AROUND TOWN!!!

The deliberative session is behind us one more time. The use of the new high school was just perfect, the seats were comfortable, it was warm, the rest rooms were very easy to get to and the refreshments were right on the spot. In other words it went the way people wanted it to go.

Some of the observations I saw were quite interesting. I saw about 200 people there and they knew what they wanted and didn’t want. The elected boards were all shot down handily, even after plenty of discussion and debate. The voters weren’t buying what a small group was pushing in their attempt to take over some functions of the town. We have a couple of issues; one being taking authority away from the board of selectmen and the other issue is changing the process that is used to appoint boards. Many people seem to feel that they didn’t want to change the process of how boards are appointed and some didn’t support the people wanting to make the changes. Another interesting observation is that no one ever quits a board in Exeter they leave because they put in enough time, several different reasons, the budget committee members didn’t quit, they resigned. The water sewer didn’t quit they resigned to protect their families from potential law suits; but, many of them wanted to get elected to the same boards they quit/resigned from. I think I’m getting old; they didn’t make a lot of sense to me.

Another issue was whether the voters could change the warrant articles at the deliberative session; they used the passage the day before of HB 77 that said you couldn’t change the substance or subject matter of the warrant article. The governor signed the bill on Friday and we were all trying to figure it out on Saturday.

I checked on this bill and talked to the bill writer who told me the intent of the bill was to prohibit amending a warrant article to say, “To see”, and that would be the warrant article. By not defining subject matter or substance, it was apparent the Exeter voters acted properly in how they amended the warrant articles.

Sam Bruno did an exceptional job of explaining the Comcast contract and the rates of 3% on just your television bill, so if your cable TV costs you $100 (just on your TV-not phone or internet) the cost would be $3 extra. Sam went on to explain the benefits and expanded coverage that the town seems to want. When Sam was done explaining the program there was no question that the opposition was putting out misleading and in some cases false information. I would just like to say thanks to Sam and quality shows, Sam your quality.

It was interesting to see each time Frank Fararo got up and spoke more votes seemed to go towards Matt and John Childs in the upcoming selectman’s race. I was taken back at the number of people that came to me asking what they could do to help Matt in the election, they were most encouraging. I really got the feeling that the fringe group has burned up its credibility and people were tiring of their constant negative tirades and a conspiracy behind every decision attacks on the town, the citizens will only tolerate this haranguing for so long and reject those who are doing it.