Northwood native Taylor Pelletier graduated from Ithaca College’s
Roy H. Park School of Communications with a degree in Film, Photo.
Video & Vis Arts. The degree was awarded in December 2013.
Congratulations Taylor!
Congratulations to Yvonne Dean-Bailey of Northwood for making the
fall trimester Honor Roll at Phillips Exeter Academy. Yvonne will
graduate from Phillips Exeter Academy this June after completing
her spring trimester as an Intern in Phillips Exeter Washington DC
Internship program.
Letter To The Editor
To the
Editor,
About
“If you like your tax rate” (1-29-14) here’s a different
perspective, I believe, as an elected School Boart member, it would
be irresponsible of me to not try and avoid spikes in our taxes or
to have an issue so severely deplete the current operating budget as
to jeopardize the education of our students.
It’s
happened. Having a little money in reserve accounts for areas of the
budget that history has proven difficult to project exactly is very
prudent. Four high school students moving into town at over $14K
each, a major facility problem, one $250K special education student,
a group of retiring employees with benefit packages approved by you,
etc. can and has been catastrophic to a budget and our students
education.
The
town of Northwood has done a wonderful job over the years building
up reserves from surplus to take the angst out of the bumps in a
road. Now that we can, your School Board would like to also.
We have
presented a budget for next year, with great pride, that is $364K
less than this year’s budget. In addition, I believe that we will
have a surplus in this current year and would like to use some of it
to build up reserves so as to smooth out those bumps in the future.
A
little planning for a rainy day is good management. Keep in mind
that we start budgeting in October for a school year that is between
8 to 20 months away.
Thank
you for your support.
Tim
Jandebeur
Northwood
Northwood Garage is proud to support Ready Rides
Ready
Rides is a community-based effort to help seniors and the disabled
get to medical appointments and other essential services. Ready
Rides serves residents of Barrington, Northwood, Nottingham, and
Strafford.
Currently, Ready Rides is an independent program of the Northwood
Congregational Church, UCC. As the program develops, Ready Rides
will transition away from NCC and establish itself as a nonprofit
organization.
To help
support Ready Rides…Saturday evening February, 22 at 7pm the
Northwood Congregational Church will be hosting an evening of Comedy
& Tale Telling. Your donation will directly help others in our
community. For tickets call 603-244-8719, to learn more about Ready
Ride go…. readyrides.org
Chesley Memorial Library News
Free
Workshop on Secrets to Obtaining Scholarships for your Child’s
College Education Saturday, February 15, 2014, 1 p.m. at the
Chesley Memorial Library.
Unless
we are millionaires, we probably need financial assistance for our
children’s college years. That takes preparation and planning —the
earlier, the better. We hear about scholarships and other
educational opportunities that are available, but not many people
bother to apply for them because they do not have proof of their
eligibility requirements ahead of time. The way to acquire these
eligibility documents gets done one paper at a time. If we are able
to schedule in time on a regular basis, like taking an at-home
course, and begin this when our oldest child is in middle school, we
will be in great shape. Don’t despair if you’re late getting
started, but don’t lose any time either. Jump on it! Reality Check:
If we think we are all set financially for our child’s future
educational journey and do not need to do any of this, please think
again. Learn from the best! Take some time to “sit at the feet” of
an expert who’s lived the reality of securing scholarship money for
her daughter and eventually for many other families as they navigate
the uncharted waters of scholarships. Joan Ryan has figured out the
fine points of making this happen and will share with you how to get
started on the journey. She’s just released her new book,
Scholarship Matters.
Tar Sands Oil Coming Through Our Own Back Yard?
Many
people in NH have heard about the Keystone XL Pipeline proposal.
But did you know that there is a proposal to transport the same tar
sands oil in a 50-year-old pipeline from Montreal to Portland,
Maine, 35 miles of it through New Hampshire? A slide
show produced by NH Audubon and The National Wildlife Federation
will be presented by a representative of 350NH, illustrating the
basics of tar sands oil production and the risks that a pipeline
carrying the worlds “dirtiest oil” poses to the environment and
health of NH citizens. Please join the Northwood Democrats at this
presentation at the Northwood Community Center, 135 Main St.,
Northwood Narrows, on Wednesday, February 26, 2014 at 7:00 pm. For
more information call Jo Chase at 942-8940.
The Veterans Corner
Feb 1,
2014
Richard
Doucet
What a
novel concept: Help yourself! Vets try to in NH
“Kindness is the language the blind can see and the deaf can hear”
-Mark Twain
Two
disabled veterans in NH are trying this concept out. Basically some
are saying: “Don’t give me fish every day…let me have a place to
fish so I can take care of myself.”
One of
these men is a resident of Northwood, Mr. Albert Peel, and the
other is a minister friend of his, Pastor Peter Macdonald of Lee NH.
