Officials from both Rockingham and Bellows Falls have discussed issues around the provision, cost, and delivery of emergency services.
At a Sept. 29 joint meeting of the Village Trustees and the Rockingham Selectboard, the two boards tabled a discussion on whether Rockingham and Bellows Falls should enter into a mutual aid agreement with Charlestown, N.H., which opted out of Southwestern New Hampshire District Fire Mutual Aid, based in Keene, N.H., and is using its own dispatcher.
At issue is the rise in costs that their opting out will cost surrounding towns.
Mutual Aid Chief Philip Tirrell said Charlestown responders have set up a mutual aid agreement with North Walpole, but Walpole, if they respond, will charge for services.
Area residents urged the state Transportation Board to provide more consistently marked and maintained bike lanes throughout the Connecticut River valley, and they urged access to public transportation for poor and rural residents. In the first of six public meetings across the state this fall, the board met with...
Selectboard set to pick architect for Town Hall renovations WESTMINSTER - The Selectboard says 18 prospective architectural firms and designers responded to a request for proposals initiated in August for an architect to do proposed renovations to the Town Hall. Of that number, eight submitted proposals. The Selectboard says...
There are three commercially zoned areas in Westminster that are not serviced by municipally-owned water and sewer. The revised 2015 Town Plan 6.1, up for discussion and approval on Oct. 6, pays more attention to improving access to water and sewer services within those commercial districts. An aging water and sewer infrastructure owned by the Village of Bellows Falls is coming due for long-delayed upgrades and maintenance, and the same system has been serving the villages of Gageville and North...
Municipal manager Willis “Chip” Stearns III told village trustees last week that ground water was leaking into the two new buildings constructed during the Phase I upgrades at the water plant. Stearns asked the trustees to grant him authority to award a bid before winter to install drainage and correct the seepage. The trustees unanimously approved. Stearns said the cost of repairs will be funded by the RF3-308 (Water) bond. In January 2014, the Water System Improvements (SRF Loan No.
Fire safety agreement rescinded ROCKINGHAM - Municipal manager Willis “Chip” Stearns III notified the Selectboard that he had received a notice from the Division of Fire Safety that the agreement between them and the Bellows Falls Village has been rescinded because of former Chief William Weston's retirement in August. Stearns did note that three of the full-time staff are interested in pursuing the training to become fire code inspectors and this is being investigated. In the meantime, all fire code...
As a tenacious merger committee enters its ninth month of meetings to amend the town charter for a town merger that has been considered periodically for decades, yet another stumbling block appears to have stalled the process. Having gotten through amending the water and wastewater utilities in Chapter 9 of the town charter chapters in June, the committee in July found its biggest challenge in Chapter 10, which deals with the fire and police departments. Chapter 10 also deals with...
Windham Superior Court Judge John Wesley has sided with the town of Rockingham in a lawsuit against TransCanada, affirming the Grand List valuations set in 2012, 2013, and 2014 for the utility's hydroelectric facility. “The Court finds that the Town has produced sufficient reliable evidence of its fair market value assessment of the Bellows Falls hydroelectric facility at $130,000,000, yielding the value of the portion in Rockingham at $108,495,400,” Wesley wrote in the Aug. 21 court ruling. The company has...