Hillsborough

The Hillsboro-Deering school board and the board of selectmen will have a slightly different cast of characters this year.

Terry Cutter took John Segedy’s at-large seat on the school board handily, 514 to 246 in Hillsborough, and 245 to 91 in Deering. Virginia “Ginks” Leiby ran unopposed to represent Deering. Russell Galpin also ran unopposed for school district moderator.

Rob Buker, who ran to keep his seat on the board of selectmen for a three-year seat, won with 360 votes, with David Fullerton trailing with 182 votes and Bob Hutchinson with 176. Bob Fredette, who pulled out of the race after his name was placed on the ballot, got 17 votes.

Russell Galpin was the only name on the ballot for the one-year seat on the board of selectmen, but two other candidates ran as competitive write-ins. Galpin won with 575, with Paris Wells getting 71 votes and Alan Urquhart getting 53 votes.

Elisabeth Olson kept her seat on the planning board with 465 votes, as well as Gary Sparks with 425 votes. With only two three-year seats open, John Kergil lost with only 154 votes.

Richard Baldwin unseated Art Kaufman for the position of trustee of the trust funds, 476 to 178.

The Gov. Smith Mansion, which houses Hillsborough’s Fuller Public Library, will be brought up to life-safety standards as mandated by the state Fire Marshal’s Office, and renovated otherwise to protect it from disintegrating, thanks to Tuesday's vote.

The article on the warrant at Tuesday’s annual meeting passed with a landslide vote of 248 to 29. It needed a two-thirds majority to pass.

With chairman of the selectman Joe Collins and chairman of the library trustees Bob Woolner both extolling the Mansion as a “jewel” of the community, there was very little resistance voiced by the crowd.

Strong sentiment in the crowd for the library inspired one resident to share her childhood memories. Alice Jean Hilliard described going to the library and struggling to open its big thick door when she was a student at the elementary school, when it was located just across the street.

“A town that can raise money for a food pantry to feed bodies can raise money for a library to nurture minds,” Hilliard said.

Article 6 on the Hillsborough town warrant asks the taxpayers to come up with $400,000 to renovate the Gov. John Butler Smith Mansion, which houses the Fuller Public Library, the town’s Civil War and Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) collections.

“It has become clearer in my mind how timely this proposal is,” said chairman of the Fuller Library trustees, Bob Woolner. “With almost everyone I have spoken with in full support of it, it’s the time to go forward with saving this jewel of the community.”

Michael Bruss of Bruss Construction, who has pitched in his time to help the library trustees and selectmen design renovations for the building, observed that the historical structure is nearing the brink of no return if work is not done to save it. Bruss is an advocate of historical structures and has been giving his advice and time free of charge.

A scheduling flaw and a family emergency left the Hillsborough selectmen without a quorum at last Wednesday’s bond hearing for Article 6 on the town warrant, which asks for $400,000 to be raised for life-safety renovations and maintenance on the Gov. John B. Smith mansion on School Street. With only one selectman at the hearing, Rob Buker, the meeting did not qualify as a public hearing, according the Department of Revenue Administration (DRA).

However, the DRA did point a way of complying with the “procedural irregularity” by way of a special town meeting three weeks after the annual town meeting.

The first floor of the mansion houses the Fuller Public Library. The State Fire Marshal’s Office cited the building with life safety violations two years ago, leaving the upper floors of the mansion, which house the Daughters of the American Revolution and Civil War collections, off limits to the public.

The Hillsborough selectmen are proposing a nearly flat budget, inching up only 0.47 percent from last year’s flat budget. At last year’s town meeting, the townspeople voted to keep the budget level funded from 2008, so this budget will effectively be the third in a row with nearly the same figure.

However, if voters pass additional warrant articles, the budget will increase accordingly.

The Police Department budget was decreased by $10,000 to cover the costs of the town legal fees, which are anticipated because the Department has notified the town it will be joining a union.

“Initially, it was up to 0.63 percent, but we cut an additional $10,000 out of the Police Department Budget to cover the increase,” said chairman of the selectmen, Joe Collins. “We have been trying to go with a zero increase. The town employees have not taken a COLA this year. Because they were willing to help, we were able to keep it to half a percent.”

