murphy's
 

saw a lot of police presence today at murphy's by moultonboro neck rd at 12:30 or so , at least 5 cruisers. anyone know what happened?

It was a civil standby caused by a left over issue from the night before.

...what is a civil standby?

Let me Google that for you.

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=civil+standby

....Thank You

Five cars for that???
Who lives up in there, Chuck Norris?

If it involved the retreival of firearms than no, that wouldn't be considered an excessive response. The operative word being "if" as I am not familiar with that particular situation.

While the excellent Google search provided specifically mentioned deputy sheriffs, most law enforcement agencies in the State will provide this service if it is germain to their jurisdiction.

There are more police than residents in Moultonboro :D

What's "Murphy's?" Is that the store on the corner??? :confused:

And DON'T go over the posted 30 mph on the straight through "Moultonborough village" They'll go out of their way to pull you over............Been there done that............:(

They love to get you coming down the hills on the Neck Rd too... Just when you pick up a little speed

It's downtown and not a drag strip. I think some folks are finally learning.

Downtown , that's a joke right ? There is no downtown Moultonborough just a speed trap area designed to make visitors go to Maine for vacation and manned by a town with more money then they possibly need so they hire a police force big egnough for Manchester

Geez, I know it has been a long winter, no snow, lack of recreation, and we are all edgy, but really :eek:

The adjacent motel has been rumored to be a drug activity area. MoBo is sensitive to the NH heroin epidemic, as it is part of it!

A possibility for the "congregation".

While it may appear that our police department is oversized, it takes 30 minutes to go from Long Island to the Suissevale/Tuftonboro end of town. There are generally 2 officers on at night, 3 during the day.

The chief has definitely reduced overzealous speed limit enforcement.

"Downtown" is also home to our two schools.

I still will never forget the day that I was riding my motorcycle past the Central school on 25 a bit over the limit and was passed by a bunch of guys in a mini-van who were obviously in town for bike week. I wish one of Mboro's finest had witnessed that!

In a world where seemingly EVERYONE seems to speed and tailgate, I'm fine with a little overzealous speed limit enforcement.

Sent from my XT1528 using Tapatalk

Moultonboro Country Store, the church, the flashing light - that's not downtown???:D

As Downtown as we're getting!!

I agree! I like the size of our downtown. A little bit country is fine with me. That is one of the reasons why I love living in Moultonborough so much!

Alton is not much better...
 

You can walk the length of Alton's downtown area in about 2-3 minutes. It is what I like about it.

What I really like is I can say I went uptown (where town hall is) or down to the Bay.

Is this a great area or what!!!!

Back to Murphy's.:)

Mpd
 

We got a new Police Chief in Moultonberry a couple of years ago. He is trying to channel his "enthusiastic" officer's energy away from speed traps to crime prevention. We can see a lot more patrols on the back roads keeping an eye out for activity around the summer homes that are unoccupied for the winter. Their attitude has really changed. Nice job Chief Witherspoon.

Misty Blue

The new police chief steers his crew to "serve" with an eye to sanity. The department is required to enforce "the law". However, how it's done, is how the chief brings an enlightened approach.

He is, also, very involved in trying to help remedy the opioid epidemic.

Downtown Moultonborough ... wait till the Community Center gets built with the proposed entrance/egress on Rt.25.

Then, factor in the soon-to-be-built Dollar Store, just down the street, "intersection" at Blake road, right where the schools and buses will jockey for position. Can't wait for the DOT requiring lights there.

Maybe DOT will require a sidewalk, and a crosswalk at the Community Center entrance/egress. That'll really improve traffic flow on RT.25, the only central NH, east/west major route! Sure ...

Why not have another "stacked" (in the stacked-deck sense) appointed committee, to figure that out. They'll probably come out with a roundabout. Ahhh ... the sophistication of Moultonborough town politics.

Everyone should go to the Moultonborough Town Meeting. It beats going to a Barnum and Bailey circus!

Unfortunately, not far from the truth...

Yep, all stuff we don't need. It will look like the Weirs soon.

Good to hear Just one comment I'd like to make about your statement. He's the chief, the boss, he doesn't need to "try" to channel anything, you (he) sit the officers down and "tells" them the way it's going to be.

