Wow, we're # 1!

A screen shot from the BlogNetNews.com site from Saturday night.

Woo hoo! OurConcord.com was voted the most influential political blog in New Hampshire this month by BlogNetNews.com, a N.H. news portal site, beating out a slew of other blogs this week. This is the best ever rating for one of my Web sites. OurConcord.com's sister site, Politizine, is ranked 11th. Previously its best ranking was 6th. Both sites have only ranked in the Top 10 a couple of times, never mind in the top spot.
Thanks so much to everyone who bothered to rate our posts during the last couple of weeks. It surely made a difference.

Snow is coming ...

I wonder how much ...

Improving Shurtleff's school board election bill

Now that the governor is sworn in, the Legislature will soon be in full swing. Hearings will begin and there will be a flurry of activity concerning the hundreds of bills being proposed for this legislative session.

One of the more important bills affecting Concord is Rep. Steve Shurtleff's bill, HB33, changing the way the city elects members to the Concord Board of Education.
Currently, three school board members are elected each year to serve a three-year term each. The nine members all run at-large, meaning city-wide, in both even and odd years. Shurtleff's bill proposes to have school board members be elected from three legislative districts. So, instead of running city-wide, candidates would forward themselves from their district and run across three city wards. Each year, a single candidate would be elected from each ward to serve a three-year term.
If approved by the Legislature and signed by the governor, the plan would take affect in the 2011 election cycle. The bill text is here: ["HB 33"] and I'm told the first hearing for the bill is scheduled for 1 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 14, in Room 301 of the Legislative Office Building in the Municipal and County Government Committee.

In previous posts, I have had mixed feelings about the plan: ["Rep. Shurtleff's school board plan"] and been called out for not really having an opinion.

After talking to Steve via email and waiting to actually see the language of the bill, I've reached some conclusions about it. There are negatives and positives about it and there is at least one change to the bill which I think would improve the bill substantially.

Running city-wide is a difficult thing to do. So, lowering the threshold of election but running in three wards should make it easier for regular folks to get involved in the process. Since the election would be more manageable, more people will probably run.
Running on the district level vs. at-large also ensures that every neighborhood of the city is represented on the school board. While it is not a problem now - the new board is quite diverse - it has been a problem in the past. Some people in Concord have complained that their elementary schools were not being paid attention to because school board members came from only a couple of school district areas. Even though it is not a problem now, it could be in the future. This bill would eliminate that problem.

On the negative side, some feel that if school board members are elected by district, they will be worried about their own local elementary schools and not the city as a whole. While there is some legitimate concern here, I don't think it is enough to kill the bill. Board members would still have to consider the entire system on the middle and high school level. Not unlike ward city councilors who concentrate on local issues but think about the entire city, district school board members will think about the entire city, while also focusing locally.
Also on the negative side is the "winner-take-all" aspect of the proposal. Currently, voters get to choose as many as three candidates each year. With Shurtleff's proposal, voters in one district will only get to vote for one candidate. I'm of the feeling that we need more choices and we need voters to feel empowered. This proposal would limit each individual voter's preference to one instead of three.

One thing the bill does not address at all is the issue of how many votes it takes to get elected to the school board in differing years. Currently, some board members get elected with thousands more votes than others.
For example, in 2007 the three winners of board seats won with between 1,901 and 2,814 votes. A year later, the winners received between 6,480 and 7,086. The difference in votes is based on turnout. One year was a city election; the other a presidential election. But the difference in turnout is staggering because, essentially, thousands more people determined the outcome of who won than the previous year. Granted, if voters don't bother to vote, then they cost themselves representation. But still, the fact that one year it only takes 2,000 votes to win and another year it takes more than 6,000 is a serious problem which needs to be fixed.

In balancing the negatives and positives, it is clear that Shurtleff's school board election bill could be improved by making two small changes.
First, keep the change to districts, but instead of running every three years, have the board members run every two years like district city councilors. This would fix the disproportionate voter turnout issue. It would also probably boost turnout in city year elections, since voters would know that they would only be able to cast votes in school board races every two years.
Second, after making the change to two years, elect three board members from each district. This would eliminate the winner-take-all aspect of Shurtleff's bill and guarantee that voters in each district were able to vote for as many as three candidates, as they do now at-large.
If these changes are made, the bill will be improved and will make great changes to how we elect Concord's school board members.

Gas prices spike ...

After hitting a low of $1.48 in Concord, gas prices at area pumps have spiked to $1.69 during the last week. No word yet on why gas prices would go up more than 20 cents in a matter of days. But, maybe the OPEC output cutback is having some affect. Or, maybe local gas companies are effin' with us ...

