Please join us: Kids Ice Fishing Derby will be held by Northwood Recreation Commission! Prizes and Winter Fun!! 

Come enjoy a day on Harvey Lake. Parking is available at Northwood Congregational Church. Bait will be supplied and some equipment is available but please bring your own if you have it. 

We are looking for experienced ice fishermen and women to volunteer their time, ice fishing equipment and expertise.

Coffee and Hot Cocoa will be available courtesy of the Northwood Congregational Church. Lunch items will be available for purchase.

A Potluck and Presentation about the Big Woods, Jenness Pond Area, and Beyond of Northwood will take place at the Northwood community center in the Narrows on February 27, at 6 p.m.

Enjoy the cheeriness of a neighbor get-together and learn more about the natural world around you! Scouts welcome!

Letter To The Editor

Public Safety Complex

I do not support the current version of the cost ($6M) for the proposed Safety Complex. I wanted to clarify some misinformation that was provided by the Budget Committee spokesperson (Mr. Chase) regarding this complex. He mentioned that, “there was an excellent chance that this project in a town of less than 5,000 would qualify for a USDA (Dept. of Agriculture) federal grant of $500,000.”

Although we are a low-income community, we do not have a median household income below 80% of the state metropolitan median household income. Thus Northwood would not even qualify for a $1 federal grant. This can be verified by calling the USDA regional office at 802-828-6080.

Another misconception was that the State Fire Marshal may condemn the Ridge Fire Station and have it closed. I sent an email to the State Fire Marshall and he responded that he was not aware of anyone from his office planning to condemn or close the Northwood Fire Station.

For comparison purposes Bow’s Public Safety Complex was originally proposed at $7.2M but voters defeated it twice. Once the price was reduced to $4.3 or by 40%, it finally passed in 2016. It is 24,000 square feet which is 50% larger than Northwood’s (16,000 square feet).

Farmington’s Public Safety Complex was built in 2016 for $2.3M and is 19,000 square feet. The construction company won a national energy efficiency design award for this building. This type of building should be replicated by towns in need of a Safety Complex. This is truly a “best value” for its taxpayers.

If this warrant article passes, it will result in one of the largest town tax increases in Northwood’s history. Please think of our senior citizens and vote no on this. They should not have to decide between food, heat or prescriptions.

Sincerely,

Jim Hadley, MPA, MBA, MS

Northwood

Celebrate The Academy Awards All Month Long On LRPA After Dark!

This Weekend’s Feature: 1939’s “Love Affair”

Throughout February, Lakes Region Public Access Television will celebrate the Academy Awards with a month of Oscar®-nominated films. This weekend, (February 15 & 16) we present the 1939 romantic melodrama “Love Affair,” starring Irene Dunne and Charles Boyer. In “Love Affair,” two strangers — French playboy Michel Marnet (Boyer) and American singer Terry McKay (Dunne) — meet aboard a cross-Atlantic ocean liner and fall in love, despite the fact that each are engaged to marry someone else. They agree to meet six months later at the top of the Empire State Building. Fate, however, intervenes, and their plan takes a different turn. If this plot sounds familiar, it should be, as “Love Affair” has been remade twice: in 1957 as “An Affair to Remember” with Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr, and again in 1994 as “Love Affair” starring Warren Beatty and Annette Bening. The original “Love Affair” was very popular with both critics and moviegoers. The New York Times described it as “ … an extraordinarily fine film … a glowing and memorable picture.” 1939 is often hailed as one of the greatest years in American film history, with the release of such films as “The Wizard of Oz,” “Stagecoach,” “Dark Victory,” “Wuthering Heights,” and “Gone with the Wind,” among many others. “Still, Love Affair” received six Academy Award nominations: Best Actress, Supporting Actress (a haunting Maria Ouspenskaya), Art Direction, Screenplay, Song and Picture. “Gone with the Wind” walked away with most of the awards, but “Love Affair” is bona fide classic that has stood the test of time. So grab your popcorn and join LRPA after dark for this romantic tale from the past.

