Town politics

I know I give my husband kudos for his job publicly often, but it is with good reason, so bear with me one more time.

I have to give a little background before getting into my little story, so here goes. J is the recreation director for a small town. He is his own boss, except for the fact that 5 Selectmen run the town. This is the form of government in most NH towns. They meet each Monday and essentially drive all the big decisions in town. J’s town is very nice. I would even go so far to call it upscale. The school system is just about the best in the state (the governor’s kids go there) and there are a just a lot of benefits to living there. Recreation is one of them. The department is fairly new (<6 years) and used to be run by volunteers, but then grew too big for just volunteers. It continues to grow under J’s direction. But lately, he’s been hitting some brick walls.

I mentioned that it is budget season, so J is fighting hard for his department. His proposed budget first went through Selectmen cuts. He walked away with a 2009 budget that is a 6 percent decrease from 2008. Now his budget goes to a budget committee, who will definitely make more suggested cuts. Once they make those decisions, it will go to town meeting in March for the people to decide. For the most part, the town supports recreation. The problem is not with the townspeople themselves, but with the chairman of the Selectmen.

The "problem child" selectman has been circulating emails trying to break down recreation support, among other town highpoints (like the free ambulance service!). He keeps claiming he is pushing for these actions only because he wants to lower property taxes, but the truth is, taxes are high everywhere in NH, not just this one town. And by cutting some of these perks to living there, he is essentially diminishing the quality of life. Really, his attempts just seem like a personal vendetta, for whatever reason, again recreation.

Monday night was another long and dreaded Selectmen meeting. J went to the meeting for something other than the vicious emails, but there were others there demanding some explanation from the big bad wolf. I think I realized why this “stress” never bothers J. It’s because other people get fired up enough for him. Monday’s meeting was a true display of the kind of support J has in the town. People stood up and sung his praises for the kind of recreation he provides. No, seriously, he got a standing ovation for the hard, underappreciated work he does. The tax clerk, who has been in the position for a gazillion years, called this man out on his lies and asked him to step down. Boy did that get a roar from the audience!

So while J still has to deal with the Selectmen, at least he can know of the support he has from the town. It’s really nice. We keep our fingers crossed that this continues for town meeting in March, should anything big come up for cutting.

Overall, J does love his job. But it is challenging, especially in an economy where “luxuries” like recreation are put on the back burner. We laugh that he is gaining incredible experience from working in a small town with this unique form of government. When he applies for his next job and they ask what his biggest challenge was, he can seriously say "take your pick …" Maybe it was that his senior center was burned by an arsonist while it was still being built. Or maybe it was that certain people were fighting to have his position eliminated. That ought to show his ability to work well under pressure!