By Jodi Wolfe
Staff Writer

Many problems faced Allenstown this year, including a number of space needs issues in the town and school facilities. For the most part, Allenstown residents fight to keep their town the quiet town they know.

MAKING DO – Allenstown Elementary School art teacher Tammy Colby oversees the town’s other art teachers as well as classes of her own. Her office was once the school janitor’s storage closet. (File Photo)

Town issues
Deliberative session for Town Meeting takes place on Jan. 31, where a major item is a 10-year lease/purchase of a new fire truck. Fire Chief Everett Chaput fights for the truck, saying that the town’s current three vehicles, which are between 18 and 28 years old, are costing a lot in maintenance.

Also during the deliberative session, salaries for two new firefighters and a feasibility study on rehabilitating the town’s buildings are zeroed out, and $10,000 is added to the town’s proposed operating budget to make improvements in polling conditions.

• On March 9, the town votes down the new fire truck by a vote of 178-305. The town’s operating budget also does not pass. The town went to a $2,915,811 default budget, which was $184,565 less than proposed.

• Due to the default budget of $2,915,911, department heads make some budget cuts. The elections and administrative department cuts its budget by $12,000; the financial department cuts its budget by $12,000; the general building maintenance/custodial salary is cut by $5,200; civil defense/emergency management department is cut by $2,200; and the cemetery department is cut by $10,000.

• In March, the town regained possession of the Old Meetinghouse on Deerfield Road. In May, the Allenstown Historical Society begins restoration work.

• In March, Allenstown residents neighboring Bear Brook State Park are happy to see the state legislature stall on a bill that would allow all-terrain vehicles in Bear Brook. The neighbors had been fighting the proposed trails for years. This year when the bill was proposed, it read that no trail can come within 4,000 feet of a wellhead, but it meant to say 400 feet. On March 11, the state Senate votes to send the bill to a study committee. Residents are concerned about the police being able to patrol the ATVers on the trails.

Later on, Rick Lacourse of the New Hampshire ATV Club says that patrolling ATVers at Bear Brook State Park would not be a financial burden for the town. The town can get money from a program through the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department. Allenstown Police Chief James McGonigle says the $42 an hour the town could receive to patrol the trails wouldn’t be enough. The Allenstown Police Department doesn’t have enough money to buy its own ATVs.

In April, the proposed legislative bill goes back to the senate after an amendment was proposed, changing the 4,000 distance from the wellhead to 400 feet.

The amendment is approved on April 15, raising concern with anti-ATV advocates.

• J.H. Spain Associates of Concord works on getting approval for McNamara’s Landing, an 85-unit condominium development, which raises concern with neighbors between Route 3 and Main Street. The zoning board grants a special exception as long as the developers put in a secondary access.

On June 7, Allenstown selectmen vote not to open Lincoln Street as a secondary access to the McNamara’s Landing.

• A water main breaks at Thomas Hodgson and Sons Mill, a company without fire coverage. To remain compliant with fire codes, the company posts a fire watch with a least one member of the Allenstown Fire Department at the mill 24 hours a day. When the company is charged with $100-an-hour-fees for the hourly watch, owners balk because the fee system was never officially set up after it passed in a warrant article in 1999. In the end, the board of selectmen rule that the company doesn’t have to pay the fines.

• On June 7, the Allenstown Sewer Commission announces it would be strictly decreasing any new sewage hookups because there are only 200 left until it is at its capacity. The limits affect the development of McNamara’s Landing.

Later on, developers of McNamara’s Landing go before the zoning board again, but are told the project needs to have secondary access. Opening Lincoln Street is voted down again by the selectmen on Dec. 6. The developers are going to the zoning board again.

• The Allenstown Building Space Needs Committee begins to look at options for the cramped police station in the basement of the town hall. On Oct. 13, risk management representative Al Burbank, Local Government Property-Liability Trust Inc., gives a presentation on his evaluation of the police department, citing several expensive liabilities for the town.

Allenstown police Lt. Shaun Mulholland will research more immediate mitigation to the liability issues while the committee looks into long-term solutions.

