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6/15/2022

Who needs workforce housing?

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Workforce Housing for a strong Andover Economy

There is a housing shortage that threatens Andover’s long-term viability as a prosperous community.

A couple of months ago I attended a meeting of Lakes Region business leaders. At that meeting I heard several executives complaining that their large companies were unsuccessful in hiring the local workers they really need, even though their companies had boosted starting wages 5%, along with offering a $1000 signing bonus. One person in that group blamed our local companies' troubles on the federal pandemic relief packages and a widespread lack of character among people in our region, saying “nobody wants to work anymore”! 

This explanation doesn’t ring true to me. Although I believe that the trouble these companies are experiencing is real, the cause of their trouble is not that somehow, vast numbers of lazy workers in the Lakes Region are idling at home. The true reasons, as I see them, are not so simplistic and as politically polarizing as heaping blame on “lazy workers” or “government handouts”, as some claim. Town planning boards, including Andover’s, must take action to correct a policy error we made decades ago. That policy error was one that blocks appropriate development of entry-level workforce housing, by limiting new construction to expensive single-family dwellings.

Nearly everywhere I go in our area of northern Merrimack County, I see “Now Hiring” signs. Yet, employers are not able to fill positions. The problem is widespread. The NH State Police say they have 25% of their positions unfilled, and their starting wages are above $24/hr. Even fast food places are offering a seemingly attractive $14 to $16 per hour to start. (For a fascinating deep dive into typical wages paid for every line of work in our greater Concord area, go to the nhes.nh.gov website and examine the data on wages-conc.pdf.) 

Why are so many jobs in NH remaining unfilled? There is one glaring reason: wages here are too low relative to housing costs.

Currently, the jobless rate in NH is 2.3%, far below than the national average of 3.6%. Many rightly regard low unemployment numbers as good economic news, and yes they are, if those numbers are considered in isolation. We NH folks work hard! 

But NH’s low unemployment numbers indicate that we are in a so-called “tight” labor market where job offers exceed the number of job seekers. Job seekers can be choosey, and will even move out of our state in search of their best work-life opportunities.

From the viewpoint of some person who does not already own property in Andover, it is bad news that our local housing market has really exploded since the start of the pandemic. From a first-home buyer's perspective, the existing shortage of entry-level and workforce homes has become even worse. As the global pandemic frightened many folks away from crowded residential neighborhoods from Boston to NY, people cashed out valuable southern New England suburban properties and bought beautiful homes in the rural Lakes Region, including in Andover. In recent months the Beacon reported that median sales prices in Andover have rocketed up, many homes being only on the market 5 or 6 days before sale, sometimes closing thousands above the asking price. 

This “land rush” may be thrilling for established Andover property owners, but it is a strong signal to “go away” for local first-time homeowners. 

Let’s consider a real-world example from the viewpoint of a recent local high school graduate, who is hoping to find an entry-level manufacturing job at one of the large employers in the area. This person is willing to work hard for decent pay, and hopes to settle down here and start a family. Unfortunately, our hypothetical new worker has no savings, nor the means or inclination to pursue a post-secondary degree.
 
First, let’s see what pay range manufacturing companies within easy commuting distance from Andover are offering their new hires. A quick look at a nearby company’s offerings online at Glassdoor describes only a single entry-level office position, for an "Enviro, Health & Safety Intern", requiring at least one year experience and a Bachelor’s or other degree. The pay range is $38-$74K/year, with $54K being "most likely", according to Glassdoor. Unfortunately, our hypothetical entry-level worker doesn’t qualify as a candidate for this job.  Another nearby company in a similar industry advertises a “foundry machine operator” position for $17-$22/hour, or roughly $34K-$44K/year, while a different foundry company offers an entry-level, second shift job at $17.50-$19/hour, or $35K to $38K per year. Our inexperienced worker might probably accept an offer on the lower end of that pay range.

How do those income figures square with housing costs in our area? For example, Zillow shows a very tight local housing market, with only a single apartment currently for rent in Franklin, at $1500/mo for a 2BR on Prospect St. To afford that, you'd need an income of $54K/year, ($27/hr) or a roommate to split the place with, and you’d both need an income above $13.50/hr. (I’m using the rule of thumb that a person should spend no more than one-third of their income on housing.) Of course, if this single Franklin apartment is already rented, there are apparently no current alternatives closer than Claremont or Concord.

