Pelham - Windham News | January 13, 2012 - 13 Thumbs Up? Thumbs Down?


Comments expressed in this column are the sole views of those callers and do not reflect the views of the Pelham~Windham News or its advertisers. Town and school officials encourage readers to seek out assistance directly to resolve any problems or issues. The Pelham~Windham News editorial staff holds the right to refuse any comment deemed inappropriate.


“Thumb up to the voters. All of these touch and feel good doers and the life-long Town Politician has-beens, keep putting the residents down with the nonsense generic quote, ‘If you don’t like it get involved, volunteer.’ We are involved, you see it at the booth. Get a hint, leave, we don’t vote for you or your out-of-touch views. Put the egos aside and just leave. Especially, the way-out- of-touch AARP members on these boards. Go to Arizona or Florida, just go.”


“Thumb down to the Pelham Public Library for their lack of effort when it comes to hiring applicants for the director’s position. It is extremely comical how they hired an embezzler, whom the newspapers revealed


committed a serious crime in his last position. Not only did they overlook this


Joan White & Kathy Nolan 880-ESCC (3722)


item during the background check process, if there even was one, but they neglected to fire him once the story came out in the media some time ago. Hopefully his job will not be available to him after his release from serving time in prison for his crimes.”


“Thumb up to Ms. Guelli at Windham Middle


School. She’s so much more than a teacher. She is a dedicated and caring advocate for our children. Thank you, Ms. Guelli, for ensuring our students get the best education by one of the best educators. You are a gift to the Windham community.”


“Thumb down to the lockdown????? Really?? Nothing is being hidden behind locked doors and bulletproof glass. Do I really even have to explain why the police need bulletproof glass? The police station is a secured building for what should be very obvious reasons. The fire station is kept locked because it houses thousands of dollars worth of your property. Vehicles, power- tools, computer equipment, etc. Both the fire and police stations also house personal property of the employees who work there. When the firemen leave the station for an emergency should we leave the building wide open for anyone to take our wallets or steal your chainsaw? I am sure that would generate a thumb down as well. I guess we just can’t win.”


“Thumb down for those individuals who fly our National Flag during the hours of darkness, with out properly illuminating the flag. This is against the United States Code, Title 4, Chapter 1, time and occasions for display.”


“Thumb down to misuse of Town Equipment,


Persons and Funds. Why do our Selectman use our Highway Department as they choose? Selectman Haberty wants his pops driveway plowed, Selectman McDevit wants the Highway to clean up after the Garden Club. I do not get it at all, these are not your personal staff and tools. Perhaps the cemetary is planting flowers at your homes. This does not seem right. Is a little abuse ok? Perhaps I am wrong. Selectman Gleason you need not park in a handicapped spot at the Town Hall if you are alone, I have seen you at baseball. Shame on you, someone with real needs may have needed that H parking spot. It is so hard to love this town anymore.”


“Thumb down. I was sitting and reading the Old Home Day booklet and to my surprise, one of the Town Departments was missing at the back. This must have been a Rick Perry moment. How does one forget a Department, which the entire day was based upon?”


“Thumb down to the Town of Pelham Library’s Board of Trustees for steadfastly standing behind their decision to hire Mr. Rice for the position of Director of the Pelham Library back in 2009.


Instead of apologizing to Pelham’s taxpayers for this obvious lapse in judgment and correcting it by terminating Mr. Rice’s employment immediately, the Board decided they would keep Mr. Rice and grant him an ‘unpaid leave of absence’ until he finishes serving time in jail! A crime is a crime, is a crime no matter which state it occurred period. If due diligence before hiring Mr. Rice was properly done as claimed by the Town Administrator, possible negative consequences such as RSA 202A would have been brought up, legal advice sought, and all these costly nonsense avoided. This brings, yet again, an issue that the town officials in Pelham need looking into—it’s hiring


and firing procedures.”


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“Thumb


down to WSB. This isn’t the time to propose another expensive new project!


As home values have declined, property taxes have skyrocketed, yet the WSB members are determined to burden homeowners with another $22 million new school for which there is no immediate need. Rather than give a straight forward answer as to what the tax impact would be, they presented a chart that was very confusing and deceiving. On top of an already 5% increase, an additional tax increase would be substantial and difficult for many average homeowners to handle. How many will be forced to leave or even loose their home? Time for voters to say enough and demand more fiscal responsibility and restraint from the WSB and town officials!”


“Thumb down to the


Windham High School players who displayed their frustration after losing to Pelham by peeing and throwing toilet paper all over the PHS visitor locker room. Thumb down to the Windham coaches as well. Where were you while this despicable action was taking place?”


“Thumb up to the forest


trucks at the firehouse. Due to the fact there aren’t many brush fires when it is snowing, should we be using it to help plow the roads?”


“Thumb down to the Family Owned 317 Derry Rd, (reg. $25.95)


on most vehicles


enter college being able to read and write. The most serious problem isn’t the building, it’s what goes on inside the building. Maybe you can fool parents and tax payers with your Sesame Street lingo and grading system, but you can’t fool colleges and employers. Keep up the incompetency. Pretty soon the only student population you’ll have to worry about will be the kindergarten.”


“Thumb up to the good old


boys and girls of Pelham. We’re bright enough to know that the current high school building is not responsible for the USA’s poor economy, or declining real estate values. Shame on you green stamp collector. If you’re old enough to know what green stamps are, you’re old enough to know better. Unless of course you’re a school board member, in which case you can’t be expected to find your way out of a paper bag.”