They have some novel ideas to help the estimated over 600 homeless
veterans in NH.
Pastor
Macdonald has been ministering to homeless and disabled veterans in
all over NH since 1974 an now heads the Veterans Resort-Chapel
(VRC), a registered non-profit ministry in Lee NH. Pastor Macdonald
is 100% disabled from Vietnam, Marine Corps, who suffers from PTSD
(Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) as well as TBI (Traumatic Brain
Injury) as a result of his combat experiences. Pastor Macdonald and
his wife purchased eleven acres of land in Lee and turned it over to
the VRC to build a cabin to be used by a homeless vet. They would
like to build several more cabins to house homeless veterans
including some who have been diagnosed with PTSD.
Mr.
Peel is “officially a homeless resident” of Northwood who suffered
injuries while on active duty with the US Coast Guard during the
Vietnam era (1965-1973). Mr. Peel asked Pastor Macdonald for some
guidance with his idea to help homeless vets in NH help themselves.
I sat down with both men for coffee one cold morning last week to
see what they had in mind.
Mr.
Peel opened by saying: “When I became homeless I tried to find help
and it did not take long that I had a note book full of telephone
numbers of where to get information; but no place to live.”
Pastor
Macdonald added that most homeless veterans want most, especially
those suffering from TBI and PTSD, is to find a quiet place where
they can regain their dignity while they try and put the lives back
together; a safe place until they can get out on there own again.
Albert
Peel had an idea: “Why not build a number of cabins on State or
municipal property in rural areas and let vets stay in them without
rent?” He pointed out to me that there are a number of abandoned
rest stops, on which a cabin could be built. He pointed out that
places like closed rest stops are not only an attraction for
nuisance juvenile activity, drug deals and good locations for
secondary crime scenes especially after an abduction, as many law
enforcement and security professionals will attest to, but also use
up patrol time by law enforcement to make checks on them. Locations
like that become very unattractive when the location has constant
activity such a person living on the site.
Even if
his idea were to take root, these cabins would cost money. Al Peel
had and other idea. He and pastor Macdonald visited the owners of
L&K trucking on Route 4 in Chichester. They were both told by Ron
Wroblewski, the owner, that he had a number of insulated
refrigerator truck bodies ranging up to eight by 24 feet that he
would sell at scrap prices to be used as “cabins.” Pastor Macdonald
told me: “You can take a well insulated truck body like that and
for about $5,000.00 dollars it can be converted to essential
shelter, a mobile home without wheels, with modest living
accommodations for one veteran while he or she tries to get back on
their feet. Then if you add support services such as ministries that
supply food and other services a vet could have a much better chance
of becoming a productive citizen again than if he or she is living
in a park in Concord or under a bridge in Manchester…add to the tax
base not be a burden to it.
“But
the most important thing I want to do is to help provide a chance
for these people, who fought for their country,” Al Peel added, “to
regain their dignity.”
On its
face his idea may have a great deal of merit, especially if done on
private property, but certainly would have significant logistical
hurdles if executed on public property.
There
is also the problem of citizens who have valid, and some who have
less than valid, reasons to object to any such project even on
church property.
Some of
these people I like to call the: “Not in my neighborhood” crowd.
They are the people who are all for some type of social project to
do something about something or other as long as that something is
not in there neighborhood. The most common reason is that they
don’t want these “dangerous” veterans, many of whom suffer from
PTSD, in their town. Or they fear that a “vet center” will lower
their property value. This thinking is often promoted by our own
government officials as in a Department of Homeland Security
document issued by Janet Napolitano in April of 2009 that warns law
enforcement officials to be alert to returning veterans (from Iraq
and Afghanistan) who may be dangerous radicals with extreme right
wing opinions against the presidents political agenda. This kind of
rhetoric only inflames the very wrong misconception that all
veterans…especially those with mental issues such as PTSD, are all
dangerous, crazed, killers.
Others
who may object may have more sinister reasons ranging from some with
a profit motive, to political aspirations, to extremist groups who
place their cause above the welfare of wounded and homeless
veterans.
Pastor
Macdonald certainly has seen these objections; at the time of this
article is waiting for a hearing in the Strafford Superior Court in
the case of Veteran Resort-Chapel v. the Zoning Board of Adjustment
of Lee to be able o complete his one cabin for one veteran. He has
had to resort to using Public Law 106-274, Religious Land Use and
Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA) signed into law by President
Clinton on Sept 22, 2000. The law provides protection for religious
groups to use their land for their ministry purposes when the
municipality may be trying to impose overly burdensome or
discriminatory requirements on their projects as a means of stopping
the group.
