Hopkinton

The Hopkinton Selectmen discussed a November water testing that revealed exceedances of lead and 1,4-dioxane in four wells on Penacook Road at last Monday's meeting.
Two other wells tested at the same time in this area did not reveal exceeding levels of either lead or dioxane.
The town has recommended the people using these wells do not ingest or cook with the water, and is supplying these households with bottled water for those uses.
Chairman Scott Flood highlighted that the exceedances in dioxane is a result of state levels changing. Hopkinton is one of two towns who are dealing with this problem.
The other town, Newmarket, hasn’t seen contamination in portable wells, just their testing well.
The Department of Environmental Services would like to see both Hopkinton and Newmarket expand their scope of testing by increasing their frequency and testing a wider radius.
Flood noted that they were expected DES to make these requests, and added money to the budget to do so. However, the Selectmen did not expect an incident like this.

Last Monday it was announced that the United States has officially been in a recession since December of last year. As such, the state of the economy was a point of discussion at the Hopkinton Selectmen’s meeting Monday.
“We all know the economy’s been bad, but I believe the stock market is 100 percent psychological, there’s very little basis on scientific fact. And just the word that we’re in an official recession is going to cause us to be even worse. So this budget as it stands is fine now, but I think we’re in for worse times,” Selectman Chris Lawless stated.
Lawless reported back concerning the past week’s Budget Committee meeting. He relayed to the Selectmen that the Budget Committee is happy the budget is low, but they question the economy and what will happen next year.
A focal point of the Budget Committee meeting was the Hopkinton School Budget. As discussed, the school’s proposed budget boasts a net increase of 3.77 percent over last year’s.
“Based on a $15 million budget, the 3.77 percent increase amounts to a $565,500 increase over last year,” pointed out Chairman Scott Flood, noting these were just back of the hand figures.

The base tax rate for all of Hopkinton has gone up from $21.05 in 2007 to $22.19 in 2008, an increase of $1.14 per thousand of real estate property value. In addition to that, the Hopkinton Village rate went up 30 cents, making for a total increase of $1.44, and the Contoocook Village rate went up $1.15, making for a total increase of $2.29.

The Town portion of the base rate rose 41 cents from $4.04 to $4.45.

The School portion of the base rate rose 38 cents from $12.73 to $13.11.

The State School portion of the base rate rose 11 cents from $2.08 to $2.19.

The County portion rose 24 cents from $2.20 to $2.44.

Incumbents Governor John Lynch and Paul Hodes won in all area towns, with U.S. President elect Barak Obama and U.S. Senator elect Jeanne Shaheen losing in both Weare and Washington, with Shaheen also losing by five votes in Windsor.

Obama won 1,506 to Republican contender John McCain’s 1,002 in Hillsborough, 1,506 to 1,002 in Henniker, 852 to 635 in Antrim, 2,394 to 1,447 in Hopkinton, 580 to 420 in Bradford, 748 to 451 in Hancock, 399 to 369 in Bennington, 538 to 498 in Deering, 595 to 490 in Webster and 67 to 59 in Windsor.

In Weare McCain won against Obama 2,520 to 2,109, and in Washington 316 to 309.

Shaheen won 1,510 votes to Republican incumbent John Sununu’s 1,172 in Hillsborough, 1,320 to 1,064 in Henniker, 803 to 614 in Antrim, 2,190 to 1,571 in Hopkinton, 540 to 414 in Bradford, 686 to 485 in Hancock, 370 to 353 in Bennington, 504 to 477 in Deering, and 556 to 467 in Webster.

Sununu won 2,384 to 2,520 in Weare, 312 to 278 in Washington and 62 to 53 in Windsor.

The race for the District 7 state senate seat is between incumbent Harold Janeway (Democrat) and newcomer Andy Sanborn (Republican). District 7 has 19 towns, including Antrim, Hillsborough, Henniker, Weare, Warner, Bradford and Webster.Harold Janeway has been seen campaigning along with other democrats in various towns throughout his district. (Michael Pon photo

In a year when the state government is facing major budget cuts to make up for shortfalls in revenue, such as the $40 million shortfall in the business profits tax, Janeway and Sanborn are focused on what the best course is for New Hampshire to meet its budget needs.