Mark your calendars as LRPA After Dark celebrates a month of Oscar®-nominated films:

February 22 & 23: 1951’s “Cyrano de Bergerac” (Won: Best Actor) 

March 1 & 2: 1952’s “The Snows of Kilimanjaro” (Noms: Art Direction & Cinematography)

First of the season Ice Racing  Session  Sponsored by the Saddleback Mountain Lions Club and the Northwood Lake Ice Racing Assoc. (both of Northwood NH) for the benefit of “NH Lions Camp Pride” which is a non profit special needs children’s camp.  We will be racing every Saturday morning, subject to the ice and weather. All donations go to the camp. To verify racing call 303-4049.

Letter To The Editor

Are you curious about how pure your water is?  Which contaminants are present in water samples collected from the private wells in Northwood?  How to find where the public water supplies are in Northwood?  

Would you like to know the quality in your own private well water?  Come listen to staff from the NH Department of Health and Human Services, and Department of Environmental Serivices, who will volunteer their personal time at the Northwood Private Well Drive presentation on March 5th at Town Hall at 7:00 p.m.  

You’ll also learn how to sample your water. Sample containers will be available at Town Hall the entire week of the presentation.  Costs and instructions are included with the sample bottles.  Please read the instructions as the Town Hall staff cannot assist you.

Sample drop-off  date is March 12 at 5:00, at Northwood’s voting location; alternately, bring the samples to the state lab at 29 Hazen Drive on your own.

SAY YOU’LL PARTICIPATE AT

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/CNGMWVJ

Submitted by Shelley Frost

Northwood Conservation Commission

Letter To The Editor

To the Editor,

I don’t mind being TC,s (Tom Chase) punching bag. I just consider the source. He said, October Sun, that his mother told him that you could trust a thief but not a liar. Overwhelming evidence forced him to finally admit the truth.

So lets look at a few of his issues with me. Kindergarten. I absolutely believe that it would be beneficial to some children. But devastating to others. Parents should choose. I believe you’re the boss. You voted no five times to all day kindergarten. I voted no as a board member. Father John did the town of Northwood and the Bean Hole Bash harm. After a number of calls and letters to his bosses, not one of which was answered, the Catholic Church did what it does, they moved the problem. I have no regrets.

Regarding the safety complex; it is mired in so many broken state laws and ignored town policies that I could write a book. We need something, what, is the question. An 8.5 million final cost building is ludicrous. Not shy, I am working on a letter as to what should transpire to move this forward. I didn’t kick any can. In March of 2015 you voted 299 yes, 539 no to fund a safety complex expendable trust fund. You’re the person paying the bills, you’re the boss.

Tim Jandebeur

Northwood

Letter To The Editor

Regarding plans for the Northwood Safety Complex, the childish personal attacks leveled at Chief Drolet at the recent Deliberative Session are as shameful as they are baseless, revealing far more about the accusers than the accused, our widely-respected Chief of Police.  

Many of our fellow citizens have volunteered their time and expertise over many months to bring forward a sensible plan to finally correct longstanding, serious deficiencies and code violations in our current facilities, an issue that recent Boards of Selectmen have studiously avoided.  Imagine townspeople coming together to work for the common good -- what a concept!  

This is a big project that will require bond financing over 20 years, just like our elementary school that we easily paid off several years ago.  A new code-compliant Public Safety Complex will of course add modestly to our tax rate -- that’s the way it is here in the Granite State -- but the initial increase (followed by yearly decreases, just like the school bond) will be affordable to the vast majority of Northwood taxpayers. 

I’m a recently-retired widower now surviving on Social Security alone.  But I strongly support this project, and though I’m on a tight personal budget, I will vote Yes on Article 3 to approve bond financing for the Safety Complex.  I urge all Northwood voters to do the same when we convene at the polls on March 12.

