Mountain View
Nottingham Blog
Former Fire Chief Files Pre-Trial Statement
Former Fire Chief Jaye Vilchock’s suit against the Nottingham Board of Selectmen is expected to be heard in Rockingham Superior Court sometime during the week of June 11. Vilchock seeks to have his firing overturned under the provisions of RSA 154:5.
Recycling Center's Summer Hours Sparks Dispute
In late April, the staff of Nottingham’s Recycling Center requested that the center not shift to summer hours at the beginning of May, as has been done in the past. From May to October the Recycling Center has been open Thursdays from 11:00 am until 7:00 pm. The rest of the year its Thursday hours are 9:00 am to 5:00 pm. The purpose of the summer hours is to provide people who work regular weekday business hours an opportunity during the hottest portion of the year to dispose of their trash and recycling sometime other than on a weekend.
Road Maintenance Delay Angers Residents
At the May 23 meeting of the Nottingham Board of Selectmen the board heard a complaint from a resident who had complained in a recent meeting about the town’s failure to maintain their road. Their road has not been graded since last autumn. They complained that many of the town’s dirt roads were in terrible shape and that nothing had been done all winter about the potholes. They asked whether there was no budget for fixing the roads, and if so, how was all of the recent ditching and road widening work funded rather than routine repair work?
Town Beach Closed Indefinitely
Misbehavior, liability, and lack of resources cause Selectmen to close Nottingham Town Beach indefinitely. Background: In the late 1950s the state acquired the property that is now Pawtuckaway State Park, including Drowne’s Dam and some land around it. The state decided it didn’t need all of the land by the dam and offered some waterfront land to the the town of Nottingham, contingent upon the town developing it for recreation and the approval of the abutters. The land the town received did not come with a right-of-way to access it. The town obtained a handshake agreement with the abutter to allow access to the beach from Memorial Day weekend until Labor Day weekend via Town Beach Road - a private road. This was approved by the voters in a 1962 warrant article. In those days town governance was managed much less formally than it is now. So, the town lacks documentation of this agreement.
Town claims Fire Chief of 17 years to be "temporary" & not deserving of a court hearing
In early June the case against Nottingham’s Board of Selectmen made by the town’s former Fire Chief, Jaye Vilchock, will be heard in Rockingham Superior Court. The Board of Selectmen terminated Vilchok for cause in June 2023 following an investigation performed by Charla Stevens. Vilchock had served as Nottingham’s Fire Chief for 17 years, earning an annual stipend of $11,400 for his service. He is seeking for the court to overturn the Board of Selectmen’s decision to terminate him, which the court is authorized to do so under RSA 154:5.
Community Newsletter Rebuts Republican Criticism
On Friday, May 3rd the Nottingham Republican Committee published a criticism of editorial decisions made by the Nottingham Community Newsletter to censor the article the committee had provided. This criticism was covered by the Nottingham Blog.
Overtime Policy Dispute Leads to Complaint Against Selectman Shirland
The long saga of the town’s overtime pay policy may finally be over, with the Nottingham Board of Selectmen unanimously approving the Town Administrator’s May 6 proposal that the threshold for overtime should be increased from 45 hours per week to 48.
Highway Department under fire for budget overspending and neglecting pothole repairs
The Nottingham Board of Selectmen Meeting on May 6, 2024 was rough for Highway Director Steve Rollins. The Board of Selectmen asked him to come to the meeting to answer their questions. This was the first item on the board’s agenda. Later in the meeting, the board dealt with complaints from the public about the Highway Department which had come in the mail and which were presented during public comment.
Road Maintenance Challenges in Nottingham
Now that spring has arrived, the busy season for Nottingham’s Highway Department has begun. To keep readers informed, I asked Town Administrator Ellen White about the department’s plans. The department’s Director is Steven Rollins. He has a crew of four full-time and one part-time staff. The department also uses contractors for various functions, such as snow plowing.
Funding Woes: Nottingham Newsletter Faces Uncertain Future
The May/June issue of the Nottingham Community Newsletter may be its last - at least for the year, as the Board of Selectmen has decided to give it no more funding this year. The newsletter was enacted by a warrant article approved by the voters in 1999.
