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Hudson~Litchfield News


Names Added to War Memorial at Library Park


by Marc Ayotte


An early morning Hudson sun peeked through the trees, shining upon the granite face of the War Memorial, located at Library Park. The names of Afghanistan and Iraq were being engraved on the monument, which is nestled in the town’s center, to honor those who had served and protected the United States during those wars. The two most recent locations abroad, where America has defended her interests, were added to the names of the 10 wars and/or conflicts that were originally engraved on the memorial back in the early 1990s.


On September 1, Cliff


Ward, an employee of Hudson Monuments, meticulously added the names to the monument, blending in beautifully with the original engraving. David Cote, who operates the family owned business that has been in town for over 30 years, caught wind of the proposed addition when he was watching a town selectmen meeting on cable television. Cote subsequently visited


Hudson~Litchfield News Volume 22 Number 9 September 9, 2011 16 Pages


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A look at the War Memorial on the morning of September 1, 2011 before the addition of ‘IRAQ’ and ‘AFGHANISTAN’


Selectman Roger Coutu and informed him that Hudson Monuments would like to donate the time and service of adding the names to the memorial. The local business proprietor thought the addition of names “would be good for the veterans and the town” and thereby offered his services free of charge. The original War Memorial monument is the result of a benevolent gesture from American Legion Post 48, located in Hudson. Back in the early 90s, the


Legion donated the Memorial to the town at the cost of $12,500. According to Gary Webster, who was the Post’s financial officer at the time, “there were no monuments in town at that point.” Webster, who is currently in his 28th year in that capacity, and also an Army veteran who served in the Vietnam era, added “we needed to honor those that served.” As a result, the American Legion behind the site plan developing talents of former Post Commander Billy Mitchell, along with Webster, came up with the original design of the monument. Included in the original concept of the monument, in addition to the engraved ‘wars,’ were logos of the respective military branches. After gaining approval from town officials, the job of building the monument was commissioned to Hudson Monuments and has been proudly on display since. The next time you are sitting at the


traffic lights in the center of town, maybe you can give a quick glance at the monument as a sign of thanks to those who have served, protected and given their lives for this country, and for who this monument honors. I’m certain those brave soldiers along with their friends and family will somehow know of your thoughts.


Cliff Ward illustrates the precision involved in matching up the new engraving to the original work


AHS Varsity Girls’ Soccer Labors to Say Thank You


by Sue LaRoche On Monday,


September 5, Labor Day, the Alvirne Girls’ soccer team was performing a labor of appreciation as the varsity team gathered at a teammate’s house and handmade several apple and peach pies to be delivered to the police and fire stations in Hudson. The girls realize that they have much to be grateful for and they understand that Labor Day is not a day of rest for those who protect and serve us, so to show their appreciation they delivered the sweet treats to the stations. This is the second


year that the girls have taken on this labor of love and they really enjoy doing this for our police and fire departments. Team Captain Kaela Craven says, “we have a lot of fun doing this. This is our way of saying thank you because we have the day off and they don’t.” Team members include: Kaela Craven, Colleen Busnach, Krissy Rowe, Jess Roberts, Sarah Rosetti, Jocelyn Richardson, Daeghan Stone, Erin Craven, Kendall Brigham, Livia Gosselin, Kelly Robinson, Alicia Gillis, Katie Gillum, Brittney Lambert, Tori LaRoche, Heather Barclay and Marie Morrier. Second year head coach Lance


see page 6 for story see page 12 & 13 for our 9-11 tribute


Town Auction to be Replaced by Propertyroom.com


by Doug Robinson Hudson Police Chief Jason Lavoie recently met with Hudson’s Board of Selectmen to express the Police Department’s interest “in the possibility of using propertyroom.com as a means of purging the evidence room of seized, recovered and abandoned police property. However, the service is available for all Town Departments.” Several police agencies in our area use this service including Pelham and Goffstown.


According to Chief Lavoie, the Board


challenged department heads to see if their departments could improve revenues for the town. Should the town use the services of propertyroom. com, Hudson’s annual town auction would be discontinued. The Selectmen agreed with Chief


Lavoie stating that the annual auction is an expense to the town as it requires


manpower and time from town employees.


Established 12 years ago by two police officers from New York, propertyroom.com has given back $36 million to states and local agencies. Over 200 municipalities presently use their services. Once items have been collected from the local municipalities, propertyroom.com photographs the item, and then places the item on their website. Like eBay, items displayed go up for auction during a timed event. Once the items are sold, propertyroom.com splits the revenue with the towns at a 50/50 split after credit card fees and fuel surcharge fees have been paid. “It doesn’t hurt to take a shot for a


year and see if it works” commented Chief Lavoie. “If it works, great, if not, we can make a change.”


Six Warrant Articles for Voters


Te construction of the pies at Captain Kaela Craven’s house


McAdam is proud of the girls, “They thought this idea up by themselves last year, and I am proud that they are keeping the tradition going this year.” Coach McAdam assists and supports the girls in their endeavors, reinforcing that as varsity athletes, the girls need to be held to a higher standard and they should be thoughtful citizens of their community. “This is a great group of girls, and I am proud of them,” said McAdam. Alan Winsor based at the Central Fire Station, recalls the girls delivering pies last year and said, “We appreciate this; it is really nice of the girls to do this.” Also in keeping with giving back


to the community, next weekend, Saturday, September 10, the girls will be having a car wash at Alvirne High School from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., and they will be collecting new soccer balls to donate to Moore*mart®, a local organization founded by the Moore family, that sends care packages to soldiers serving over in Iraq and Afghanistan. As stated on their website, “Moore*Mart® began as a family effort to provide needed but unavailable supplies to our brother and his fellow soldiers serving in Iraq. Four years later we continue to supply soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan with anything they


continued to page 8- Thank You


by Lynne Ober The Litchfield School Board voted to submit six warrant articles to voters for approval. The special session, set for September 21 at 6 p.m., will ask voters to vote on adding money to the budget. After the legislature passed a funding bill that restored money to Litchfield and fifty percent of the state’s school districts, a bill was also passed that allowed towns operating under the Municipal Budget Act to hold a special session to accept the additional revenue and propose spending plans for voter approval. With the September 21 special meeting, the process will be different from the normal winter process that sees a deliberative session one month and the vote the following month. This time the vote will occur immediately after the deliberative session. Previously School Board Chairman


John York had pledged that the board would do everything in its power to get the word out to voters.


During the community forum,


held by the board to gather input from residents, support was given for multiple warrant articles. School Board


member Jason Guerrette also voiced his support for multiple warrant articles at the forum and that is the direction taken by the board. The board heard that feedback and had no discussion on presenting only one warrant article. Instead they discussed how to group the items into six warrant articles for voters to approve. School board Dennis Miller noted that if everything was put into one warrant article, that voters who liked the majority of the items might end up voting no because they had no choices. The first warrant article will be for direct staff, who have an impact directly on students. The amount of this warrant article is $207,403 and includes only one academic teacher, an English teacher for Campbell High School. It also includes a special education teacher and five paraprofessionals. A library monitor at Campbell and a district wide Curriculum director round out this article. There is a separate warrant article for support staff and general operating continued to page 8- Six Warrant Articles


SteelNow Stands


in Hudson!


staff photos by Marc Ayotte staff photos by Len Lathrop


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