The Walpolean

Walpole Community Grange wishes to remind everyone that lunch will be available for purchase in conjunction with Walpole Town Meeting tomorrow at the Town Hall.  Hot dogs, Mac n’ Cheese and other goodies!  Meeting starts at 1, lunch items available beginning 12:15-12:30ish.

No surprises in our town elections since everyone ran unopposed. However, I do want to list them here as a small thank you for all they do to make Walpole the wonderful community that it is. – Lil

Selectboard – Peggy Pschirrer

Moderator – Ernie Vose

Town Clerk/Tax Collector – Sandy Smith

Trustee of the Trust Funds – Tom Winmill

Supervisor of the Checklist – Gary McCormick

Planning Board – James Aldrich & Jeff Miller

Zoning Board – Pauline Barnes & Tom Murray

Library Trustees – Jeanne Ramey, Carole Cramer, Amy Howard

Cemetery Trustee – Linda Edkins

Both of the Zoning Board questions were passed easily.

DON’T FORGET TOWN MEETING 3/17/18, 1:00 PM at the TOWN HALL

Fall Mountain School District warrant articles all passed as well.

Elected to the School Board – Michael Herrington & William Stahl

Moderator – Leroy Watson

Thanks again to the voters who made the trek through the snow, everyone who worked the polls and those who ran for office!

The Library has announced that the Social Security workshop scheduled for tomorrow night has been postponed until April 17th. Stay safe everyone.

This Saturday March 17 – Cabin Fever Radio Follies of 2018 – A few tables left – Make your reservations at Joanie Joan’s Baked Goods Company.

The Walpole Players will go “on air” at 7:00 pm, Saturday, March 17, in the Helen Miller Theater at the Walpole Town Hall, presenting Cabin Fever Radio Follies of 2018. It will be the sixth annual presentation of this popular event. The cast, many who have appeared in the Radio Follies year to year, have currently assembled this year’s scripts to provide you with laughs and great memories for an hour and twenty minutes (more or less).

The doors will open at 6:00 pm, when audience members may arrive bringing their own dinners, snacks and beverages of choice. Round tables for eight will be provided so all may dine in comfort, then sit back and listen as the Players commence the live broadcast from the radio studio on stage.

The last five years have been sellouts, and this year the Players anticipate all tickets will be pre-sold. To purchase tickets and reserve a table for your party, or for more information, call Joan Ireland at 499-1027 (please leave a message with your name and phone number). Ticket prices remain only $10 per person for a grand evening out. Tickets are available for purchase at Joanie Joan’s Baked Goods Company, along with table reservations.

Selectboard Present: Peggy Pschirrer (Chair); Steven Dalessio; Cheryl Mayberry

CALL TO ORDER:  Mrs. Pschirrer called this Selectboard meeting to order at 6:30 PM in the Walpole Town Hall.  She advised this meeting is being recorded and asked anyone wishing to speak to identify themselves for the record.  There was one member of the public in attendance.

ACCOUNTS PAYABLE:

Ms. Mayberry moved to accept the Accounts Payable check register in the amount of $64.550.24 for checks dated March 2, 2018.  Seconded by Mr. Dalessio.  With Ms. Mayberry, Mr. Dalessio and Mrs. Pschirrer in favor, the motion was approved.

PAYROLL:

Ms. Mayberry moved to accept the Payroll Register for the week ending February 24, 2018, in the amount of $25,805.20 for checks dated March 2, 2018.  Seconded by Mr. Dalessio.  With Ms. Mayberry, Mr. Dalessio and Mrs. Pschirrer in favor, the motion was approved.

Ms. Mayberry moved to accept the electronic fund transfer for the 941 Employer Taxes for Withholding, MEDI and FICA taxes in the amount of $5,344.76 for the week ending February 24, 2018.  Seconded by Mr. Dalessio.  With Ms. Mayberry, Mr. Dalessio and Mrs. Pschirrer in favor, the motion was approved.