Might it be more affordable to buy rather than rent? The cheapest listing for sale today is on Victory Drive in Franklin. They are asking $165K, with a $990/mo mortgage. The next cheapest year-round listing is a mobile home in Andover, at $179K, with a monthly mortgage slightly above $1000. Down payments of 20% on these properties would be around $33K-$39K, with a 30-year fixed rate mortgage at 5%. 

Can anybody moving to our area take a job as a laborer, then afford a starter home or apartment to live in? Not likely. It doesn't sound to me like our area is an inviting place for entry-level workers, and helps explain why 62% of NH high school grads leave the state, never to return.

But the worst news is, that if our area is unattractive to workers, profitable companies who rely on hundreds of workers to meet the rising demand for their products in today’s rebounding US economy will not be able to hire workers they need to remain open here in NH. The companies will either go out of business, or move to another state with low housing costs, higher minimum wages or both. If either of those things happen, NH jobs will disappear, the total value of Andover’s and neighboring towns’ tax bases will decline, and tax rates on remaining property owners will rise to cover our towns’ fixed expenses, such as maintaining roads and heating public buildings.

There are only two ways out of this quandary, and both should happen soon if a local economic calamity is to be averted. One is to raise the federal minimum wage, which would help level the playing field for NH versus lower-wage southern states. The other is that housing affordable to young entry-level workers must be built in our area. If these two things do not happen, the population of NH will continue to shrink and age as younger folks seek their fortunes elsewhere, and the industries that power our local economy will leave with them.

The Andover Planning Board will be taking up the issue of the scarcity of workforce housing this year. Stay tuned to the Beacon for periodic reports!

- Ken Wells, Vice-chair, Andover Planning Board




















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3/26/2022

Concord Monitor "My Turn" - support teachers!

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Support teachers!

I have lived in Andover for years. Nearly everyone in Andover with personal knowledge of our Andover Elementary/Middle School gushes about what a great place it has been for their children, and how fabulous the teachers have been for their kids. Yet public schools and teachers in our town, and all across our state are under fire today. Why? 

New Hampshire has the sixth highest ranking in the United States for its public schools, as reported in a WalletHub study published in Forbes magazine:

I recently spoke in Andover with a fellow who said he was passing through from Bradford. (I’ll just call him “Brad”.) He claimed that “teachers only work part-time, nine months of the year, quitting time at 3pm, they get all those teacher in-service days off to go skiing - so they should only get paid for part-time work - but they’re making, like sixty-five thousand dollars a year. Teachers get paid too much!” 

Wow! As a public school graduate and retired teacher who worked in residential high schools for 37 years, I know this could hardly be farther from the truth! 

I know only too well how many 14-hour days we teachers worked, sometimes one long day followed another, and another. We’d start our day in the classroom, followed by coaching in the afternoon, then participating in evening duties or meetings, finally sitting down to grade that day's student work and prepare the next day’s lessons at around 10pm. The cycle started again the next day with an 8:00 am class. Some years, I was lucky to have only 25 advanced students; other years there were more than 60.

On top of the daily face-to-face work with students comes a relentless need for detailed student reports and evaluations to be written, along with thoughtful college recommendations for juniors and seniors. Teachers must attend professional development seminars, or mandatory training sessions required by various safety, health and insurance authorities. Teachers learn things like CPR, how to address bullying, how to identify and respond to sexual harrassment, how to respond to an active shooter in the building, etc.
 
If you doubt any part of what I’m saying, find a teacher and ask them about all the things they do, and then really listen to their answer.

A web search shows teachers’ average starting salary in NH is just under $39,000 per year; that’s barely over half the $75,000 median income in Andover. (The state-wide median income is even higher, at $79,000.) In spite of the high academic results our schools and teachers achieve, NH teacher salaries are lower than teachers earn in half the other states of the US. Who thinks this is fair?

In New Hampshire, we are in an ever-deepening labor shortage for qualified teachers. This is only partly due to the strains the pandemic has imposed on teachers, health care workers and others who play essential face-to-face roles. If a teacher unexpectedly misses a day, colleagues pick up extra work without compensation. Many teachers have decided to retire early or seek other work. And why not? A teacher with four, six or more years of expensive post-secondary education and strong professional “people-skills” is almost certainly qualified to do much more lucrative work than being a classroom teacher, and do it with less risk to their health and well-being. I understand that for some, leaving the classroom is a melancholy but timely decision. For those that stay on, I applaud them for their unselfish dedication to making our future world a better place!

