Christmas Fair At Northwood Congregational Church

Northwood Congregational Church will be hosting their annual “Christmas By Design” fair. It will be held on Saturday 12/1/12, 9:00 am to 1:00 pm. It will feature “greens” to deck the halls of your home, maple syrup, homemade jams, popovers straight from our ovens, crafts, activities for the kids, raffle items, homemade soups and so much more.  Free Coffee to take the chill off, served up with warm cheer and fellowship. We hope you will join us.

The church’s location is 881 First NH Turnpike (Rte.4) Northwood, NH.

Northwood Congregational Church Service Of Hope

On Sunday, December 2, 2012 at 4:00 pm, Northwood Congregational Church will hold a Service of Hope. All are welcome to participate in this service which will acknowledge that the Christmas holiday season can be a very difficult time for people who have experienced some type of loss or grief. This grief can come in many different forms – loss of a loved one, a beloved pet, a job, good health and anything else that has affected you deeply. 

During the service we will recognize that we can move from a state of grief and despair to one of hope. God understands our grief, anger and frustration and God is there to guide us through our losses. His love for us is omnipresent and He will make all things new. This is the promise of the resurrection.

The service will include a welcome by NCC clergy, prayer, scripture readings or poems, silent reflections, candle lightings, benediction/blessing and silent closing. All members of the community are welcome to join us for this important and timely service of hope.

Northwood Congregational Church is located at 881 First NH Turnpike (Route 4) in Northwood NH, just east of Coe-Brown Northwood Academy. The snow/inclement weather date is Wednesday, December 5, 2012 at 7:00 pm.

Santa’s Helpers

The Northwood Fire Rescue is requesting your assistance in helping to make Christmas brighter for Northwood children from families that are finding it difficult to purchase Christmas gifts this year.  

Starting the first week of December we will be placing collection boxes in area businesses for your unwrapped gifts for ages birth through 18 years old.  Our boxes will be clearly marked Northwood Santa’s Helpers. Please note we do not receive any assistance from similar organizations also collecting gifts. 

Suggestive items: dolls, building blocks, reading and coloring books, art/craft supplies, toy or model cars/trucks, board games for all ages, balls, bath items, or any teenage appropriate gifts appreciated.

If you are in need of assistance this year, forms are available at the Northwood Town Hall, Northwood Fire Department during working hours and on the community bulletin board at the Northwood Post Office.  Please note, you and your children must be residents of Northwood at the time of application and delivery date. Thank you for considering this neighbor helping neighbor program.

Letter

Anytime Fitness of Northwood would like to express our deepest gratitude to The Suncook Valley Sun for their willingness to help us promote our Veterans’ Day Fund Raiser.  We were so pleased to be able to give back to our local military Hero and his family. We were able to raise $450 bringing our total gift package to a valued of over $1,100.

Again, many thanks to The Suncook Valley Sun, as well as Halo’s Hair and Nail Salon, our members, and our community, for your willingness to contribute and participate!

In Health,

Rhoda Sommer

Owner, Anytime Fitness Northwood

On Nov. 6, Election Day, students and staff at Northwood School participated in a K-8 school-wide mock election for President and NH Governor.  Students in 7th and 8th Grade Social Studies classes assisted at “the polls” with voter registration, booth set up, ballots, supervising the checklist and handing out “I voted!” stickers to all participants.  It was a fun learning experience and a great way to model democracy in action.

Northwood Superintendent Search Committee

The SAU 44 Joint School Board, made up of each of the five school board members from Nottingham, Northwood, and Strafford, is initiating a search committee for the next Superintendent of Schools for SAU 44.  Current Superintendent, Dr. Michael Ludwell, has tendered his resignation effective June 30, 2013.  The joint board has solicited the New Hampshire School Boards Association to assist in the search process.

Each of the three communities is being asked to have their school’s principal, two teachers, and two community members represent their community on the Search Committee.  The commitment includes somewhere between four to seven meetings, including the possibility of one Saturday.  This is an important role for the future of the education of Northwood School children and you have an opportunity to participate in the process.

If you are interested in being considered as a member of the Superintendent Search Committee, please submit a formal letter expressing your interest, why you feel that you would make a good representative for the community of Northwood on the committee, and what qualities you would bring to a committee made up of representatives from the three communities. 

These letters should be sent to: Northwood School Attn: Rich Hartford, 511 First NH Turnpike, Northwood, NH 03261. All letters of interest must be received by the end of the school day on Wednesday, November 28th.

If you have any questions, please contact Rich Hartford at (603) 942-5488 or any Northwood School Board member.

Northwood’s 2012 Property Tax Rate Is Reduced

The town’s 2012 property tax rate has been set by the NH Department of Revenue Administration (DRA) at $23.20 per $1,000 of assessed valuation. The Board of Selectmen is pleased to report that this is a decrease of 6 percent or $1.41 over the 2011 rate of $24.61. This decrease represents the first time in many years that the tax rate has been decreased in Northwood.

The following is a breakdown of the tax rate: $3.83 for the town, $15.92 for local schools, $2.41 for state education and $1.03 for the county. This represents an 11 percent decrease for the town, and a 5 percent decrease for both the local schools and the state education tax. There was no percentage change for the county tax.