SELECTBOARD MEETING MINUTES:

SELECTBOARD MEETING – February 22, 2018:  Ms. Mayberry moved to accept the Minutes of the Selectboard meeting of February 22, 2018, as submitted.  Seconded by Mr. Dalessio.  With Ms. Mayberry, Mr. Dalessio and Mrs. Pschirrer in favor, the Minutes were approved.

NON-PUBLIC SELECTBOARD SESSION – February 22, 2018:  Ms. Mayberry moved to accept the Minutes of the Non-Public Selectboard Session of February 22, 2018, as submitted.  These Minutes will remain sealed.  Seconded by Mr. Dalessio.  With Ms. Mayberry, Mr. Dalessio and Mrs. Pschirrer in favor, the Minutes were approved.

COMMITTEE REPORTS:

The Selectboard received and reviewed Minutes of the following meetings:

• North Walpole Village District Board of Commissioners – February 20, 2018;

• Zoning Board of Adjustment – February 21, 2018.

DEMOLITION PERMIT:

WILLIAM CALLAHAN, Map and Lot #004-040-000:  Ms. Mayberry moved to grant Demolition Permit No. 2018-01 for William Callahan for “A pigpen that has already been removed” at 122 Bookseller Road.  Seconded by Mr.Dalessio.  With Ms. Mayberry, Mr. Dalessio and Mrs. Pschirrer in favor, the motion was approved.

OLD BUSINESS:

TOWN WARRANT:  The Selectboard signed an original copy of the Town Warrant as requested by Mrs. Sandy Smith, Town Clerk/Tax Collector.

SUMMARY OF BENEFIT HOURS BALANCES: Mr. Rich Kreissle had submitted a progress report on the Benefit Hours Balances for the period ending February 24, 2018.  All numbers were reconciled with the departments except the Recycling Center.  Mr. Kreissle has not looked at personal time; this gets reset at the beginning of each year.  The Selectboard reviewed the summary but had questions on vacation and sick time for a few employees.  In September 2017, a revised Personnel Policy Handbook was given to each employee.  Mrs. Pschirrer will rewrite the section on vacations to clarify any misinterpretations that exist.  She will then review the revisions with an attorney and discuss this with Mr. Kreissle.

MAP AND LOT #012-055-021:  This lot is owned by Twin Birch Realty. Mrs. Downing had checked the deeds. Following a discussion, Mr. Dalessio summarized that based on the history of these lots. The Selectboard up-holds the interpretation of the Warrant Article passed in 2007 on the entire sub-division; the lots should be treated as Residential B. Residential B still stands.  In order to make a change to Commercial on these lots, the official zoning change will need to go before the voters as a warrant article at the 2019 Annual Town Meeting.

PUBLIC BUSINESS:

Village of Bellows Falls:  Municipal Manager, Mr. Shane O’Keefe, was present.  He submitted a letter dated March 1, 2018 and a detailed summary of the Town’s wastewater payments to the BFVC.  They discovered that the BFVC actually owes the Town of Walpole approximately $11,000.  Information on bonds and payment calculations were included.  There are two existing bonds.  The Selectboard had approved and signed the Joint Agreement. It has not yet been returned with a signature by Town Counsel Attorney Hockensmith.  A copy of the final agreement will be sent to Mr. Mark Houghton.

NEW BUSINESS:

CEMETERY LOTS D538 AND D539:

Ms. Mayberry moved to approve and sign the Cemetery Deed for Lot #D538.  Seconded by Mr. Dalessio.  With Ms. Mayberry, Mr. Dalessio and Mrs. Pschirrer in favor, the motion was approved.

Ms. Mayberry moved to approve and sign the Cemetery Deed for Lot #D539.  Seconded by Mr. Dalessio.  With Ms. Mayberry, Mr. Dalessio and Mrs. Pschirrer in favor, the motion was approved.

