For those who wish to contribute an article, rather than a comment

Simply post your article as a comment to any post on the blog, beginning with the words ARTICLE SUBMISSION. If suitable we will repost under Publius byline. No invective, No Slander, No personal ad hominum attacks, Please submit intelligent discussions of verifiable fact, ideas, or events.

Thank you

Police Communications Tower Confusion...

There are four warrant articles on the ballot this year all tied to this Tower. There is a planning board article to allow the construction of a tower on town owned land over 350' elevation. They SAY that this is not designed to restrict it to the fire station property, but is there any other piece of "town owned land above 350' elevation"? This blog knows of none.

Secondly there is a warrant article to allow the selectmen to enter into a lease with a tower company of more than one year but not more than 25 years. Nice but don't you need the zoning change FIRST to be able to lease the land? Isn't this jumping the gun so to speak?

Thirdly there is a petition warrant article to prevent the selectmen from erecting this abomination in town center unless a study shows that a tower is the best way to deal with our communications issue, and that the fire station is the best place for it. THIS IS SMART! WHY ARE WE RUSHING?

Fourthly there is a petition warrant article to commission a study to look into how bad our communications problem really is, how best to solve it, an how much does it cost to do so. AGAIN THIS IS THE SMART PROPOSAL! The meetings would be posted, in the town hall, open to all who wish to come, and open to those who wish to participate. I know Lt. Baldwin has told the town that all of his committee's meetings were open to the public, and anyone could have come to them and voiced concerns, and he said it was wrong for people not to come to the meetings then to ask questions on town floor, and he has a point; but where were these meetings held? I never saw them posted, or advertised. I never knew they were going on until aftr they happened. And if there was so much work done in this study, why wasn't it presented for the voters at deliberative session? Library made a proposal that was in depth, discussed the entire planning process, the building materials, and in depth cost breakdowns. Their meetings were open, in library, advertised, and well attended. And they originally presented three options and asked the voters their opinion.

By Contrast, Lt. Baldwin's committee did a study, or so we have heard, haven't seen any data, just a sales presentation of what our communications coverage is now, and what it will be with the tower. No independent input, no data, no cost breakdowns, no options, discussed or it would seem considered. At town meeting we heard for the first time that you can put repeaters in cars and the officer only has to broadcast to his vehicle, and the vehicle takes it from there. Well, we have heard the Chief and Lt. Baldwin state that they have almost total coverage in the vehicles, why no discussion of this option? Why no explanation of why it will or won't work? No, when we ask legitimate questions about cost, necesity, options, in public, on town floor, WE GET YELLED AT, AND CHASTIZED BY AN ARMED POLICE OFFICER OBVIOUSLY EXASPERATED BECAUSE HE HAS TO ANSWER THE PEOPLE'S QUESTIONS!

I'll put aside the issue of the coersion of having an armed officer present a warrant article at town meeting( And aren't armed officers prohibited at town meeting unless requested by the moderator to keep the peace, under state law?) When a police officer begins yelling at the very people that pay him because he has to answer some questions, well, doesn't that raise OTHER questions? Temperment, suitablilty, professionalism, merit, education?

Just food for thought.

Gestapo Tactics? or merely USSR?

Well This blog has been advised that the powers that be in Atkinson are pulling out all the stops to find out who is behind this blog, and who is commenting on it. Even going so far as to use the resources of Worcester Polytech's Computer Lab to try and trace the IP addresses of people who comment on this blog. (Isn't that the Alma Mater of our Town Moderator, Fran Polito? hmmmm, curiouser and curiouser.)

You gentlemen wish to know who is running and posting on this blog, it is simple.....

IT IS THE PEOPLE OF ATKINSON!!! Currently their are 7 people posting articles under the byline of Publius! and so far there are 44 people commenting! Not bad for a blog in it's first month with little or no advertising! And it is growing daily!

The question for the town government is;
1.) What do you have to fear from free speech that you can not control?

2.) If what you are doing is right, then why can't you defend it, without trying to destroy the messenger?

3.) If what you are doing is right, why can't it be debated in an open blog? Why must you attempt to attack the wives, children, and mothers, of those with whom you disagree?

