We learn from our mistakes, right?

I never really paid attention to local State Representative races. I've always been interested and paid attention to the bigger races and I've voted in most elections since I turned 18. But I never thought about the local races and to be honest, never really thought that they mattered much.

Cut to 2 years ago, right around this time of year. I was on the PTA here in Newmarket and we were in the very beginning stages of planning the first Spring Auction. A friend of a friend connected me to Adam Schroadter, who owns the Stone Church, one of the places we thought might participate.

Adam and I talked on the phone and had a nice chat. I told him some of my thoughts about the event we were planning and he was very gracious about listening to my ideas. During the conversation, he told me that he was running for State Representative and we discussed that briefly.

And so here he was - a nice guy - young, articulate, owner of the Stone Church. And I admit it, I voted for him.

The problem is that I never asked him about his stances on issues important to me, and that's my fault. I didn't think about it. I didn't think it mattered.

But it does matter.

I started to pay attention to what was happening in the Legislature during the past couple of years and I got very, very concerned.

Here are a few reasons I WON'T VOTE FOR ADAM SCHROADTER in November:

• He voted in favor of HB 217, which added the death of a fetus to the list of acceptable victims under the state murder statute.
• He supported HB 1264--a bill that would have effectively legalized discrimination against gay people.
• He voted in favor of the State's new Voucher-Tax Credit system that will only hurt Newmarket schools.
• He voted in favor of HB 1659 which required doctors to tell women that abortion causes breast cancer.
• He voted in favor of HB 536 which would make gun permits optional.
• He voted in favor of NH's new Voter ID law.
• And according to this article in seacoastonline, Adam was only 70.6% of the time--missing votes on some important bills.

Don't get me wrong, I think Adam is a nice guy and it's easy to look at him and think here's this young person who owns the Stone Church and seems OK. But if you care about public education, equality and choice--he is NOT the person to vote for in November.

Town Council Meeting recap

The main topic at last night's Town Council meeting was the Hydra proposal and I imagine that's why it was standing room only in the chambers.

A lot of people were angry that the public wasn't given the chance to speak, but personally I commend Mr. Nazarro for sticking to the clear agenda and not allowing public comment. This wasn't the first time, nor will it be the last, when the public has had to sit through a presentation and hold it's tongue. I applaud you for following the agenda, even in the face of a hostile crowd. (I also think that it was very gracious to allow the State Senators to speak, but question the grandstanding that brought them there in the first place.)

The problem, as I see it, is that there was a perception that the approval of the Hydra proposal was a foregone conclusion. There are people in town, on facebook, and in the audience last night that assumed the council was prepared to vote on the proposal and sign on the dotted line.

Many people in town are willing to jump on any hint of impropriety--let's face it, we all love a juicy scandal--and the first (or at least, most recent) interaction we had with Hydra was when Mr. Wright complained about "back-room deals." And just like that, the issue became about integrity instead of looking objectively at the claims made by Hydra and Dale Bishop.

But while facebook buzzed with questions/concerns/accusations and people wrote blog posts and letters to the editor, the Town Council continued it's due diligence. As it was said last night, the financial claims made by Hydra couldn't be completely ignored and the TC did the right thing by asking professionals to take a look at the science behind the claims. (Imagine the outrage if the Council had done nothing about this proposal--the facebook comments practically write themselves!)

Personally, I think that the TC needs to do a little self reflection and figure out why this happened. Was it the lack of a Town Administrator? Poor communication? A divided council? Shouldn't we be able to talk about proposals without insulting each other?

I'm looking at this as a trial run for when we have to engage in real debate about our waste water issues, our water needs and of course, our school facilities crisis.

It's clear that we have a lot of work to do.

Vote.

Tuesday is NH Primary Voting Day.

I admit that I haven't paid close attention to the primary races, mostly because I know who I plan to vote for. If you are undecided, you can tune in as the Democratic candidates for Governor debate tonight at 7pm and the Republican candidates debate tomorrow at 7pm.

What happens in Concord directly impacts us here in Newmarket. If you haven't been paying attention, now is the time to start.

Here are copies of the sample ballots for Tuesday:

Right to know.

It's not every day you get a call from the Attorney General's office. I feel special.

According to the investigator who called me today, a complaint was filed by RoseAnne Kwaks and one other person with the AG's office about the voter cards printed by Newmarket Solutions during the March vote. The concerns included people allegedly distributing the cards too close to the entrance to the polls and the cards being left in the voting booths.

