What’s the tax impact of Lebanon’s firehouse project?

The new Lebanon fire station project discussed at Monday’s Planning Board meeting is estimated to cost three and a half times the $10 million proposed by the School Board a few years ago for a new concert hall. Voters rejected that idea twice.

The City Council approved this project last September after reviewing debt management data. These projections show relatively small amounts of interest and principal payments in 2024 and 2025, with full annual payments starting in 2026 at $2,249,494. We should know now what the repayment of principal and interest over 20 years will do to our property taxes. Unless you are willing to see property taxes increase significantly each year from 2026 on, call your City Council representative. It’s not too late to rethink this idea.

Bruce Garland

Lebanon

Orphans weather Haiti’s crisis

Thank you to all who have enquired about the safety of the children at Tysea Orphanage, during the current crisis in Haiti. I am happy to say that all the children are safe, well, and able to attend school daily. Fortunately, Tysea is in the town of Jacmel, which has not been hit with the turmoil that has hit the capital, Port Au Prince.

It’s a different story for the Tysea Director, Jean Marcel who lives near the Port- Au- Prince airport. His apartment was ransacked by gangs. He and his wife were forced to flee and are currently living with friends.

I’m not qualified to speculate how things will play out in Haiti. But I hope the children of Tysea will grow up to be well educated Haitians who can work for peace and democracy in their country.

Paul Foster

Norwich

The writer is president of Partners in Global Change, which supports the Tysea Orphanage in Haiti.

Join the Lebanon Women’s Club

Are you looking for friendly conversation, interesting speakers, and lunch at the beautiful Marion Carter House around the park in Lebanon?

The Lebanon Woman’s Club is a local organization for women of the Upper Valley that has been in existence for 70+ years. We meet once a month in April, May and June, and September thru December. Monthly meetings at the Marion Carter House include a light lunch and several of those meetings include guest speakers who keep us up to date on such things as healthy eating, estate planning, frauds and scams. During the last year we contributed $2,650 to various organizations such as Spark, VNA, WISE, Listen Fuel Assistance, Good Neighbor Clinic, Headrest, Friends of Veterans, Special Needs Support Center, Next Step (Stepping Stones) Upper Valley Humane Society. We also award two $500 scholarships for senior girls and we continue to host the Senior Girls Tea every April.

We raise money for these donations with bake sales, a Thanksgiving pie sale, and a holiday craft sale, as well as by annual dues of $25 for active members and $32 for sustaining members.

Our first meeting of this season is at 11:30 a.m. Wednesday, April 3. This will be a social meeting to visit with members and discuss ideas for speakers and activities for the coming year.

Please consider joining our organization and join us for lunch on April 3. Please contact Mary Jane Thibodeau at mjthibodeau6@comcast.net or Ellen Bailey at e.m.bailey60@gmail.com for further information.

Mary Jane Thibideau

West Lebanon

Town Meeting democracy works

I continue to reassure friends (and myself) that our system of governance, through the wisdom of our forefathers, is self correcting.

At our Newbury, N.H., Town Meeting I was happy to see this played out. A warrant article (not supported by our Selectboard) proposed mandatory hand counting of all election ballots. It was late on the agenda. The proponents had a heavy line up of speakers suggesting, with no evidence, that there is a problem and to protect our “democracy” we must act. This was countered by another resident with a statistical comparison between machine counting and hand counting showing the weakness in their arguments. After we listened for a very long time the question was moved with the required 5 persons demanding a secret ballot … adding another 15 or so minutes to the proceedings. My joy was in the fact that very few people left and the vote was an overwhelming 38 yes and 163 no.

Continuing to the next article, a discussion and vote on establishing rules for septic systems to be formulated and administered by the Selectboard, was well debated and enlightening. The vote followed after good and fair discussion paved a path for moving ahead on this concern. Almost everyone stayed until almost midnight. I say this only because it is an example of a Town Meeting functioning at its best with most folks staying for the five-hour duration. Democracy is work!

Gregory Uhrin

Newbury, N.H.