Article 18, which authorizes the Wolfeboro Board of Selectmen to recognize the Professional Firefighters of Wolfeboro Local 3708 IAFF for the purpose of collective bargaining passed b a 735-625 vote at Town Meeting on Tuesday, March 12, 2002.

This has been a 5-year effort by the members to reach this point. It was the third time the article has been on the town meeting warrant.

We are thrilled beyond words, but we also realize the heavy lifting has only begun

Fraternally,

Tom Zotti
S/T PFFWolfeoboro
Local 3708 IAFF

March 2002 - Town Meetings

By a vote of 1006 to 324 new self-contained breathing apparatus and a compressor system was approved, to the pleasure of Chief Dwayne Hogencamp

On the Police side, both a new full-time officer ($36,400) and a new 2002 Ford Police Cruiser ($31,000) were defeated

March 2002 - Town Meetings

A proposed $3,000,000 Police Station to be located near the OK Tool super fund site was defeated by votes 1537 to 1533, with a sixty percent yes vote necessary to pass the item

March 2002 - Town Meetings

Voters turned down the purchase of a thermal imaging camera ($10,000)
Voters turned down a proposal to purchase a new police cruiser valued at $27,850.
Voters turned down the hiring of a fifth full time Police Officer for the remainder of the year with an annual cost of $40,000

March 2002 - Town Meetings

Voters approved a compensation program for the towns volunteer fire department by a margin of 1,511 to 365

March 2002 - Town Meetings

Milford voters failed to approved a new police station.

Town Meeting March 2002

From Derry News Article Feb 13, 2002

Hudson Fire Chief Frank Carpentino noted that several Hudson Firefighters/EMT's are on the hiring list of other communities. He believes unless a pay raise is approed, Hudson will lose these workers.

Level one pay for Hudson is $12.20 an hour compared to $14.03 an hour in Derry. It was noted that 17 full-time employees have left Hudson since 1998 due to low salary. If the vote passes, firefighters would get between 7 and 16 percent raise depending on what level they are at.

The City of Barre Fire Department ( I.A.F.F. local 881) along with the Police Department are pushing for a new combined Public Safety Facility which will be voted on this March 5 by the residents of the City of Barre.

Go to the following web page to see poster...
www.ci.barre.vt.us/building.htm

The Fire Department is falling down around us (literally) and we desperately need a new one. The Police Department is in need of a new building as well.

We are aggressively trying to get the word out to all our residents of the dire need. We want them all to vote on March 5, 2002.

We have made stickers, bumper stickers, small and large posters. The two Chiefs are doing public speaking. We are trying our hardest to get out and be seen by the residents in hopes of drawing as much attention to our needs as possible.

We have put together an information packet which will be sent out to all our residents as an insert in one of our local papers. This will be done twice. The second time, the insert will also include a list of people who support our project. It looks like a petition in format, however, it is not binding in any way. It is simply a list of people who are in favor of the project.

What I am asking of all of you is the following... Please add your name to our list. Simply send an email to me directly at the following...RTJORD1@cs.com
I will add your name to the list.

The heading of the list will say the following...Support For New Public Safety Facility We, the undersigned residents of Barre City and other friends of the community, wish to publicly express our support for a new Public Safety Building. The Fire and Police Departments, respectively, currently work and live in facilities that are out dated, out grown, over worked, and in some respects pose serious health and safety risks to the occupants.

Not only will a new facility address all these issues, it will also provide for the many other unforeseen needs of the City of Barre and surrounding communities for many years to come.

Your name and all others will be listed below. As you can see, we are not limiting this to city residents. The ability of a Fire Department and Police Department affect more than the people living in the Jurisdiction. Please help us. Send me your name. And then send this email to everyone you know. Ask them to send me their name as well.

Again send it to me at RTJORD1@cs.com And please go to our web page to see our poster. Thank you all in advance for your help.

Sincerely,

Russell Ashe

Barre City Fire and Ambulance

Barre City, Vermont

Feb 26, 2002 - The radio shop replaced the damaged S-1 receive antenna on Pack Monadnock Mountain this Tuesday. Preliminary testing shows an improvement over the previous main receive antenna. For instance, a portable from Methuen MA near the Salem line was able to converse on S-1. According to the radio shop, the only thing higher on the tower in God!

The old antenna slightly favored coverage to south. In theory, the new receive antenna will be slightly more New Hampshire oriented

Town Meeting Feb 9, 2002

Up for consideration at town meeting is $250,000 to renovate the old fire station for use as a police station.

The police station is currently house in the basement of the town hall.

The fire department is asking for a combination ladder/pumper. However, the budget committee and selectmen do not recommend spending $290,000 from capital reserve for this purchase

As of this week, WMTW-TV Channel 8, Poland Springs Maine is no longer broadcasting from its transmitter on Mount Washington. The new transmitter site is on their new tower in Baldwin Maine (west of Sebago) . For those of you in the southern NH area, this may have affected your reception. In my case (sw91), a similar good signal is observed. Those in the Great North Woods of NH and Northeast Kingdom of Vermont are now out of luck.

More importantly however, is the impending removal of the support that channel 8 engineers gave to all the other transmitters and power plant on top of Mount Washington. It is expected that the two commercial FM stations on the mountain will relocate to valley locations
It is unknown at this time how it will affect business and public safety radio systems on the mountain