POLE LICENSE PETITION:  Ms. Mayberry moved to approve and sign the Pole License Petition for the Northern New England Telephone Operations LLC D/B/A FairPoint NNE and Liberty Utilities (Granite State Electric) to replace poles on the Old Drewsville Road and Alstead Center Road.  Seconded by Mr. Dalessio.  With Ms. Mayberry, Mr. Dalessio and Mrs. Pschirrer in favor, the motion was approved.

VEHICLE REFUND REQUEST:  This request was received from Mrs. Sandy Smith, Town Clerk/Tax Collector.  There were a series of errors started when the car dealer filled out the back of the Certificate of Origin to a leasing company instead of the owner.  The owner had actually signed a lease agreement instead of a purchase agreement.  Mrs. Smith had collected money based on a lease agreement.  She is asking the Selectboard to refund $76.00.

Mr. Dalessio moved to accept Mrs. Sandy Smith’s recommendation for a vehicle refund in the amount of $76.00.  Seconded by Mr. Mayberry.  With Mr. Dalessio, Ms. Mayberry and Mrs. Pschirrer in favor, the motion was approved.    

FAIRPOINT OUTSTANDING INVOICE:  Mrs. Pschirrer advised that the Town received a spreadsheet listing outstanding invoices from FairPoint who has been purchased by Consolidated Communications.  They have presented the Town with a claim of unpaid telephone bills in the amount of $1,400+ that goes back to 2009 and 2010.  Back then, all telephones were on one bill.  Their e-mail states if unpaid, they will hand over the bills to collection and then possibly a lien. The Selectboard is researching statutes of limitations and document retention.  Mr. Dalessio recommended sending a letter to the NH Municipal Association for advice and then make a decision.  Mrs. Pschirrer stated none of their bills show there is an outstanding balance.

HEALTH TRUST ADMINISTRATOR WORKSHOP: Mrs. Downing has requested permission to attend the Health Trust Benefits Administrator Workshop on Wednesday, April 4th in Concord.  The Selectboard approved this request.

RECESS SELECTBOARD MEETING:

Ms. Mayberry moved to recess this Selectboard meeting.  The Selectboard will enter into a meeting as the Hooper Trustees.  Seconded by Mr. Dalessio.  With Ms. Mayberry, Mr. Dalessio and Mrs. Pschirrer in favor, the motion was approved at 7:24 PM.

The regular Selectboard meeting resumed at 8:16 PM.

ADJOURNMENT:

Ms. Mayberry moved to adjourn this Selectboard meeting.  Seconded by Mr. Dalessio.  With Ms. Mayberry, Mr. Dalessio and Mrs. Pschirrer in favor, the meeting was adjourned at 8:18 PM.

Respectfully submitted,

Regina Borden, Recording Secretary

Janet Moore, of West Chesterfield  NH will exhibit of her water color and oil paintings at the People’s United Bank in Chester, VT.  The exhibit is free of charge and may be seen during regular business hours until the beginning of June.

VT. artist, Carolyn Allbee will have an exhibit of her paintings at the River Valley Credit Union in Townsend, Vermont. The show, which is free of charge, may be seen through the end of May.

Members of the Saxtons River Art Guild will change their ongoing group exhibit at Rockingham Medical Group in Bellows Falls Vt. and Ramuntos in Brattleboro, VT. to welcome the coming of Spring! The new exhibits may be viewed free of charge until June. The Saxtons River Art Guild is a non-profit devoted to the advancement and encouragement of the fine arts. The group includes members throughout the Conn. River Valley.

BELLOWS FALLS, VT — It’s been described as the love child of The Little Rascals, TED Talks, and NPR’s Tiny Desk Concerts. One part songs, one part stories, one part science, one part humanities. Words and music. Arts and smarts.

It’s Stage 33 Live, a homegrown radio and television variety program showcasing performers and presenters from the region that’s being brought to life by group of volunteers in Bellows Falls, Vermont. The program will be recorded during public listening events at 33 Bridge Street in Bellows Falls, the former factory building that is also home to community radio station WOOL-FM, Sherwin Art Glass, Charlie Hunter Fine Art, and other artist studios.