Thomas Jefferson once said;

Where the people fear their government there is tyranny

Where the government fears the people there is liberty!

There is a reason that the majority of the comments on this blog are anonymous...
As stated, given the actions of our selectmen and Police Administration over the past two years, why would anyone criticize publicly?

Lets take a look at what has happened to those who did.

Brian Kaye- Had been participating in the negotiations with Signal Tower. Came into a Selectmen's Meeting on June 6, 2006 to tell the selectmen he was bowing out due to death threats. What happened? The chief followed him into the hallway as he left screaming at him. then proceeded to return to the meeting and spent 20 minutes bashing Mr. Kaye on camera, with added comments from Mr. Sapia for color.

Carol Grant- Came into a meeting to complain about the selectmen's refusal to conduct elderly business in light of the court orders barring Consentino from participating in these matters, and while she was simply sitting there reading a letter, the Chief slapped the table and roared to turn those cameras off, then proceeded to charge across the room to physically confront her.(tape of selectmen mtg. 12/27/05, and testimony from grant case in court 05-E-056)

Mark Acciard- asked court if selectmen who were also employees had to recuse themselves. Court said yes. Found Chief in contempt of court for disobeying its orders, threatened him with Jail! What Happened? Acciard has been ridiculed a bunch of times in live selectmen's meetings, and in the town report, even sued personally, had his business customers informed by the chief that Acciard was under investigation by the PD.

Ladies and Gentlemen these are Gestapo Tactics. And they have no place in Atkinson!

I thought that dissent was a time honored American Tradition!

Vietnam Honor Roll SCOOP!!!

Your Atkinson Reporter has this story before traditional newspapers!

Viet Nam Memorial

So now I’m understanding that the Viet Nam war is still alive in Atkinson. A little more than a year ago, I was one of the 71 persons who petitioned the Rockingham County Superior Court, hoping they would order the Selectmen to place the Honor Roll panels on either side of the existing Viet Nam Memorial at Town Hall as mandated by an approved Warrant Article. The case was sent to mediation which resulted in no changes in attitudes. The Selectmen offered an alternative “map” stone if the panels were placed at the Library. The Petitioners refused the stone, not wanting the town to have to foot the bill.

The Selectmen have prepared, signed and delivered to the Petitioners a Stipulation saying that the petitioners agreed to place the panels in a different location. We have two options

Yes – we agree. No – we don’t

As one of the petitioners, I should vote NO! and I probably will. But I have to admit I’ve been thinking about it.

Do I want this issue to drag on forever? Nope, I’m disgusted, and very embarrassed that our Selectmen would refuse to honor a vote of their bosses – Town Meeting..

But, I have always felt, in part, that the panels belong up the hill, together with the panels showing the names of veterans of all other wars. Two reasons: That’s where the most of the ceremonies are held – the speeches, the band, and the crowds of people. Taps is played in the cemeteries where many of these veterans either are or will be interred. Why should these VietNam veterans be isolated? Secondly, I’m a genealogist, and I know very well that – in the future – it’s the panels which will receive the attention, not the map in front of Town Hall, as descendants search for the names of their ancestors. I watched my 5-year old granddaughter – not yet a reader – run her hand over the names of her Revolutionary War ancestors on a tablet in Maine as I pointed them out. It was important to her.

Now I have a third reason. Call it sheer unadulterated spite. If the panels go up the hill, the monument at Town Hall will forever be a symbol of the shame bestowed on Atkinson by the three Selectmen who chose to use revenge as their excuse. In a future re-write of Atkinson’s history, the names of Selectmen Childs, Consentino and Sapia will be labeled as the reprehensible three who chose to thumb their noses at the majority of voters. I can’t think of a more deserving trio.

I like to think I’m better than that; I hope I am, but I’m still thinking about it.

a Library 7 years (and counting) in the making...

Yes the Town of Atkison has been discussing building a new library for over 7 years. Initially the library trustees were asked to wait because the old fire station was literally falling down, and needed to be replaced. well we only have a couple of years to go on that bond and it is time to seriously look at a new library.

Last years offer was way too expensive for what you got. $3.2Million is a lot of money. So this year the trustees took the approach they should have taken initially, and that was to set up a task force to study the issue and come up with a plan that would pass on election day.

