The Hooksett School Board had another meltdown moment last night that makes one have to wonder what’s in the water up there. Our report yesterday about the misrepresentation of the tuition contract settlement agreement between Manchester and Hooksett by Chucky the Super and Trisha The Gavel touched off a firestorm. In an email to Girard at Large yesterday, Hooksett Superintendent Dr. Charles Littlefield said after reviewing the agreement and their lawyer’s presentation, he stood corrected and would inform the board. During the meeting, Board Vice Chairman David Pearl asked to put the agreement up on the projector so the public could view it during the discussion he wanted to have. The ten minutes of mindless squabbling over the matter was too much for an audience member who verbally hammered the board. “I am so annoyed with you adults who don’t know how to act as adults…you people can’t sort putting it on a projector? What in God’s name is wrong with you?” The Gavel called a recess then called the police, who removed the frustrated citizen from the meeting. We have exclusive video of it all linked to this newscast at Girard at Large dot com! This one, you’ve got to see.
Meanwhile, Manchester’s Board of School Committee was making nice at a work session arranged by Superintendent Dr. Debra Livingston. We’ve linked to our live blog of the event from this newscast so you can get the play by play as it unfolded. Among the items covered by the group were the respective roles of the board, individual board members and the superintendent, communication between the board, board members and the administration, personnel processes and many more. They even figured out how to address each other both in and out of public session. In what did from time to time have the feel of a kindergarten class, Livingston rather ably led various discussions and exercises designed to assist the board in fostering better working relationships. The night wasn’t all deli sandwiches, drinks and cookies, though. Ward 9 School Board Member Art Beaudry clashed with various board members and often brought up how he’s tried to do this or that at the board to no avail, almost as if he was doing an I told you so. Among the exercises was completion of an anonymous evaluation of the board on a variety of points, which seemed to open some eyes. At the end of the night, the exercises had highlighted a number of areas of agreement and a coupe of items of continued work.
News from our own backyard continues after this.
Aldermen on the Lands and Buildings Committee of the Board of Mayor and Aldermen in Manchester have moved requests for proposal for the Pearl Street and Bedford Street parking lots along their way toward final approval, but not with out some modifications. Provisions included for the city to purchase an easement covering approximately three hundred parking spaces from a potential developer at the Pearl Street Lot and several hundred more from a potential developer of the Bedford Street Lot were removed. Ward 1 Alderman Joyce Craig said it didn’t make sense to her that the city would sell Pearl Street for one point three million dollars then buy parking back from the developer for almost double that. Now there’s some thinking…Anyway, the committee also modified the reverter clauses that would return either lot to the city if a project wasn’t developed and, among other things, recommended city staff be allowed to hire someone to assist them with the process. The twenty thousand dollar cost, they said, would be paid from from the proceeds of the sale of the lot.
“Take this plan and shove it!” That’s what Goffstown Today dot com’s reporting an elderly Pinardville resident had to say at last night’s meeting of the ad hoc committee. Several other community members spoke in opposition to the plan, one noting that his driveway and garage had disappeared in the plan’s renderings. The public was allowed to speak at just before 9 after Pinardville resident and Goffstown State Rep. John Burt asked the committee members for that to happen. The meeting started at 7. Meanwhile, two ad hoc committee members under scrutiny because of significant potential conflicts of interest, Attorney Tony Marts who has represented a number of land owners and developers before the town’s regulatory bodies and Commercial Real Estate Broker Michael Lawler, whose LinkedIn page advertises his expertise in operations and negotiations of all types of Commercial, Multi-Family, Office and Industrial Properties resigned from the committee. Interestingly, HUD official Gregory Carson was present last night as he was on Monday night at the meeting of the Goffstown Board of Selectmen where Selectman Nick Campasano challenged his assertions that HUD was not involved even though it originated the grant money used for the plans. We’ve linked to Goffstown Today’s story from this newscast. It’s a fascinating read.
That’s news from our own backyard, Girard at Large hour ___ is just 30 seconds away!