Alan Drew Genovese Ph.D., or as Washington Elementary School students have been calling him, Dr. G, was picked last week as the new Hillsboro-Deering school district superintendent. He will begin July 1.

A search implemented by the SAU board, which began early last year, culminated in the choice last Wednesday night. The SAU board includes members of all school boards in the district – Hillsboro-Deering, Washington and Windsor.

An elementary school teacher for 20 years, and an admistrator for 17, Genovese has spent 37 years as an educator in Massachusetts, and has deep ties to New Hampshire. Born in Gardner, Massachusetts, he summered at his family’s camp on the Rindge shore of Lake Monomonac throughout his childhood. His father, a surgical podiatrist, was the first Chairman of the Board of Franklin Pierce University.

The Hillsboro-Deering deliberative session wasn’t in progress for more than a few minutes before it was under attack with a motion made by resident Leigh Bosse to cut the budget by more than $500,000 to bring it down to the level of last year’s default. His motion was defeated, as was a subsequent motion by school board member John Segedy to cut the budget by $200,000.

Both the default budget and the proposed budget are set at $18,902,276.

Bosse cited dramatic problems with his own business and others in Hillsborough, as well as foreclosures, widespread unemployment and other dire issues resulting from the current recession for his reasons.

“My wife and I had to lay off an employee we had for 20 years. I shed a tear over that,” Bosse explained. “But we wouldn’t have been able to stay business if we hadn’t. The public sector has to learn the same thing.”

“I believe we ought to have a choice,” said resident Dave Fullerton, complaining that the default budget and the proposed budget are exactly the same number, the school board having cut down the proposed budget as a result of feedback from a public hearing.

Hillcat Summer Theatre is rehearsing its first non-summer show, Nunsense, and the five nuns who make up this cast need your help! Hours are very flexible and experience isn’t necessary. Compensation is the eternal gratitude of these five sisters of the poor.

Anyone interested in painting (doesn’t have to be very good—should look like an 8th grader in a hurry), running a follow spot (our veteran stage manager, Jennifer Mayfield, will teach you all you have to know about how to do this), putting flyers and signs up around town or helping with the box office please contact the Producer, Tom Dunn at 428-3544 or dunn.t@comcast.net.

For more information about this, not to be missed, mid-winter musical comedy starring Candie Garvin, Colleen Giffin. Jane Waters, Karen Pellicano and Maureen Menard check out the SAU web site: www.hdsd.org and go to Duncan-Jenkins Trust special projects.

Performances are Feb. 26th and 27th at 7:30 pm and 28th at 2 pm.

In a rare show of recognition of a student group, the Hillsborough Chamber of Commerce honored Hillsboro-Deering school district’s members of DECA, the business club at the high school, as Hillsborough’s Citizens of the year on Saturday night.

In addition to their usual yearly quota of business-related projects over the past year, the DECA membership also took on fundraising for the rebuilding of the Hillsborough Area Food Pantry, which is just in its finishing stages with staff about to move back in and take over the new building. The DECA membership raised $13,000 for the Pantry fundraiser, which in all collected from area residents a total of $100,000 in cash donations.

DECA president Erin Thayer accepted the award for the group and recalled the beginning of its efforts, when Carl Goodman, who spearheaded the fundraiser for the Pantry, came to them with two sets of Red Sox tickets to raffle off for the Pantry effort.

Founder of Farmsteads of New England, Deborah DeScenza, accepted the Hillsborough Chamber of Commerce Business of the Year Award on Saturday night.

Farmsteads cares for developmentally disabled young adults and teenagers, specifically in the area of autism, and currently employs 50 caregivers.

“I’d just like to thank the community for welcoming us, and I’m certainly appreciative of the Chamber of Commerce and all these businesses that have helped put on the dinner tonight,” said DeScenza. “Thank you, again, for this honor.”

Chamber spokeswoman, Meg Curtis, pointed out that among the criteria for being chosen Business of the Year is that a business must show a dedication to making our community a better place by giving back to our community in some manner. Curtis cited the
following ways in which Farmsteads does so: