- Re:Who is running? Electric Contract Issues - Wolfeboro Community Forums

Has anybody heard who is running for selectman? I know Dwight is done, is Sarah up too?

Let's HOPE so, please, please, please.

Let's hope so what, Dave? You mean we hope Sarah is done too?

Yeah, Tis, that will be the day that Ms. Silk won't run again, giving up her self-promoted "queen bee" status! Not going to happen. After all she is the self-proclaimed "mother of Wolfeboro" eh?

Dwight evidently won't run, health issues I have heard and need to concentrate on his business.

They are the only two up for election in '09. Ginter is up in '10 and Murray and Senecal in '11.

Rumor continues that Marge Webster, former County Commissioner who was linked to improper use of county credit cards and who served on a county commission that was found to be knowingly violating the Freedom of Information Act and the open meeting law, will run for selectman. We have enough issues in Wolfeboro without adding that baggage to our Board of Selectmen!

We need an outspoken fiscal conservative with business experience, like Jerry Thayer, back on the board. Someone who won't hold back his comments "because he/she has to live in this town".

(Note to Moderator, probably time to move this to Wolfeboro Politics forum, eh?)

Sorry, you are right, OC, I started this in the wrong place. I wasn't thinking.
I know, I agree with you, the "queen bee" will never quit. I just wish people would pay attention to what is going on. I did know Dwight is not running. I wondered if Sue will run again? Do you know? I heard of a gentleman who told me he was going to run but that was a few months ago and haven't heard anything since. SOMEONE NEEDS TO RUN THOUGH.
The problem I saw with Jerry Thayer was he went right along with them on the sewer project. While he was on the budget committee, he voted for that whole boondoggle! (the first one) I was very disappointed in him for that. But we do need a fiscal conservative, but after that someone who can convince the rest of them to be fiscally conservative. Problem is, everyone has their own pet projects. I think the only way is to make an across the board 10% cut. I think we would all still live. Wouldn't that be nice for our taxes??? I think with what we save would go a along way.

Tis for Selectman!!!!!!

LOL, oc! How about you?
There are times when I would love to though. I am afraid I would lose it if I was ever a fellow selectman. There are several reasons why I couldn't seriously consider it. I have been trying to talk the other OC into it!

See, I remember you told me to use small letters with your name and capital letters with his name!

Your attention to detail is just one of your outstanding qualifications for the office of selectman.

oc

Whomever runs is not the real problem - the real problem is to get the BOS to stop getting into the minutiae of every Town action. Good grief, we have some well paid and very experienced Town employees - let them do their jobs. The BOS ought to set policy, at a higher and broader level, then let the paid employees use their expertise to enact this policy. It is painful to watch Ch 25 and see a department head have to explain every last whipstitch of a project to a BOS that seems more dedicated to minutiae than the big picture.

At the risk of saying someting inappropriate regarding Ms Silk I will remain silent (but, please, let's hope she doesn't run again).

Amen to no more Ms. Silk.

I totally agree with you on both points, Dave.

Hey Dave, have you given any thought to running for office yourself????????

Hey Ol C - I have a question for you.

Now that the price of oil has gone down does that mean the new contract we signed with the electric provider will go down because it won't cost as much money to create electricity as it didn when their costs were much higher?

Is that just a pipe-dream?

I know the cost of food at Hunters IGA hasn't gone down any. I'm blown away each time I go there to pick something up quickly. It seems to be just a glorified convenient store not a super-market by any means.

I tried to start this as a new thread but couldn't figure out where the link for that was - anyone know?

DF. Hit the forum you want to post it under. Then up in the top left side is the New Thread tag.

BTW. I saw this last post, DF in the forum but it is not under that latest posts for the last 12 hours. I think a lot of posts are getting missed because of the way this all works. I have mentioned this before but noone has respondedd.

Dragonfly wrote:

"I know the cost of food at Hunters IGA hasn't gone down any. I'm blown away each time I go there to pick something up quickly. It seems to be just a glorified convenient store not a super-market by any means."


DF,

This is what Richard Piatt, Publisher, and Thomas Beeler, Editor, of the Grunter said in this weeks Editorial page:

"The danger of being too cautious

In our Nov. 6 issue we published a letter from Wolfeboro resident Rhonda Alden who pointed out how important local businesses are to the stability of the community. "Your local area businesses, and the customers that keep them in business, help create the protective cushion that supports everyone through difficult economic times," she wrote. Her point was that we need to support our local businesses and by spending with them we will help ourselves and our community get through bad times to the inevitable upturn. We agree that now it is more important than ever to support local stores, tradesmen and services and to keep spending at reasonable levels. Rather than hold back on reasonable purchases out of fear for what might happen, we should keep our heads and be positive. It is not only energy prices that are heading down. Adjustable rate mortgages are also adjusting down, home equity rates are dropping and credit card rates are slowly following. Most of us actually have more money to spend."

