Wolfeboro Deputy Fire Chief Completes National Fire Academy Executive Fire Officer Program

Wolfeboro Deputy Fire Chief Thomas J. Zotti entered an elite corps of less then 3,000 graduates upon completing the four year Executive Fire Officer Program (EFOP) at the U.S. Fire Administration’s National Fire Academy in Emmitsburg, Maryland this spring.  The EFOP is designed to provide senior officers with the ability to transform fire and emergency services organizations from being reactive to proactive; with an emphasis on leadership development, prevention, and risk reduction;  to conduct and apply research to their departments;  and to enhance their executive-level knowledge, skills, and abilities needed to lead achieve needed changes.

The EFOP consists of four bachelors degree and/or graduate level courses two weeks in length spanning a four year period.  An equally important part of the EFOP are the four Applied Research Projects (ARP) relating  to their fire department required in addition to the four core courses. 

The first course “Executive Development”  focuses on developing effective management and leadership skills for fire officers as they make the transition from manager to senior executive.  The second course “Executive Analysis of Community Risk Reduction” focuses on the executive fire officer as the leader in community risk reduction, assessing community risk, developing a draft plan for a local risk reduction initiative and applying change management models and addressing organizational politics.  The third course “ Executive Analysis of Fire Service Operations in Emergency Management” is a comprehensive  course covering among other topics risk assessment , incident  documentation, media/political considerations, standards, legal mandates, capability assessment, damage assessment, emergency operations, integrated Emergency Management System, Emergency Operations Center and emergency operational readiness. The final course “Executive Leadership” emphasizes the practical application of the skills learned in the prior courses.  The applied research projects of each student are archived for distribution  at http://www.usfa.fema.gov/lrc.

Governor proposes cutting $1.3 Million in Aid in 2012 for GWRSD Building Projects

Wolfeboro: Articles in the Fosters Daily Democrat and the Concord Monitor newspapers examine the effect of Governor Lynch's proposed $1.3 million cut in building aid for GWRSD renovations including those at Kingswood Regional High School in Wolfeboro, NH for the year 2012. The Governor Wentworth School district includes the towns of Brookfield, Effingham, New Durham, Ossipee, Tuftonboro, Wolfeboro.

http://www.fosters.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20110220/GJNEWS_01/702209903

http://www.concordmonitor.com/article/249075/no-title

Court Rehears Wolfeboro Firefighters' Case

Having granted the Wolfeboro full-time firefighter's Motion for Reconsideration, the Superior Court is holding a hearing today, March 30, 2011, to reevaluate part or all of its prior decision to uphold the Wolfeboro Board of Selectmen's actions rescinding recognition of the firefighters' union as a collective bargaining unit. The granting of the motion for reconsideration means that the court has agreed to reevaluate part or all of the matter based on a different analysis of the issues already heard or a consideration of further facts or points of law not available at the time of the original decision. A motion for reconsideration is only granted when there is a clear basis for concluding that the court has overlooked, been unaware of, or misunderstood some significant point of fact or law that could change the decision or decree.

Article 12 Recount: Mislaid Ballots Found, Numbers Change, But Article 12 Still Doesn't Pass

The numbers announced after the Article 12 recount proved to be wrong, but irrelevant to the final defeat of the bond Article 12 to renovate Brewster Memorial Hall. The numbers initially announced after the recount showed a 41 vote drop in Yes votes and 52 vote drop in the total votes cast for Article 12. The initial recount showed 1001 yes votes and 717 no votes bringing the percentage of votes in favor of the renovation down to 58.2% or 1.8% short of the 60% majority required for a bond article. The 1001 yes votes was a 41 vote drop from the original count of 1042 Yes votes and the 717 no votes was an 11 vote drop from the original 728 No votes. The election day count showed 1770 votes cast for Article 12 and the recount showed 1718 votes cast: a drop of 51 votes from the election day count. Town Moderator Randy Walker deemed 25 ballots to be blank, three to be void, and one to be an over-vote. However, only yes or no votes are counted when determining the majority of votes. After the moderator announced the recount numbers, several members of the public and of the recount committee left

However, Moderator Walker stated that after he announced the recount numbers, he and other members of the recount committee were bothered by the obvious disparity between the election count and the hand recount and so they decided to recount the votes again. Moderator Walker stated that, on one hand, it’s common to pick up additional votes on a hand recount because the electronic ballot counter disregards some ballots for any number of reasons, such as someone starting to fill in one bubble and then filling in the other bubble. However, on the other hand, it is rare to come up with fewer votes on a hand recount than were electronically counted, which caused him to investigate the disparity further. After two more hand recounts revealed the same disparity, a search revealed that some Article 12 ballot pages had been misplaced, after being separated from the other two ballot pages. Luckily, at least two members of the public had stayed and witnessed the final recount, which produced 18 additional votes. The final tally is 1044 Yes votes and 744 No votes or 58.4% in favor: still short 1.6% of the needed 60%.

On March 10, 2011, ten voters presented the town clerk with a request for the recount of the votes for Article 12. The Town Clerk scheduled the recount for March 15, 2011 and posted a notice the day before, on at least the town website. The moderator appointed a committee of 10 to recount the ballots including Selectmen Murray and Silk, budget committee member Stan Stevens, and election official Laurie Jones. Town Moderator Randy Walker assisted by Town Clerk Pat Waterman supervised the 10 counters. The ballot counters separated the ballot page for article 12 from the other two pages of the ballot and then separated the Article 12 pages into piles of Yes votes, No votes, Blank votes, Void votes and Over-Votes (both yes and no bubbles filled in). The ballot counters counted the Yes and No piles, reaching the final number once the missing ballots were found and added to the count. Members of the public witnessing the recount included Joyce Davis, Bob Lemaire, Suzanne Ryan, and Alan Kasiewicz.

Recount of Votes for Article 12 Brewster Memorial Hall

There will be a recount of the votes cast for Warrant Article 12 the Renovation of Brewster Memorial Hall on this Tuesday, March 15, 2011 at 8:00 am in the meeting room of Brewster Memorial Hall.

Election Results

I came in third with 841 votes, Dave Senecal got the most votes 1151, and Linda Murray came in second to Dave with 1030. Congratulations to both of them.

While I am disappointed I didn't win a seat, I am very pleased to have garnered such a solid number of votes running against two well-known incumbents.

Official results can be found at

http://www.wolfeboronh.us/Pages/WolfeboroNH_News/016CD353-000F8513

Candidates Forum - Thank you

Thank you to all that attended or watched the candidate's forum Thursday night and will be watching it over the coming days and nights. A special thank you to Dixie Balzer for her support and to the Chamber of Commerce and Library for organizing and hosting it. After listening to the other candidates last night, I think we are very lucky to be able to have such a large and varied field of candidates in our small town.