It seems that people like Brad don’t actually know what teachers really do, yet they keep spreading this harmful rubbish. It is strange and suspicious to me that I have heard Brad’s same story repeated almost verbatim in political circles over the past several years. These people insist on telling the fable that our public schools are failing, that they are no good. They describe that teachers are only at work when “lecturing” in front of a class of mostly disengaged kids. If that was the limit of Brad’s educational experience, I’m sorry for him. In my experience, the most effective teachers rarely lecture, but involve their students in carefully designed interactive lessons, changing them up so the activities will be engaging and uniquely different from day to day.

But why would anyone want to tell such untruthful stories about our public schools and dedicated teachers? Perhaps the answer lies in the State House, with bills like HB1255, the “teacher loyalty act” that would force teachers to parrot nationalistic “patriotic” indoctrination. More answers might be found in HB20 and HB607, which would defund our public schools and ultimately turn a portion of our tax dollars over to out-of-state, for-profit “scholarship organizations” serving religious-, private- and home-schoolers to satisfy new but ineffective requirements for “oversight”. Yet more answers can be found in HB1399, which describes how the buildings, computers and vehicles of cooperative school districts such as our own Merrimack Valley can be legally liquidated and then doled out to towns that decide to abandon the cooperative school district. 

Those of us who understand the worth of NH’s constitutionally guaranteed public education “available to all”, who value the dedication of our teachers and public schools, and who object to having our shared investment in our children’s future bled away from our community, should be very alarmed by this cynical political effort to discredit and defund our schools.

___________

Bills cited:

HB1255: https://legiscan.com/NH/text/HB1255/2022

HB20: https://legiscan.com/NH/text/HB20/2021

HB607: https://legiscan.com/NH/text/HB607/id/2241928

HB1399: https://legiscan.com/NH/text/HB1399/2022

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10/12/2021

Planning Board Proposes New Conservation Subdivision Ordinance

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Andover Planning Board proposes new Conservation Subdivision    Oct 12, 2021

Suppose that you are the owner of a hypothetical 20-acre parcel in rural Andover, and you wish to subdivide and develop that buildable parcel in a way that maximizes your financial return for housing development.

Today’s subdivision ordinance would tend to steer such a 20-acre landowner towards creating a “suburban” housing development of ten 2-acre lots. The Andover Master Plan points out that this kind of uniform-density development is not desirable from the viewpoint of preserving Andover’s appearance and character as a charming New England town. It is also true that this type of development can have negative consequences in terms of wildlife habitat, water quality, public services and maintenance costs, non-local energy and resource consumption, as well as impacting natural spaces for outdoor activities such as forestry, hunting and hiking, to name just a few.

Conservation Subdivisions offer an alternative way that a landowner/developer could realize an equally attractive financial return, but avoid the negative consequences of uniform-density “suburban” development. It also potentially lowers municipal expenses per residence (such as snow plowing) while strengthening the Town’s tax base and  encouraging types of high-quality housing development suitable for young families.

The hypothetical 20-acre parcel could be developed in a number of different ways, but here is one scenario that illustrates how Andover’s proposed Conservation Subdivision guidelines can increase the maximum development potential, while also safeguarding qualities of concern in the Master Plan.

To begin with, the 20-acre parcel would be subdivided in such a way that 12 acres will be placed under permanent protection, to preserve the most valuable natural environment, views, etc. If done correctly, this would increase the number of potential housing units to 11, situated on the remaining eight acres. One or two more housing units could be added upon review by the Planning Board, by meeting the new regulation’s standards for energy efficiency, locally-sourced natural materials & labor, enhancing public hiking trails, etc. 

The proposed Conservation Subdivision warrant article will have two public hearings, and copies of the warrant article’s language will be made available for inspection at Town Hall in the coming months.

While living in a Conservation Subdivision may not appeal to everyone, it will be attractive to many people.  It combines having neighbors within reach with the privacy of undeveloped land all around. 

-Ken Wells for the The Andover Planning Board

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9/14/2021

How to start your great career in FRanklin NH

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Franklin High School presentation to FHS families        Sept 14, 2021

Good evening! I’m really excited to see all of you here today! And I want to say “Thank You” in advance, for a few minutes of your kind attention.

