PRESCHOOL OPENINGS!

Are you thinking about enrolling your child in preschool for next fall? The Center School in Northwood is accepting registrations for the 2013-2014 school year. The Center School is a parent cooperative preschool located next to the town hall in Northwood, which provides a developmental program for three, four, and five year olds of Northwood and surrounding towns. There are openings in our two-day (T/Th) program and three-day (M/W/F) morning programs. Call or email us soon to get an information packet or to make an appointment to come for a visit! For information, please email director Karen Andersen at [email protected] or call her at the school at 942-7686.

Congratulations to Scott Bulger of Northwood, who has been named to the Dean’s List at the Savannah College of Art and Design for fall quarter 2012. Full-time undergraduate students who earn a grade point average of 3.5 or above for the quarter receive recognition on the Dean’s List.

Applications Being Accepted For Senior Housing In Northwood

Since the grand opening was held in June 2006, Northwood has been fortunate to have an elderly housing facility located at 243 Bow Street which is located behind the elementary school.

It is called The Meadow at Northwood and consists of 31-one bedroom units. The housing is owned and operated by Southern NH Services, which is a community action agency with headquarters in Manchester. Periodically they do accept new applications, which is currently the case.

Residents pay 30% of their adjusted monthly income for rent which includes heat, hot water and electricity.

To be eligible, you must be 62 years of age or older and meet the federal HUD income guidelines.

Those guidelines require that individual gross incomes be at or below $36,050 per year. For two people, their total income must be at or below $41,200 per year.

If you qualify and are interested in an application or more information, please call their Management Office on Bow Street at 942-8245. Good luck. 

13th Annual Center School Auction

The 13th Annual Auction for the Center School (Northwood Parent Cooperative Preschool) will be held at 7 p.m. on Saturday, April 6th at the Bow Lake Grange in Strafford. All are welcome to come and join in the fun! There are many unique and exciting items to bid on including hand-crafted goods, gift certificates to local businesses, event tickets, and many other great deals! The auction is BYOB, but snacks will be provided.

The annual auction is our largest fundraiser. All proceeds go to any non-budget items, such as building repairs and upgrades to our 200+ year old building.  Last year’s proceeds were used to install new doors and to paint the exterior of the building. We are also accepting donations if anyone has any goods or services they would like to donate. It is a great way to get your business some exposure and the donation is tax-deductable. Thank you to all the businesses and individuals who have donated in the past and are donating this year! 

For more information please feel free to call Tara or Kristy at the school (603) 942-7686.

CBNA Student Art Exhibit At Nottingham Library

In continued celebration of March as Youth Art Month, the Coe-Brown Northwood Academy Art Department is pleased to announce a special exhibition of student artwork on display at the Blaisdell Memorial Library in Nottingham, NH beginning March 22. This exhibition highlights a variety of courses and techniques that students study through the art department curriculum. The exhibit will run through April 11.

The following is a list of students participating: 

Nottingham

Carlee Beck, Jesse Carlson, Domenica DeLuca, Emily Reiff, Lance Guivens, Julia Harcourt, Ashley Hardy, Stephen Munroe, Haleigh Simmons  

Northwood

Scott Eastwood, Katie Cilley, Abigail MacCallum, Beau Pingree, Haley Ruth, Hailey Sernio, Anthony Toscano

Strafford

Madeleine Adams, Leanne Baratier, Nikole D’Alessandro, Hanna Eaton, Kendra Gagnon, Anna Goscinski, Ashley Hodil, Meredith Ingham, Alexandra LaChapelle, Moriah Mazzochi, Kyle Noel, Olivia Sparrow, Jacquelyn Stevens, Katelyn Terry, Alexander Yonchak, Sophia Wensberg

Barrington

Alyssa Bussiere, Olivia Drew, Emma Easle, Lauren Montgomery

New Boston

Jakob Zylak 

Deerfield

Maddison Diaz

Students Raising Funds For D.C. Trip

The students in the class of 2013 at the Northwood Elementary School have been raising money throughout the school year for their annual class trip.  This year, the students chose to go to Washington D.C.  With the recent blessing from the School Board, efforts have been ramped up to complete the final fund raising necessary to make the trip a reality for the students.

Fundraisers they have undertaken so far include: candy grams at Valentine’s Day, pajama days at school, cookie walk at the annual Holly Fair, school dances, snacks at the basketball games, and more.  

Currently, donations are also being solicited for the trip and anyone may choose to support their trip through a donation at the following site:  http://www.gofundme.com/NES2013.  

Other fundraisers are upcoming, including a Pancake Breakfast at Cooper Hill Pizza in Northwood on Saturday, April 20th from 9:00-11:30 am.  If you are interested in attending this event, please contact the office at the school at 942-5488.

Letter

The March 27 issue of The Sun published a letter from Tom Chase berating Bruce Hodgdon (and former Speaker O’Brien) for opposing the acceptance of federal funds to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. “Since the federal government would pay 100% for the first three years and at least 90% thereafter......”  While it is not my purpose to debate the Affordable Care Act, I think Mr. Chase might  be well advised to review the history of some other promises made by the federal government.

