Editorial

Hillsborough selectmen got it right this week when they accepted a compromise tax proposal that allowed a delinquent taxpayer to remain in the family business while paying back taxes. The compromise resulted in parking space for town employees next to the Town-owned Gables Building on Church Street in return for letting Herb Spiller retain the next door property they have owned since the 1950s.
Spiller had worked hard to raise tax monies he did not know he owed until 2007. The willingness of Town Father to show compassion for a family which had encountered tragedy and accept a plan which worked for both parties is worthy of strong commendation. Government exists for the benefit of citizenry. In this case, a government decision benefitted the public as a whole as well as one well-intentioned individual.
Selectmen should also be applauded for a wise course of action in choosing a new fire chief. With only two fulltime positions in the fire department, it made sense to name a chief from those ranks. Kenny Stafford is a fulltimer, and his temporary selection avoids the possibility of adding a third fulltimer to replace a parttime chief position.

The Hillsborough Teen Center owes its continued existance to the generosity of anonymous benefactors who have ponied up $12,500 to keep the facility's doors open. Without the donations, the teen center would have had to abandon its mission after being given the heave-ho by a town government effort to relocate municipal offices.
Youth Service Director Peter Brigham appears to have had no input into the decision to kick the teen center out into the cold. There was no preliminary dialogue before he was informed the town offices were coming and his program was going.
So much for any emphasis on youth services.
The teen center will move into the old Legion Hall on Depot Street as early as the end of September, no thanks to selectmen, but thanks, instead, to people who care.

We appreciate the fact that our towns find it hard work to pull off Old Home Days celebrations. Some of our towns outdid themselves this summer with spectacular events. Henniker and Hancock really pulled out all the stops this year. Weare is just getting its event off the ground, but the future looks promising.
Henniker enjoyed its fiesta so much there is going to be an effort to repeat it on a yearly basis. The problem is the three-day extravaganza is a bit too much. So next year there with be a one-day event called the Town Spirit Block Party. A committee has been formed to formulate the party and plan for such a scaled back event to fill in the years between the Old Home Days blast.
Hooray for Henniker.
Hooray, also, for Francestown which throws the biggest shindig of all and manages to stage it every single year. The Labor Day Parade and accompanying events are small towns at their best. The planning that goes into the event must entail yoeman work, but the proof is in the pudding.

An unfortunate unintended victim of the housing crisis at the Hillsborough town offices in the Fuller Library is the Project Genesis Teen Center, which has been spearheaded energetically by Director of Youth Services Peter Brigham. The center, which is a home away from home for many youths, is going to be evicted from its space in the Gables building because the town offices are relocating there until a permanent home solution is devised.
The teen center has flourished for years under Brigham's guidance, supported by volunteers and contributions. Now it is scurrying to find new quarters while trying to discover a more permanent home until the town office dilemma is solved. The teen center serves a vital need in a community clearly lacking in such ancillary services. Hopefully its displacement will be of short duration.

As the Henniker Zoning Board struggles to hear all sides and render a fair decision on the proposal for a renewable energy power plant on Old Concord Road, the Residents Environmental Action Committee for Health (REACH) can be viewed as significantly overstepping its self-appointed mandate by mailing a flier to Henniker residents touting facts to support their air pollution claims.
There is truth and then there is truth. REACH's facts obviously are intended to support its opposition to the project. Facts may not lie, but they tell the story best when they are presented in their totality. REACH's propaganda likely did not meet that criteria.
Everybody favors alternative energy sources. The problem is nobody wants any of those sources in their own back yards. In any case, the Zoning Board is not charged with air quality issues. Those are regulated by the State. The project should succeed or fail in accordance with criteria the Zoning Board has set forth.

This is a terribly sad time for Hillsborough residents, a great many of whom know the family of Sean Powers and appreciate the tours of duty he and two brothers served in Iraq. Townspeople were stunned to wake up Thursday and learn that Sean, recently returned home safe from combat, had become the latest victim of "Death Alley".
It was a decade ago that the Villager first coined the sadly prophetic name for that deadly stretch of Rt. 9/202 between Hillsborough and I-89. The fatal crashes have piled up in the intervening years, focused largely in the area of the former Golden Pineapple gift store. It is difficult to pinpoint why the crashes occur on a benign looking road, but it is not difficult to assert that strategies need to be developed to prevent further loss of life.
Rumble strips appear to have helped relieve the carnage, but nearby residents have complained about the noise they cause. While repaving the road, rumble strips were removed. In their absence, two more fatal accidents happened.
The debate must end. Rumble strips are at least a partial solution to the carnage and need to be accepted as such.

Henniker selectmen made a decision Tuesday night that would seem to have regional ramifications for other towns as the skyrocketing fuel costs assault our finances. Confronted with a request to allow an increase in the bid for a paving project because of a sudden increase in the contractor's cost for asphalt, the town board agreed on a compromise hike to keep the contractor from losing money.
The altered bid was unusual in that agreements are subject to usual "bidder beware" conditions that hold bidders' feet to the fire regardless of changes in the marketplace. As selectmen noted, the bid would hardly have been lowered had contractor costs taken a nose-dive.
Still, selectmen demonstrated sympathy for the plight of those facing the uncertainties of the chaotic energy crisis, and other towns may face similar pocketbook dilemmas.

Antrim residents should be justly proud of the glittering jewel that graces downtown rather unceremoniously garbed in the guise of the Tuttle Library. At a cost of just under $1 million, the library has been transformed into a grand companion piece for a one-of-a-kind Town Hall that rightfully sets the standard for unique distinction in small town America.
The struggle to enhance a tired old library that first opened its doors a century ago was not without pitfalls. Those few hearty souls carrying the torch for library renovations likely got as tired as the building they fought for before voters finally agreed to assume the fiscal burden of the upgrading. However, as citizens will see at the August 16 centennial dedication, the results of the careful restructuring and addition have been spectacular.

Of the six people who have asked to be considered for appointment to the Hillsboro-Deering School Board, one and perhaps two stand apart from the crowd.
The most deserving candidate has to be educator Marjorie Porter, who demonstrated her commitment to the job by actually facing the test of voter scrutiny in March. She finished second in the voting, and by that measure alone in the proper choice.
A case can also be made for the selection of Rich Pelletier, who gained experience as a former chairman of the school board several years ago.
Two of the candidates, Randy Welch, who was voted off the board a year ago, and Clint Brake, who trailed a distant third in March, clearly would not be favored by the electorate they would serve.
The remaining two, Pamela Stoher and Linda Cox-Hernandez, should bring their case to the voters next year.

We would rate the chances of Henniker turning anything but a deaf ear to arguments supporting the construction of an energy plant on Old Concord Road somewhere between zilch and subzero. Like its nearby neighbor Hopkinton, the pristine "only one on earth" isn't about to open wide its doors to anything remotely posing an environmental debate.
As with windmills in Nantucket Sound and oil wells offshore or in Alaska, everyone wants to ease our energy crisis until any expansion is proposed near their own back yards. Which is not to argue for or against the power plant, only to observe that energy remedies are always controversial. And no controversy will find a willing home in Henniker.
We can only hope the Henniker Zoning Board will be bound by their own regulations after hearing proponents as well as opponents before ruling on the project. And that those favoring the project are granted as much time to air their arguments as the opponents did Wednesday night.