Keeping your community covered. We're committed to producing high-quality, fact-based news and information that gives you the facts in this community we call home. If our work has helped you stay informed, take action, or feel more connected to Windham County – please give now to help us reach our goal of raising $150,000 by December 31st.
Keeping your community covered. We're committed to producing high-quality, fact-based news and information that gives you the facts in this community we call home. If our work has helped you stay informed, take action, or feel more connected to Windham County – please give now to help us reach our goal of raising $150,000 by December 31st.
In his municipal manager's report during the Dec. 3 Selectboard meeting, Willis “Chip” Stearns III told the board that he was notified by the New Hampshire Department of Transportation (NHDOT) Highway Superintendent that the state will no longer illuminate the Arch Bridge, which spans the Connecticut River between Walpole and Rockingham.
NHDOT Systems Engineer Jim Hewett confirmed to The Commons that Liberty Utilities discontinued power to the street lights in late November.
Rockingham Highway Supervisor Mike Hindes had asked NHDOT about lights being burned out on the bridge.
In response, NHDOT District 4 Access and Utilities Engineer Frank Linnenbringer wrote, “The State of New Hampshire has been evaluating and discontinuing streetlights, based on the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) Roadway Lighting Guide, and how the NHDOT has implemented that guidance.”...
The prospect of consolidating the complex system of town and village governments into one administrative operation and one tax base under one entity - the town of Rockingham - has created a wave of extremely hostile and emotional responses. In the wake of a cancelled Dec. 3 agenda item...
There is nothing about Ronald Ramos, a handsome man of Puerto Rican descent who exudes Old World charm and gentleness, that obviously reads as “homeless” or “food insecure,” other than the place he happens to be standing. Ramos, 51, stands in the parking lot of Our Place Drop-In Center,
In recent weeks, town manager Willis “Chip” Stearns III reported separately to the Bellows Falls Trustees and the Selectboard regarding the fiscal year 2014 and 2015 municipal budgets. On Nov. 16, Stearns told the Selectboard the budget was essentially level-funded for fiscal 2015, but “one of the major costs is the sidewalk and wall on Cherry Hill, from Green Street, at an estimate of $180,000.” Cherry Street loops from School Street and past the Bellows Falls Elementary School, to connect...
Secretary of State Jim Condos and Deputy Secretary of State Brian Leven, an attorney, passing through town on their second Biennial Transparency Tour, stopped by with a message for Windham County public officials and government employees. “Open-meeting laws and access-to-public-records laws are some of our most important laws,” Condos told The Commons. “It's about transparency. It's about democracy. It's about the people's right to know.” The public officials came to town on the heels of an inundation of public document...
“Libraries are unique among municipal government and among town departments,” noted State Librarian Martha Reid, speaking to The Commons about the recent issues surrounding the Rockingham Free Public Library. Reid explained that there are two types of public libraries in Vermont: municipal libraries and incorporated libraries. “The Rockingham Free Public Library is a municipal library,” she said. Such a library, according to the state Department of Libraries, is a city, town, or village library established by a vote of the...
The addition and renovation to the Rockingham Free Public Library has ended up $153,089.60 over budget. While Municipal Manager Willis “Chip” Stearns III told The Commons this week that the “when, how much, from where, 'cash' is coming is not a known set of information,” he added that “the RFPL trustees have this amount of cash held in accounts under their control already.” The total library fund shows a healthy balance of $451,624, more than enough to cover the cost...
What started last week as a request to discuss $151,734.73 in renovation overrun costs for Rockingham Free Public Library grew into an email thread that unearthed a new area of contention between trustees and the municipal manager. As a result, Municipal Manager Willis “Chip” Stearns III has suspended any municipal assistance to the RFPL, its staff, or the Board of Trustees until there's a meeting between the trustees and the Selectboard to discuss the project. In the emails, Jan Mitchell-Love,
