Morin: Something’s wrong in Raymond

Is there something rotten in Raymond?  Our Politically Buzzed segment anchor Kimberly Morin has raised the question.  In a post to her blog, which she shared with us during her Politically Buzzed segment yesterday, Morin points to a number of elected officials with significant histories of tax delinquency.  She also used video from a candidates night where selectman candidate William Hoitt, a former selectman, explained the reason why the town doesn’t proceed to deed the delinquent properties is because they were contaminated by the hides buried by a tannery and that if the town were to take the properties, it would would be liable to clean them up.  Morin said the town is owed two million in back taxes, a large sum given the town’s tax warrant.

Raymond Board of Selectmen: Push back

At last night’s meeting of the Board of Selectmen, Town Manager Craig Wheeler responded to Morin’s article saying the town had collected ninety eight percent of this year’s tax levy.  He also reiterated what Hoitt said about taking properties the town knew to be contaminated, and went into detail about the burying of hides thing, essentially verifying what Morin reported, though he didn’t address the outstanding property taxes owed.

Members of the board accused Morin of peddling fake news to sell ads on her Web site.  Problem is, Morin has no ads on her Web site.  It would also appear, at this time, that many, of the questions raised by Morin’s report remain unanswered.  (Click here for Morin’s on air follow up this morning.)

Auburn: Sample ballots, Voter Guide released

Auburn voters will go to the polls for the annual town and school district elections and voting on warrant articles on Tuesday, March 14th between 7:00 AM and 7:00 PM.  Voters will be presented with a town ballot that includes an election for eleven different positions, four proposed zoning ordinance amendments and nine warrant articles.  In addition, a school district ballot includes the election of one school board position and four warrant articles.

The town election includes the positions of selectman, town clerk, tax collector, treasurer, supervisor of the checklist, library trustee, cemetery trustee, trustee of trust funds, two different planning board positions and police commission.  The positions of cemetery trustee and police commission are contested.  The rest of it is a Soviet ballot.

We’ve linked to the  sample ballots  and the Voters Guide which explains each of the proposed warrant articles and their tax and budget impacts from this news read at Girard at Large dot com.

Police Exam on the horizon

The Manchester Police Department will be hosting its next entry-level police exam on Saturday, April 1st, (No, it’s not an early April Fool’s Day Joke!) at the New Hampshire Police Academy in Concord. The application process is now open and will close on Friday, March 24th.  Information and an application can be obtained by visiting manchester p d dot com.  Please feel free to contact Officer Carl Accorto in the Training Division with any questions at 7 9 2 5 4 5 2.

News from our own backyard continues after this.

Raises Alarm

The “Bathroom Bill” is back.  That’s what the non-partisan conservative policy advocacy group Cornerstone Action has told its supporters.  In an email sent yesterday, Cornerstone said L G B T activists were out in full force to support the Republican-sponsored H B 4 7 8, a bill, they say would radically and fundamentally change New Hampshire discrimination law by including “gender identity.”

Cornerstone’s Shannon McGinley was at the hearing held last week to represent citizens concerned about the bill, presenting testimony that asked serious questions in good faith about the unintended consequences of this bill, which include impacts on privacy, women’s rights, parental rights, and religious liberty.  They said their concerns were dismissed out of hand as without so much as a single work session to address their concerns, the committee voted to recommend that the bill be passed.

McGinley: Women be warned

With a vote before the House pending in a little more than a week, Cornerstone is urging the public to get involved.  They say the bill would:

  • Provide any male access to women’s and girl’s bathrooms, locker rooms, changing rooms and any other place where women and girls deserve and expect safe, protected spaces, increasing the increasing the risk of sexual assault, voyeurism and privacy violation.
  • Remove parents’ rights as they could no longer insist that their children’s privacy be respected at school.
  • Force churches and other religious organizations to comply with radical gender ideology.
  • Force women’s shelters to house and employ men who “identify as women,” regardless of the feelings of the victims of abuse housed at the shelter. 
  • Plus many more devastating effects to New Hampshire citizens’ rights of privacy, freedom of speech, religious freedom, and private property rights.

Said Cornerstone, quote

Every human being deserves dignity and respect.  But this bill is bad policy that prioritizes the feelings of one group over the serious safety and privacy concerns of thousands of New Hampshire women and girls as well as the constitutional rights of every New Hampshire citizen.

Graphic credit: Firespring.org

Cornerstone is asking the public to help defeat the bill, asking people to

  1. Sign and share a petition they’ve published opposing the Bathroom Bill.  We’ve linked to it.
  2. Send a message to the Republican House leadership to tell them you want the bill killed.  We’ve linked to the necessary contact info.
  3. And Notify your pastor that the vote on this bill is coming soon.  Cornerstone warns that the religious exemptions in N H anti-discrimination law are weak and will not protect churches who want to maintain sex-segregated facilities.  We’ve linked to a bulletin they’ve published regarding how this bill could affect NH churches and ministries.

That’s NEWS from our own backyard!  Girard at Large hour ___ is next!