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Normal Turnover, Or Unsafe Working Environment?
Storm Causes Some Disruptions, But Life Carries On
Bristol Election Results
Three of the seven towns in the Newfound Area School District, believing that “Smaller, more agile districts can respond better to the needs of modern education,” are looking to form a special-purpose school district that would serve as its own school administrative unit.
House Bill 349 would allow the towns of Bridgewater, Groton, and Hebron to withdraw from SAU 4 in a continuation of their move toward independence. They are looking at expanding the Bridgewater-Hebron Village School to serve kindergarten through Grade 8, although the legislation allows them to serve K-12 if that is what voters in the three towns prefer. Otherwise, they would tuition the older students to another school district.
If the measures pass at a future town meeting in each of the towns, there would be a special meeting of voters in the withdrawing district to elect one school board member from each town. The new board then would organize and develop plans and policies for the newly formed cooperative school district, and propose an initial operating budget.
Normal Turnover, Or Unsafe Working Environment?
The Belknap County Sheriff’s Department has experienced a 44 percent turnover rate since the re-election of Sheriff Bill Wright in November. Former department personnel claim a “psychologically unsafe” working environment is contributing to the high rate of departures. Wright maintains that turnover is normal after a contested election and that the complaints are part of a lingering “political cloud.”
It was in part to address those perceptions that Wright brought in former Bristol Police Chief Jim McIntire as his chief deputy. “[T]he retention portion is what I think that Jim McIntire is going to help me to do, is get us to be able to retain people and keep that positive professional growth going. A good number one needs a good number two, and that’s exactly what I find in him,” Wright said in an earlier interview.
Wright also hired Rich Mann and Doug Trottier of Belmont as part of his effort to bring in more “career professionals … who look beyond just working.” That has led to a perception of a political quid pro-quo, since McIntire, Mann, and Trottier supported Wright during the election. Since then, Trottier, as a state representative, has introduced HB 357, which would double the term of office for Belknap County attorney, register of deeds, treasurer, and sheriff.
Two former special deputies, Richard Grenier and Roy Roberts, say they were dismissed from their positions due to their involvement and public support of Wright’s opponent, Mike MacFadzen, during the 2022 sheriff's election.
Storm Causes Some Disruptions, But Life Carries On
A mere three inches of snow fell in downtown Bristol during the March 14 Nor’easter, but other parts of the state received substantially more. Interstate 93 in the area of Londonderry was shut down for about an hour when a tractor-trailer unit clipped low-hanging power lines that were weighted down with snow and another tractor-trailer became disabled after striking the downed lines.
State Police Troop B responded to several crashes and vehicles off the road during the storm.
While many towns postponed their town meetings because of the storm, others carried on. Although Henniker lost power, a generator allowed voting to proceed closely to normal. Voters in Ashland cast their ballots in a test run of a machine made by Clear Ballot, and Londonderry voters tested a machine from Dominion.
Bristol Election Results
Robert Glassett and Scott Sanschagrin were elected as selectmen during Tuesday’s election with 226 and 222 votes, respectively. The third candidate, Steven Coffill, received 111 votes.
The other races were uncontested and all of the zoning questions passed.
Bristol voters chose Joseph Maloney over Randall Kelley as the town’s representative on the Newfound Area School Board, 255-85; and Michael Delaney over Fran Wendelboe of New Hampton, 148-136. Those results are not final, as Bristol is only one of seven towns voting in the Newfound Area School District. The final results are not expected until late this morning when all of the towns have had a chance to get their results to the School Administrative Unit 4 office.
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