A Message from Rep. Elect Kathy Lauer-Rago

Rep. Elect Kathy Lauer-Rago has the following going into newspapers in the upcoming week, so I thought I would post it here beforehand.

To the Residents of Franklin and Hill,
 
Thank you so much for your vote and support on November 2nd.  I will do my very best to represent Franklin and Hill with excellence.
 
I do not take this responsibility lightly and will work hard to bring common sense values back to the Statehouse as I represent you.
 
If there is any issue you wish to discuss with me please know that I am always available.  You can contact me by email at kathyrago4nh@yahoo.com, my website atwww.kathyrago4nh.webs.com or the contact information below.
 
Thank you again.  Let's roll up our sleeves and get to work!
 
Kathy Lauer-Rago
Representative - Elect
53 Maple Square
Franklin, NH
934-8223

Looking for Guest Bloggers Still and an Announcement

Hi, everyone.

I've been busy the past few weeks working as a student teacher at Franklin High School, so it's been tough for me to come over here.  So if anyone is interested in guest blogging in the interim, you are welcome to send me an e-mail with your post and I'll put it up here.

Another announcement: Kathy Lauer-Rago, who's running for State Representative, is going to be on 1350AM (www.wezs.com) from 9:30 to 10:30am this Saturday. Be sure to tune in!

Lauer-Rago's New Website

Kathy Lauer-Rago, who's running for State Representative, has a new website up:

http://www.kathyrago4nh.webs.com/


Check it out.

Addendum to Guest Blogger call

This is an addendum to the last post calling for Guest Bloggers.

For Franklin TEA Party, in particular I'm looking for someone who can blog on the Franklin School District.  Because now that I have an internship at the high school I can't blog on that aspect anymore because, to me, it's a conflict of interest.

Any interested parties? E-mail me at scooppc11@yahoo.com.

Another Call For Guest Bloggers

The next rest of the year is going to be a busy time for me -- in July I'm taking three teaching writing workshops, in August I'm putting together costumes for an anime convention that I'm taking the stepkids to in Nashua, and I'm starting my internship at Franklin High School for a 12 week stint.  Because of that, I'm putting out another call for guest bloggers for Franklin TEA Party and for ConChrist to try to get some more original content in.

Requirements:

Franklin TEA Party: a Franklin resident who can keep up with the local issues affecting Franklin, particularly when it comes to the budget and the school district.

ConChrist: someone who can write about politics on both the local and national level as well as pop culture.  If you prefer one over the other I have no problem with that.

Both blogs are right-leaning political wise.  Neither position is paid (I don't even get paid to do this) but it can look good on a resume.  If interested, let me know at scooppc11@yahoo.com.

Kathy Rago for State Representative!

Kathy Rago announced her candidacy today for the Senate seat for Franklin/Hill District 2.

From her e-mail:

Call me crazy, but I have had enough of wasteful and excessive spending in our state with no accountability.  My hope is that not only in NH, but every state in the country will elect a conservative majority that will have the guts to go in and start making the difficult decisions to cut costs.  We, the taxpayers, cannot afford to have more money squeezed out of us!  We, in NH, and probably every other state do NOT have a "revenue" problem, we have a "spending" problem.

Anytime you want to write a guest post during the campaign, Kathy, feel free to do so. :-)

If you want to write to the campaign and show your support or offer assistance, e-mail kathyrago4nh@yahoo.com.

Budget Passes Again

No surprise there -- the whole thing was basically to just correct an oversight made the first time. And again, Mayor Ken Merrifield tried to veto the measure, which again was overridden. His stance being that the City Council really didn't have the authority to override the cap under the circumstances.

Just remember to vote out the members up for re-election this year, and keep the motivation for the TEA Party alive and well in Franklin.

Budget Committee meetings are coming up starting this month. Like I said last time, there's talk of the council overriding the cap again, so make sure you go to the meetings to see what's going on.

Budget Is Getting Voted On AGAIN

City Council had voted in this budget last summer, but they have to vote on it again because they didn't advertise the budget amounts as required by law, so they have to do it again.

March 22nd, 6:30PM. Public input is encouraged.

I'm planning on being there. Make sure you are, too.

Another Note: Concord Monitor

Last night I got a call from a reporter for the Concord Monitor regarding a story they are doing on the TEA Party movement in New Hampshire. Union Leader did a similar story a few weeks ago (and I got a call from them, as well, in which they just noted that I was a "TEA Party of One"). So when they publish their story I'll post it here.

The Search Begins...

SAU 18 had their meeting last night regarding the superintendent search to replace Jo Ellen Divoll. The Citizen was there to capture it.

Some of the highlights:

-- I didn't realize that the salary was $91,000 for this position.
-- At that salary it will be tough to find someone that meets all the qualifications that residents are looking for.
-- The search will last for three weeks, in which case they'll narrow the field down to three candidates.

Hopefully this time the candidate will be a little more qualified than the last one.

School Superintendent Search Starts March 3

One of the problems with being the only blogger on here who's taking care of an 18 month old and in graduate school is that I tend to miss stuff. Which is why I am going to ask you guys that read this site to let me know when stuff like this happens that I completely miss (or better yet, guest blog for me!).