This blog would like to say thank you to those who volunteered their time to iron out these problems; Kevin Langlois, Brian Boyle, Peter Lewis, Ron LaMarre, Sue Copetta, Roxanne Fuerr, Eleanor Fuerr, we know there are others we have missed and we thank them as well. Obviously bringing builders in to give their input helped in finding cost reductions, while maintaining usability.

This is a good plan at a decent enough price and we hope the voters will finally pass it. The current library was built in 1974 as an addition on to the Kimball House. Prior to that the library was a the two front rooms in the kimball house. The library had a $28,000 construction budget, and they couldn't find anyone to do it for that price. The Lewis' offerred to come in and do it, and they basically built one of their ranch style homes adjacent to the side of the kimball house. This arragement has lasted for 33 years, but has now outlived it's usefullness.

Tha time has come to replace it and we need to take advantage of it.

Public Safety Communications Tower; NOT a CELL TOWER!

Ok, Here is what I don't get about this whole thing;

Lt. Baldwin has supposedly been working on this issue for almost two years according to him. Also according to him even though the first time we heard this crises spoken about publicly was Jan.9, 2006 at the selectmen's meeting, the PD has had communications problems for years.

Ok, for the sake of debate lets accept both of those premises; then here is what makes no sense about this, and what no one including our excitable LT. are talking about;

1.) In 2004 Plaistow received a Homeland security grant for a number of towns in the region, including Atkinson. Evidently, according to the Chief there is a 5' whip antenna and some other equipment(I heard the number $80,000 worth, bandied about) sitting in a warehouse somewhere in plaistow waiting for us to have a place to put it. This equipment was received in Dec. 2004.

In light of this why wasn't something discussed all during 2005, while the chief was negotiating with Signal Tower and the Hog Hill residents over that tower agreement. If the problem existed, and you had equipment needing a place to reside, why didn't this come out publicly?

The chief also said at the Budget Public Hearing, that the town had the opportunity to buy the hog hill tower in 2004-2005 while he was selectmen, and he passed on it. If we had this problem, and that is the ideal site, as the chief has repeatedly stated, then why didnt we just build the tower, and be done with it?

2.) In April of 2006 at a selectmen's meeting Lt. Baldwin showed a powerpoint presentation and stated that the town had roughly 65-70% communications coverage. Later he and the chief stated that they had almost 100% in the cars, it was the portables(shoulder radios) where they had the problems. Even then they stated that often the officers could hear dispatch but couldn't respond. there radios were not powerful enough to reach back to dispatch.

This sounds more like a power problem than a reception problem. We heard at deliberative session that there is such a thing as vehicle repeaters, that are mounted in the cruisers, and enable the officers when they are out of their cruisers to radio to their vehicles, and the vehicle bounces it back to dispatch. we heard the cost for these items at $1,000-$10,000 depending upon brand and model. Was this one of the options considered by the ad hoc committee? we do not kow as when Lt. Baldwin was aked about this he got angry, and if not yelled, at least raised his voice significantly, saying very loudly that he was just trying to PROTECT YOU!, AND YOU!, AND YOU!, AND YOU! Finger jabs punctuating his outburst. I saw no personalities in the questions being asked on the floor, the questions were legitimate. The Lt. evidently didn't like being asked them.

3.) We heard at a selectmen's meeting in Dec. Lt. Baldwin and selectmen Sapia telling us that "THIS WILL COST THE TOWN NOTHING!, NOT ONE PENNY!" Budget Chair Acciard even asked Lt. Baldwin "what about the $300,000 in equipment that need to go on the tower, surely the town has to front the money for that? I mean, I know we will get that back out of lease payments but that will be over 15 years or so, right?" Lt. Baldwin answered no, that will be included in the lease agreement. Selectmen Sapia echoed "That can be structured into the lease" At town meeting we heard the figure of Half a million mentioned by Mr. Brown and Mr. Acciard, and Mr. Brown admitted that a cell company couldn't be expected to front more than $200,00 of that, leaving at least $300,000 to be raised, with the re-coup being spread over 20 years. WHY DO THE NUMBERS KEEP CHANGING? WHY IS IT LIKE PULLING TEETH TO GET ANY INFORMATION OTHER THAN WHAT LT. BALDWIN PRESENTS?