Two local media notes ...

A couple of quick local media observations from the past couple of weeks:

First, Friday's Concord Monitor was a slim two book newspaper with the Friday culture section put together on some inside pages. While it was a surprise to see, it works visually.
Saturday's Monitor also yielded some changes. It had no religion story in the religion section but did have the church listings. The Opinion page was sized down to one page which isn't a huge thing since the Monitor hasn't offered a local editorial on Saturday in ages.
Question: Is the Saturday newspaper long for the world at this point? With dailies across the country cutting down their physical publishing to five and four day weeks, is the Monitor far behind? Probably not. But one has to wonder.
The comment section on the newspaper's Web site seems to be going great guns, which is good. Most of it is fun reading. Publisher Geordie Wilson will be talking about the initiative at the February New England Press Association convention in Boston. I'll more exciting NEPA news after the convention.

Second, The Bow Times has merged with the Goffstown News. I don't know when this happened but it seems like a recent change. Bow news is now a one page section in the Goffstown paper. A search on Google, Google news, and the Concord Monitor Web site, yielded no stories about the change [I mentioned it on the Politizine Twitter a couple of weeks ago, so I think I'm the first observer to write about it]. There is a short, undated press release on the Neighborhood News Web site about the change.
Bedroom communities with no retail base are very difficult markets for newspapers, especially free ones with no subscription base. Even though advertisers want to pitch their products to affluent readers, that isn't enough these days to sustain the physical product. If there is nothing to pay for the physical newspaper, it can't be sustained, unfortunately.
Question: If the Monitor boosted coverage of Bow, would that deliver more subscriptions, especially in the wake of the end of The Bow Times? I know that the Union Leader attempted that in the past, hiring part-timers to cover Bow meetings, but I don't know if it was very successful. One has to wonder though. While I don't know the inner workings of the Monitor staff, it would seem as if there would be enough people to expand some coverage and do some marketing to residents interested in more than published press releases.

Gibson's reduces store hours

In an email to consumers and supporters of his store, Gibson's Bookstore owner Michael Herrmann told shoppers that the store would be ending Sunday hours until the fall 2009 and reducing some weekday nighttime hours.
According to Herrmann, for the last 15 months, the store has been opened every night until 8 p.m. except on Sundays, in an effort to adjust and be more flexible to consumer shopping habits.
However, the store will now only be open until 6 p.m. on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. The later hours will continue on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, with Herrmann noting, "Lots of stores are open late Thursday and Friday--come check them all out!"
He called the Sunday hours "no longer feasible" since "folks just don't seem to come downtown" on Sundays.
Sundays are supposed to be a day of rest anyway so the Gibson's staff can take advantage of the day off to recoup. Here's hoping its a prosperous New Year for the store!

Lax, I know ...

It's snowing outside ... woo hoo!
I know, I've been lax at posting any red meat on OurConcord of late. But I promise I will soon. Early in the New Year, I'll have an update on the city's new "bag tax"... cough, cough, ahem ... I meant the pay as you throw [PAYT] proposal. And, BTW, still no answer to the question yet and no response at all from my city councilor about the idea. Is his power back on yet? I mean, come on ... :-) I hope to get the answers soon.
In addition, I'll have a piece on the great new renovations at White Park - renovations that I initially thought were a mistake. Well, after looking at what they have done so far, I've changed my mind [I can do that ya know!].
So stay tuned.

Page to Stage, Act IV comes to Audi Jan. 11

PAGE TO STAGE, a special theatre project fostering new works by New Hampshire authors, announces Londonderry resident Don Tongue will be the featured playwright at the series’ “Fourth Act” on Sunday, January 11, from 3-5pm at the Concord City Auditorium. The event is free and open to all as a Sunday afternoon salon with dramatic desserts.
Don Tongue will present staged readings of two new short plays, School Portrait Monologues and Void. In addition, his program will include a discussion of the development of his plays through workshops and an audience Q&A.
A prominent member of the state’s performing community, Don Tongue’s long list of credits includes roles with Ghostlight Theatre Company, Leddy Center, Music and Drama Company, Nashua Theatre Guild, Operafest, and Yellow Taxi Productions.
The new season-long Page to Stage series is co-hosted by The Friends of The Concord City Auditorium and The Community Players of Concord, NH, and supported by the Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust. The project welcomes submissions of new and developing works for the stage, which will be considered for presentations ranging from readings to full productions. Playwrights wishing to take part in the P2S series are encouraged to contact Wayland Bunnell, President of the Community Players, at wtarrytown@aol.com or 668-5466.
The first three P2S events included David John Preece’s adaptation of Hawthorne’s The House of the Seven Gables, Andre Tremblay’s original one-act comedies, Twenty Pages and Vinnie Comes Knocking, and Joel Mercier’s A Christmas Carol: The Musical Ghost Story, retold in the style of Dickens’ period.