“We’ve got tons of talented and studied people around here,” states Mark Piepkorn, one of Stage 33’s founders. “By shining a light on them, we can encourage more local participation in spoken word arts, humanities, sciences, and music. And by opening the program for syndication to public and commercial radio and television, and making it available on the internet, we can show the world that it’s worth a trip to the area to catch a show, take in an event, grab a meal, stay a night or two and check things out.”

Local people have helped cultivate the performance space, donated key components, volunteered time and expertise, and provided other assistance. The Stage 33 Live team brings experience in audio recording, video production, event promotion, media experience, artist relations, and other talents to the table.

“We’re close to a proper launch,” Piepkorn says. We’re doing a test run on Sundays in April with three open stage nights for original, family-friendly spoken word and music; a concert with River HALO and The Break Maids; and the premier of the newest episode of The Secret Life of Death.”

The listening events are free to attend; donations are welcome. Audience seating capacity is limited to 50, plus standing room. For more information on the series and the project, see www.stage33live.com. Stage time and slots are limited; first come, first served; participant reservations are highly recommended. Contact stage33@stage33live.com or phone/text (802) 289-0148.

Stage 33 Live is a volunteer-run, independent 501(c)3 nonprofit initiative.

In case you missed the forum, here are the notes. – Lil

Addressing the challenges journalism faces today, a three-person panel with varying ties to the field — researcher, editor, reporter — spoke and answered questions in front of an audience of 60 at the Walpole Town Hall, the evening of February 28th, in a forum sponsored by the Fall Mountain Alliance and moderated by long-time science journalist Ben Daviss.

“Liberty and the Press”

“The news is in the news,” said Ben Daviss in introduction. “Newspapers are laying off their reporters. Public distrust of our flagship news organizations is at an all-time high.  People are migrating for their information to social media and to online sources — perhaps a new form of Russian roulette.   And there are calls from the White House for news to be investigated or censored.”  He then noted what Thomas Jefferson wrote — “Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press and that cannot be limited without being lost.”

Daviss posed the questions “Where do things stand now?” and “How do we navigate this new world?”

The panelists were:

• Nancy West, after 30 years as general assignment reporter for the New Hampshire Union Leader, now the publisher of InDepthNH.org, a nonprofit center for public-interest reporting in New Hampshire, which she founded in 2015.  She has been honored by both the New England Press Association and New Hampshire Press Association for government reporting.

• Dr. Kristen Nevious, director of the Marlin Fitzwater Center for Communication at Franklin Pierce University.  

• Paul Miller, executive editor of the Keene Sentinel where he’s been for 35 years.  He is a member of the board of directors of the New England Society of Newspaper Editors and a three-time New Hampshire Newspaper Columnist of the Year. He still writes his occasional “Out in Public” column in the Sentinel.

Moderator Daviss has been an independent magazine journalist for more than 35 years, with articles in Discover,Smithsonian, and in more than 40 other publications on four continents.

“The Wild West”

“It’s the wild west,” said West of conditions for journalists today.

The panelists talked of shifting technologies, sharpening divides, and the increasing role of belief and doubt in confounding  journalistic efforts to convey information.  They also addressed responses to such challenges.

“I was an expert at changing typewriter ribbons,” said Nevious of when she started out.  ”Now students are using SD cards.” She talked of the multi-tasking that today’s students must do — tweet, take video, do an interview, send back to the station–illustrating the wide range of new technologies involved in transmitting print, video, and audio aspects of a story.

News consumers have followed the technology.  “Two-thirds of people get their news on social media,” she noted.  This move has hit newspapers hard.  West observed “In 2000, the New Hampshire Union Leader had 28 reporters.  Today it has six.”  She added that thenumber of news jobs declined statewide over 56% from 2000 to 2016.

“Loss of Common Ground”

As newspapers struggle to adapt and survive, they also operate in a more fractious environment.

Miller said, “There are two disruptors: the political divide and the growing wage gap.

