Get involved: Moultonborough town meeting Saturday March 13th, 209

[Sue Doe-Nym]

Originally Posted by twoplustwo

Yes, the voters in Sandwich did have the last say and apparently hijacked the meeting according to many Meredith residents.


If the population of Sandwich can 'hijack' a meeting versus the population of the Town of Meredith, then a whole lot of the Town of Meredith sat on their collective rear ends and didn't bother to attend. According to the 2008 census, Sandwich has 1,316 residents to Meredith's 6,623. That's not hijacking, it's voting, which is their right. Any voter in Meredith who didn't show up to vote is getting what they deserve.

That's exactly the point, "voter apqthy" as described in the Billings letter to the editor. Too many Moultonborough voters might not come to the annual meetings and end up with larger budgets than are recommended.

[tis]

Voter apathy is a big problem. So is voter "ignorance". We all know it is very hard to understand what we are voting for sometimes, unless you have researched it before hand. For instance if it says to change (x) to 500 feet and you didn't go back to see what the old (x) was, how in the world can you know what you are voting for? The answer is you can't. In Wolfeboro, around 500-+ people out of 1500+- that voted, voted for a blank amendment. Did they think they were being funny or did they just quickly run through all the amendments?

[breathe easy]

Here is the blow by blow for the School and Town Meetings in Moultonborough earlier today.

http://moultonborospeaks.blogspot.co...esults_13.html

http://moultonborospeaks.blogspot.co...g-results.html

[phoenix]

thank you for posting this

[Pineedles]

I wonder what the outcome will be after the vote on stopping mosquito control will be? More Mosquitos this spring? More Equine encephalitus? More lyme disease? We'll see.

[fatlazyless]

According to the above link, about 7.5% of the Moultonborough electorate was present at the town meeting, and that number got reduced down to 5% after lunch was served and presumably 1/3 of the voters in attendance did not return.

This 7.5% Moultonborough attendance is higher than the 3% number for Meredith most likely because Moultonborough town meeting is held on a Saturday morning, while the Meredith town meeting is held on a Wednesday night from 7-pm to midnight.

For many New Hampshire town meetings, getting to control the vote is all about getting the voters to show up to have a vote. The only voters who show up to the 7-pm to midnight town meeting are those who have a strong interest in the vote. In Meredith, a number of expensive projects including the police station, fire station, community center, & million dollar football field were all passed with only a very small (5% or less) of the electorate present. For those who voted yes, getting their project built was a victory in small town politics.

Conversely, the same voting game played out against the Meredith core of voters who show up, when Sandwich rallied their voter-troops, filling the gym to capacity, and out-voting Meredith voters.

Meredith pays for 72% of Inter-Lakes SAU-3 schools. Center Harbor pays 14%. Sandwich pays 14%.

Probably, some of those who voted against Meredith SB-2 school or Meredith SB-2 town in March 2008, or March 2009, are now rethinking the SB-2 style of voting and would maybe vote for it in the future.

[Sue Doe-Nym]

Originally Posted by Pineedles

I wonder what the outcome will be after the vote on stopping mosquito control will be? More Mosquitos this spring? More Equine encephalitus? More lyme disease? We'll see.

It was only a monitoring program, never any actual spraying. Many people thought as you did that it actually involved control. Using the word control rather than monitor was a bad choice of words.

[Pineedles]

Originally Posted by Sue Doe-Nym

It was only a monitoring program, never any actual spraying. Many people thought as you did that it actually involved control. Using the word control rather than monitor was a bad choice of words.

Thanks Sue Doe-Nym. BTW I love your name.

"$200,000 over the past four years to address a problem that does not exist in our part of the state."

$50K per year to count and test Mosquito's over the past 4 years? I certainly agree that they should cut that. Ya think they would have figured out they didn't have a problem the 2nd or even the 3rd year? Oh well, at least they stopped it before it became a 1/4 million dollars.

[breathe easy]

The Moultonborough Citizens Alliance posted the School District video on it's website:

http://moultonboroughcitizensallianc...er-2010-s.html

[breathe easy]

Here is the link to Moultonboro 2010 Town Meeting video
http://moultonboroughcitizensallianc...n-meeting.html