Lakes Region Conservation Corps

[Tofu]

Originally Posted by Descant

"32,000 jobs lost" piqued my curiosity. There's some difference in concepts here. It appears AmeriCorps gives money to several NH organizations such as Mt Washington Observatory, LRCC, LRCT, Squam Lakes Assoc., etc. for example. AmeriCorps is mostly staffed by 500 people in Washington DC and they rely on the local groups for local management. The "members" who do the work are not paid, although they get some living expenses. They get ~$500 a month, called a "Segal Education Award" when they complete either the 6 month or one year training program. It appears there were 1900 such trainees in NH in 2024. So yes, there's some valuable manpower here and some undefined grants to local organizations, but unpaid trainees are not 32,000 jobs lost. Nevertheless, some loss to our local programs. I'm sure they will work hard to make up the difference. The annual budget for AmeriCorps is about $1.5 billion.

LOL, you're correct. It all depends on which side is telling the story, and who is the better story teller. TRUTH is somewhere in the middle.

[NH.Solar]

FlyingScot,
There are no permanent homes on the pond, but my neighbor across the way has a small newly built cottage with a composting toilet and power and I have a 7' square Rubbermaid shed with a bunk and small off-grid solar system. Neither of us has running water. We also each have 16' docks on our opposite shorelines, but otherwise there are no other structures. Both of us have large acreage lots and a significant amount of shoreline, but the pond side lots are otherwise either landlocked or in permanent conservation and any future developement is highly unlikely.
The two of us alone have put up all of the the funds needed for the purchase of the dam and 12 acres that went alone with it, and the State fees and Town taxes. The dam lot is in current use so the Town taxes aren't much at all, but the State fee and burden of possible needed maintenance at some point is already considerable and a little scary). The doubling of the State fee will put the total cost in an area where maintaining the dam may become unreasonably expensive. Again, Jackson Pond is only one of many privately maintained dams that will be affected by the doubling of the State tax and in most cases losing these small bodies of water will not have a positive impact on the natural beauty the State of NH.
The Town of New Hampton has a right of way for the road over the dam, but doesn't contribute a cent toward the costs for the dam maintenance. One of the local conservation groups (I'll leave them unnamed) also has a 2 acre lot permanent easement on one of the Jackson Pond waterfront properties, but they haven't yet contributed a cent either. It is obvious that neither the Town, the State, nor any of the conservation groups have any interest in participating in the cost of owning and maintaining this dam
I've created small a small parking area on either side of the dam and the side where the Friends of JP sign is features an easy small boat carry-in for the occsional kayakers and fishermen that visit, so please do drive by and enjoy it sometime soon ...before the new and ill conceived doubling of the State Dam fee puts this, and so many other small ponds, now possibly in jeopardy. Hopefully either the Senate or the Governor will see the error and possible negative effects of the this new tax and kill the increase before the budget is passed. I've written to both offices about the issue, so we'll see...