MHT Winter Parking Rules now in effect
A general announcement to the citizens of Manchester: If you wake up with a ticket on your windshield this morning, it’s because the city went to it’s odd-even Winter Parking Rules last night at Midnight. The way it works is if, at twelve oh one A M, the day is an odd numbered day, you should be parked on the odd numbered side of the street. If it’s an even numbered day, then you park on the even numbered side of the street. This system was the brain child of former Ward Three Alderman Ann Bourque which replaced an outright ban on parking during the Winter months back in the early to mid nineteen nineties to provide residents in neighborhoods that had lots of tenement buildings and not a lot of parking relief. The rules exempt streets where parking is allowed only on one side of the street.
Board of Mayor and Aldermen. Dapper crew meets tonight.
The Manchester Board of Mayor and Aldermen meets tonight at City Hall, as does a number of its committees. Items of note on the agenda include an announcement from Comcast that it will grant amnesty to certain people who’ve not paid their cable bills for more than a year. They say qualifying residents will not only not have to pay their delinquent bills if they’ve not been paid for more than a year, they’ll enroll them in their Internet Essentials package, which is a discounted service tier for low income folks. That note got sent with their quarterly franchise fee check for four hundred thirty four thousand dollars, by the way.
Comcast: Amnesty Internet connection program announced
In a separate letter to the board, Comcast said it will be hiking the cable fees by an undisclosed amount to cover the increased costs of providing regional sports networks on those service tiers that provide those channels and by three bucks on their Family, Digital Economy and Latino service tiers for those with digital adapters.
Taxes: Kalwall seeks solar exemption
Slated for referral to the Committee on Administration and Information Systems is an item from Keller Products on behalf of solar energy company Kalwall Corporation asking the city to provide a tax exemption for properties that use solar panels to provide electricity to their homes.
HSAs adjustments for new employees and Aldermen?
The Committee on Human Resources and Insurance will review a letter from Human Resources Director Jane Gile suggesting that the city provide monthly payments into the Health Savings Accounts of new employees. Currently, while the city does make an annual contribution into the H S As of existing employees, employees in their probationary period get nothing if they enroll, meaning any otherwise covered expenses would be out of pocket. This, she said, was a disincentive for new employees to use the accounts which save the city a ton of dough. She also recommended that the aldermen, who are currently not allowed to use Health Savings Accounts, be allowed to do so to save additional dollars.. Frankly, I’m thinking they would save a lot of money if they just eliminated benefits for the aldermen and the school board members altogether, especially since many of them who fret over spending dropped their personal plans to take the taxpayer provided one after being elected.
News from our own backyard continues after this.
Arthur & Donna Green: Holding public forum on budget and other issues
The budget battle in the Timberlane Regional School District continues as Budget Committee members Arthur Green and Cathy Gorman and School Board Member Donna Green have announced they will host an open town forum on the proposed budget this weekend. In addition to reviewing the budget, Arthur Green will present the information substantiating his belief that the district is not only grossly overstaffed, but also getting inferior results when compared to similar districts.
Gorman: Playing Kindergarten Kop!
Gorman will speak about Full-Time Kindgarten and its costs, which are apparently not what the district’s administration has been claiming. Donna Green, School Board representative from Sandown, will speak about policy changes and practices at the district that are having a negative effect on school board oversight and transparency. Despite their representing Sandown on their respective boards, they say the meeting is open to anyone interested in the information. They also note that Timberlane Superintendent Earl Metzler, Business Administrator George Stokinger and Sandown’s other School Board member Kelly Ward have have not responded to their invitations. Questions will welcomed at the meeting, which will be moderated by a fellow named Gordon Champion. Oh, the meeting is on Sunday, December 7th from one to three at Sandown Town Hall.
Paul: Profit isn’t the purview of the ZBA
The battle over so called workforce housing has reached the town of Londonderry and it’s a big one. As reported in the Londonderry Times, after it was determined that an abutter was not notified of a public hearing on the proposed workforce housing development at 30 Stonehenge Road, the Zoning Board of Adjustment continued the case to its next meeting. Before the Nov. 19 meeting was continued, however, members of the public spoke out against granting First Londonderry Associates three variances that Windham developer Raja Khanna argues are crucial to the financial viability of his project. Quote: “It’s not the Board’s responsibility to make sure they make a profit,” said resident Deb Paul, who is the publisher of the Londonderry Times. David Nease, the abutter who wasn’t notified of the public hearing, said he finds it hard to believe the developer of a project that will cost millions of dollars to complete wouldn’t do his due diligence before purchasing the property and fail to discover the project is only viable if three variances are granted. You don’t say…anyway, we’ve linked to the complete article in the Londonderry Times which shows yet another community fighting changes others would have them make.
That’s news from our own backyard, Girard at Large hour ___ is next.
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