Imagine if that energy and those resources (your tax dollars) were spent on finding solutions. 

If it looks like a duck...

I've been thinking a lot about communication lately. I've talked about ways the town can improve communication on the blog and with friends and it's had me thinking a lot about how I communicate with others and generally how I interact with the world. I'm surprised at how much I do online. I watch some of my favorite shows on my computer in the morning. I read news articles on my phone. I'm generally always connected to FB. I sort of use twitter. And I happen to believe that virtual communities can complement and even strengthen real communities.

So I came across this article on Nerdist by a woman who complained that someone she knew didn't have a FB or twitter account. Her question was what are you trying to hide? How can you possibly get a date or a job if you don't have an online presence that can be easily googled? A little extreme, but interesting, I think. And ties into a lot of the things I've been thinking about regarding communication.

This morning I started googling a company called Hydra Renewable Resources and here's the thing. In a world where online presence matters, particularly I would think, to a high tech company that doesn't have a traditional storefront and is talking about spending MILLIONS of dollars in a community, why do they have a barely working website? Seriously, 90% of the links don't work. Is this a reflection of the quality of their work? Why when I do a little further digging do I end up finding an older version of their website (these things never really go away on the internet!!) that says they had a relationship with the same project they denied having a relationship with last night?  Did they think we couldn't figure that out?

But this leads me to my next question: Why didn't the TC figure that out? They had apparently already been briefed on the company in groups of 2 and had ample time to look into it, right? With Josh's help this morning we looked up the company and found a couple red flags within 10 minutes that probably should have already been addressed by the council.

This certainly doesn't mean that we should abandon the idea, but I do think we should proceed cautiously.

We live in a digital world and I believe that your online presence matters---websites, facebook and Linkedin profiles reveal information about you. If you're a company that plans to launch a multi-million dollar project, you should have all your online ducks in a row.

First question

I sat through a presentation last night by Hydra Renewable Resources at the TC meeting. They discussed investing millions of dollars into Newmarket and through that investment, they would help our town make even more money. It sounds like an amazing opportunity.

I googled the company this morning and here's the first question I have:  This company is talking about spending over $100 MILLION dollars in Newmarket---why don't they have a working website?

If I were researching banks and looking for a place to open a personal checking account and I stumbled across a website that looked like theirs --"under reconstruction"-- I would keep looking.

Talk to me

Communication was discussed at the last TC meeting and the council requested input from the community on this issue. One of the reasons I started writing this blog is because I think that communication is an issue in town, so it seemed appropriate for me to respond with my thoughts to the TC and I sent an email right away.

**An important side note--the Councilors have all been very receptive to receiving emails and as I've become more of a presence at meetings, they've been even more receptive.  I mention this because if you have an idea, I STRONGLY encourage you to send that along to the councilors.**

Mr. Zink replied to my email and shared the concern that although the council put it out there at the last meeting, they only received one reply. I don't mean to pick on Mr. Zink, but here's the problem as I see it. The council seems to think that if they ask for input in the course of a 2 or 3 hour meeting, then they have done due diligence and seem to throw their hands up with a "See, no one cares!" type of attitude. 

I have no idea what the viewership is for town meetings, but to expect that you will get a cross section of the community to tune in to TC, SB, Planning Board, ZBA etc meetings on a regular basis to stay informed is crazy. Who has that kind of time? Never mind the fact that these meetings aren't exactly great television (except for maybe the TC meetings). 

Maybe there was a time when you could walk into Joyce's Kitchen and get your local news (or gossip, as the case may be) but our town--and the world-- is different now. Our elected officials need to figure out how to get the information to people. 

It's clear to me that we need other forms of communication. 

I posted the question on the Finding Solutions FB page. People have different opinions about FB, but there are over 400 people on that site and it is one way to reach a lot of people quickly and allow those people to send a quick response. Over a dozen people replied to the question. While that number isn't earth shattering, it's a pretty good response (especially when you compare it to the number of people who responded to the council's request for input---one).

An improved website, Facebook, Twitter, flyers, a newsletter, email blasts and reliable news coverage are some of the ideas that were brought up.  If the goal is to improve the quality of information and engage as many citizens as possible, then the approach can't be one size fits all.