Bringing some of these ideas to help vets and information on how to
fight unreasonable objections, such as the use of the RLUIPA law, is
another project Mr. Peel has taken on by starting The United
Veterans of NH. His organization is a “mostly still on the drawing
board” effort but he explained it to me this way: “There are
thousands of veterans in NH and there is no one social media for
them to turn to communicate in simple clear terms with each other.
If we had a web site where veterans, their families, and those
non-veterans who support us could meet online and exchange
information we would have better access to issues as well as advice
on how to put forward a veterans’ friendly agenda. We could become a
voice that would be heard in Concord and maybe Washington.”
Mr.
Peel helps support himself by selling carved granite items in the
Northwood Country store. Anyone interested in helping him set up
the UVNH can get his contact information and see his work at the
store.
In an
effort to be absolutely transparent here I must mention that, at
this time, Mr. Peel’s organization has no board of directors, no
fiscal oversight, and is not a registered or recognized organization
yet. While I encourage anyone who may have an interest in helping
his idea grow, I recommend caution if considering financial support
until these conditions are met.
These
two men may have ideas that may not be workable in the long run, but
they most certainly deserve the ear our municipal, state and
national leaders, at least as much attention as getting free needles
to drug addicts, making another intoxicant legal in NH, and getting
gambling in NH.
We in
NH have a saying that reflects our “olde” time New England spirit:
“Live free or die.” Those who fought to allow us to live free and
came back “broken” should not now have to die alone and homeless in
some shanty camp by the river or under a bridge.
Coe-Brown Northwood Academy
Quarter
2 Honor Roll
January
21, 2014
Headmaster David S. Smith is pleased to announce the honor roll for
the second quarter.
Grade
12 – Highest Honors
Jessie
Carney, Samantha Corwin, Cassidy Gagne, Julia Helton, Kyle Turcotte
Grade
12 – High Honors
Emily
Blad, Willden Butler, Matthew Cunningham, Domenica DeLuca, Justin
Demers, Samuel Fortier, Jessica Gallant, Emilee Gancarz, Erik
Gunderson, Katlyn Hanson, Trevor Harcourt, Hannah Heyliger, Alexis
LaChapelle, Derik Landry, Reno LaPanne, Tyler Lebel, Ashley Lewis,
Nicholas Locke, Hailey Mann, Zachary May, Donald McCallion III, Amy
Morrow, Emily Reiff, Samantha Rogier, Nathan Rouff, Megan Rouillard,
Sheryl Saunders, Virginia Scarponi, Eric Shorten, Jon Shorten, Peter
Slowik, Daniel Somers, Elanie Trainor, Brandie Valentine, Sophia
Wensberg, Alexander Wimsatt, Mariah Wright
Grade
12 – Honors
Samantha Bailey, Leanne Baratier, Connor Bell, Jayme Buck,
Alexandria Buiel, Benjamin Butcher, Ashley Calef, Katharina Cozine,
Emily Davis, Melissa Fallon, Benjamin Flood, Mary Fowler, Gwyneth
Horne, Brittany Lachance, Allyson LaFrance, Andrew Lang, Aidan
Leavitt, Abigail MacCallum, Jacob Mele, Shannon Mommsen, Liam Nunes,
Erin Percy, Erik Rolser, Alexandra Savioli, Dylan St. Hilaire, Sadie
Steffen, Zachary Wolf
Grade
11 – Highest Honors
Kerry
Baratier, Audrey Getman, Katherine Martel
Grade
11 – High Honors
Alexa
Barnes, Samantha Beaupre, Jillian Burrows, Ariel Clachar, Joshua
Conrad, Liam Corless, Kyana Currier, Sarah Curtin, Gregory Doane,
Nicole Durell, Emma Easler, Bryan Ekstrom, Brianna Ferreira, Caitlin
Foley, Aurora Goodwin, Hannah Grady, Brianna Hanson, Katheryn
Huckins, Jacob Jackman, Mason Jimino, Allison Jones, Quinn Kelley,
Bianca Ketenci, Garrett Kunz, Samuel Langdon, Ashley LeBlanc, Alicia
Lee, Elizabeth MacEachern, Lauren Montgomery, Gaelyn O’Dwyer, Ashley
