There will be a CANDIDATES NIGHT on Tuesday, February 21, at the
Northwood Town Hall. It will begin at 7:00 p.m.
(Snow date: Wednesday, February 22, 7:00 pm) This will be an
opportunity for all voters and interested people to meet those
running for Northwood offices in the March elections. It will be
moderated by former Moderator Robbie Robertson and all
candidates will have an opportunity to speak briefly and answer
questions from the audience. This event is sponsored by
the Friends of the Northwood Libraries and the Harvey Lake
Woman’s Club. Please call the Chesley Memorial Library at
942-5472 if you have any questions.
Congratulations to Emilee Gancarz of Northwood, a member of the
class of 2018 majoring in environmental engineering, who was
among 1,424 students from Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI)
named to the university’s Dean’s List for academic excellence
for the fall 2016 semester.
The
criteria for the WPI Dean’s List differs from most other
universities as WPI does not compute a grade point average
(GPA). Instead, WPI defines the Dean’s List by the amount of
work completed at the A level in courses and projects.
Letter To The Editor
To
the Editor,
Having asked us in three successive years if we
wanted all day kindergarten and clearly have been told a
resounding no, no, and no, on a 3/2 vote, the School Board voted
to hide it, bury it in the budget. Last year 77%, 193/642 said
no to a full-time curriculum director. This year the cost is up
twenty thousand to $111,000 and again the same three dug a
bigger hole to bury it into the budget.
The
NH Constitution, 1784, in Part First-Bill of Rights Article 32
states “and to request of the legislative body, by way of
petition or remonstrance, redress of the wrongs done them.”
A group of concerned aggrieved Northwood citizens have done just
that. There are four petition warrant articles addressing these
two “wrongs.”
At
the recently held public hearing farce there was a discussion
going on about democratic process and the School Board votes. SB
member Hartford went to the microphone and said that “the
democratic process failed.” WOW! Because her
cause did not prevail, the system failed making it OK to
circumvent the democratic process.
Now
is the time for all concerned taxpayers to come to the aid of
their tax rate. Please come to the Northwood School Deliberative
Session and support these four warrant articles. There will be
an effort to change them, further denying the will of the people
and our right to petition the governing body. Monday, Feb. 6th
at 6:30 pm.
The
Grinch,
Tim Jandebeur
Northwood
10th Annual Kid’s Fish ‘N Freeze Ice Fishing Derby
Enjoy a fun time fishing on the ice at Harvey Lake and make
great memories. Kids 15 and under can participate in the event
which will take place on Saturday, February 11 from 8:00-11:00
am. No license is required for ages 15 and younger and this is a
free event for Northwood residents. Parking will be at the
Congregational Church; lunch will be available to purchase at
the church at 11:00 am.
Derby participants can register online at the Northwood website:
northwoodnh.org When you open the Northwood Recreation page
there is a link for the ice fishing derby at the top of the
page. You can sign up and find all the details about the
derby on this page. The event is organized and sponsored by
Northwood Recreation. For further information contact Recreation
Director Sharon DeLuca at
[email protected]
or 942-5586 x 209
Letter To The Editor
Thank you Northwood
School
I
would like to take this opportunity to recognize my 10 year old
son, Cameron Lee, and to thank the Northwood School for helping
Cornerstone VNA raise money for a new initiative called the
Kiddie Cornerstone Fund.
As
the Director of Advancement at Cornerstone VNA, a non-profit
home health and hospice organization, my son took an interest in
the Fund when he heard me talking about it at home. Thanks
to his big heart and desire to make a difference, we received
permission to organize fundraising activities with the school.
On January 20th, the students participated in Pajama Day by
bringing in $1 each, which helped us raise $230 for the Kiddie
Cornerstone Fund!
The
purpose of the Kiddie Cornerstone Fund is to bring smiles to our
pediatric patients to promote hope and healing at home.
Funds will be used to purchase gifts such as stickers, coloring
books and crayons, stuffed animals, bubbles or other items for
our smallest patients, especially those who have a chronic
illness. These gifts are a great way for our pediatric
nurses to ease anxiety and develop positive relationships with
their patients. We will also use the money to help families in
need around the holidays and distribute gas cards as well to
assist with travel expenses to and from the hospital for medical
appointments.
Thank you, once again, to everyone at Northwood School for
supporting the Kiddie Cornerstone Fund at Cornerstone VNA. We
are proud to partner with such a caring community and we’re
looking forward to coordinating additional fundraising
activities in the near future.
Erika Lee
This Weekend’s LRPA After Dark Feature:
1940’s “Santa Fe Trail”
Join Lakes Region Public Access Television at 10:30 p.m. this
Friday and Saturday night (Feb. 3 & 4) for our “LRPA After Dark”
presentation of 1940’s Western melodrama “Santa Fe Trail,”
starring Errol Flynn, Ronald Reagan, Olivia de Havilland and
Raymond Massey.