My name is Ken Wells, and I’m the President of a new non-profit called “NH Forward”. NH Forward’s mission is to develop an on-ramp to great careers in NH, with a pathway to the fast-lane of NH’s high-tech economy.  This “on-ramp” starts in high school and provides the advantages of the industry-sponsored “Dual Education System” as implemented effectively in many European countries. We have found a way to unite the strengths of our state’s robust educational resources with local entrepreneurial spirit and technical know-how. To accomplish this goal, NH Forward has been coordinated Franklin’s educational, industrial, financial and governmental entities, and together with the folks you see here (and a couple that couldn’t be with us tonight), we are excited to tell you about this apprenticeship pilot program in Franklin. It was launched last January, and now, in its first full academic year, Franklin High School is offering four courses in Advanced Manufacturing that can be taken for college credit.

Last week I was able to speak to your sons & daughters at the school, and this is what I said:
“Don’t wait for life to just happen to you, hoping something good is going to come along and fall into your lap. Take decisive steps to make good things happen for you, right here at Franklin High, this academic year!  In the next few minutes we are going to show an on-ramp for a successful career, without having to spend a lot or go into debt to get there. And I’m going to introduce you to some folks who are willing to help you succeed, because they need you to help them succeed.”

[Introductions: each presenter will stand up and give 10 second identification]

You might have heard people say that “Education is the key to Success”, but sometimes today in the USA we forget that education isn’t just about the “3 R’s”: Readin’, Writin’ and ‘Rithmetic. Think of Education as a mighty software upgrade for your brain, a chip-tune that helps you learn more things faster, and also gives you “how-to” experience. I think back to when the Industrial Revolution was taking off, back when the city of Franklin built its prosperity by making goods using water power! Back then, the know-how to accomplish that wasn’t only about the “3R’s” education. Education then, and now, also includes all the technical knowledge and experience it takes to take good ideas - inventions - and make them into things. Franklin High School’s new program offers a way for you to get that education and experience at no cost to you!

I recently served in the NH House of Representatives. Before that, I was a teacher for 37 years, teaching robotics, mechanical engineering, physics and math. And I’ve worked in a couple of skilled trades - I know what I’m talking about, because I’ve lived it, and I’ve guided hundreds of my students toward their eventual careers.

It helped me that I went to school and took a lot of academic classes along the way, but I also got a huge boost in my education by learning HOW TO DO THINGS AND MAKE THINGS, gathering experiences and building upon them. For example:

My first job after graduating from a tough Pennsylvania steel-town high school was as a union laborer on a truck assembly line. Three older co-workers named Mike, Mary and (interestingly) Franklin showed me the ropes.  Three years later, I was using the practical experience I gained there, to show a bunch of really smart college professors how to repair a damaged 80-ton instrument in their nuclear research laboratory, that they’d just hired me to work in. One of those same college professors (with whom I shared an interest in drag racing) then introduced me to fancy math and got me started on computer programming. These days I’m “busily retired”, but I like to spend a few weekends every summer as a pit crew member, diagnosing and fabricating whatever will make our team’s racecar go faster.  I’m still learning tips and tricks from the old timers who have been around the track much longer than I have. In many industries, a seasoned expert will take in a younger person to ”learn by doing”, and this traditional mentoring system has a name - it’s called Apprenticeship!

Today I’m here as the president of a non-profit group of educators, industry leaders, financial experts and government leaders, some of whom are here with me today. We’ve been working together to create an industry-sponsored apprenticeship program here in Franklin and we are excited to have you all join in!

Let me say that again a different way: “There’s a new apprenticeship program here in Franklin that industries pay for, and you students are all eligible to get started on building your career now, while you are still in high school!”


What’s the best way for a young person to transition from high school to making a living? There are different answers for different students, but the best options involve more education, with paid high-skill training and mentorship from the student’s employer.

You students will definitely come out ahead if you just skip job-surfing the Gig Economy, and focus on launching your CAREER. And you are in LUCK, because you are at the time of your life, and in an unusual high school, in an unusual town where there are lots of people around you who can help you launch that career! And a bunch of them are in the room with us today...

Now, why is having a CAREER better than just having a job? In a career, you will have a job with an employer, but your job with that employer can change and grow with you, because you also have a complete set of skills and training. Coming into that job, you will own a degree or certificate that you earned by taking college courses and while working as an apprentice. That credential is proof that you did the work, passed the exams and have the on-the-job experience.  Whereas in an ordinary job, you’ll get maybe a couple weeks of training to run a machine or something, but you don’t have enough education to adapt if the industry outgrows its process and changes, so if that happens, you’ll get laid off, and you’ve got little to show for it.

