Whaleback Property Fundraising
This is an update to a previous post: Hopeful Conservation Land Purchase
I’m happy to say it’s almost the end of March and they are at $600,000 to make the purchase! Looks like they made it! Great Job!
More information at: http://www2.beaverbrook.org/Whaleback-Property.html
Last week, I wrote about the NH Town Meetings and this week, I’d like to share some results. I may edit this blog post as the results trickle in.
Hopkington/Webster:
“Webster will likely start sending its trash to the North Country after residents voted yesterday to pull out of the Concord Regional Solid Waste/Resource Recovery Cooperative.The town meeting approved terms reached for Webster and Hopkinton to withdraw as members of the cooperative as of March 31, though their waste still can be handled by the group through April 30.Hopkinton also voted yesterday to withdraw from the cooperative. Hopkinton and Webster share a transfer station.” Read more in Concord Monitor
Londonderry:
“Article No. 15 Appropriation of Land Use Change Taxes to the Conservation Fund and General fund. (By Petition) 80% to General Fund, 20% to Conservation, now 100% to conservation Failed”
Hollis: Voted not to allow mulch and compost to be sold and stored at private businesses (Amendment 6). Read more at Hollis/Brookline Journal. Also…
“In another warrant article, voters said “yes” to cleaning up the weeds that cover Flints Pond, using $106,000 kept in a capital reserve fund for that purpose. Budget Committee Chairman Christopher Hyde gave a detailed presentation about the shallow pond’s many problems – how it has been damaged by septic systems, dug wells, water fowl and poor outflow. The plan to use some hydro raking, herbicides and divers to pluck new growth “is not a viable, sustainable plan,” he said, because the pond is too shallow, weeds will grow back and there will be “constant, expensive maintenance.” The town Conservation Commission also does not support the plan, but three representatives from the state Department of Environmental Services spoke in favor, saying hydro raking will remove floating islands of native plants and herbicides will reduce the milfoil. “We want to give people access to the pond,” said Jody Connor of the DES. “It’s a public water body.” Residents approved it with a show of cards.” Read more in Nashua Telegraph
Francestown: Streetlights were approved and they say they will be different from the originals…I hope fully-shielded to prevent light pollution which affects sleep cycles and energy efficiency. Read more at the Ledger Transcript
Hancock: Less money for the Conservation Commission due to rescinding a 2004 vote that put money into a fund from Land Use Change Taxes. Read more at the Ledger Transcript
I will try to get details of the other town meetings mentioned in the previous post. Certainly, I welcome your comments if you have more information on your town/city meeting conservation topics.
March is town meeting month in NH. Here are some of the items up for decision:
Brookline: The [Brookline] School District is also hoping to save money through a lighting conservation project funded by federal stimulus money and Public Service of New Hampshire. The project promises to save the district up to $30,000 a year on electric bills. — Click to read article in Nashua Telegraph
Hollis: For roughly two decades, the town has eyed a cleanup of Flints Pond, a 49-acre body of water located north of the Nashua River not far from Route 130 and bordered by Flints Brook, Crestwood Drive and Nartoff Road. Indeed, last year, town officials said it would take at least a year for them to make a decision, based on concerns ranging from cost and liability to environmental impact. The Conservation Commission isn’t supporting the article, Chairman Tom Dufresne said, because the cleanup proposal doesn’t address the issue of prevention. “It would need to be cleaned out every several years,” Dufresne said. “It’s throwing good money after bad.” Meanwhile, the Flint Pond Improvement Association has launched a public information campaign on its Web site, www.flintspond.org. The group maintains that the cleanup would benefit not only residents living near the pond, but also anyone inside or outside town looking for a place to go boating or fishing. There is a state boat launch on the pond. Presently, the pond is plagued with milfoil, an invasive weed affecting many bodies of water across the region and state. — Click to read more in Hollis/Brookline Journal
Deering: As town meetings approach, it’s sludge slinging season again. Some longtime vocal opponents to the use of biosolids -treated sewage sludge – are once again expressing concern about the practice, including in a Feb. 22 letter to the Monitor, “Deering, Belmont should ban sludge.” It’s easy to raise concerns. Sewage is not something we like to think about. The fact that it is converted into useful products – reclaimed water that flows into rivers and biosolids that are used on land – can easily be made to sound scary. But careful consideration of the topic leads most people to agree with the findings of the National Academy of Sciences, the Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Food and Drug Administration, university researchers across the continent, the state Department of Environmental Services and every other state environmental agency, that biosolids use on soils, in accordance with regulations, presents negligible risk. — Clicke to read more in Concord Monitor (and a second article)
Merrimack: First, a note of recognition with the Merrimack Valley School District, which for four years has heated its high and middle schools with a wood-burning plant that was built specifically to heat the schools. They had previously been heated by electricity, which made financial sense when they were built in the 1960s but not anymore, so when a major school renovation was okayed in 2006, they decided to built the associated wood-burning plant. It was the first school system entirely in the state to do this – not counting the cross-state-border Hanover district – but the idea has been embraced since by districts covering Winnisquam, Pembroke and possibly Plymouth, which is voting on it at a town meeting. — Click to read more in Concord Monitor
Hopkington and Webster: Hopkinton and Webster residents will be asked to foot the bill for a $350,000 community well after arsenic, lead and other toxic compounds have poisoned the water supply near their shared transfer station. “The (Department of Environmental Services) is convinced that it is contamination from our landfill,” Clough said. “It is no longer debatable.” — Click here to read more in Concord Monitor
New London and Sunapee: Residents in New London and Sunapee will decide next month [March] whether to borrow $8 million to pay for upgrades to the Sunapee Wastewater Treatment Plant. The plant, which was built in 1974 with a 20-year life expectancy, uses inefficient and deteriorating equipment, and “there have been some compliance discharge-permit violations,” said Neil Cheseldine, project manager at engineering firm Wright-Pierce, at a public hearing in New London last night. “It’s hard to operate that plant successfully as it sits,” Cheseldine said. “It’ll get harder.” — Click here to read more in Concord Monitor
Please comment if I missed any other environment-related items up for vote!
March 9th and 10th town meeting times that I could find posted on the web: