By Ryan O'Connor
Staff Writer

By order of the Goffstown Board of Selectmen, all DVDs which contain taped footage of town meetings are to be destroyed after 30 days, and at least one resident is openly unhappy with the rule.

“I believe that it’s incomprehensible that the board of selectmen would order the destruction of recordings of public meetings,” said resident Wayne Perreault. “That, in fact, actually removes any accurate record of what went on at the meetings, especially the public input.”

Perreault said his understanding is the only records that are kept are the minutes, which he said are not necessarily accurate.

“The minutes that are taken are not always verbatim and do not always reflect the full meaning of what said at the meetings (emotion, context, etc.),” he said. “The only thing we are left with is the town’s version of what went on in that meeting, which the board of selectmen can actually correct and approve before it gets distributed.”

Gossett McRae, chairman of the board of selectmen, said he was unaware of the rule because it was decided before he was appointed to the board in 2004.

Originally, he said, he thought the DVDs were kept in the library forever, while only the video server at town hall was erased on a monthly basis. Upon learning of the rule, McRae said the issue should be explored.

“I think we need to discuss this with the board. As you know, I am only one-fifth of the board and we (as a group) clearly need to correct the issue,” said McRae. “We will look into it.”

According to Goffstown Television employee Dick Gagnon, it is not always exactly 30 days after the meeting that recordings are eliminated because it is often a week or two before he is able to copy the meetings onto DVD and get them to the library. He said the library actually sends the footage back to town hall 30 after they first receive it.

McRae said that in addition to looking into the the destruction of the DVDs, he also is concerned about the time it takes to get them to the library.

While making clear that he appreciates the efforts of GTV staff, and by no means is criticizing them, he noted most of those who work for the station are volunteers, and said the board needs to help find a way to help get the videos to the library within a couple of days instead of weeks.

“There is apparently a very slow time frame,” he said. “We are working to see what we have to do to see that those DVDs get to the library in a very timely fashion.”

Still, the larger issue of maintaining the DVDs over a long period of time is paramount in Perreault’s mind.

“I just feel that this is our history,” said Perreault. “Why would we destroy our history, especially after going through the trouble of recording it and making it available to the public through the library?”