Janeway, retired from 45 years in the investment business, is open to all options at the moment.

A Memorial Garden was installed at the Hillsboro-Deering Middle School on Friday as a tribute to Sean Powers, who was killed two months ago while riding his motorcycle home from his night-shift with Hopkinton Police Department.Peter Powers Sr. works alongside Candy Labree of Fireside Farms Landscaping to install his son's Memorial Garden. (courtesy photo) Sean was not only a Marine, an Iraqi War veteran and a Hopkinton Police Officer, but was also a very well-loved and dearly remembered student in the Hillsboro-Deering School District. He graduated in 2002.

His mother, Marilyn Powers, works as a nurse in the Middle School. His father, Peter Sr., worked with volunteers throughout the warm and sunny day to make the Memorial Garden a reality.

Megan Hurley, a Middle School teacher who knew Sean as a student, spearheaded the project, engaging honor students from the high school, middle school students, parents and other volunteers, including Fireside Farm Landscaping with the installation.

Hundreds of bikers gathered in Hillsborough on Saturday to honor the memory of Sean Powers, a Hillsboro-Deering graduate, Iraq veteran and a newly appointed Hopkinton police officer who tragically died in a traffic accident in August, when his Harley Davidson motorcycle was hit from behind on Rt. 202.
“There were 304 bikes registered, not including passengers,” said event organizer Russ Fuller. “We left the school and went up to Waterville Valley, about 80 miles away. We had lunch there, where we barbecued.”
The caravan of motorcycles and other vehicles trailing behind them, taking pictures and videotaping the ride was so large, Police Chief David Wheeler of Hopkinton had to use his influence to make for them.

With a touch of autumn already in the air, a handful of Hopkinton residents are making sure their neighbors will be ready when winter’s grip returns to area residents and their heating bills.
Spearheaded by Mary Congoran, the Wood for Warmth wood bank has been created, allowing residents in need to collect firewood for the upcoming winter. Though still in its fledgling stages, Congoran said she hopes to name the bank after fallen Hopkinton police officer Sean Powers.
Thanks to the generosity of Steve Clough, Congoran said, the bank has been set up at the Hopkinton/Webster transfer station and will operate according to the station’s hours. People who need wood will have to call Hopkinton’s Human Services department to obtain a voucher and bring that voucher to the transfer station.
More than anything, though, Congoran is encouraging everyone to make sure that their neighbors are well taken care of this winter.

Leon Kenison, a 37-year veteran of the New Hampshire Department of Transportation (DOT) and a current selectman in Bow, will begin his role as the new Hopkinton Town Administrator on Oct. 6. He was picked from an original pile of applications that was whittled down first by reviews from the town department heads, and then by the selectmen.

“The nice part of it for us, obviously he is very well experienced in government, and government management, even though our town is smaller than the DOT, and he has a number of years under his belt as selectman in Bow, so he knows what selectmen need from an administrator,” said interim Town Administrator and Hopkinton resident John Boatwright. “You just couldn’t paint a better picture.”

Boatwright added that Kenison responded to an inquiry as to why he wanted to continue to pursue municipal work, considering he retired from the DOT several years ago, by saying, “I retired from the DOT, painted my house, looked at my dog and said: I’m not ready to retire.”

Kenison has lived in the area for 45 years, either in Concord or Bow.

After two years of researching class requirements and class rank, the Hopkinton administration presented their proposed policy changes to the wider community in the Maple Street School cafe last Tuesday evening.

Rumors have abounded in the past couple years that Hopkinton may do away with class rank completely, however the administration has steered away from that. The new proposal is that class rank will be calculated for scholarship application requirements, specialized programs, and determining valedictorian and salutatorian.

The aim of this compromise is to reduce or eliminate the disadvantage a class rank can cause.

"Our hope is, when it helps we use it, when it hurts we dump it," offered high school Principal Steve Chamberlin.

Currently, class rank is attached to each transcript universally. If the school adopts the policy proposal as is, the guidance department will use their discretion to attach a student's class rank to their application if they believe it will benefit the student.