Perron, Marielle Pomerleau, Benjamin Porter, Borja Rodriguez-Gimeno,
Cassandra Rogers, Haley Ruth, Carrigan Smith, Ashley St. Pierre,
Jacquelyn Stevens, Veronica Swindell, Kate Tomaszewski, Nicole
Torosian, Cameron Watson, Alexander Yonchak, Luke Zollman
Grade
11 – Honors
Abigail
Ahern, Ronald Berry III, Megan Burgess, Sophia Chartier, Tyler
Comte, Rachel Dallaire, Claire Decker, Hjalmer DeVarney, Olivia
Drew, Hannah Eaton, Jeremy Fenerty, Molly Gibson, Erika Grand,
Hannah Herter, Maria Jorgensen, Andrew Lambert, Lacey Locke, Hannah
Mausteller, Jessica Ohrenberger, Dalton-James Reynolds, Kayla
Williamson
Grade
10 – Highest Honors
Chloe
Bettencourt, Molly Boodey, Megan Elwell, Tayla George, Ryu Kondrup,
Brooke Laskowsky, Bailey Poland, Zachary Rheaume, Meredith Roman,
Jake Scarponi, Julie Souryavong, Henry Turcotte, Hannah Woodward
Grade
10 – High Honors
Vanessa
Anderson, Hannah Arroyo, Parker Aube, Ryan Bailey, Nicole Beaupre,
Kayleigh Bounds, Callie Brochu, Alexia Brousseau, Jared Carlson,
Nathaniel Chagnon, Nicholas Chase, Christie Clause, Dalton Colman,
Julia Cormier, Laura Cozine, Elisabeth Danis, Casey Davies, Michael
Davis, Gage Desrosiers, Bailey Docko, Erin Docko, Caleb Dowe, Noah
DuBois, Jacob Dunkerley, Hayley Dunn, Sydney Fisher, Lavender
Goodwin, Rosemary Goodwin, Quinn Grady, Brittany Guillemette,
Arianna Gunderson, Michael Haddock, Claire Hammond, Julia Harcourt,
Nicole Hodgdon, Colin Johnson, Cameron Lamarre, Ezekiel Langevin,
Jolene Levesque, Damian May, Thomas Mellor, William Ohrenberger,
Samuel Olewine, Kayla Patten, Meghan Percy, Blake Peterson, Hayley
Pierce, Billie Pingree, Mackenzi Prina, Max Ravenelle, Ashley Reiff,
Holly Roman, Tyler Schroeder, Kristina Seavey, Kayleigh Sherman,
Micah Sims, Megan Spainhower, Liam Taylor, Drew Tessier, Andrew
Therrien, Abigail Turcotte, Sydney Wilson, Dylan Wood
Grade
10 – Honors
Alexis
Arsenault, Samantha Bruce, Hannah Carlson, Andrew Comte, Sebastian
Flood, Christen Gallant, Taylor Goodwin, Brian Gordon, Emily Greene,
Lily Hunt, Fergus Leclere, Bethany Levenson, Collin Levenson, Jordan
Lippmeier, Ambar Mercedes, Jessica Miles, Joshua Moreshead, Jared
Nelson, Brianna O’Connor, Ryan Oliver, Carter Rollins, Angela Ross,
Kaitlyn Ross, Cole Short, Phaleap Taing, Emily Therrien
Grade 9
– Highest Honors
Summer
Barnes, Emelia Cronshaw, Davio DeLuca, Jillian Gordon, Joshua Hall,
Mallory Perron, Allison Pratt, Noah Wiggin
Grade 9
– High Honors
Miranda
Adcock, Dylan Andrews, Brody Ashley, Cassandra Barnhart, Taylor
Baxter-Orluk, Elizabeth Bisson, Amanda Bolduc, Matthew Brown,
Nicholas Burleigh, Colin Cain, Kira Cameron, Camryn Chick, Donovan
Corless, Damarah Cormier, Abigail Dupuis, Shane Fillion, Zacary
Fraser, William Girard, Alexander Gray, Nathan Griffiths, Tristan
Jardon, Nicholas Jensen, Arianna Jones, Jackalynn Joy, Maxwell
Judge, Morgan Labrecque, Catherine Langdon, Caroline Lavoie, Samuel
Lupinacci, Donald MacCallum, Rebecca Masison, Sophia Menjivar,
Michael Mulligan, Sarah Murphy, Cassidy O’Dwyer, Noah Olewine,
Anne-Marie Peacock, Zackary Pine, Caitlyn Pitre, Zachary Richards,
Kerry Riley, Samantha Roche, Thomas Sheehan, Joshua Sims, Shawn
Spenard, Ryan St. Hilaire, Patrick Thurston, Kaylee Toleos, Sarah
Turmel, Kylee West, William White, Noah Wojtkowski, LilyGrace York,
Abigail Zollman
Grade 9
– Honors
Ryan
Barnard, Emily Barnes, Joel Boulanger, Kate Clinch, Abigail Devaney,
Sheridan Gancarz, River Groves, Brenda Hayes, Callie Heselton, Emily
Hughes, Amanda Lee, McKenzie Moehlmann, Steven O’Donnell, Jordain
Pierce, Christopher Pratt, Tanner Richards, Jacob Snow, Emery
Travers, Kelsey Wallace, Elizabeth Ward, Samuel Whitehouse
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