called it “…solid entertainment way above
what might be expected from its western locale and characters,
and loaded with sharp performances.” The years have been kind to
this film, and many Wayne fans consider it to be one of his
finest performances. Will you agree? Grab your popcorn and join
LRPA after dark for this wonderful romantic western.
You can’t find television like this it anywhere but LRPA TV,
MetroCast Channel 25. Not a subscriber? Then log onto Live
Stream through our website (www.lrpa.org) where you
can catch all the fun.
Obituaries
Henry Suchomski
Northwood – Mr. Henry Suchomski, 93,
passed away Friday, June 10, 2016 at the Concord Hospital after
a period of failing health.
Born in Poland on February 12, 1923, Henry grew up there and
worked as a policeman and tailor. He was also a member of
the Polish Army. He immigrated to the United States in
1950 and lived in South Boston, working as a sausage maker.
When he moved to New Hampshire, he lived in Chichester, where he
owned and operated a dairy farm for over 8 years. When he
retired, Henry had been employed by the Seth Thomas Company,
making grandfather clocks. He later lived in Epsom for 10
years, until he and his wife retired to their summer home in
Northwood, where they have been for the past 25 years.
Henry was a man of many talents. He loved his family above
all else and animals, especially his little dog Spotty.
Members of his family include his wife
of 68 years, Agnes (Tomczyk) Suchomski of Northwood; children,
Barbara Kaffel and Henry Suchomski, Jr., both of Northwood; 4
grandchildren; and 3 great grandchildren. Henry was predeceased
by his siblings and his son, Richard.
A Mass of Christian Burial was
celebrated Wednesday, June 15, at St. Joseph Church in
Northwood.
An on-line guestbook is available at
stilloaks.com