A notable example might be IDEA, commonly known as Special Education, passed in 1975. Congress promised 40% federal funding to cover the cost but in the 38 years since has not even once provided that level of funding.  It’s now at about 15%.

So, one who is suspicious of federal promises isn’t necessarily ignoring his constituents as the letter stated.  They might just not trust the feds to do what they say they will and may not deserve being attacked for it.

Glenn Levesque

Northwood

Letter

Gas Attack?

I have read with amusement my neighbor Mike Faiella’s recent letters inveighing against the proposed increase in the state gas tax to pay for increased road and bridge maintenance.

First, he takes a page out of Jim Hadley’s book, Numeracy for Lunacy, to identify a 15¢/gal. increase on the current tax of 18¢/gal. as an 83% - make that an 83%! – increase.  Sounds like more that way, doesn’t it?  Oh, and he omits to say that the increase is phased in over 3 years.

Second, he ignores the fact that this 18¢/gal. tax has been the same since 1991. That year, in January, regular gas cost on average across the U.S. of $1.192. By December, it had dropped to $1.053.  So the tax added ($.18 ÷ $1.123 =) 16% to the cost of a gallon of gas on average in 1991.

At today’s average price of $3.68/gal., 18¢ represents 4.89% and the proposed increase to 33¢/gal. in three years represents a tax of only 8.97%.  And that assumes that the price of a gallon of gas does not increase.

So, the numbers suggest that gas is undertaxed – and they help explain why road and bridge maintenance has fallen behind, even as population and road use has increased.

This latter point – that our roads and bridges are in lousy shape and getting worse – is not disputed by Mike. And it was not lost on the voters of Northwood, who by a 57% majority, supported an effort to spend more money on our town roads. Fortunately, this effort to raise the money by a bond that would have cost approximately $93,000 over 10 years, failed.  Now it remains for the Selectmen and the State Legislature to raise the money needed the old-fashioned way – through taxation – and do the work that needs to be done.

Tom Chase 

Northwood

Letter

Live Free

In recent weeks there have been calls for Northwood voters to support both a road bond and an increase in the gas tax so that the state grants, and not Northwood taxpayers, can pay for our roads. 

There have been calls to expand Medicare in New Hampshire so that the Federal Government, and not the citizens of New Hampshire, can pay the medical bills of our poor.

Professor Diane Ravitch, who served in the Department of Education in both the Bush and Clinton administrations, says that 46 states, including New Hampshire, have adopted a national curriculum “not because the Common Core standards were better than their own, but because they wanted a share of the federal cash.”

The theme is clear.  People in other towns should pay for Northwood’s roads.  People in other states should pay for New Hampshire’s medical care and education. The trouble is, as British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher once pointed out, eventually you run out of other people’s money.

Michael Faiella

Northwood

Plymouth State University Student Successful At

National Association Of Teachers Of Singing Festival In Boston

Plymouth State University senior music major Michael Dodge of Northwood earned second place in Division 2 (ages 18-20) and won the Special Prize for Best Performance of a German Arts Song in the National Association of Teachers of Singing Boston Song and Aria Festival held at the Boston University College of Fine Arts.

Dodge performed Dimenticar Ben Mio by Amilcare Ponchielli, Linden Lea by Ralph Vaughan Williams, and Verborgenheit by Hugo Wolf, for which he won the special prize. Dodge is the student of Professor of Music Kathleen Arecchi and was accompanied on piano by PSU Collaborative Pianist Allan DiBiase.

Arecchi says participating in adjudicated art song and area festivals provides students with a performance opportunity to set as a working goal, and the opportunity to perform for experienced singing adjudicators and to receive written feedback on all aspects of their performance, from choice of repertory, mastery of singing technique, diction accuracy, expressive singing and communicating with an audience. They also can hear other singers who are in various stages of their training and to experience the growth in self-confidence that comes when they challenge themselves to step outside their current comfortable performing zones.

The National Association of Teachers of Singing, Inc. is the largest professional association of teachers of singing in the world, with members in 27 countries.

Located in the Silver Center for the Arts, the Department of Music, Theatre, and Dance offers majors in music, music education and theatre, with options that range from music technology or piano performance to theatrical design, theatre history, dramatic writing and music theatre performance. The department also offers a self-designed interdisciplinary dance major that can be combined with other majors such as theatre or business, a dance pedagogy curriculum approved by the National Dance Education Organization and flexible minors in music and dance that allow students to explore and develop their artistic hobbies.

Northwood CrankPullers Snowmobile Club News

Lots going on with The Northwood CrankPullers Snowmobile Club. They would like to invite everyone to check out the NH Hill Climb Challenge being held on April 6th at Pats Peak in Henniker, NH. This event has multiple events, including but not limited to, drag races and vintage races (this being sponsored by our own NCP Club). Check out the website for more info on this event at www.nhhillclimbchallenge.com. Lots of family fun for ending the season. 

Also check out our website www.northwoodcrankpullers.com for any details and information on upcoming events and past event results.

Our next monthly meeting is April 18th at 7 pm in the Northwood Community Center. Elections will be held at this time. And a reminder that our trails are now closed, so please respect this and the landowners.  

We had a pretty good year for sledding with lots of activities so come join us, as we are always looking for new members. As always we really appreciate and are grateful to our landowners.