THE CONWAY DAILY SUN, Tuesday, March 15, 2011— Page 7
Tele-Talk
Do you support the $75,000 special article for two more police officers in Conway?
There were 34 responses to this week’s Tele-Talk question: “Do you support the $75,000 special article for two more police officers in Conway?” Twenty-one people said they would not vote for the special article; nine said they would vote in favor of it.
How much proof do you need? The police have shown time and time again through their statistics and their reports that there’s a desperate need for additional officers. We as a community need to start believing in groups and organizations that have our best interests at heart. Should we believe the selectmen who told us a new garage would cost $800,000 and they fixed it for $200,000? Should we believe the budget committee that doesn’t think that special needs children should be educated at our expense? Or should we believe the police department that day in and day out protect us and have our best interests in mind? Let’s support this article and get back to business. Chris in North Conway. Yes, if we can afford the extra police officers we really should, but how can we afford them after the school committee and all those who agree with them spend so many of our tax dollars so irresponsibly. It was obvious after the meeting the other night that they could care less about those with low incomes trying to support a family and keep up with their mortgages so as not to lose their houses. They also have no heart for seniors, a lot of whom are veterans who fought for their freedom. And those seniors now are trying to exist on Social Security and decide if they can afford the higher taxes that these people want to keep their homes. To the school committee and all those who agree with them, by having more teachers and yet with lower enrollment of studies, just to placate the unions who are bankrupting our town, our state and our country, shame on them. Of course we should support the addition of more police. How can you have a police state without adequate jack boots on the ground? A new generation of future criminals is being born every day at Memorial Hospital. New criminals will be graduating high school in June. More criminals will be coming to the valley this summer for a criminal vacation. I think I saw a couple criminals this morning at the local store. I worry that if the police are on the north, south, east, west of the village, I won’t get help if I’m in the middle. I’d like to say more, but I’ve got to check, I think there’s a criminal under the bed. Yeah, no problem having two more police officers. Now you can have Moe, Larry and Perley. Yeah, I support the police in all their endeavors, and whatever they need to keep the town safe and the kids safe in the community. There is one other thing that I’d like to mention is that the current profession I’m in brings me around a lot of those officers.
And some of the comments that have been made recently about those guys, that the town’s paying those guys to look down holes while the construction guys are working, are absolutely false. The construction companies that come in and are doing those businesses hire those officers when they are off duty for safety reasons. And that’s how those officers make ends meet, performing these extra duties when they’re not working for the town. I think that’s a point that a lot people miss, is that the town is not paying these police officers to do these details, the construction company is. It’s like a second job for them because they’re on a fixed income like everybody else, so they’ve got to get the money where they can in today’s economy. I hope everybody will be able to support the police department. Yes, I definitely support the article for two more police officers. No, no, no. What part of no do these people not understand. Can’t wait to vote April 12. Vote it all down taxpayer of Conway. Get your justice. I believe the police department, and our teachers and our town employees are excellent employees and they do a wonderful job. But it’s been seven years since I’ve had a raise with the company I worked for and we don’t get insurance deductible paid and we have a high deductible and it goes up and up and up. It gets to the point that your mortgage payment is going to be less than what we pay for taxes per year on the house and I just don’t understand how I can afford to keep my house much longer. It seems like somewhere, somehow we have to tighten the reins and get by with what we have for a while until the economy picks up. And then maybe we can afford to give everybody everything they want. No, I do not support the special article for two more police offi cers. In this economy the police department is not being realistic to ask for three offi cers at the rate of 75,000 per year per officer. Perhaps one this year and then maybe in a year or two depending on our economy they can ask for others. Carl from Kearsarge. Absolutely not, I don’t support it at all. The ones that we’ve got now are out there sitting at Dunkin Donuts all night, sitting at different stores all night long. I’ve seen it personally myself. I think they really need to put the ones they’ve got to work and have them do their job instead of drinking free coffee and eating free doughnuts. Yes, I absolutely support the two police officers. I think it was clear at the town meeting last week that the people of the town support the police officers, they support the school, and we support whatever it takes in this town to make things work. Yes, I’m very, very concerned with the hiring of more police. More police, it will mean just more doughnut shops. Something must be done to stop this vicious cycle. The needs are endless. Bureau-
