Response to Mr. Wally Kilgore

In response to Mr. Kilgore’s post March3.

You have completely misrepresented the Town’s process for submitting Warrant Article #7, the North Hampton Town Campus, to the ballot and have escalated your clear bias against this project to slanderous accusations against the North Hampton Select Board and Town Administrator Paul Apple.

The North Hampton Town Campus, offered as Warrant Article #7 on the ballot for March 11th , is offered from the Town of North Hampton Select Board NOT, I repeat, NOT from one individual Selectman.   The North Hampton Select Board voted 3-0 in favor of recommending Warrant Article #7 to the ballot at a regular public meeting of the Select Board and voted 3-0 in favor of recommending Warrant Article #7 at the public Deliberative Session.    Anyone interested in watching the ENTIRE 6 hour Deliberative session is welcome to do so or they can watch the 45 minute recap of the presentation of the Town Campus on our government and educational access channel.    It is a practice in this Town to INFORM the public about warrant articles via our government and educational channel.   Residents’ questions from deliberative session were recorded and a written response to those questions mailed to every mailing address in North Hampton.    That mailing was discussed in a public meeting and the cost for processing and postage was paid by private donations.   These discussions were not made in a vacuum or the brainchild of one individual.

Is this mailing the only communication to the entire Town about the Town Campus?  No.   There have been almost 24 – two dozen – posted community meetings throughout North Hampton regarding the Town Campus.    Everyone is welcome at these meetings.   Everyone is welcome to participate at these meetings.   Response to public input at these meetings has been given to our design team and enhanced the Town Campus proposal, including consideration of a sidewalk, emphasis on a quality vegetative and physical sound barrier, continued use of the Town Clerk’s office as public meeting space and office space, public use of green space, and limiting access to Alden Avenue from the safety complex.  

Why has the Town Administrator devoted so much of his own time to these presentations?   The Selectmen and Town Administrator agreed that the public might be more inclined to speak freely and openly at a meeting if the meeting was held outside of the spectacle of a televised, political meeting strictly governed by Robert’s Rule.    However, the public has been welcomed to speak at EVERY regular and special public meeting of the North Hampton Select Board for as long as I have been the chairman.   Public discourse has never been opposed or prevented.   Also, if you write a letter to the Select Board it is read as a part of communications.   Long and the short…if you have something to say I welcome you to say it.

As an appointed representative from the Select Board to the Water Commission, Heritage Commission, Cable Advisory Committee, and Municipal Building Committee, the Capital Improvement Committee, and even our labor negotiations team, I have taken volumes of comments from people.   All of these are taken back to the full Select Board for consideration.

Your suggestion that the Town and this Select Board has either ignored 14 years of studies from paid consultants, architects and designers costing  more than $100,000, disregarded the input of approximately 100 people at a public charrette, discounted the space needs assessments of our Library Trustees, Police Chief, Fire Chief, Library Director, and Town Administrator, Heritage Commission, Historical Committee, snubbed the mandates of the Department of Labor to improve our facilities, overlooked the Rockingham Planning Commission traffic study, and generally turned our backs on residents in public meetings, all in the name of a singular agenda is contemptuous and downright slanderous!

The North Hampton Town Campus proposal is recommended to residents for their vote on March 11th  by the entire Select Board after unprecedented cooperation and analysis from elected officials, volunteers, Town staff, architects, designers, planners, AND RESIDENTS over a 14 year period.  It is a wise investment at the right time for the right reasons.  

Mr. Kilgore, you will not vote for this project and I understand why, but I urge every other resident in North Hampton to support Warrant Article #7, the Town Campus, on March 11th.      

 Jim Maggiore

North Hampton