Sincerely,

Ted Wilkinson

Northwood

Letter to the Editor

Corrections

In reviewing my previous letters, there are some things I need to correct.

Last week (2/6/19), I erroneously suggested that Rick Wolf had participated in the Select Board decision to spend $25,000 repairing our old dump truck when a new truck could be had for only $26,000/year through a lease/purchase agreement.  In fact, it was DJ Hodgdon who participated in this 2018 decision - as well as “Gate-Gate,” as I am calling the non-working $17,000 gate at the Transfer Station.

Rick had left the Select Board by then, but not before participating in the decision to spend $17,000 on the repair of the town back-hoe, that turned out to be worth only $15,000 in trade when the Select Board finally “bit the bullet” to lease/purchase a replacement.

While I am sympathetic to the urge to repair rather than replace (I drive a 2001 Accord), I see these decisions as reflecting poor judgment, and I will support other candidates for the Select Board in the March 12 election.

In another letter (1/16/19), I suggested that the town has “an excellent chance ... to qualify for a USDA grant for $500K” for the Safety Complex project.  Further inquiries suggest that we won’t qualify.  The bad news/good news: as a town, we’re not poor enough.  Our median household income is too high.

This is borne out by some data I received from Tax Collector Savannah Audet.  She collected over $12 million in property taxes in 2018.  Less than 4% ($469,990) remained uncollected.  If we were “poor,” as some would have us believe, I would expect a higher rate of non-payment.

Finally, our property tax base is growing.  Drive up through the Narrows and Catamount Road and you will pass three new houses selling for (in order) $355,660, $357,000 and $349,900.  That’s $1.06 million.

Over time, this will spread the burden of the bond over a broader base, and reduce your and my share.  Whew!

Tom Chase

Northwood

Letter To The Editor

New Leadership for Northwood

I am running for Selectman because I believe Northwood will benefit from new leadership.  I have served for six years  as your Town and School Moderator, seven years on the Budget Committee, five years on the Economic Development Committee and three years on the Planning Board.  I also serve on the board of directors for two local non-profit organizations.

In the business sector, I was a manager for companies ranging in size from small start-ups to large multi-national corporations.  I would like the opportunity to use my experience to make a positive impact on Northwood.  Your vote for me at the poll on March 12th will be appreciated.

Respectfully,

Hal Kreider

Northwood

Robert Roger Brown

Northwood-Robert Roger Brown, 95 of First NH Turnpike, Northwood died February 1, 2019 at Mountain View Community in Ossipee where he has resided for the past 3 years.

Born in Zanesville, OH May 22, 1923 son of the late Charles Brown and Madeline (Bender) Allen, he lived in New York for many years and moved to New Hampshire in 1973.

During WWII he served his country with the United States Army Airforce as a B24 Gunner.  

Robert worked for the New York Police Department retiring after 24 years.  In NH he was a Durham Police Officer in the Traffic Section at UNH and the Northwood Police Dept.  He also was a Security Officer at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard.  In his younger years he was a Merchant Marine and a boxer.

Pre-Deceased by his wife Rosemary (Wilson) Brown, he is survived by 5 sons Michael Brown of New Sharron, ME, Allen Brown of Northwood, NH, Daniel Olsen of Portsmouth, Kenneth Olsen of Tamworth, Robbie Brown of Florida, a daughter Ronnie Miller of Florida, a sister Dorothy Naughton of Pompano Beach, FL a nephew Walter John Allen, several grandchildren and great grandchildren.

Robert was a Parishioner at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Northwood.

A Mass of Christian Burial was held Tuesday February 12 at St Katharine Drexel Church, Alton, NH.

Burial will be in the State of New Hampshire’s Veterans Cemetery, 110 Daniel Webster Highway, Boscawen, NH.

The Baker-Gagne Funeral Home and Cremation Service of West Ossipee is assisting the family with the arrangements. 

Please share your messages, stories, or leave a short note and sign an online guest book at www.baker-gagnefuneralhomes.com