S.O.S. All Hands on Deck!

A thank you to all the Bow voters who elected me and the other candidates endorsed by the Concerned Taxpayers of Bow. If those hundreds of voters had also shown up on Wednesday night the $7.38 million bond issue (with interest included) would have been overwhelmingly defeated.

But as the old song “What a Difference a Day Makes” reminds us, in just 24 little hours the long-feared news blared out — the power plant is on the market. Over 150 coal plants have been shuttered since Obama’s new EPA coal regs. came out. Many are sold for scrap metal to China leaving behind Chernobyl like shells.

Even if some company buys it they won’t be paying the assessed value of $82.5 million but a lot less, thus creating a much lower assessed value. If no one else wants it you could pay one dollar and have the privilege of owning a coal superfund site.

Obviously this is the exact time not to be borrowing $7.38 million. That would be like getting a foreclosure notice on your house and then taking all your savings and going to Foxwoods. If our town leaders won’t hit the pause button, you need to on Thursday night.

If you need further encouragement to turn out you should know the school meeting’s young folks voted to raise taxes on an average home by $85.13 by overturning the budget committee and adding $390,000 to the $27 million school budget.

For taxpayers this is a marathon not a sprint, so you can’t give up now. While public safety is the mantra we are already there. Last year the Fire Marshal’s statistics show we had 4, yes only 4, structure fires with zero loss of dollars. We are safe because of the people in our fire department, not what building their equipment is stored in.

See the report on the website under “Key Facts

See you Thursday at 7:00 PM.

Chuck Douglas
Bow

Letter: Our Golden Goose is Dying

Though Bow has seen the closing of our major taxpayer for 55 years, the PSNH Merrimack Station, as something that was eventually coming down the road, the end of the road is now upon us.

At our recent town meeting, 576 voters stayed for a vote on whether to make a $5 million investment in a new safety building. We didn’t get a chance to vote on whether to spend about 10 percent of that amount to try to live a little bit longer with our existing facilities.

The $5 million Warrant Article 3 missed a two-thirds majority by eight votes, and a motion was made for reconsideration. The reconsideration vote will be on Thursday, March 19, and I urge every voter in Bow to attend that meeting. There is a lot at stake for all of our households.
As Chuck Douglas so eloquently put it at our meeting, we are the congress of Bow and it is how we vote that determines the direction of our town.

BOBBY ARNOLD
Bow