“Santa Fe Trail” tells the tale of recent West Point graduates
George Custer (Reagan) and Jeb Stuart (Flynn), who, in 1854, are
assigned to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas — the Army’s most dangerous
post. While their original mission was to help secure the
territory as the railroad was built from Missouri to New Mexico,
they get caught up in the conflict between the Army and
abolitionist John Brown (Massey). They also both fall in love
with the beguiling Kit Carson Holliday (de Havilland).
“Santa Fe Trail” has been described as a “Western fantasy movie”
by some critics, as it plays fast and loose with historical
events. In reality, the film’s historical figures did not
graduate together from West Point and were likely not friends,
as Stuart rose through the ranks to become a Confederate
general, while Custer served as a major general in the U.S.
Army. Historical inaccuracies aside, “Santa Fe Trail” remains a
solidly entertaining film, featuring excellent performances by
all of the film’s leads (particularly Flynn and de Havilland,
who starred in nine films together), as well as a notable
supporting cast that includes Alan Hale, Ward Bond and Van
Heflin. The New York Times noted that “Santa Fe Trail” “ … has
about everything that a high-priced horse-opera should have —
hard riding, hard shooting, hard fighting, a bit of hard
drinking and Errol Flynn.” It’s a film not seen very often
television; reason enough to grab your popcorn and join LRPA
after dark for this “horse-opera” from the past.
CBNA Announces Poetry Out Loud Contest
On
Thursday, February 2, 2017, at 6 pm in the Gerrish Gym on the
CBNA campus, twenty Coe-Brown students will participate in this
year’s Coe-Brown Northwood Academy Poetry Out Loud school
contest as part of the Poetry Out Loud National Recitation
Contest, presented in partnership with the NH Arts Council, the
National Endowment for the Arts, and the Poetry Foundation.
This program is part of a national program that encourages high
school students to learn about great poetry through
memorization, performance, and competition. The CBNA winner will
advance to the regional competition. New Hampshire’s champion
will then advance to the Poetry Out Loud National Finals on
April 25-26, 2017, in Washington, DC, where $50,000 in awards
and school stipends will be distributed.
This event is free and open to the public.
Letter To The Editor
Town Meetings
Northwood’s proposed school budget is close to $12 million.
Other proposed items add tens of thousands of dollars more.
Citizens concerned about how, where, and why all these dollars
are going can ask questions--and hopefully get answers--at the
Northwood school deliberative session. They can also change the
amount of money spent.
The
deliberative sessions are our town meetings--one for the town,
one for the school. They provide opportunities to express our
opinions, get information, discuss, and debate--or just listen.
Perfunctory votes are usually by a raise of hands, while
controversial votes may be by paper ballot.
Thomas Jefferson, himself a Virginian, admired the New England
town meeting, calling it the “the wisest invention ever devised
by the wit of man for the perfect exercise of self-government.”
The
meeting for the school will be this Monday, February 6th, at
6:30 PM, in the Northwood Elementary School gym.
Michael Faiella
Northwood
Northwood Food Pantry
The
Northwood Emergency Food Pantry wishes to extend a sincere THANK
YOU to everyone who donated and help maintain the pantry this
past year. To all who organized and delivered Holiday Food
Baskets, all the churches for their many contributions
throughout the year, to each person who dropped off food and
those who sent monetary donations.
We
are pleased to include Hannaford’s, NH Masonic Charitable
Foundation, Road One Paving, Eli Pinard-Halloween Haunted Trail,
I.T.S. at Coe-Brown, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, Knights of
Columbus #1606, Northwood Diner, Coe-Brown Peer Helpers,
Northwood School, Taskers Well, PSweet, Crescent Chapter 45
Order of Eastern Star, Northwood Crank Pullers, Coe-Brown
Faculty, Northwood Recreation Department, Jack Hartman, Bob and
Winni Young, William Bushnell, Barbara and Richard Blouin,
Laurie and Steven Cascadden, Holly and Glenn Martin, David and
Cheryl Turner, and those who to wish to remain anonymous.
As
an all-volunteer organization, we rely on our community for
continued support to leave no child or adult in the community
without needed food or basic health supplies. The Pantry
is located in the Northwood Town Hall.
Current Pantry Hours:
1st
Saturday of Month
10 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.
2nd Monday of Month
2 p.m. – 3:30 p.m.
Last Wednesday of Month 10 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.
