Transcript

Dick:  “The kindergarten.  Umm, is there any motions, or any concerns, any…”

Joe:  “Could I just ask exactly what we’re being asked to…”

Dick:  “I think we’re being asked…”

Steve:  “We need non-binding recommendations that you would like to make to…”

Jim:  “I would phrase it, ‘cause it’s a comment, not an approval, that this is a site, that this is like kind of a conceptual comment, we can polish it, that appears to have certain, umm, constraints as to traffic, safety, access, that we comment on the changes, but think that, that they need to pay particular attention to, xyz, whatever they are, and that the, umm, wetlands issues, umm, are a concern, and to the extent that they’re going to build here they give particular attention to protection of the wetlands values.  Umm, I’m hesitant for us to go into specifics on what those are, umm, because, you know, we’re not the engineers.  But I think we can establish what our values are and what our concerns are, and we can address it.  Umm, there’s been questions raised that I’m going to deem more political, which is: is this the best site of possible sites, I, much as I think we, we would look at it if it’s a clear case.  I think there’s not the evidence before us we’d say this is a clearly wrong decision.  It’s, I wouldn’t make that part of my comments.  Umm, OK I guess that would be the end of it.  And, there may be other issues that you want to add to that list, but I would keep them on a more of a concept basis than in particular engineering.”

Dick:  “I think that’s pretty good guidance.”

Joe:  “The only thing I think I would say would be we could add the word ‘very concerned’”.

Jim:  “No, no, but not, we’re not, we’re not, I, well, we’ve got to decide: are we looking to discourage this or saying go ahead but we…”  

Joe:  “Want to do a straw poll?”

Jim:  “We want to make sure these things are attended to, or looked at.”

Dick:  “Umm…”

Joe:  “I’m not saying that there can’t be a school there.  I’m not saying it’s not possible.  I’m not saying that they can’t work on this design for a long time.  But inherently, they have a lot of hurdles, and a lot of issues, and I, I think that is, if, I think what you (indicated Jim) said pretty much expressed it, except I’m a little bit, maybe a lil’…”

Jim:  “You’re more negative.”

Joe:  “A little bit more negative, not a lot more, but just a little bit more.”

Dick:  “Umm, I gotta tell ya that it’s not a great site, and I’m not happy about the site either, and there’s a lot better sites where a school could go in this town.  They could go if, number 1: the land was available, number 2: the abutters didn’t oppose it, and number 3 and 4 and 5.  But my feeling is, right, right now, this is, it’s obviously what I feel could be the best bang for their buck, right at the moment.  Umm, and that’s always an issue. I’m not happy about the site and I question, I question, the growth potential of that site.  The future growth of that site I have serious questions about.”

Joe:  “I know that’s not really what’s before us, but...”

Dick:  “And it’s not before us, but I think…”

JoAnn:  “But it will be.”

Dick:  “Well, it will be before the whole community.  And it’s not gonna be us that’s gonna be looking foolish, ‘cause they don’t need our approval.  If they build this thing and say ‘Geez, we’ve got 250 kids, we need a new kindergarten’, it’s the school board that’s gonna look foolish.  Not us.”

Bill:  “Well, I’ll tell you, Dick, you know, I mean this went before the voters and the voters said ‘Yeah, let’s do it’.”

Dick:  “Right.”

Bill:  “But you know something?  The voters didn’t have in that voting booth what we have in front of us today.”

Dick:  “Correct.”

Bill:  “We’ve got a lot of wetlands impact, we’ve got a site that, umm, is, is, umm, in my opinion, I hate, you know…I’m for the kindergarten, but boy I’ll tell ya, I am not for this site for this project because I think it’s inadequate in, in a number of ways, from the sheet runoff, from the water that’s gonna get into the wetlands, umm, the salt, umm, just the fact that they’ve gotta dig a big portion of the back of that wad out, and then do something about the runoff there.  I mean everywhere you look at, you get wet thinking about this site.  And to me, umm, I wish there was a better piece of land in front of us because I would love to recommend it all day long.  I, I feel very uncomfortable with this, you know?”

Dick:  “If it was another piece of (unintelligible) before us”.

Jim:  “May I respond on something on a conceptual basis?  One of the reasons, two reasons, why I think the statute is worded that we comment and not approve.  One is the sovereign is not subject to the sovereign’s rules, because otherwise it wouldn’t be sovereign.  The second is there are certain municipal facilities you need to provide, notwithstanding what Prince Edward County did in Virginia in 1959 to avoid (unintelligible) integration – they shut their schools down.  That’s not really (unintelligible).  You’ve got to provide schools in town.  You have a town where there isn’t a lot of good buildable sites.  We can tell a private developer, ‘No you can’t build here,’ and they’ll go to Hooksett.  But you can’t tell your kindergarten, ‘No you can’t build here, go to Hooksett’.  So, to some extent, if there’s not an ideal site, you have to take what’s available and make the best of it, and I, I think that’s, that’s my view of this.”

Dick:  “Right.”

Jim:  “This, we don’t, maybe we don’t like this site, but…”

Dick:  “Exactly.”

