Pelham - Windham News 4 - December 23, 2010


The Word Around Town... Letters to our Editor


The Pelham Good Neighbor Fund Mission


Our mission is to provide Pelham residents who are in financial need, with emergency assistance for rent, heat, electricity, food, and other critical expenses. In order to provide financial assistance to our Neighbors In Need, we have our Annual Golf Tournament and Christmas Drive. In addition, we receive donations from the local business community, organizations, schools, churches, families, and individuals throughout the year. The people in Pelham have been very supportive in good times as well as bad times. This support has allowed us to help the people in town who are going through some difficult times.


When people call us looking for help, we treat


everyone with respect because we know that they are embarrassed about their situation and we tell them that our conversation will be held in strict confidence. We ask them some questions


about their financial situation and their particular request for help. It is then reviewed with two other members on the committee and a decision is made on their request. If the decision is to help that individual, we will send a check to the company to pay a particular bill. If they need food, we will give them a food gift card, which only allows them to buy food, and if they don’t use the entire amount on the gift card, they will be charged for the amount they use, leaving a balance on the gift card for future purchases. Under no circumstance do we give them


money. Sometimes, we have a situation where it is questionable on whether or not to help a resident, my response is to help that resident because I would rather help that person and let the burden of proof be on their shoulders than ours because we are not here to judge people, we are here to help them. The Pelham Good Neighbor Fund committee is made up of sixteen people who are dedicated and committed to helping our less fortunate residents in Pelham and we have received over the years, your overwhelming support in the work that we do and we will continue our mission because it is important to us and the community.


Frank Sullivan, President, Pelham Good Neighbor Fund - Pelham


Religious Beliefs Should Not be a Political Agenda


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Representative Bates has finally come out of the closet with his statements concerning his religious beliefs, co-mingled with his political beliefs. I do not believe that one’s personal religious beliefs should be a politician’s political agenda. John F. Kennedy, when running for president, had an issue arise concerning his loyalty to his religion or to the people he intended to represent. Clearly, the president was duty-bound to represent the people and not a religious belief. It is apparent that Representative Bates’ agenda is one of attempting to force his religious ideas upon all of us. The unfortunate fact is that many of our local state representatives in Windham and Salem are now the disciples of David Bates and the Republican House Alliance. The Bates’ philosophy of intolerance concerning the civil rights issues, and abortion, violate the separation of church and state. It is clear that our Constitution zealously protects the separation


of church and state. Representative Bates makes it apparently clear that his responsibility is to his personal religious beliefs rather than what is in the best interest of the citizens of his district. I hope that Representative Bates and his disciples will have an epiphany of reason. I certainly agree that he has every right to publicly state his religious beliefs however, religious beliefs should not be a political agenda. That’s why the Constitution makes it clear that there shall be no state religion. In regard to Representative Bates’ video in September, was he speaking on his personal beliefs or his political agenda, or is it one in the same?


Anthony R. DiFruscia - Windham Democratic Successes


We were really pleased to see from Representative Lynne Ober’s “Legislative Update” that she recognizes that there are a lot of good things happening in New Hampshire in spite of the continuing national economic problems. Surely it was only a lack of space that kept her from mentioning others, for example:


• New Hampshire has the fifth lowest per-capita spending of any state in the nation.


• New Hampshire graduates a greater percentage of its high school students than any other state in the northeast. And we cut the dropout rate by 30 percent this year. The Department of Education ranks us among the top five states in key measures of reading and Math.


• New Hampshire is the fifth healthiest state in the nation, up one spot from last year (United Health Federation). However, we suspect that it was not just a lack of space that led Representative Ober to leave out one other point: that all these good things have occurred while the Democratic Party was in control of our state government over the past four years. In spite of the severe economic pressure, the Democrats managed to keep our state, not just from collapsing, but moving forward on many fronts. We hope that the Republicans will be able to maintain that progress over the next two years.


John & Mary Ann Knowles - Hudson


School Board Spokesman Receives Chilly Welcome


by Barbara O’Brien Windham selectmen had planned to meet with representatives of the school district, but when School Board Vice Chairman Ed Gallagher and Superintendent Frank Bass showed up an hour later than was expected, the welcome was far from congenial. According to Selectmen’s Chairman Charles McMahon, the meeting was scheduled for 6 p.m. on December 6, with several town officials commenting that they had left their jobs early or changed their plans to arrive on time. Gallagher and Bass both said they had been told the joint meeting was to take place at 7 p.m. The actual hour that the meeting was scheduled to be held seemed to be a mystery that neither side could resolve.


At one point, McMahon simply told Gallagher and Bass to come


back again in January. McMahon had, apparently, planned to meet in non-public with School Board representatives. After hearing that Gallagher had prepared a public statement, however, McMahon allowed him to proceed. After being chastised for keeping selectmen waiting, Gallagher said, “Thanks for the warm welcome.”


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“I am here as a courtesy, since we serve the same constituents,” he added. Gallagher said the purpose of him meeting with selectmen was to give them an update on where the proposed $41 million 2011-2012 school district budget stands. Both town and school district officials are in the final phases of preparing their individual budgets, both of which will be decided by voters next March. As most of the money for both budgets comes from the same taxpayer pockets, Gallagher said he thought it was important that each entity be aware of what the other is doing. “Our goal is to keep the proposed budget flat” with what was


approved for the current school year, Gallagher explained. “And we have largely met that goal.” He gave credit to keeping the proposed school budget from climbing higher to what he termed “a team effort,” comprised of staff from each school, as well as administrators from the SAU (#28). Although significant progress has already been made in the budget preparation process, “we are still sanding the edges,” according to Gallagher. Gallagher said the biggest challenge facing the school district is the burgeoning student population and the resultant space constraints at all but the new Windham High School. 2011-2012 will also be the first year that all four grades will be conducted at Windham High, a situation that calls for the hiring of additional staff members. There will be no more tuition to pay to Salem High School, however, so there will be significant savings in that area. Also underway are teacher contract negotiations. Although no details are permitted to be released at this juncture, Gallagher did say, “we have made some progress.” Teacher salaries and benefits are a large percentage of the annual school district budget. There are also two items being recommended through the


town/school district Capital Improvement Plan (CIP). Phase 2 of architectural fees for the Windham School District Master Plan is expected to appear on a separate warrant article to the tune of $140,000. In addition, the second CIP recommendation is to establish a Capital Reserve Fund (CRF) for a total of $165,000; money to be set aside for roof repairs to Windham Middle School and Windham Center School. Neither of these projects is included in the proposed operating budget. Both will be voted on separately on Election Day. As for any State educational funding that might come Windham’s


way, Gallagher said it is vital to assure that a continuing dialogue takes place between town and state officials. “We need to be active on the State Legislative front,” Gallagher said. McMahon, who is a State Representative as well as School Board chairman, said that, “as a State Representative, unless you’re on the [State] Finance Committee, you don’t have a voice.” Working out a State budget for next year is going to be a very tough job, McMahon said, due to the ongoing recession and high unemployment rate. “The real challenge will be what to cut,” he added. As far as he can determine, there will be no new source of


revenue going forth, McMahon said, adding that local officials need to come up to Concord and testify before the State Legislature, bringing with them new ideas on how to provide excellence in education for the students of New Hampshire. These hearings start on January 5 at the State Legislative Building in Concord.


Ed Hurrell Pelham, NH


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