“Thumb down to being ripped off. The public


school system gives poor quality of education at an exurbanite cost. 65% of your Pelham property tax money goes to the public schools. Of the millions of dollars raised from property taxes for education, only 10-15% is actually spent on students. The rest is spent on overhead


be a small bond article? We do not want to lose state accreditations because of certain structural and space issues with our 38-year-old high school building. This bond article would have to be under 15 million dollars. To some, in their mind,


it would just be a band-aid to our high school, but in reality it would be saving our high school accreditation, and giving our students a better learning environment. That would be a great accomplishment for our school board.”


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Pelham budget committee. Do you realize that they voted to recommend air conditioning in the High School but do not recommend a sprinkler system? It’s a good thing voters can go to deliberative session and correct what these egomaniacs screw up! Imagine if they had more power than they do already. This town would go Bankrupt trying to pay for every need we have that they shot down over the years.”


With PWN Coupon “Thumb down to the Pelham School Board


and it’s ridiculous propaganda. High School enrollment is dropping because the building is ‘yucky’? A new school building will fix the problem? You’re so wrong, it’s pathetic. Students are fleeing to others schools because they want to


Young RAYS Score Big


submitted by Rhonda Bleeker On December 9 through 11, while the older


RAYS swimmers where attending the Bowdoin meet, a small group of the younger swimmers from the team traveled to Vermont for the Upper Valley Aquatic Club (UVAC) Winter Classic meet. Several local swimmers placed among the top 16 for their events at this very competitive meet. Sasha McNeal of Salem placed first in both the


50-yard and 100-yard freestyle swims for 10 and under girls and improved her RAYS record times in both of these events with new times of 28.94 and 1:03.20, respectively. Hannah Pickett of Windham demonstrated her range of swimming skills placing well in several of events for the 10 and under girls. She placed first in the 100-yard


backstroke, second in the 50-yard backstroke, fifth in the 100-yard individual medley (IM), eighth in the 50-yard breaststroke, 11th in the 100-yard freestyle and 13th in the 50-yard freestyle. In the 9-10 boys group, Bradley Valo of


Windham also demonstrated his strength in numerous strokes. Bradley placed eighth in the 200-yard IM, 11th in the 50-yard butterfly, 14th in the 100-yard IM, 15th in the 100-yard backstroke and 16th in the 100-yard freestyle and 50-yard backstroke.


Jillian Serrentino of Pelham also placed well in the 11-12 girls group for the 50-yard and 100-yard freestyle events, placing 14th in both. For more meet results, team records and team information visit www.rays-nh.org.


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and salaries. But the days of disposable school buildings and unlimited budgets are over. New Hampshire has an on-line charter school free to residents. No peer pressure, no bullying, no boredom, no wasted time, and no wasted money. On-line education is the education of the future. Check it out at vlacs.org.”


“Thumb down. Mr. Hardy is right by saying that


the way the economy is and with state aide gone, it will be extremely difficult to pass a large bond article, so why not come up with a plan that will


“Thumb down to the purchase of empty lots across from the high school. What a dump-site. Clean it and level it for a parking lot, or a small SAU facility. It was a residential property that you demolished upon purchase so we know it can’t be built on once again. Refurbish and repave what we already own. Make a plan and accomplish something. All you do is chase your tails in circles.”


“Thumb down to the landscaping company on last night’s board of adjustment meeting in Pelham. You blatantly lied about the zoning rights for your property. You currently have approximately 10-14 vehicles registered to the company that are clearly named with your company. You also run three businesses out of the property, your tent company, your firewood company, and your landscaping company. Although you cleaned it up recently because you’ve been sited for fractions with the town, justice will be brought. I’ll be at the site walk on Saturday, the 21, I hope other people within the neighborhood will come down. This is a residential area, not a commercial area. No bearing should be given.”


“Thumb down to the Superintendent’s office and Dr. Mohr for letting a teacher stay in the classroom despite all the complaints from students and parents about her poor teaching and disrespectful way in which she treats her students. I have heard these complaints about her from other parents and kids from the neighborhood and now I am experiencing it myself. Because my daughter is transferring out of her level one Western Civilization, she cannot as a junior transfer into a level one History. Why can’t students challenge themselves after dropping out of her course? I know she would be successful with another teacher. School committee and Superintendents office, please look into this teacher


and this policy. A very concerned parent.”


Tank you for your submissions. All comments, thumbs up or down, are anonymous and not written by the Pelham~Windham News staff. Tumbs comments can be sent via telephone, 880-1516 or emailed to us at thumbs@areanewsgroup.com. When submitting a Tumbs comment, please specify that you would like it printed in the Pelham~Windham News. No names are necessary. Please keep negative comments to the issue. Comments should be kept to 100 words or less.


Windham JV Boys Win on Road


submitted by Alex Ward Windham used strong first half team defense and fast break offense to propel them to a 61 to 55 win over Pembroke. Windham had a huge second quarter outscoring Pembroke 19 to 7. Pembroke made a strong run late in the fourth quarter but Windham fought back with late baskets and free throws by Evan Todd. Mark Shamon led Windham


in scoring with 11 points. Tucker Lippold and Evan Todd chipped in with 10 points apiece. Zach Hennessey and Joe Frake added nine points apiece. Strong defense was played by Joe Frake and Tim Erdlen. Windham will be hosting Bedford on Thursday with a start time of 5:30 p.m. With the victory Windham improved to a record of 3-2.


Annual Dinner and Dancing Fundraiser An Evening at Castleton for The Windham Soccer Association Saturday, February 4, 2012


Cocktails 6:30 p.m. Dinner 7:30 p.m. $70.00 per person Dining and dancing to the musical styling’s of DJ Joey Dion


Special “Live” auction with Many exciting auction and raffle items!


To purchase your tickets, or arrange a table, please visit windhamsoccer.org.


Or you may contact Julie Noel at 557-3853, Helen Munroe at 231-1124, E-mail: eveningatcastleton@gmail.com


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