For comparison purposes, if property taxpayers had an annual payment amount of $5,000 on their semi-annual tax bills sent out to them in June 2012, they will see their December 2012 bill reduced by 11.5% or by $577. A $4,000 annual tax bill will be reduced by $462 and a $3,000 tax bill will go down by $346.  

The town’s tax decrease was attributed to several factors. There were increases to the town’s total valuation of buildings which had a positive impact. The selectmen were operating under a default budget which voters had approved last March. Also, as in previous years, the selectmen used funds from the general fund balance to “buy down the tax rate”. The fund balance is revenues above the budget and expenditures that are not spent.

DRA recommends that municipalities maintain a balance equivalent to at least 5% of regular general fund revenues of the town, school and county operations. The selectmen voted to maintain 8.7% in their fund balance to handle any emergencies that may occur during the year. They used $384,124 to offset the town’s portion of the tax rate.

The selectmen would like to thank the Northwood School Board for their efforts in returning $286,000 to the town in order to reduce their portion of the tax rate. The budget committee also did an excellent job in their review of both the school and town budgets.

The town clerk/tax collector has sent out the new tax bills and payments are due back by December 19th.

Letter

The election is over and the votes counted – and recounted in the case of the Mann-Gorman race. I congratulate Bruce Hodgdon on his victory and appreciate his letter of thanks published in last week’s Sun. At long last, after my several entreaties, he has communicated to us in a way other that multiple signs along the side of the road.  I hope that he will continue to do this so that we – the represented – might learn what he is up to in Concord.

With the House back in Democratic hands and with Speaker O’Brien soon to be “former,” I think that Bruce may have an experience somewhat different than what he had bargained for.

And I thank Lucy Edwards for her candidacy.  We should applaud all who seek to serve.

Well, maybe I should say “most.”  In the case of Don Gorman and other Free Staters who have moved here in hopes of taking over the Republican party and the government of the state, I’m not so enthusiastic about their collective impulse for public service.  I would invite you to see for yourself at http://youtube/oL4HzR0PAtQ.  

So it is with considerable relief that I learned that Maureen Mann had survived the recount for the District 32 seat and will be representing Northwood.

With the coming of the New Year, there is much to do – and un-do.  In the short term, let us be thankful.

Tom Chase

Northwood

Northwood School Honor Roll

2012-2013

5th Grade

High Honors

Benjamin Brieger, Makayla DeButts, Victoria Johnston, Michael MacEachern, Jacob Shutt, Mark Sommer, Mary Thoms

5th Grade

Honors

Hunter Adams, Katherine Blake, Jaden Boulanger, Brianna Burke, James Cirillo, Matthew Davis, Elizabeth Flanagan, Samuel Goad, Hailie Holland, Ryan Hughes, Brianna Jackson, Sophie Laird, Evan Lentz, Brynna Meeker, Ethan Meeker, Patrick Murray, Ryan Nester, Elizabeth Reeves, Ryan Reeves, Rylee Rogers, Morgan Tatem, Elijah Tomlinson-Burrell, Willow Tritter, Samantha Troy, Paige Valli, Samantha Welch

6th Grade

High Honors

Elijah Allen, Braelin Ash, Michael Burgess, Derek Capo, Benjamin Cote, Dylan DeTrude, Nicholas Dyer, Olivia Farrar, Mary Lee, Adrianna Reid, Jacob Rich, Madison Rollins, Zachery Sheehan, Samuel Thurston, Emma Tobbe, Megan Wimsatt

6th Grade

Honors

Rebecca Bailey, Isabelle Balch, Lily Beer, Griffen Bono, Clayton Canfield, Madison Cunningham, Taylor Edgecomb, Dylan Harlow, Kevin Hennessey, Ryan Holland, Sarah Jensen, Madelynn Kenney, Cooper Leduke, Mason Lobello, Lillian Marie, Micheal Marini, Jonathan Moehlmann, Carly Ramsey, Jacob Schleich, Jennifer Sherman, Tyler Troy, Emily van Gerena, Dakota West

7th Grade

High Honors

Taylor Bettencourt, Hannah Halka, Alexis Kendall, Emily Lentz, Kayla Pollak, Aiyana Rollins, Julia Sommer

7th Grade

Honors

Natalie Annis, Gwendolyn Bearden, Ethan Chaney, Annie Comtois, Emily Cunningham, Sarah Doiron, Kellyn Flanagan, MaKenna Iller, Brady Johnson, Kassandra Lavoie, Deztyni Lockard, Stephanie Messina, Scott Norwood, Scott Spenard, Nicolas Therriault

8th Grade

High Honors

Alexander Gray, Caitlyn Pitre, Sarah Turmel

8th Grade

Honors

Miranda Adcock, Isaiah Allen, Jonathan Bachand, Cassandra Barnhart, Elizabeth Bisson, Matthew Brown, Abigail Devaney, Sheridan Gancarz, River Groves, Joseph Guptill, Emily Hughes, McKenzie Moehlmann, Cassidy O’Dwyer, Jordain Pierce, Thomas Sheehan, Shawn Spenard, Kylee West, Evan Wimsatt