Maybe
 

That sounds good on paper but it is not reality.

A chief can set the tone and tell his men what he wants to see but ultimately it is subject to the judgement and character of the people he has working for him to determine the result.

A chief cannot be there to make every decision such as when a situation warrants an arrest, when a traffic stop results in a ticket being written, or when a vehicle needs to be towed. For example: A chief cannot legally tell his officers to ignore traffic violations, even if it is for one mile per hour over the speed limit.

Every situation an officer encounters from an automobile accident to a domestic incident requires a thoughtful response. In most cases the initial officer on the scene sets the solution into motion on his or her own without the direct input of a superior. Some are better than others at determining the appropriate response.

As it is in many situations in life, the outcome is determined by the judgement and experience of the people involved.

Agreed
In my 25 years of firefighting/EMS I came away believing this.
A chief is only as good as his deputies. The deputies are dependent on their captains. The captain is as good as his/her lieutenants.The lieutenants are only as good as their firefighters.
In the end...sh@t rolls uphill.

Locals know, now they can just cover their budget with tourist money

Hopefully no Barney Fife.:laugh:

With a population of 4000 , with a good number going away for the winter and a low crime rate , that's 4 cops needed.
That's not egnough for a professional force. And who would want to work there . Why don't they use county sheriffs more in new hamp like othe states in the country and get a more professional group

Most areas in the country that rely on county sheriffs rely on them because there are no incorporated towns. Those folks live in the "county". When you like individual towns as NH love where the avg. population per town is about 3,000 it is costly to maintain all of the services each town wants. They need little but want a lot.

Chief Wetherbee retired as Chief of Police of the Concord, Massachusetts Police Department in January, 2010 where he was Chief for 17 years and had a 33 year career in the department.

The above was a blurb copied from Moultnborough Speaks ( blog). I have interacted with him. He has certainly toned down the focus on speed enforcement and getting the officers out in the neighborhoods.

The chief is a good guy, I see him out on Patrol quite a bit, Every encounter i have had with MPD has been pleasant.YMMV

The NH way
 

I always get just a little insulted when people move here because it's a great place and then want to do things "like we did back home".

Chief Len Wetherbee is doing an outstanding job - some say he is the best chief the town has ever had. There are several reasons for the size of the force:

- Very large geographic territory.
- There are more two person patrols due to security.
- Why would you rely on a deputy sheriff to travel from say Ossipee to Long Island in anything under an hour?

He has moved away from the Rambo style policing prevalent in many towns to a more community oriented philosophy. The results have been excellent.

Plus, don't forget policing is a 24/7 365 days a year operation. 24 hours a week x 7 days = 168 hours a week to cover divided by 4 officers = 42 hours a week per officer. Throw in vacation time and you can see how 4 officers is probably the bare minimum to provide adequate coverage.

It does bother me that a police chief, or any civil servant for that matter, can retire so young with full benefits and then immediately take on another police job. This shouldn't be allowed. If you retire from one police chief job and start collecting benefits you should not be able to jump to another municipality.

I believe 4000+/- is the year round population, when including those who "go away for the winter" the population balloons dramatically. There are 4,900 housing units alone in town according to the Census. Even assuming a conservative 2 people per house that increases the seasonal population substantially. I know our camp, like many, rarely only has 2 people on any given weekend May-October.

Unfortunately, I think in a town where the population varies so substantially from one season to the next, you have to staff and plan for the max. When it comes to emergency services, I would certainly rather be over staffed than under staffed. Especially in a town with the tough geographical layout that Moultonboro has.

Do you feel the same way about Military retirement pensions?

Wow
 

Here we go again, I feel tension in the air :laugh:

The full population figure is just 60 to 90 days a year , MAX , hire a couple part timers .
The double dipping is a concern and mentioning military retirees in the same post is designed to make it seem it is not PC to question the subject.
Truth is people retire from the military early because they are no longer capable to safely handle themselves in a conflict .
The early police retirements are more a tax payer rip off . These people retire and grab a sizeable pension then accept a similar position with the same requirements a few days latter , how is that justified ?
And don't jump on me just because I question police policies ,

Questions?
 

That brings up some interesting questions:

How many years do you think someone should have to put in before they can retire with a full pension?