Jim:  “…they made a reasonable decision.  Was it the right decision?  Who knows?  I mean you, you never know that.”

Dick:  “And, and every new site, every new site they look at, they have a once-a-year shot of making a deal, of getting it before the voters.”

Jim:  “So, so we’re going to say to them, ‘This is a difficult site.  Do it right’.”

Dick:  “Yeah, (unintelligible).”

Jim:  “And these are our concerns, please address them.”

Dick:  “And that’s how I feel about it, because, yeah there’s other sites, and next March we’ll decide whether whatever group of abutters or residential neighborhood that’s going into, forms and committees, you know, and how that goes and then all of sudden, three years from now, we’re looking for another site, umm, because every year they get turned down because of abutters…”

Bill:  “Unfortunately so true.”

Dick:  “…or lawsuits or anything.  Huh?”

Bill:  “Unfortunately so true.”

Dick:  “Yeah, it is.”

Joe:  “I will say I agree with you.  The only thing is, in this case, I wasn’t overly swayed by the abutters.  All I needed to really see was that site plan.  It’s just, it’s not pretty.”

Dick:  “I understand that, Joe.  But give them another piece of property tomorrow they could go to.”

Joe:  “No I can’t.”

Dick:  “Right, exactly.”

Joe:  “But we’re not really charged with that.  We’re kinda…”

Dick:  “No, I know.” 

Joe:  “You know what I’m trying to say.  I mean, I understand there are difficulties in doing it.  I’m just saying, I would like to make it as clear as we can, without going over the line, that …”

Dick:  “I think Jim’s recommendation is right on the money, personally.  This is a very difficult site, we have a lot of concerns that we’ve expressed with you, and we certainly hope that you’re sensitive to all of them.”

Gossett:  “Patty, did you get them, what, the first part what Jim said, enough to read? “

Patty:  “Yup.”

Gossett:  “Could you read it back?” 

Patty:  “Oh, God, you want me to read it back…”

Bill:  “I wish this town well with this site.  I plan on being here for a while.  I’ll be interested in seeing what happens.”

Patty:  “ ’They need to pay certain attention to the traffic concerns, the safety, the access, and pay specific attention to the wetlands issue.’”

Gossett:  “Thank you.”

Jim:  “I think it’s, what, wetland and hydrology issues I think is somewhat…”

Gossett:  “OK, wetlands and hydrology.  OK.”

Dick:  “And I think it’s fair to say that we, as a board, agree that this is a very difficult site, and…”

Steve:  “And you hope they’ll do it right.”

Dick:  “And we hope that they take care of things.”

JoAnn:  “I don’t think that’s…”

Patty:  “We should we not say ‘recommend’, or…”

Dick:  “No.”

JoAnn:  “…the way to look at this, ‘Oh, we hope everything will turn out OK’.”

Joe:  “What would you want?”

Jim:  “No, I would say, that, that in their design they pay particular attention to these issues.”

Dick:  “To these issues.”

Jim:  “Yeah, yeah, it’s not a…”

Gossett:  “I mean, yeah, it’s kind of, not to belabor something, but you remember when the water precinct came in and we said ‘It looks great, put it up here,’ and they said ‘Oh, that’s a good idea, we’re gonna put it (unintelligible)’…”

Jim:  “Did they?”

Joe:  “Yeah.”

JoAnn:  “The building you mean?  Their new building?”

Joe:  “Yeah.”

Dick:  “I thought they did move it out.”

Joe:  “No.”

Collis:  “No.”

Dick:  They put it right where they wanted it anyway.”

Joe:  “Yeah.”

Collis:  “Yeah.”

Gossett:  “They did.  You’re right.”

Unknown:  (Unintelligible)

Dick:  “All I’ve got to say to the water department…”

Bill:  “You know, I went by there the other day and I said you know something doesn’t look right about this.”

Jim:  “I’m glad we have a corridor study.”

Steve:  “It’s just stuck there right in the middle of the field.”

Gossett:  “So I second Jim’s motion.”

Dick:  “Ok, all those in favor of that motion say ‘Aye’.”

Unknown:  "Aye."

Dick:  “Opposed?”

JoAnn:  “I’m abstaining.”

Bill:  “I’m gonna abstain this one.”

Dick:  “That’s a coward’s vote, (unintelligible).”

JoAnn:  “Well, I kinda like the motion, but I don’t think this is the…”

Steve:  “OK.”

Dick:  “OK.”

Bill:  “We stated our opinion.”

Jim:  “OK.”

Dick:  “(Unintelligible)…, Bill?”

Bill:  “I’m abstaining.”

Dick:  “So we’ve got two abstentions.”

Steve:  “Yup, two abstentions.”

(Unknown):  “5-0-2”

Jim:  “Move to adjourn?”

JoAnn:  “Second.”

Dick:  “OK, is that it, Steve?  You all set?”

Steve:  “Yes.”

Gossett:  “Move to adjourn.”

Jim:  “I second.”

Dick:  “Motion to adjourn.  Ok, thank you.”