We’ve lost the middle in both places.” “There is a win-at-any-cost political divide.”  And he said the wage gap leads to a greater sense of disenfranchisement, apathy, social problems of homelessness, drug addiction, and domestic abuse.  “The loss of the middle, of a common ground, has created a vacuum,” he said.  “It contributes to an easy buy-in with those who propagate fake news, who prey on fear and desperation.”

The power of information to redress these gaps is hampered by the power of beliefs.  Miller said, “Forty-six percent of people hold beliefs they won’t change.  They won’t be swayed by facts.”

Miller finds, “We have a fact-resistant part of our population that has really dug in since the 2016 election.”

Rumors, Hoaxes, Lies, Information Weaponized

Another challenge to journalists is misinformation, which Miller sees as “pervasive” and “push-button simple.”  The proliferation of fake news has brought new attention to something that Nevious says has been around for a long time with many names — rumor, impostor, lies, hoax, fabricated reports, weaponized information.  She gave an example (citing the Newseum, 11/14/16) when in the 1800’s, The Sun in New York circulated a story about bat-like creatures on the moon — a hoax done to boost sales and divert attention from the issue of the abolition of slavery.  The anonymity available on the Internet, she observed, eases the spread of unsubstantiated news.

Other examples she gave highlighted the reach, power, speed, and scope of fake news.

• She noted the false account of the Pope endorsing Trump that was “seen by one million Facebook users and shared more times than any other news story–real or fake–on the election.”

• The Pizzagate conspiracy story, she pointed out, prompted someone to show up at the restaurant with a gun.

• In the case of the Parkland shooting, she said the Washington Post noted in a 2/27 story that  “forty-seven minutes after news broke” messages appeared on an anonymous chat board seeking Jewish involvement and crisis actors.

• Russia has long tried to plant misinformation in the American public to roil the waters (with fake stories, she said, drawing on examples revealed in a Chicago Tribune article 2/22, that President Kennedy’s assassination was directed by the FBI and CIA and that the AIDS virus had been manufactured by the U.S.).  Such weaponized information has been vastly empowered by the advent of the Internet, as evidenced, she noted, by the recent indictments by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III who’s investigating whether Russia tried to influence the 2016 presidential election.

Fixes lag woefully behind.  She noted the case of Miami Herald reporter Alex Harris whose tweet was hacked during the Parkland school shooting to say that she was looking for pictures of dead bodies.  While Twitter could address the problem of an account that had been taken over, Nevious said, it didn’t have an immediate fix for a single hijacked tweet.

“Public Enemy”

In addition to dealing with such increasingly murky waters, the environment has turned hostile for journalists.  “We have a President who’s declared the media a public enemy,” Miller observed, and referenced Trump’s practice during campaign rallies of confining reporters to a specified area and then deriding them, riling up the crowd.

And then there is the sheer overload of incoming information. Miller said that a poll found “fifty-eight percent say there is so muchinformation out there that they don’t know what to make of it.” This is a problem that afflicts not only readers, but newspapers themselves.  Miller commented, “We do so much on a reactionary basis.  We don’t do a good job of getting ahead of the news.”

The barrage of fake news and charges of fake news are fueling doubt and distrust.  “Forty-eight percent of Americans lack confidence in the media,” Miller said, wryly adding “That’s only one percent  higher than those who believe in haunted houses.”

Responding to the Challenges

The panelists also talked of ways journalists and news consumers can address these challenges.

To survive, news enterprises adapt and sacrifice.  Miller says the Keene Sentinel manages to be profitable because it is highly diversified with multiple revenue streams.  In addition to print and online editions, he said they are on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, publish niche magazines like Fiddlehead, and do distribution and printing.  In what must be an understatement, he said, “It’s a lot of work.”

West, noting that “I could never have started a newspaper,” did start an online one  (InDepthNH.org).  She stressed it was not done to compete with conventional newspapers, but instead to do stories too expensive for them to cover.  She has used a non-profit model. “My strong talent is to get people to do things for free,” she said, adding, “People are supportive of each other in this business.”