4.) Deliberative Session was Lt. Baldwins opportunity to shine and really sell his project. Instead he stood tapping the forward button on the laptop as Mr. Brown gave his oratory. A speech which left more questions unanswered than not.

Here are some of the questions left unanswered;

1.) Why behind the salt shed? Even the chief admits hog hill is the better site?

2.) What other options were considered? and what were their costs vs. the tower?

3.) How bad is our communications problem compared to other towns around us? and what are they doing about theirs?

4.) Why won't vehicle repeaters work?

5.) Why 180 ft. height? Police communications are line of sight, and 75ft. puts you above the trees and gives you line of sight from the fire station into both plaitow and hampstead.

6.) The height of the fire station is 350ft., the country club is 330ft. with nothing between it and plaistows tower.

7.) Where is the study? where are the cost comparisons? where are the other options? where is the RF study, not just the computer models? WHERE ARE THE FACTS GLEANED OVER 18 MONTHS OF STUDYING THIS? All we have seen is the same tired powerpoint presentation trying to sell us on this, and a six page sales brochure from Lt. Baldwin. No indisputable facts.

8.) Who was on this ad hoc committee? what are their qualifications? do they have conflicts? in other words do any of them live on hog hill? are they police officers?

9.) If all the meeting this committee had were public where were they held? where were they posted and/or advertised? were they in town hall? if not why not? Where is the data that this committee collected? why cant we see it?

10.) WHY WASN'T ANY HARD DATA PRESENTED TO THE PUBLIC AT DELIBERATIVE SESSION?

Answer these questions satisfactorily and you will have this blogs recommendation, and moreover, vote!

Petition Warrant Article to allow town employees to be Selectmen...

In light of the last few years this should be a no brainer. This all started in March of 2003 when Chief Consentino ran for selectmen. When asked about possible conflicts at candidates night by Mr. Acciard, he stated that he served as selectmen in the mid seventies with no problems. He further stated that he would step aside on police matters and let Sgt. Baldwin present them. He did that for the first year and there were no complaints. Also when he served in the seventies there was no conflict of interest ordinance. Then in March of 2004, when Chairman Boyle was absent the Chief made a request to withdraw money from the donation account and voted to approve his own request, with selectman Childs as the second vote.

Mr. Acciard filed a conflict of interest complaint, and the conflict of interest committee refused to do anything. He then asked the Court if Mr. Consentino should step aside on these matters and the Court said YES! Mr. Consentino didn't like that answer and appealed it to the NH Supreme Court. With your money! The NH Supreme Court said the lower court was right! Mr. Acciard also brought Mr. Childs up on a conflict of interest complaint for voting on his own raise. Conflict of interest committee said you can't do that.

It is for these reasons that we need to prohibit town employees from being selectmen. It is not because they would not do a good job, it is because a few bad apples have spoiled it for the rest!

It is because our town deserves better!

And because there is no shortage of people running. Mr. Sapia argued that we will not have people to serve if we disenfranchise town employees, well we have three people running for one office as selectman, and eight running for four slots on budget, I just do not see the dearth of candidates that Mr. Sapia does. Perhaps he sees a dearth of candidates that he can interrupt, talk over, and control.

What is the single most important quality for a selectman?

This blog would say it is Honesty, Personal Integrity, and a desire to do the RIGHT THING, popular or not! That would be defined as Courage. Now lets take a look at our Candidates;

Fred Childs, Incumbent- Experience, yes; integrity?...... maybe, maybe not; here is a man who was found to have violated the town's cofe of ethics ordinance. He violated it twice, stated that he knew he was doing it but would "wait and see what thry say"; They being the Code of Ethics committee. What they(neighbor, Dick Smith, and longtime friend, Berg Norris) said was no problem, the first time. After the Court Ordered Consentino to step aside on police and town employee matters they decided to "take a more literal reading of the ordinance."(Mr. Smith's words). You have a man who when the voters said put the vietnam honor roll in front of the town hall but outside of the flagpoles, He said I dont agree and fought it in court with taxpayer money. Here is a man who when the voters said we don't want town employees serving as selectmen, he evidently replied by signing up anyway in the hopes of getting the article overturned. If you are going to thumb your nose at the voters, you dont derserve to be elected!

