The Walpolean

 YMCA DAY CAMPS TO BUILD SKILLS, FRIENDSHIPS AND MEMORIES FOR 53rd SUMMER

Since 1965, over 12,250 area youth have developed skills, friendships and memories at Meeting Waters YMCA summer camps. This summer marks the 53rd consecutive year that hundreds of area youth will keep their minds and bodies active throughout the summer at the regional Ys three day camp programs.

Y Day Camp for 6-13 year-olds offers eight one-week sessions between June 26th and August 18th. The Y’s Leader-in-Training program provides a week of leadership development (June 26-30) followed by three weeks working alongside camp staff. KinderCamp provides children entering kindergarten in the fall with a confidence-building experience from August 14th through 18th. 

Family Camp takes place on Saturday July 22nd.

All camps are based at the regional Y’s 52-acre Lewis Day Camp facility, located on Route 5 in Springfield, just off I-91. Bus service is provided to and from camp each day from Walpole, North Walpole and Charlestown, as well as six towns in VT.

The regional Y’s camps participate in the federal Summer Food Program. All campers—regardless of town of residence or family income—qualify for a free healthy lunch each day. 

Registration for the upcoming camp season has begun. To ensure that all youth have the chance to experience camp, the regional Y offers financial assistance from donations to its Reach Out to Youth fundraising campaign and accepts state child care financial assistance from both NH and VT. 

A Camp Open House will be held on Saturday, May 20th from 1-3pm at the Y’s Lewis Day Camp facility on Missing Link Road/Route 5 in Springfield. For more information or to enroll, visit  www.meetingwatersymca.org  or call the Y office at 802-463-4769.

Walpole Planning BoardWorkshop Minutes

Town Hall

April 25, 2017 Minutes

Present: Board members: Jeffrey Miller (Chair), Robert Miller (Vice-Chair), James Aldrich, (Secretary), Cheryl Mayberry (Selectboard Representative), Dennis Marcom, Jeff White, Ed Potter.

Also, Southwest Regional Planning Commission planners Mari Brunner and Liz Kelly.

The workshop was to decide whether or not the Complete Streets Policy was a policy the Planning Board wanted to accept. However, Ms. Mayberry brought along a few concerns the Selectboard had concerning implementation of the program. These were discussed first. The lines in quotation marks indicate Selectboard concerns. The concerns were prefaced by the statement that “First, We strongly support the concepts and principals of Complete Streets. It make great sense.”

“As a town policy is it too rigid? Policies need to be something we implement and follow, not place on the shelf and collect dust. Should it be more of a guideline that a policy?”

The Board agreed that practically every statement says the town will do this or will do that, but there is always the follow up “as appropriate” that negates the absolute or must do part of the enforcement of that particular policy. The Board decided to sometimes change the word “will” to “should.”

The Board did not agree that the word policy should be changed to something else, for example guidelines. Ms. Brunner said the word policy means that the town takes this Complete Streets document seriously. Organizations or individuals giving our grant money are more likely to give a town grant money if it has the word “policy” in its mission and not just guidelines.

“Second, is how does this document integrate into Site Plan Review and Zoning. If those ordinances do not connect to the Complete Street document then how will the boards know when and how they apply to what is before them.”

Mr. J. Miller said parts of the document will be integrated into the site plan and also the site plan checklist. He said that the Board will get input from SWRPC staff to help with this.

“Third, we currently do not have a long-term capital or infrastructure plan in place.”

Mr. J. Miller said the town doesn’t have one now but it is a goal mentioned in the Master Plan.

“Fourth, Should we have metrics?”

The Planning Board thought that this was reference to Section IV, Part C Best Practices that would make the town officials and the Road Agent more aware of the objectives of Complete Streets. The Board plans to ask Mr. Mike Rau, the Road Agent, to attend one meeting to discuss this section with him. As it is, he already makes monthly reports on what he does – streets paved, gutters cleaned, adding sidewalks etc. Mr. Rau will have a chance to comment on this section of the document.

“The Master plan is geared towards protecting open space and the rural nature of the town. Are complete Streets and the Master Plan on the same page?” The Board agreed it was.

“We (the Selectboard) will also need to make sure that the design guidelines they call for do not conflict with other state requirements.” The planners from SWRPC assured the Board that the guidelines do not conflict with state requirements.

A Public Hearing will be held on May 9, 2017, at its regular Board meeting to either recommend or not recommend the Complete Streets policy. The Public Hearing needs to be posted and a legal put in The Keene Sentinel.

Complete Streets Workshop – The SWRPC planners told the Board of an upcoming workshop that will discuss and have exercises on community transportation. The daylong workshop is May 19, 2017, at the Jaffrey Civic Center. The first half of the meeting is lecture, then lunch will be served. In the afternoon hands-on work such as scenarios and problem solving will be the focus of the afternoon meetings. Members were encouraged to try to go to some part of the workshop.