Maybe you already know that NH’s most important, fastest-growing sector is Advanced Manufacturing, sometimes known as “Smart Manufacturing”. This kind of manufacturing is largely computer-based, and has advanced a whole century beyond the old days when manufacturing was “dark, dirty and dangerous”. Today, manufacturing is even bigger in NH’s economy than retail - it accounts for about one-eighth of all the money that changes hands in our state! Lucky for you - Franklin is home to several of these Advanced Manufacturing industries, and they want to meet you young folks!

Maybe you’ve heard that there is a workforce shortage these days, especially for highly-trained experts with Associates Degrees in new technologies. Education is the key to solving this expert workforce shortage, and with me today are representatives of Franklin industries (Mike Mulvalley, from Watts, PCC Structurals, Kendra Arruda) who are interested in forming a strategic partnership with you: they’ll pay your way through tuition and training, and you get a launchpad into a hot 21st-century career with their company! You both win!

Maybe you’ve seen videos of computer-controlled robots machining, assembling everything from aircraft parts to electronics, and from flow control valves to solar panels. Who are the highly-trained technicians who give those robots their instructions? Who knows how to test and adjust the “smart” machinery so it consistently produces the best high-value product with the least waste and cost? And who in those companies will bring in important new ideas and innovations to modernize the manufacturing process, giving that company an edge over all its competitors?

You will. And that is why the industries will pay your way through your community college, pay you while you work on your apprenticeship, and offer you a real career upon your successful completion of the program.

So don’t wait for life to just happen around you. Grab this opportunity to jump-start your career, right now, right here in Franklin High School. This is a brand-new program, up and running successfully since January at Franklin High School.

The Franklin apprenticeship program is unique; it’s modelled on the European “dual system”. “Dual” because it combines both classroom education and on-the-job training. It’s the famous system that trains all the technicians employed by companies everyone has heard of, like BMW, Porsche, Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen and Audi. You will be the first students in NH to be able to join this program. You will be able, right in your FHS building, to take courses for college credit, knocking out as many as 12 credits on your way to a 60 credit Associates Degree in Advanced Manufacturing at Lakes Region Community College.

After high school graduation, one of these Franklin manufacturers will look at your great performance and offer to take you on as their apprentice. They will pay your tuition while you finish up your degree or certificate, and also give you a paycheck while you complete your on-the-job-training on their site. As you reach milestones and meet industry standards, you can expect your compensation to increase until you have finished both your coursework and your on-the-job training. Finally, with successful completion of the program, you should have four things: 1) and Associates Degree in Advanced Manufacturing, 2) an internationally recognized certificate for having completed your apprenticeship, understood and valued all over the world, 3) a solid job offer for a career-track job with your sponsoring company, and 4) this is really important - NO DEBT.

In Europe, where this system has been in place for generations, a wide range of industries, from banks and manufacturers, to hotels & restaurants, look to their apprentices to grow to become their middle managers, their vice-presidents and even their CEOs, because these are the people who know their industry from the ground up. Every job, every process, all the marketing and business skills were part of their comprehensive apprenticeship training. They are the most expert technicians in the world, and you can join them.

So, let me ask one of our industry friends to tell us about the careers at the end of the rainbow, then I’ll ask our educators to tell us about the path to the Lakes Region Community College from Franklin High School, and after that we will be happy to answer your questions…



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8/26/2021

CArbon CAshback - how many $ will you get?

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8/26/2021

Our Freedom to Vote

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OUR FREEDOM TO VOTE

When did we all actually gain the freedoms we celebrate as Americans?

Was it with the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, or had it actually occurred earlier, as we had been British subjects whose rights were secured by the Magna Carta of 1215?

Certainly not. Even here in East Andover in the early 1800’s, some white-skinned people were indentured or even declared “paupers” due to poverty, disability, “indolence or intemperance”, whose servitude and labor was then auctioned off to wealthier citizens as if they were enslaved chattel. [Eastman’s History of the Town of Andover NH, pg. 226-7 ]

Did all Americans finally become free people, enjoying all the rights of citizenship with the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863? Or was it later, on Juneteenth 1865 that American freedom became universal?

Or did American “freedom for all” have to wait until 1868 after the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution was ratified, guaranteeing “equal protection under the law” to all Americans born here, as well as to naturalized Americans who came here as immigrants?