Jo Ellen Divoll, superintendent for SAU 18 (covering Franklin and Hill), will no longer be the superintendent after this school year. The board voted not to renew her contract last month.

On March 3rd, the search committee will be meeting with the public on the matter so they can start their search. The meeting will be at Paul Smith Elementary School at 7 p.m. Since my little one will be entering the district eventually, I plan on attending this meeting.

Monday Inauguration Address

I tried posting this the other night, but was having some computer issues. Here is Mayor Ken Merrifield's address to the electorate on Monday night.

Father Gagnon, Members of the City Council for 2009 and 2010, honored guests, family, friends, and fellow citizens of Franklin:

Shakespeare thought that “brevity [was] the soul of wit”, but it is also an indispensible attribute for any political leader. I will attempt to make good use of “brevity” tonight.

During my campaign for mayor this fall, a great friend and supporter said to me that “some things really need to change in Franklin. And some things absolutely have to stay the same.” The trick, for us, is to figure out which is which.

I offer to you that, despite our challenges, Franklin is a very attractive destination. Recall the high school seniors from Merrimack who visited every NH city and town this past summer – and chose Franklin as their favorite! Certainly, we are blessed with abundant natural beauty, great community spirit, and a frugal city government, and you should also know that between 2001 and 2008, property values in Concord rose 71% and in Dover about 68%... in Manchester and Rochester they rose about 66%. In Bow, property values gained 44% from 2001-2008.

In Franklin, our property values rose over 90% - faster than the entire state of NH. People are clearly voting with their dollars for this great city. I plead with our city leadership to recognize that greater litigation, greater taxation, and greater regulation will only reverse this positive trend.

So how do we improve (what I like to call) the “best place on earth”? The city council has taken significant action to address great strategic issues and change the city. These plans will be a large part of their efforts in 2010. They will demand the focus and skill of the best professional municipal team in NH to become a reality. And thank God that team is in place here.

Councilors have invested heavily in a new curbside recycling program that will change the nature of a critical city service. It will require the active participation of our residents to succeed.

With a heavy financial effort from our rate-payers and assistance from outside sources, the city will implement a water filtration system that will improve our drinking water quality, ending a decades-long problem in Franklin.

We will also reconfigure the flow of downtown traffic – opening the Franklin Falls Mill District to auto traffic and subsequent capital investment and economic growth.

On a separate, but I think parallel, track with the Council, I have been very grateful for the widespread interest in the Mayor’s “Alcohol and Drug Abuse Task Force”. Thanks to the efforts of a tremendous volunteer group that seems to grow every day, our city may soon benefit from significant grant funding to combat a long-standing social problem that plagues not only Franklin, but NH and a nation beyond --- and may perhaps make Franklin a dramatic example of improving social health.

Also, a few weeks ago, I was delighted to recognize and proclaim a “sister-city” for Franklin: Pedro Afonso in the state of Tocantins in Brazil. I look forward to working with Mayor Chagas and Governor Enrique Amorim in 2010 – to explore what bonds we can create in science, commerce, and through our schools.

And last year I challenged to the City Council and the Planning Board to contact a successful business outside Franklin and invite them here. I also asked them to adopt a local business and learn their needs.

This year, I would like to expand the effort and really “go for broke”. I want to ask every citizen of Franklin to become an ambassador to a new business. Reach out to a potential employer for our people and ask them to “Choose Franklin”—where the trend-breaking example & our largest employer is Webster Valve…. now celebrating an amazing 50 years of operation and the return of manufacturing jobs to Franklin from China.

And let us all commit to support our Franklin businesses whenever and wherever we can. I hope that 2010 will see a concerted effort by the business community and our citizens to do exactly that, because it will benefit all of us if we do.

And finally, let the change that is coming this year in our school district mark a beginning-- and not an end—knowing always that student achievement is the true bottom line. And that Franklin students are capable of delivering the very best results. We know this to be true.

In closing, I hope you will allow me to rephrase Ronald Reagan a bit, when I say that we are “too great a [city] to limit ourselves to small dreams… Let us renew our determination, our courage, and our strength… our faith and our hope… We have every right to dream heroic dreams.”

So let’s dream “big” for 2010, Franklin, so that the words of Isaiah about Jerusalem will be true for us as well: “… [That your] heart shall thrill and be enlarged; …[because] the wealth of the nations shall come [to you].”

I wish you all a happy New Year with my best wishes, and may God bless our great city.

Rogers Farris to retire

Franklin High School principal Alice Rogers Farris announced last night that she was going to retire from her position.

After a brief thank you, the Franklin School Board accepted, with regrets, the retirement of High School Principal Alice Rogers Farris Tuesday night.

Farris came to Franklin High School at the beginning of the 2007-2008 school year and previous to that served as a member of the Hill School Board. She taught French at the Winnisquam Regional High School.

In her two years as principal, Farris brought Freshman Academy — a program designed to ease student transition from middle to high school — to Franklin but was also the subject of controversy when she was placed on administrative leave this past September.

I wish her well.

Now all we need is those minutes...