Category Archives: Hot News

VOTE NO ON THE TURF FIELD

An Editorial from The Bow Times

The timing of a $2,000,000 bond issue as part of a $3,000,000 artificial turf field could not be worse. Whatever the merit of the Turf Mahal, it uses about $380,000 of tax money Bow overpaid to subsidize the cost of Dunbarton Special Education staff costs.

Now that the miscalculation has been discovered, the money Dunbarton pays Bow should go to hold the tax rate down and repay us for Dunbarton’s windfall at our expense.

Also at this time of record inflation we should not be inflating our taxes as well.

Finally, how soon we forget. Just two years ago (Bow Times, January 2020, page 1) this paper reported the town Capital Improvement Plan said:

“Renovation of the Bow Elementary School [is] estimated at a cost of roughly $10,000,000 and to take place in fiscal year 2021-22. The Committee suggests using $1,700,000 from Capi- tal Reserve funds and bonding the remaining $8,300,000 for a period of 15 years. Bond rates currently range from 1.625 to 3.50% so the Committee estimated the rate at 2.5% for planning purposes. This would result in an annual payment starting at $753,917 and declining over subsequent years.”

Are there to be no more funds spent on renovations? Is the need for more classrooms suddenly not a need?

Spending requires priorities and the better answer is to put money aside for a turf field in the capital reserve fund over a multi-year period.

When will the school board resurrect the October 3, 2019, Committee Re- port on the Bow Elementary School which came in as high as $11,788,000?

Is turf more urgent than classrooms?

2020 PROPERTY TAX RATE SET FOR THE TOWN OF BOW

The New Hampshire Department of Revenue Administration has set the Town of Bow’s 2020 property tax rate at $25.58 per thousand dollars of valuation.

The new rate represents a 2.4 % decrease from the 2019 tax rate of $26.21.

The 2020 rate breaks down as follows:

Municipal – $7.11

School District – $14.04

Merrimack County – $2.54

State Education – $1.89

Because taxpayers paid $14,000 to have MRI study our police department, many have asked for access to the complaint signed by 10 of the 11 officers.

Download here. [PDF]

“I think people of Bow were ready for a change, but we appreciate everything Harry has done for the town in the past,” said Bruce  Marshall who defeated Harry Judd on March 10, 2020 by a vote of 845-563.

Marshall said: “I think, based on comments I heard all day, the issue was that for the past 18-20 years, because we knew the power plant was going to be slowly faded out, we’ve been promised to make it possible for that commercial land along Route 3A to be developed,” he said.

“What I heard most was, they wanted to see promises about making up for the lost tax revenue from the power plant picked up through other development and they hadn’t seen that happen.”

by Chuck Douglas

Longtime selectman Harry Judd has decided to keep on running for selectman again after 18 years in office. It is time for a change. Americans overwhelmingly support term limits for elected officials for a good reason – no one should hold power for too long in a democracy. Bow voters have a great choice with candidate Bruce Marshall who is a lawyer and a licensed Professional Engineer.

Harry Judd was fond of saying that as a selectman the town got a free lawyer. Bruce Marshall will bring that same training to the table, but we will also get a “free” civil engineer when we need him most. For decades Bow and Concord have tussled over water for Bow Junction but the times they are a changing.

In fact, on March 24 the Selectmen have scheduled a public meeting to review a feasibility study and time-line for work proposed by the NH Department of Environmental Services (DES) at Bow Junction. What better time to have a lawyer and civil engineer at the table who for years handled environmental issues for the NH Department of Transportation working with DES. It has been told to me by many Concord officials that in years past the water issue went nowhere with the city because Harry’s arrogant and condescending attitude alienated city leaders from working with Bow. His my way or the highway approach was on full display recently at a Selectmen’s meeting when a fellow member disagreed with him Harry got up and stormed out of the meeting but not before telling the man to “go ___ himself.”

For years Harry controlled the power plant tax litigation and kept paying utility expert Skip Sansoucy huge sums of money when he lacked credibility with the trial judge hearing our case. To refresh your memory on Harry Judd’s involvement with Public Service Company go to www.thebowtimes.com and key up the April 2018 front page article “Harry Judd and PSNH… What is the Connection?” 18 years of service is appreciated but it is time for the voters to choose a person better suited for the multi-million dollar water project that may well be a milestone for Concord and Bow’s relationship.

I sincerely urge you to elect Bruce Marshall on Tuesday March 10 and change it up for the new challenges ahead for Bow.