Now DF, you must support the local community even if you can't afford it. They want you to go deeper in depth by charging and spending more in your local community.

Just who in the hell do Piatt and Beeler think they are? Maybe they make the big bucks and haven't been hurt by wall streets downward trend, layoffs, cuts, foreclosures and many more disheartening events of late, but the average Wolfeborian has been hurt big time and they just don't have anymore spare money to spend.

Shame on the Grunter!

DF, the electric department consultant is buying natural gas futures, the "coin of the realm" where electricity is concerned and hedging (yes that nasty Wall Street term) the Town electric supply. Anything we have bought this fall, which may be higher than current price but I don't know for sure, is locked in for the time period we bought the futures for. I don't think all five years worth has been bought. It is timing the purchases, which is why they use a knowledgeble (we hope) consultant. Just like buying stocks, you gotta buy low to make money, let's hope overall we do well with electric supply. But it is all in the hands of the consultant, there is nobody in Town government savvy enough to understand and predict when to buy. Of course it would be damn nice if they (BOS or TM) kept us up to speed but that is asking the absurd from them, no way will that happen but we did get a very plain note in the bills the other day that your bill will go up 60% for 2009, didn't we?

Wolfe, your reaction to the Grunter editorial was like mine. First I feel no allegiance to supporting town busineses, my first allegiance is getting the most for my money. Just on deli, produce and meat I can more than save the gas to go to Market Basket in Rochester for the bulk of my groceries and just buy eggs, bread and milk here in town. And I get a better and fresher selection. So we go twice a month to MB and it takes care of the bulk. If we need flour, sugar, etc in staples, we stop on the way back at Wal-Mart, no extra gas to do that. You can't buy clothes in town so you have to travel for that too. So I don't use knick knacks and tourist items which eliminates other businesses in town. I do breakfast at Katies and buy subs at Hucks, pizza at Louies and chinese at West Lake. Bradleys is convenient for small purchases but the big box stores are much cheaper for large hardware purchases. So I guess I wonder who Beeler was aiming his comments to help? I did buy a tractor at Wolfeboro Power but was treated so shabbily on the purchase I won't cross their threshold again. I go to Toro dealer in Ossipee.

And as to debt, I feel the editorial was way off base. It is wrong to encourage more deficit spending by individuals. We have negative savings in this country and huge credit card debt. People should buy if they "need" something and can pay for it. People should not buy on credit for something they "want". Talking with my daughter in law today, she works for firm in Sommersworth, their customers are paying so slowly there is no cash for end of the year bonuses, despite this firm having an 18% growth rate this year. My daughter works for Fidelity in Boston and she had some real horror stories about the recent layoffs and the 1700 people to go after the first of the year. Met a guy who works for Timberland, they are going down the tubes. Smart people are on a tight budget right now, trying to put a war chest of whatever savings they can scrape together should they face a job layoff or other financial bomb. Survival of the fitest is a family matter, not a community project. After all figure out how much of our tax base comes from local business. Not much, business tax goes to Concord, meals and room tax goes to Concord, and most of the tax base (some $2,200,000,000) comes from private homes. So how does a business downtown help us during a downturn unless of course you are an employee. Employees are a small portion of town population. I would wager there are as many municipal employees as there are local business employees. And the Town won't go out of busines. This continuing drumbeat of downtown businesses being the "fabric of our community" is a fiction created by the Chamber of Commerce.

Oh and one more thing to think about. Mr. Beeler benefits from advertising revenues, his main profit stream. It isn't from subscriptions I'll warrant. Anyway his revenue rises and falls with local business fortunes so he has a stake in getting us to spend more locally.

I'm afraid I rarely go to Hunter's or Harvest Market as I think the prices are way too high. I usually go to Hanniford's or Wal Mart in Rochester. I've always felt guilty about this but I have to stick to my budget. After reading all of this, I don't feel so guilty.

tis wrote:

QUOTE:
DF. Hit the forum you want to post it under. Then up in the top left side is the New Thread tag.

BTW. I saw this last post, DF in the forum but it is not under that latest posts for the last 12 hours. I think a lot of posts are getting missed because of the way this all works. I have mentioned this before but noone has respondedd.

I'll respond Tis. I've come back to this site to see if something that I had posted had stimulated a response and not even been able to find my own recent post. There is a problem, but I'm not computer savvy enough to know whether disappearing posts occur because of computer, political or other issues.