Gambling in the lakes region?

[Skip]

Originally Posted by fatlazyless

...and help pay for its new www.piercemfg.com $725,000 aerial tower, fire truck, which will be the state's most expensve fire truck....

Nope, not even close...

There are a number of pieces of apparatus around the State, purchased in the last several years, that all retail in the 900k to million dollar range.

Relatively speaking, it appears Meredith was frugal with their purchase, considering what they could have purchased if they had followed in the footsteps of other NH fire departments!

[fatlazyless]

Well ........ Skip, .......right here in Meredith, NH,...... it's definately a case of the very few deciding to spend the money of the very many what with the late night, town meeting, big money, voted spending decisions.

Meredith has a population of about 6200, and about 40% of the residential homes are considered second-home, non-resident housing.

In the presidential election, the town of Meredith voted 1857 for McCain, and 1964 for Obama, for a total of 3821 votes. 3821 is 76% of the Meredith people who may vote.

Take a look at the voting held at the town hall meetings which occur on the second Tuesday night in March, at about eleven - midnight, after a long three-four hour meeting, and you will quickly see that the voter turn-out is drastically diminished. The overall voter numbers is much, much, smaller than in the presidential election.

Many Meredith voters simply chose not to go to the annual town meeting. Why is that? Well, you would have to ask each individual voter. But, it is safe to say that the overall electorate is heavy with older people.

The voter decisions on the big expensive items like the community center, police station, and new fire station were all held at the annual town meeting. The votes were on the order of 145-105, 160-110, and 145-98. Compare these tallies to the recent McCain-Obama vote of 1857-1954, and it is very clear, that right here in Meredith, NH, ........OUR REASONABLE RIGHT TO VOTE ....... is not being served.

[Woodsy]

FLL...

Your kidding right? Your "reasonable right to vote" is not being served??? How so? The town schedules an annual town meeting... (its called an annual town meeting because its held every year at approximately ther same time, posted in the newspapers etc, so EVERY taxpaying resident should be well aware of where & when the meeting is to take place). The residents of the town show up, discuss and vote on all sorts of appropriations. This discussion of opinions takes time, so the annual budget town meetings tend to run long! Especially if there are lots of differing opinions on how to properly appropriate the towns money!

You as a NH citizen and a Meredith resident have the RIGHT to vote! There is no gray area here. "The Few" spending the money of "The Many"? Perhaps if "The Many" cared they would have been there to vote! The "Out Of State" homeowners can voice thier opinion at a town meeting.... even if they cannot legally vote! If someone chooses not participate in the process (for whatever reason, the vote was too late at night, etc etc) it is not an excuse and essentially removes thier opinion/vote from consideration.

Participation is the key... if you didnt want to spend the money on all of these big $$ appropriations, then you should have been more involved in the process.

Woodsy

[LakeSnake]

If you build it they will come.

Then what is left of what NH used to be, will be soon deminished even more.

[VitaBene]

Originally Posted by LakeSnake

If you build it they will come.

Then what is left of what NH used to be, will be soon deminished even more.

Actually, they may not- the casino industry is in disarray rght now. Quite frankly, I think the worst way to balance a budget is off the backs of those that can least afford it. I have done quite a few projects at Foxwoods, I am there early AM usually. The vehicles in the parking lot at that time are generally held together with duct tape and bailing wire.

Between those silly scratch tickets and numbers games, I think NH has enough state sponsored gambling.

[M/V_Bear_II]

Originally Posted by Woodsy

Participation is the key... if you didnt want to spend the money on all of these big $$ appropriations, then you should have been more involved in the process.

As long as you're there, there's no rule that says you have to pay attention to the debate. Go and take a nap until vote time. If you're a light enough sleeper, the commotion of voting procedures should awaken you. If you snore, though, you may be asked to leave because you'd be disrupting the proceedings. Plus, the moderator might get jealous

I will say, however, that it is ridiculous that second-home taxpayers are not allowed to vote on how the town expends their taxes (though it's mighty big of the town to allow them to come and protest). Some "second home" owners spend nearly 6 months of every year in Meredith, and have no say over the services they receive. My grandparents actually spend more time in Meredith than anyplace else (because they travel often during the winter, though MA remains the primary residence) and have for nearly 20 years (they've been property owners for nearly 40, but are more recently retired). They don't seem to mind not being able to vote (at least, they don't carp on it), but I think it's a flaw in the system.

[Waterbaby]

Originally Posted by fatlazyless

Take a look at the voting held at the town hall meetings which occur on the second Tuesday night in March, at about eleven - midnight, after a long three-four hour meeting, and you will quickly see that the voter turn-out is drastically diminished. The overall voter numbers is much, much, smaller than in the presidential election.

Many Meredith voters simply chose not to go to the annual town meeting. Why is that? Well, you would have to ask each individual voter. But, it is safe to say that the overall electorate is heavy with older people.

Do you attend Town Meeting, FLL? I ask because your paragraph about when the voting actually takes place is a little distorted, IMO. First of all, NH statutes* require that all MONEY items be on the warrant first, before any amendments to town regulations and general warrant articles. Therefore, usually the general operating budget is article one, capital-expenditure requests (as in new fire equipment), etc., follow. Second of all, after the warrant article is read and followed by discussion, voting on that article takes place before moving on to the next article on the warrant. Anyone not familiar with the way town meeting in NH works -- be it the old-style town meeting or an SB-2 town -- would think that no voting takes place at all until late at night, according to your statement above, when this is not the case. Don't get me wrong, I realize sometimes discussions on a particular article can become very heated and go on and on before a vote is taken, but this is not the rule.

As far as your second paragraph quoted above, regarding older people -- I don't understand what you are saying. Do the "older people" not attend town meeting because they need to go to bed early, or are they the majority of the attendees because they don't need as much sleep or are retired so can stay up later than the general population? Thanks for your anticipated clarification!

*If I had the RSA numbers handy I would quote them; I am just speaking from personal experience. Ya'll should have seen the first warrant I did for my town when I worked for the town, not being aware of proper form -- I just put the articles on there as they came in.............. luckily I was corrected prior to it being published!