REMEMBER, IF YOU DON’T ACT CRAZY, NOBODY WILL KNOW!!!

I don’t know if it is just me or when I watch the Exeter Selectman’s meeting there is a lunatic fringe that keeps coming in and attacking the selectman or the Town Manager. Maybe I’m the one that is nuts and they are normal, never rule out all the variables when you are trying to make a decision. If they want the town manager gone draw up a petition and present it to the board. But stop this haranguing that distracts from town business, is so wasteful of time, and let the board listen to constructive ideas to move our town forward. Don't misunderstand, there is a need for the voters and taxpayers, such as Mr. Bailey, to keep an eye on the process; but, some others need to take a break. This last meeting was a little too much.

Just for the record, I’m not all that happy with how Exeter is being run, we are spending much more than we need to keep our services and reduce our taxes. We need to cut spending, pay down our bond debt obligations and get ready for a new sewer treatment plant. Our need for infrastructure upgrades border on catastrophic in nature to the taxpayers; please keep this in mind.

Some were complaining about the cable contract; but, where were they on the transportation fees being placed on registering our vehicles? The voters seem to vote in every spending issue that goes before them on the warrant articles and then complain that their property taxes are too high. We are also in the mindset that we don’t have to cut back our local spending, we just need to complain to the state that we need more money in the revenue sharing area to make our local ends meet; remember the state has to balance their budget buy cutting spending.

A good test for Frank Guinta and Kelly Ayotte will be to find about 30-40 million in grants to fund our water and sewer upgrades that need to be done because the feds keep changing the guide lines requiring expensive upgrades.

We do need to bring back the water sewer commission. My request to the town is NOT to reappoint the prior members that quit when the town needed them. I do believe we have people in town with the expertise to devote full time to our water and sewer needs with out the political game playing that caused the demise of the water sewer commission.

LET THE GAMES BEGIN!!!

Now the elections are over and everyone is in place, pending committee assignments, the jockeying began. There were two main contenders for speaker with two other well qualified and very fine people who were lesser known running. The vote was pretty much neck and neck and the first ballot for speaker was inconclusive without the needed majority to win, by 1 vote. The second ballot gave the speaker ship to Bill O’Brian by under 10 votes. Either by 10 or a thousand, Bill was the winner.

Bill had Gene out classed in his ability to communicate to the newly elected freshman; but, reached out to the libertarians. Bill also had some very good people supporting him and one of his secret weapons is Pam Tucker out of Greenland. Anybody that knows Pam knows you don’t let a pretty face hide a cold organizational logic and great communications skills by a warm caring heart that can squeeze you for a vote while asking how your family is doing. She was the secret weapon to victory. Other people saw Pam the way I did and she is now the deputy speaker; good choice Bill.

The interesting part of this election was that the democrats were trying to get Gene Chandler elected speaker because they new he would be less partisan than Bill. Gene rejected their support, which would have put him over the top and speaker, to his credit.

One of the issues we have to keep in mind is the democrats left standing after the last election are mostly comprised of the left wing loonies from safe voting districts. These are the least easy of any democrats to deal with. There is probably no reason to reach out to them because of the huge republican majority; but, it would be the right thing to do. I suspect the reaching out will not be without limits.

The usual number of bills filed during the first filing session is about 1200, there is a projection and only a guess, there will be about 1800 which are crazy. We have some freshman putting in about 20 bills dealing with a variety of social issues; get out the Advil.

The very process that we have to work with will be working against us. With all the social bills in we will have to take those first because the budget bills always come in last because of the lengthy hearings, department presentations and general discussions takes the majority of time for the first session. It is not easy to find where to cut almost a billion dollars out of a 12 billion dollar budget (very time consuming).

So that is pretty much what we are facing and the tasks will be daunting. We can do it with your help, input and guidance.