Letter To The Editor
In
a random sampling of 10% of Northwood School’s student
population across all grades, 100% of them do, in fact, know
that 2+2=4, suggesting that School Board member Jandebeur
was wrong. He also insisted that we should not
be teaching a “socialist agenda, the whole child mantra.”
He wants us to teach only the 3 Rs. Such low expectations
for the future of this country. Children who are only
taught the 3 Rs are set up to fail in their adult lives. Our
nation is already being left behind as other countries provide
more for their students.
Humans are social beings. The world is a much smaller
place than when Mr. J and I were growing up. Well over
half the children who attend grade school today will go into
jobs that have not even been invented yet. Experts agree that
while of course we need to teach good reading, writing and math
skills, “Communication, creativity, critical thinking,
collaboration...these four skills are central to working in
teams and a reflection of the hyper-connected world in which we
live today.” These are not soft skills that we add in if
and when there’s time; they are crucial skills that kids today
need to get good at to succeed as adults in jobs we can’t even
imagine.
Ms.
Black correctly stated that too many children don’t have access
to “parents and churches” to teach and model social skills for
them. For children to be able to learn the 3Rs, we must also be
working on social-emotional skills, mental and physical health,
and all the rest that Mr. Jandebeur refers to as our
“socialist agenda, whole child mantra.”
Thank you,
Beth Benham, RN, BSN
Northwood School Nurse
CBNA FBLA Organ Donor Awareness Day
On
January 11, 2017, the Coe-Brown Northwood Academy chapter of
FBLA held activities related to Organ Donation Awareness Day.
The chapter distributed green ribbons and talked to students
about the statistical need for organ donors, as well as asking
students to consider being organ donors when their drivers’
licenses come up for renewal. Coincidentally, CBNA sponsored a
Red Cross Blood Drive on the same day, which FBLA members
assisted with and many FBLA members donated blood for the first
time. In addition, several Economics classes participated in a
research writing project explaining reasons for the demand for
organ donors, and reasons for the supply not meeting the demands
for donors. CBNA FBLA chapter secretary senior Summer Barnes,
who is heading the CBNA chapter initiative for the New Hampshire
FBLA Organ Donor project contributed the following paper:
The
Market for Organs by Summer Barnes, ‘17
The world is full of
gracious people waiting to help those in need. There are
also many people looking out for themselves and ready to make a
quick buck off anything they can. These two types of
people are what causes the debate on whether or not there should
be a market for organ donation. Around the world there are
many people in need of organs, blood, bone marrow, etc.
People in need typically have a very short window of time to
receive what they need. There are too little organs available to
those who are in desperate need of them. It seems obvious
that a market for organs would solve the problem at hand.
However, the question remains on whether or not this would be
equitable and efficient. Despite these reasonable
concerns, a market in organs is the only sensible solution to
helping the people who are in urgent need of this vital
necessity.
The
government is utilized for its various resources in many aspects
of everyday life. Law enforcement is a major source of
cost for the government. Each year around 100 billion
dollars are spent on police units and law enforcement in the
United States (Justice Policy Institute). Most of this
spending is used to control illegal trade of drugs, people,
organs, etc. This valuable money and time could be being
employed elsewhere in the country. If an organ market was
created there would be less pressure on the police forces to
control this aspect of illegal trade. The market would
provide viable opportunity for the funds to be shifted
elsewhere; thus creating more time and money to be spent on more
pressing matters, such as the drastic rise in human trafficking
and drug trade. The United States is in desperate need of
more law enforcement to control this rising problem, however
they are lacking sufficient funds to increase the already
extremely expensive budget. The creation of an organ
market would give more time and money to other more pressing
needs (How the Government Controls What You Buy and Sell).
This is just one of the many reasons why the United States
should legalize organ trade and provide the resources to
establish an organ market.
America has always been known as a country of opportunity and
promise. However, there have been points throughout
American history where a certain class of people have been left
to greatly suffer. Over the years the government has
provided new ways to help the less fortunate. Less
governmental attention, and less suffering would occur if organs
were allowed to be sold for money or in exchange of products or
services. As of 2014, 47 million Americans were reported
to be living in poverty (Poverty Facts). This is about 14
percent of the population. In spite of this, these numbers
could be greatly reduced if people were allowed to sell
non-vital organs when they were in desperate need of money. For
example, a kidney is estimated to be sold for around 262,000
dollars on the black market (Jade). This large sum of
money could greatly benefit people suffering from job loss.
Being able to sell organs would not only benefit the people
selling them, but the people in desperate need of said organs.
Across the world, children, adults, and seniors are in need of
an organ. This may be due to a rare illness or condition, an
accident, etc. Despite the cause, each day 22 people die
while awaiting an organ transplant (Organ Donation Statistics).