• At the Oct. 27 Allenstown Building Space Needs Committee meeting, members consider renovating Allenstown Elementary School for town offices and the police station while building a new elementary school. The new school would include the fifth grade and possibly the sixth grade to alleviate overcrowding issues at the Armand R. Dupont School.

Another option for the Allenstown police would be to construct a new freestanding building. It is estimated that between site improvements and building construction, costs would be $1,125,000, excluding the cost of the land. Another option is buying the Allenstown Tractor Company building. At their Nov. 1, meeting, selectmen approve two items on Mulholland’s mitigation plan.

• On Nov. 3, the Allenstown Building Space Needs Committee decides to pursue the option of of purchasing the current Allenstown Tractor building at the corner of Route 3/28. Selectmen propose two warrant articles for the purchase. One would approve taking $125,000 to $200,000 out of the surplus to either purchase the new building or mitigate the old one. Another would approve a bond of $600,000 for a new building.

• At the Nov. 29 selectmen’s meeting, the Allenstown Conservation Commission presents selectmen with options for the 119.4 acres of town-owned land. Those options include park land and boat launches.

• On Dec. 11, Allenstown police put out two search warrants for 72 Turnpike and 47 River Roads and find thousands of dollars of stolen property as well as seven marijuana plants. The stolen property is connected to two arrests made earlier by other local and state police.

Bryan Benham, 20, formerly of Allenstown, and Randy Brasseau, 34, of 49 River Road in Allenstown, are arrested. Police say they could be part of a large burglary ring.

Schools
• As part of Gov. Craig Benson’s pilot laptop program, Technology Promoting Student Excellence, every seventh-grade student at Armand R. Dupont school receives an Apple laptop computer in January. Dupont School Principal Betsey Cox Stebbins says the laptops will encourage more students to participate in class and want to learn.

• The school board rejects the budget committee’s recommended $34,850 cuts going into the Feb. 5 School District Meeting. The cuts include a new modular unit at the Dupont school and a defibrillator at Allenstown Elementary School. Voters will also be able to amend salary and benefit increases negotiated in a collective bargaining agreement with the teachers’union and $32,000 for transportation to Pembroke Academy.

• At the school district’s deliberative session on Feb. 5, Allenstown residents reject an amendment to the school board’s operating budget to allow for a modular classroom at the Dupont school. The classroom was part of $128,000 initiative package that the budget committee had cut, so the school board wanted voters to put the modular classroom into the operating budget to deal with the overcrowding at the Dupont school.

At the time, the schools were dealing with a lot of problems with lack of space. An art teacher at Allenstown Elementary School had a classroom in a former janitor’s classroom. The art students at the Dupont school met in the cafeteria, and the French teacher doesn’t have a classroom at all.

• At the School District Meeting, the school board asks for $7,701,973 for the operating budget, $333,109 for salary increases, and $32,535 to bus students to Pembroke Academy.

• On March 1, a satellite program of the Concord Boys and Girls Club opened at the Allenstown Recreational Center in the Whitten Street Park. The opening is delayed after gasoline was discovered in pools of water on the site last year. Due to the delay, children are bused to the Concord location. The satellite location was planning to work with Pembroke’s Renaissance Project for a summer camp.

• On March 9, the school’s operating budget passes, but transportation to Pembroke Academy fails.

• In July, Allenstown is told it could possibly lose $91,000 in state aid.

• In September, the St. John the Baptist Church bulletin spreads rumor that the Allenstown School Board is planning to build a brand new K-8 school, turn Allenstown Elementary School over to the town for use as town offices/police department/highway department garage and sell Armand Dupont School to the Catholic church.

At a Sept. 8 joint meeting of the town and school building committees, members of each committee quickly shut down the rumor mill. However, school and town officials say schools and town facilities need renovations, and combining the two could save money if the state pays for part of a new school.

• After the town building committee decides not to use the elementary school for town needs, the school board decides to go ahead with the proposed addition to the Allenstown Elementary School to alleviate overcrowding at the Dupont school. At the Nov. 10 meeting, the two school principals and the school board debate whether to include the sixth grade with the addition.

Later on, school officials debate whether to include kitchen equipment updates into the addition plans as well as security updates for the two schools.