Harold Morse, Candidate- He has been on the planning board for 12 years, and has predominantly stepped aside whenever a Lewis project has come before the board. Yes this IS the honorable thing to do. Will he have a conflict in serving as selectman, probably, only time will tell, but there will always be the perception. Mr. Morse has long been one of the prime sponsors, coach, board member of Atkinson Youth Baseball, and has donated considerably of his time, and effort.

Valerie Tobin, Candidate- She is the only candidate with clearly no conflicts. This blog does not know Ms. Tobin but she has been forthright, and steadfast in public meetings over the past few years. She always has had hard, insightful questions, and has usually followed those up with more. She has brought forward points that often made those she was questioning uncomfortable, but in the end provided much needed information to the voters.

The choices here are clear.

Deliberative Session Discoveries: New Specs for town roads?

The Town has watched for months as the selectmen have reamed the Road Agent publicly for splitting the two roads slated for this year, part into the warrant articles, part into his budget. Mr. Sapia actually accused Teddy of trying to hide the true cost and made it sound like Teddy was trying to get something over on the voters. Mr. Sapia re-worded the warrant articles to "reflect the total cost of the roads... the voters deserve that" But in reality his articles STILL did not cover the total cost of the roads, as was pointed out by the budget committee. Mr. Sapia got very indignant on camera Saturday, about the "voters should have the total cost of the roads when they go into the booth", and "we have NEVER done it this way, we always give the voters the total cost of the road in each article".

Then Teddy explains that the Town's specifications for roads was changed by the planning board approximately three months ago!!! AND PLANNING BOARD CHAIR SUE KILLAM CONFIRMED THIS!!! Mr. Sapia sits on the planning board! And a little research has shown that not only did Mr. Sapia know of this change, HE SPOKE ON IT IN THE PLANNING BOARD MEETING!!!

So while he was chewing out Teddy for this new proceedure of not including the topcoat in his costs, he knew full well that this was the new standards set by the planning board, with his help, and Teddy had to abide by them. Further, at least Teddy never tried to tell people that his numbers represented the total cost of the roads; He explained exactly, many times, where the costs were and what the total was. Mr. Sapia, in fact told the people that he was including the total cost, when he knew he wasn't! Just like he, and Lt. Baldwin told the people many times that the tower would cost the town nothing! It wasn't until budget committee chair Acciard asked the question, that we found out that it is going to require "half a million or so of equipment, and those costs will take 25 years or so to recoup."

Why can't all of our town officials be honest with us?

This appeared on the Plaistow Town Crier Website. Regarding our Tower

Here is part of the post with a link.

http://www.hwforums.com/2174/messages/814.html


Hey Atkinson, we got rid of those cell tower cockroaches.
[ Follow Ups ] [ Post Followup ] [ Plaistow, NH Town Crier ] [ FAQ ]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Posted by Dennis Herrick on February 03, 2007 at 21:23:15:







Hey Atkinson, we got rid of those cell tower cockroaches over in Plaistow. Now it's your turn. However your task will be more difficult. We already have cell phone coverage from a water tower in the center of our town. We had our health and safety blitz a few years back and not only are we covered, but we're stuck. The ugly water tower that rudely marks the center of our town should have been demolished along with the Chart Industries plant. But, our town fathers and their Attorney Sumner Kalman work diligently to make the cell tower happen? Thanks Selectmen? Way to go, Sumner? Hey, you're becoming quite the cell tower facilitator? Another win for you in East Kingston? Do you get to collect a fee from all the parties involved? The towns and the cell companies? What a lucrative deal for you?

The claim in Atkinson is that for the sake of safety a central cell tower needs to be installed. So they've chosen a high point right in the middle of your town too. Smack dab in the middle of a proposed historic district. Ours is in our proposed Village district. How nice. Since the chances of your tower passing is becoming slim, they've dredged up the Hog Hill Road site that was supposed to be too politically difficult to consider. How convenient. They're snakes, all of them.