Twenty-two people a day is far too many to be lost to a problem
that could be resolved. Most humans are walking around
with two kidneys, one of which they do not need. These
useless organs could be vital to other people. An organ
market would instigate the beginning of more organ donations.
As of now not nearly enough organs are donated to cover the
amount of demand. If people were allowed to trade their
organs on free choice with possible benefits to them, this may
promote more donations. A simple change of law would allow
so many lives to be saved, so many families spared the suffering
of losing a loved one.
The
selling of ones’ organs comes across as gruesome and unethical.
Despite the negative persona organ trade receives, it is
absolutely necessary to save many people each year. There
are several reasons why organ trade should be legalized.
It would reduce the amount of law enforcement money and time
spent on controlling illegal trade of organs. An
opportunity to make a large sum of money off an organ that is
not necessarily needed, would provide people in poverty with a
chance to get back on their feet. However, most importantly it
would help save countless lives that are lost each day because
they were awaiting an organ transplant.
Works Cited
“How the Government Controls What You Buy and
Sell.” Lard Bucket. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 Dec. 2016.
Jade. “How Much is Your Kidney Worth on the Black Market?” REV
96.7. N.p., 23 Apr 2012. Web. 02 Dec 2012.
Justice Policy Institute. “United States Continuing to Overspend
on Police, Despite Decreasing Crime Rates”, Justice Policy
Institute. N.p., 22 May 2012. Web. 02 Dec 2016.
“Organ Statistics.” Organdonor.gov. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 Dec 2016.
“Poverty Facts.” Catholic Bishops. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 Dec 2016.
Letter To The Editor
Proposed TIF a Plus for
Northwood
On
Tuesday, March 14th, we will be voting on the final steps we
need to take in order to establish a TIF district on the west
side of town. There have been quite a few public hearings
and presentations regarding the proposed TIF. The overall
response has been very positive. There are good reasons
for this support. Approval of the TIF would give us a tool that
can be used to 1) to support the creation of living-wage
jobs through the attraction of new business development and the
retention and expansion of existing businesses 2) to develop
underutilized properties in manner that increases our real
estate tax base, and 3) to enhance the economic viability of the
town through improvements to Town property within the District.
This could be a real plus for the town.
If
approved, there will be a lot of hard work ahead to realize the
TIF’s full potential. While there is no guarantee that we
will be successful, it costs us nothing to try. We would
like the opportunity to give it our best shot.
Please vote YES on article 17: Economic Development - TIF
district
Respectfully, Your Northwood Economic Development Committee
PS
– For more information about the TIF, please go to the TIF
article in the Latest News and Announcements section of the town
website or come to one of our EDC meetings (7 PM the first
Wednesday of the month).
Why Flush Brake Fluid And Ducks?
Submitted
By Jim Grant, Northwood Garage
Brake fluid is a special oil and a bit of an odd duck.
Before the duck. Brake fluid is designed to have a constant
viscosity under a range of temperatures, including extreme cold.
A consistent viscosity is critical on today’s vehicles equipped
with ABS brakes, Traction Control Systems and/or Vehicle
Stability Control. These electronically controlled safety
systems use the vehicle’s braking system to operate and do not
understand viscosity change. They’re designed for the known
viscosity of good brake fluid. Brake fluid, like any other
fluid, degrades over time. This degeneration results in a
viscosity change; if bad enough, it will affect the operation of
any of these systems. They will not operate as designed with old
and contaminated brake fluid.
Unlike most other oils, brake fluid will not damage the rubber
type components used in the brake system. It has additives
that help to keep them soft and pliable as designed. These
additives also help to stop corrosion that could damage internal
parts of very expensive components found on today’s
vehicles. Over time, the additives in brake fluid wear out and
protection stops.
Meet the duck. Brake fluid is hygroscopic (meaning like a duck,
it likes water) which contributes to problems mentioned earlier.
Brakes create a lot of heat when stopping a vehicle.
Moisture does migrate into the brake system if enough moisture
were to collect and form water drops. During braking that water
could boil forming air in the brakes resulting in a loss of
braking. By absorbing moisture, brake fluid prevents this from
occurring. Good brake fluid has a boiling point “over 400
degrees,” but after absorbing a little over 3% moisture the
boiling point can drop to 280 degrees or lower.
That darn duck factor and today’s vehicles means you should
flush your vehicle’s brake fluid. Subaru, a great car for
the north, wants the brake fluid flushed every 30k miles under
normal operating conditions. There are many other vehicle
manufacturers that want their vehicle’s brake fluid flush as
well. If you don’t follow the manufacturer’s recommended service
intervals, have the brake fluid flushed whenever the brakes are
being serviced. For many years brake fluid has just been
ignored. In today’s vehicles that cannot be done.