Demonstrations Sites – Ms. Kelly named four sites to consider for demonstrations and the Board chose two. One was in front of Burdick’s Restaurant on the street to demonstrate back-in parking. At the same time there will be signage for a shared driving/biking lane.

At the corner, near Walpole’s rotary – the fountain – is Jake’s and there are white lines that go around the corner. The idea is to mark this area so it looks like a sidewalk. There may also be a crosswalk added.

The third option was to make the area on Main Street going down to the school on the left side a bike lane and on the right side, near the shoulder of the road, a hatched road area that would eliminate cars driving space.

A fourth option was on Westminster Street to take some of the parking away and make a bike lane on one side.

The demonstrations will be set up on Old Home Day Weekend. The Board needs permission from someone on the Old Home Day committee and the Selectboard. Ms. Kelly will try and talk to Ms. Cindy Westover of the Old Home Day Committee, Ms. Mayberry will talk with the Selectboard.

Respectfully submitted,

Marilou Blaine

And you can read it now before it is mailed to almost 2000 mailing addresses in Walpole, North Walpole and Drewsville.Here is the link to click to get to the PDF for the May issue — https://walpoleclarion.files.wordpress.com/2017/04/clarion-may17-topress.pdf

Next month – JUNE – welcomes Old Home Days at the end of the month, celebrated every three years. The June issue of the CLARION will have the schedule for all events and more. You may want to advertise in what should be a “keepsake” issue, so please do contact me if you would like to place an ad.
Thank you, yours, RAY

The Fall Mountain School District will hold a Childfind Screening on Wednesday, May 17, 2017 at the Fall Mountain Early Learning Center. All children ages of 2 ½ through 4 (not attending Kindergarten in the fall) and who are residents of Acworth, Alstead, Charlestown, Langdon and Walpole are welcome to attend. The purpose of this free screening is to briefly assess the overall development of the preschool child in order to identify any children who may have special needs. The screening will also provide the parents with the opportunity to obtain more information regarding typical growth and development. Please call Tammy Vittum at 835-6314 or e-mail tvittum@sau60.org for further information and an appointment. 

Due to an employee training workshop, the Transfer Station – Recycling Center will be closed on Thursday, April 27th.

Selectboard Meeting of May 4, 2017 moving to Tuesday, May 2nd at 6:00pm

The change is due to a training date conflict.

Walpole Planning Board

Workshop Minutes

March 28, 2017

Town Hall

7 pm

Present: Walpole Planning Board: Jeff Miller (Chair), Bob Miller (Vice-Chair), James Aldrich (Secretary), Dennis Marcom, Jeff White, Jason Perron, Steve Dalessio (Selectboard Representative),  Ed Potter, Liz Kelley Southwest Regional Planning Commission.

The entire meeting revolved around the program Complete Streets, which is a look at the streets of Walpole and gauges how traffic flows, safety concerns, protection of natural resources are being considered when the public is driving on them.  

The bulk of the meeting covered the policy that the Board will approve. A copy of the policy is at the end of these minutes. Please read it and if the anyone has any comments, they may be sent to the Planning Board secretary. There were a couple of minor corrections with the exception of Section V, (c), which was removed because it didn’t pertain to Walpole.

New maps of the town were handed out of the with a few corrections being made from the previous map. Mr. Dalessio pointed that Drewsville village should be delineated in the same way that  North Walpole village and Walpole village were.

 Ms. Kelly said that SWRPC will have an Implementation Workshop on May 18 and 19 during the day and hoped that a good portion of the Board would be there.

The town could also have a demonstration of how a street could look according to a design of their choice. Mr. Marcom said that it would be good to have it at Old Home Days this year as there would be a good turnout.

Finally, the town, as well as businesses in the town, have an opportunity to get bike racks donated. The racks are an inverted U-shape, 30 inches wide and 32 inches high. One rack accommodates two bicycles. Twenty racks are alloted for Walpole. 

Discussion about Complete Streets is ongoing and is and will be the topic of monthly workshop meetings on the fourth Tuesday of the month.

Respectfully submitted,

Marilou Blaine

Secretary

“From Hurricane to Climate Change” will be shown on April 22^nd at 7:00 at the Walpole Town Hall.  This showing will be free and all are welcome to attend.

This film documents how the Monadnock region currently addresses our changing climate and its challenges.  It highlights regional responses which will be helpful in the years to come.  Experts, local residents, and Bill McKibben all weigh in on what we can do to best support the environment.  

 Important from both an environmental and historical perspective, the film includes scenes from the Hurricane of 1938.  That hurricane was the most dramatic meteorological event in recent memory in the region.  In its aftermath, towns came together to rebuild streets and construct the McDowell Dam as well as other projects.

Local citizens recently organized the Fall Mountain Alliance from concern for the need to protect our natural environment and resources.  For more information please contact Diane Nichols at diane.nichols53@gmail.com.

The library will be closed today, 3/31 and tomorrow (no April Fools joke).  However, Justine says she is there until noon today if you need materials for the storm!