Rhythm of the Night to rock Audi Jan. 17

So you think you can dance? Concord knows it can dance. New Hampshire’s “Dancing Town” has been on its toes, and its toe-ball-heels, since Baryshnikov wore booties! Just one night a year, the capital area’s best dancers show us why dance has become the country’s new pick-me-up, new all-ages sport, and TV ratings topper
On Saturday, January 17, at 7pm, the capital area’s Prima Dancers step into the spotlights of Concord City Auditorium to present the 18th annual dance extravaganza called the “Rhythm of the Night”.
The 2009 show promises to be the biggest and brightest community dance show in the state, with nearly 200 performers. Director Lisa Drouin Goff of Turning Pointe Center of Dance in Pembroke and Producer David Murdo of Concord have organized a festive 90-minute family show of 23 acts. “Perhaps we might better call it Rhythms of the Night,” said David Murdo, reviewing the performances ranging from classical ballet and jazz to tap, hip hop, and production numbers.
Featured dance schools include Capital City Dance Center, Concord Dance Academy, Creative Dance Workshop of Bow, Dancesteps Etc., Gen’s Dance Studio, New Hampshire School of Ballet, Rockin’ Robin’s School of Dance, and Turning Pointe Center of Dance.
The eight dance schools and their directors – Sabrina Adair, Cindy Flanagan, Lisa Drouin Goff, Joan Kelly, Bridget Boucher LeCompte, Pamela “PJ” White, Jennifer Rienert, and Gen Woodward -- are an important part of The Friends of The Audi.
The dance companies’ several thousand students all appear on the Audi stage during the regular season in individual programs ranging from the GALA season opener to special holiday performances to year-end recitals. With specialties ranging from classical ballet to hip hop, their competition teams have won national honors.
On January 17, they will all dance together in one thrilling performance to benefit The Fund for The Audi, an endowment established in 2004 on the historic theatre’s 100th Anniversary to celebrate its past and assure its future. All proceeds are earmarked for the Audi’s next planned upgrade of the pinrail and flyspace, which will benefit every show.
“Rhythm of the Night”, a fun-filled way for families to start the New Year on the right foot, is a special gift to Concord audiences, for tickets are just $6 at Ballard’s Novelty and Party Shop, 7 Broadway in Concord.
The show will last one and one-half hours with one intermission and be suitable for all ages. Information and ticket reservations are available from Producer David Murdo at 225-7474 or email to nhdm40@comcast.net.

How long does it take for two city councilors and the mayor to answer a simple question about pay as you throw?

Like, forever, it seems ...
I'm on a short vacation right now. But before I left, I read the column offered by City Councilor Keith Nyhan in the Concord Monitor advocating a pay as you throw program on Tuesday: ["Raising recycling rates will save taxpayers money"].

After reading the column, I sent an email to Nyhan, my own ward councilor, Rob Werner, and Mayor Jim Bouley. In it I stated that I would like one question answered before I addressed my concerns about the program to the council directly [I won't be able to attend either hearing on the matter, due to work conflicts].
To start, I was under the impression that there would be a one or two bag exemption in the program but I didn't read about this in Nyhan's column. In other words, residents would only have to pay for the second or third trash bag they used, not every single one. So, I asked, Will there be an exemption or not? Nyhan's piece insinuates that everyone will have to pay for the trash bags, with no exemption at all.
Well, it's been almost a week and none of them have responded to the question or the email.
Now, I'm not surprised Nyhan didn't respond. He is notorious for not responding to emails from residents who are not his constituents, as if corresponding with us is beneath him or he doesn't have to do it. Historically, ward councilors have always responded to everyone in the city, since issues often cross over wards. Certainly his column and this plan crosses over wards. My question deserved a response from him.
Werner usually responds with an offer to talk on the phone but there was nothing for him. As my ward representative, I was owed a response.
Bouley usually just calls. But this time? Nothing, nada, silence ... from all three. It really makes you wonder ...
So, one has to ask: What are they so afraid of? Why can't a simple question be answered via email ... Here's how easy it is: "Yeah Tony, sorry, it should have said two bag exemption ..." "No Tony, the plan doesn't include an exemption ..." Wow, that was easy ... especially when you consider that they are going to start charging everyone for their trash ... something the tax bill has always historically addressed.
Question: Does anyone out there know an answer to the question? Can you let me know before, I don't know, say, Christmas?