Letters to the Editor

The Road Improvement Fund should be prioritized for use on those roads in Hampton that need to be reconstructed, paved or otherwise improved, NOT for the beautification project by Experience Hampton in Article 44 of last year’s warrant.

If all municipal, SAU90 and Winnacunnet High School warrant articles pass this March the Hampton tax rate will increase by 7% to $17.53 this year. The accumulative increase in the taxes on an average single-family home will have risen from $5,989 in 2014 to $7,150 in 2018, a 19% increase of over $1,000 in only 4 years. At this rate we will be at $9,000 in another five years. The 2018 estimate does not even include the $11.8 million WWTP bond on the ballot, if approved it will not hit the tax rate until 2019.

In the past few years a number of high cost warrant articles have passed by less than 25 votes. With little effort, you can make a difference!

Rational Taxpayers of Hampton will support Warrant Article 7 calling for a bond issue for $11,780,000 for necessary upgrades to the Waste Water Treatment Plant. During the public hearings for this project and at Public Comments, Rational Taxpayer members and its supporters spoke up to challenge the original amount of the bond issue which resulted in a $2 million reduction.

Areas that we remain concerned about include:

each article should stand on its own merits and not be a scheme devised by the Board of Selectmen to mislead the voters

Why do some businesses get their trash picked up daily, some less frequently, while other businesses do not have their trash or recycling picked up at all by the Town remains a head scratcher. Town officials should have some understanding of this. I call on the Selectmen to

The “don’t rock the boat” strategy (we will work it out over time) is a failed strategy! This suggested strategy smacks of politics and passivism

The whole practice doesn’t benefit the public; long-term it results in taxpayers footing the cost of increased pension benefits that the chief will receive for detail work and any impact on increasing workers comp premiums.

The Town of Hampton lost two wonderful citizens in Sandy Buck and Arthur Moody. These two dedicated Hampton citizens will be missed.

Either the policy was a draft, which it clearly is not, or a fast one was being pulled by the Town Manager. There is some explaining to do.

Doing more and more of the Town’s business behind closed doors opens it up for more inefficiency, less checks and balances, more cronyism and potentially corruption. We strongly suggest that the Selectmen and Town Manager ...