Many large companies (General Motors, Nynex, Verizon, Etc.) have given early retirement and pensions to their employees. Would you restrict those employees too?

How would you determine what positions the retired could hold after retirement and what positions you would restrict them from?

Since the Chief retired in Concord Massachusetts which state (NH or MA) should have that requirement, or pass that law?

It seems that most people think that the town of Moultonborough has benefited from hiring this experienced Chief. Do you think the town would be better off hiring someone younger, with less experience, because they didn't want someone who was collecting a pension in another state?

If the Chief already gets his medical benefits in MA thus saving the town of Moultonborough that expense, does that seem wrong too?

So many questions!: :look:

Why Not?
 

I do not understand why they can't? At the end of the day the position is going to be filled by someone and the municipality will be paying the pensions to someone and more than likely if they are younger they will accrued even more pension credits than an older experienced person. At the end of the day it is a win win situation, the municipality has an extremely experienced employee that probably will cost the pension fund less dollars in the long run and the employee is certainly not at fault for capitalizing on they system, he has done nothing wrong.

Great point and as we now know no longer accurate. Those pensions caused GM to have to restructure. the medical coverage on retirees was killing them financially. Verizon and most other companies now do 401k programs rather then retirements . 20 years ago the average life expectancy after retirement was something like 5 years todays its substantially longer , more in the 20 year range . Companies and Governments simply cant afford to have people retiring at 50 and collecting for 30 years
retirement early is a result of good investing not being carried by your employer

Doing away with or selling pensions
 

Very true, Billy Bob. I was able to take an early retirement from Verizon because I met their criterion of my age & service adding up to 75 ( I was 51 and had 25 years of service). I took my pension as a lump sum and rolled it into an IRA with my 401K funds as I could see that the company was serious about downsizing. Of course, I took a part time job for several years till I was close to 59. Boy am I glad I left when I did! About 18 months after the offer, the company eliminated pensions and transferred employees pension accruals into their 401K accounts (most employees lost money in that deal)! For older retirees like my Dad who didn't have the choice of a lump sum, Verizon sold their pensions to Prudential, so now they get annuities which are not protected by federal pension laws. Nice way to treat people with 35+ years of service! That is another reason I took the money and ran, I don't trust the companies any more to protect their retirees. They also got us with the health benefits. After 5 years of retirement, they reneged on the promised amount they would subsidized and froze it at 2008 levels. My health benefit costs have more than quadrupled since then. In the meantime, the big shots get multi-million dollar salaries and golden parachutes.

No money is directly returned to NH towns from the state for ticket fines.

From what I have read, Moltonboro estimates up to 25,000 in the summer months and has approximately 4,400 year round residents. However they also estimate that weekenders in the fall winter and spring swell the population to approximately 10,000. Many second home people come up to ski, snowmobile, ice fish, look at the leaves, etc...

I doubt any lake region community's population is ever near the number of permanent taxpayers.

Rusty: If one were able to retire from say the Army with full benefits and then immediately sign up for the Navy. Yes. I would feel the same way. Fortunately, I don't think this is possible.

I think that offering pensions from state government is ok. However, the system is too often filled with rules that aren't available to those who pay taxes to fund the pensions. For example: why should a state workers be able to spike his pension? This is when someone at the end of his/her career works boat loads of overtime for a couple of years and then the pension is based upon this bloated figure. Or when someone can cash out with a year of sick time or when someone can retiree at 50-years old. It goes on and on and it isn't fair. But for some reason state pensions can't be modified at all. Meanwhile, the folks working in the real economy can have their pensions eliminated with a stroke of a pen. Is this fair?

Murphys
 

What does any of this have to do with the original post?

Why?
 

Why does that matter?

Is it a rules violation?

It must be. I got reprimanded once for changing the subject. I didn't feel I changed the subject. I felt it was related but apparently the webmaster didn't and it is his forum.

Moultonborough, New Hampshire
Population: 4,016 (2014)

Probably doubles in the summer.

It more than doubles by a lot I would say on summer weekends! Just suissevale and Balmoral have 500 houses between them. Regardless, the PD will not be shrinking by much any time soon. MPD has gone to state dispatch for overnights.