Former Fire Chief complains Town is still withholding his personal property after over a year
Nottingham Board of Selectmen Meeting, April 15, 2024. Complaints about Inappropriate Holding of Personal Property and Illegal Usage. Former Fire Chief Jaye Vilchock complained that he still hasn’t had his personal property at the Fire Station returned to him, and that he has been denied access to it since March 20, 2023. Selectman Decker asked if anyone had arranged for Vilchock to obtain his property. The answer was that this had never been done. The board directed the Town Administrator to arrange for the complainant to retrieve his property from the Fire Station.
How Unusual Are Nottingham’s 2024 Unpaid Taxes?
In short, the current level of unpaid taxes in Nottingham appears to be lower than usual. As described in a prior article, as of February 6, 2024, the Town of Nottingham was owed $648,306.68 in past-due taxes, with some property owners owing taxes as far back as 2010. This figure is roughly 3% of the annual combined budgets for the school and the town. Whether this amount is a little or a lot is all a matter of what the amount is compared with.
Complaints about Well Poisoning, Watercross Noise, Excess Overtime Heard by Nottingham Selectmen
Chairman Morin was absent. Vice Chairman Dabrieo presided. At last week’s budget workshop, the board had discussed that the town had been paying 3 hours of overtime per week to firefighters on 48-hour workweeks. By federal law, municipalities may have such workweeks for firefighters without paying overtime, but the town’s personnel policy stipulates overtime after 45 hours. It has been argued that the personnel policy was supposed to have been changed when the board and the voters accepted the proposal for 24/7 coverage using 24-hour shifts. In February 2023 this oversight was identified. By law, the firefighters had to be paid overtime in conformance with the personnel policy. At that time the board declined to change the policy, continuing to pay overtime.
Budget Rejections and Economic Strain: Unveiling Poverty in Nottingham
The economics of rejected warrant articles and rejected operating budgets. Many people were surprised that Nottingham’s voters rejected so many warrant articles for spending - most particularly with regard to the proposed operating budgets for both the town and the school.
Nottingham Selectmen Cut Budget to Meet Voters' Demands
Chairman Morin opened the Nottingham Board of Selectmen's March 27 budget workshop meeting saying that while this meeting was not an open forum for public discussion, members of the audience were welcome to suggest ways to reduce the budget.
“Fair Share of Taxes?” Who Isn’t Paying At All? Delinquent Taxes in Nottingham
As of February 6, 2024, the Town of Nottingham was owed $648,306.68 in past-due taxes, with some property owners owing taxes as far back as 2010. This figure is roughly 3% of the annual combined budgets for the school and the town.
2024 Nottingham Town Election Results in Surprising Rejection of Budgets and Spending
Nottingham town election results include some major surprises. The big theme was the high levels of opposition to spending. Usually, the voters approve all or nearly all of the warrant articles recommended to them. Not this year. Both the town and the school operating budgets were rejected. Also rejected were warrant articles for road improvements, raising the Fire Chief’s stipend, repaving the library parking lot, and developing a proposal for a new police station.
Nottingham Ambulance Response Times Have Gotten Longer
This is a follow-up article on the question of response times from Nottingham Fire & Rescue. The prior article discusses my efforts to obtain response time data. I requested these data from town administration, but after three weeks in which the request remained unfulfilled, I asked for the data at a public meeting of the Fire Department. These meetings are on the first Tuesday of every month at 7:00 pm at the Fire Station. They are open to the public, but not listed on the town calendar. According to Deputy Chief Mark Pedersen, when I asked for the data at the department meeting no one in the department was aware of my pre-existing right-to-know request for the data.
Nottingham Selectmen Struggle to Cut Budget to Meet Default Budget Requirements
Because the voters rejected the town’s proposed budget, state law imposes on the town a default budget largely identical to the prior year’s budget, except for some contractual adjustments. Nominally this budget is $290k lower than the proposed budget, but since last year’s budget included two items (funding for the lake host program and contributions to local social services agencies) that were moved to separate warrant articles in 2024, the shortfall was reduced by nearly $30k leaving about $260k that the board must squeeze out of its proposed budget of $5.138 million - or nearly 5.1% in cuts. Meanwhile the current inflation rate is about 3.2%.
It’s essential to note our commitment to transparency:
Our Terms of Use acknowledge that our services may not always be error-free, and our Community Standards emphasize our discretion in enforcing policies. As a platform hosting over 100,000 pieces of content published daily, we cannot pre-vet content, but we strive to foster a dynamic environment for free expression and robust discourse through safety guardrails of human and AI moderation.