As Douglas Wilkins, attorney for AT&T, made the company’s case to the Antrim Zoning Board of Adjustment (ZBA) on Tuesday for a cell tower to be installed on High Street to fill “gaps” in service to the town, the proceedings were interrupted twice by the musical ring tones of cell phones ZBA members had neglected to turn off. The ZBA will be deliberating on the proposal this Tuesday.
“Well, you have service,” AT&T Attorney Douglas Wilkins joked when ZBA member John Giffin’s cell phone rang.
The telecommunications company wants to install a cell phone tower in Antrim to fill gaps in service to the town. AT&T Public Affairs spokesman David Mancuso could not say whether the center of town, where the meeting took place and the cell phones rang, is one of the areas in town that is described as having a “gap” in service, but he did provide a definition of the term.

Zeth Kenney, owner of Graceline Stoneworks, generously donated a granite bench for the Sean Powers Memorial Garden, which has been placed at the Hillsboro-Deering Middle School. (Courtesy photo)

Hillsborough County District One Representatives Gil Shattuck, Ron Mack and Phil Harvey metRichard Krapohl chats with Rep. Ron Mack at the gathering held at Franklin Pierce Homestead. (Michael Pon photo) with area residents on Monday to field questions about the new state budget. The forum was held in the ballroom at the Franklin Pierce Homestead in Hillsborough and was sponsored by the Fuller Public Library as a nonpartisan event.
According to Mack, the state’s biannual budget has gone up nearly three percent since the last one passed in 2007.
“Hardly anyone was happy with the budget. It was somewhere between like and dislike, said Shattuck. “But if we voted it down, it would be chaos.”
“This budget hurts everybody in the state, every department,” said Mack. “There just isn’t enough revenue to support the things we’ve become accustomed to.”

The Henniker Board of Selectmen heard again from Jennifer McCourt of McCourt Engineering on behalf of Joseph Morette, who is planning to build a 37-unit townhouse/condominium development in Henniker at last Tuesday’s meeting.
McCourt approached the board looking for them to approve a proposal to widen 875 feet of Newton Road, on which the development will be located, from 16’ wide gravel road to a 20’ paved roadway.
The Board of Selectmen approved the proposal unanimously, 5-0.
Newton Road is a dead-end, Class V, town maintained road that intersects with Western Ave. As part of the Zoning Board Special Exception approval, Newton Road needs to be upgraded to a 20’ wide paved travel way with three foot gravel shoulders to service the proposed development.
Prior to the meeting, McCourt had received approvals from the Zoning Board of Adjustment, the Fire Department, and the Highway Superintendent.