cracies always want to further themselves. I would love to see the assumptions in the study cited in the question and see if those assumptions really actually apply to us. I think we need to really question these expenditures, especially now. No, I do not support the special article for two more officers. I didn’t support the $97,300 article. I think it’s just a way to inflate the budget. And it’s obvious from the police reports we get from The Conway Daily Sun that perhaps some of their biggest issues are dogs barking, neighbors being noisy and perhaps a speeding ticket once in a while. As far as the drug problem goes, I see they get $100 fine and suspension from the bench, more than likely when they show up to court. I think the whole police department is mismanaged; it doesn’t know how to use the officers and resources that it has. If it did we wouldn’t need as many officers as we have already. No, I don’t support the special article for $75,000. We don’t need any more traffic cops. We should really size down. Reason: Jackson and Bartlett have more second homes and condos and they have three or four officers, if that. Conway has three or four fourwheel cruisers and Jackson has none. Most of their area they protect and their homes are too hard to get to even in the summer, not only in the winter. The big thing that makes Conway so busy is people from surrounding towns come here to shop and to eat out at our restaurants in the area. The police we have now are never around in the summer months or in the fall months in North Conway at night. So where are they? We need more officers? We don’t even have them when we need them. Talk about stupid. They can’t afford lights, but yet they can afford $75,000 for cops. Turn the lights back on, don’t you think? Absolutely not. I do not support the $75,000 special article for two more police officers in Conway. We do not need any more police officers. And plus, they could balance their budget somehow without having to add on so much money. They were in a hurry to spend the money — money they had left over instead of giving it back to the taxpayers. This is Kate from Conway. The right wing of The Conway Daily Sun has dodged a bullet with this week’s Tele-Talk question. The question should have been about the embarrassing Conway School District deliberative meeting, when Republican extremist Ray Shakir made people in Conway look like idiots. It’s all over the Internet. The greed of the police commissioners and Chief Wagner is beyond comprehension. Every other city and town in the country is downsizing and these clowns want to upsize. Kennett and Dougherty have enough personal wealth to handle any kind of tax increase and they could care less about the rest of us. Theresa
Kennett has a history of being spend crazy. Like Selectman DiGregorio who was quoted in the paper last week that he has no problem with people adding to the budget, these people have gone absolutely bonkers with our hard earned money and just want to spend, spend, and spend some more. DiGregorio does not know how to spell “no.” We try to save money by turning lights off, but now we have these so-called “representatives of the people” saying no, we need to add to the budget so we can end up paying higher taxes. Seems like the only guys who are in our corner are Larry Martin and Bob Drinkhall. Crow Dickinson, who seems in a purple haze most of the time, has never had a financially challenged day in his life and is clueless about how we taxpayers struggle to make ends meet. Vote no on April 12. Beaten down taxpayer. No, I don’t support this article. The special interest groups increased the town and school budgets at the town meeting and many people will not be able to pay their taxes. There has been a lot of either misleading or incomplete information spread around by some individuals who do not pay the high Conway property taxes. One example was a recent letter from Bartlett resident Paul Mayer. He included a chart showing that a $200,000 home in Conway pays $3,744 in property taxes a 41 percent increase in 10 years. Apparently that seems reasonable to him. He neglected to show that if you lived in the North Conway precinct you are paying about $4,400. He also neglected to show that a taxpayer with a $200,000 home in Bartlett would pay only about $1,800 in property taxes, less than half the Conway rate. Many taxpayers, including our own superintendent of schools are fleeing Conway for low tax areas. Individuals like Mr. Mayer, are not feeling our pain, but are the most vocal and want Conway taxpayers to spend more money. When they move to Conway, maybe someone will listen. Chris Perley and the rest of them coppers on the Conway Police Dept. are doing a mighty fine job, but we need several more. That’s all there is between order and chaos. Without them, the town would eventually be totally overrun by punks, pimps, prostitutes, pedophiles, pornographic photographers, perverts and other assorted criminals. The additional coppers could indirectly pay their own salaries and save local taxpayers money by writing speeding tickets only to Massachusetts drivers. I don’t have any more to say on this topic ... but I won’t let that stop me. Conway needs more cops to wage war against the army of dope dealers and addicts that are heading this way. This is Ralph in Eaton. No, our family does not support the money for two more police officers. What does it take for the police see TELE-TALK page 8