“Navigating a Sea of Information”

As to the threat posed by fake news (and cries of ”fake news” aimed at legitimate news), Nevious said, we need to ”learn how to navigate that sea of information.”  She said 25 states and Washington, D.C. have introduced or passed bills regarding news and media literacy, including Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut — but not, she emphasized,  New Hampshire or Vermont.  She said we need to foster skepticism without crossing over into cynicism.

After the event, she provided some tips (from  the Lompoc Record and from Buzzfeed):

• Ask questions:

o Who is the author of the article? (name, qualifications)?

o Who is the intended audience?

o What is the message?

o How is it being conveyed?  Language used (emotive or factual)?  Use of caps?

o Is the same information carried by other sites you know to be reputable?  (Paste key words of the topic or quotes from prominent people into the search engine.)

• Check the About Page for who is running the site.  Are there disclaimers?  Is it satire?

• To trace who owns a domain, use ICANN  Whois Lookup.  Be wary if the owner is not available.

• To do a reverse image search:

o With Chrome, right-click on the image to search in Google.

o TinEye will trace an uploaded image and return a list of places it is used.

Miller said we need to do “a better job of recognizing misinformation.”  Nevious later  indicated a few of some 48 fact-checking sites: Factcheck.org, Snopes.com, and Politifact.com.

“Proxy for the Public”

West said that for journalists, “We just need to do our job to the best of our ability” and asks herself “How does the public benefit from this story?”  “Journalists love their work,” she said, impassioned, “Their mission is to tell the truth,” adding, “I try not to be swayed by quick hits on the Internet.”

In the vein of doing their job, Miller said the Keene Sentinel’s standard is one of an “apolitical, independent, and verified press.”  “The press is a proxy for the public,” Miller continued, and with that in mind, he says, his newspaper only uses sources the editors consider to be competent and credible.  If a source insists on anonymity, the editor has to know their name, why they’re credible, and how their information will advance the story.  And even then, “it still doesn’t mean we greenlight it.”

Both Miller and West talked of pressing for the right to know and filing Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA) requests.  “Our mission is to hold government accountable,” West emphasized.  And Miller said that while in the past newspaper operations were mysterious to the public, now transparency is paramount.  He gave the example that when, after nine months, their paper finally got and published the cause of death of a city official, his publisher wisely had him write an accompanying editorial column on why they had done it.  Otherwise, without readers having a sense of who their reporters are, they run the risk of fulfilling this equation: “‘I don’t know you’ + ‘I don’t understand you’ = ‘I don’t trust you.’”

Beyond accountability, credibility, and transparency is also the sheer insistence on basic coverage.  After the forum, Miller said that when Trump barred the Washington Post from access, the Postresponded by saying they were going to have 35 reporters cover him 24/7.

“Giving a Voice”

What they cover is also key. West seeks to “give voices to marginalized people, places, and ideas.”  Along similar lines, Miller talked of the importance of understanding their readers, as well as those who are not reading them.  He also talked of the need to understand the partisan divide between Democrats and Republicans and how it surfaces in the topics that interest them  He noted, “A Knight Foundation report found that Democrats were more likely to read about social issues, natural disasters, the environment, science, and technology.  Republicans are more apt to read stories about traffic and weather, business and the economy, and crime and public safety.”  Summarizing that, he said, “Democrats’ interests are more outwards, aimed at improving the world and Republicans’ interests are more inwards–utilitarian, improving the quality of daily life.”  He cautioned care in the use of analytics, but considers them to the extent they increase understanding.

As to what those who seek out news can do, Miller replied, “Engage us.”  West elaborated, “Read us.  Write checks.  Support letters to the editor.  Call.”  And in follow-up after the event,  Nevious pointed out that news used to be a noun.  Now it’s a verb.

###

• Megan Hughes, with the Fall Mountain Alliance

3/7/18

Panelist bios provided by Ben Daviss

Photos and sound engineering provided by Dennis Marcom