Certainly, no freedom is more important than the freedom to vote. Was this freedom for all Americans finally achieved in 1870, with the ratification of the 15th Amendment? This Amendment guarantees “that right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude…”

But in fact did all Americans finally gain their freedom even later than that, when American women finally became voting citizens in 1921? Or was it more recently yet, when Native Americans received their freedom to vote in 1924? Or did freedom actually arrive even later, when the Civil Rights Act was enacted in 1965 to disallow voter suppression through poll taxes, literacy tests and other such means?

Unfortunately, the worthy vision of the Founding Fathers has been slow in arriving to all Americans, as can be seen by charting its incremental progress across all generations of Americans. We still aspire to achieving the American vision of freedom, liberty and justice for all, yet its full attainment is still out of reach for some Americans today. Unfortunately, measures to suppress voting are still being enacted in NH and in other states, with the excuse that restrictions are needed to guard against unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud.

How shall we attain, or at least move our civilization significantly closer to the American democratic ideal? We say we value full equal freedoms for all, starting especially with our freedom to vote. Yet we see in history a systematic disenfranchisement of Americans according to race, gender, economic status, etc through the years, and which continues to this day in some parts of the country. As Americans, we all want to have the promise fulfilled that we all have a voice in our own government, have a right to self-determination for our communities, and have autonomous control of our own bodies and the personal conduct of our own lives!

What some call our freedoms are indeed our rights as Americans, a list including but not ending with the freedom to vote. If you haven’t had a reason to revisit the Bill of Rights within the US Constitution since grade school, you might like to look again, because so much of it is of vital relevance to maintaining our American democracy today. Every one of our freedoms listed in the Bill of Rights is important, and are nicely explained here: https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/bill-of-rights/what-does-it-say

The questions posed at the beginning of this article are not easy, nor are they comfortable questions, but our continued progress toward “a more perfect union” requires a frank and truthful discussion of our history as a colony and a country, and an equally frank and truthful assessment of where we stand today. The language of this session’s HB544, incongruously embedded as part of the 2021 NH State budget, empowers our state government to prohibit speaking about aspects of our problematic past that even today continue to deny some Americans their rights and freedoms. This prohibition to speak only about past injustices - the ‘historical existence of ideas and subjects” which were supremacist and discriminatory (to quote the language of the legislation’s changes to RSA193: 40, II) puts limits on discussion of current, continuing unequal treatment and discrimination against underrepresented groups, as if all the old problems have been fixed once and for all, as if all Americans today enjoy the same freedoms and advantages, as if no further vigilance is necessary, nor further complaints allowed. I believe this is a blatant violation of the First Amendment of the US Constitution and therefore should not be allowed to stand as the Law in NH.

Much propaganda, secondhand accounts and “strawman” claims about supposed theories are circulating on the internet and in publications. These claim an urgent exists to suppress free speech in our schools and government-affiliated institutions. I urge you to look again at original documents such as the US Bill of Rights and the NH Social Studies Curriculum (link below) in order to determine for yourself what is the truth. Pay particular notice of the current curriculum being taught in NH K-12 schools. That curriculum, under the headings of “Conflict and Cooperation” and also “Civic Ideals, Practices and Engagement” on page 7, includes “causes of the Civil War”, “Triangular Trade (e.g. the cycle of slave trade from West Africa to American farms, and the subsequent goods moving through New England to Britain), as well as “How has the meaning of citizenship evolved over time?”  While these historic topics are laudable, today’s curriculum neglects to mention the continuing practice of racial “redlining” in real estate, or the fact that the way NH uses your local property taxes to fund schools was declared unconstitutional more than twenty years ago, yet remains unchanged. Practices like these were originally enacted in the 20th century to disenfranchise, segregate and impoverish Black citizens, but they now are being used to extract wealth from NH citizens in large numbers and to undermine our ability to participate effectively in our democracy. (These continuing practices are thoroughly explored in the books “Sum of Us” by Heather McGhee and “The Color of Law” by Richard Rothstein.)

Our children deserve a truthful education that develops their critical thinking skills, underscores the kinds of responsibilities for their communities and our nation they can take on as adults, and explains why the meaning of US citizenship has evolved since our country’s founding. Don’t you agree the meaning of citizenship and the scope of our American freedoms should be allowed to grow and continue to evolve?

https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:fT1OMnE99EQJ:https://www.education.nh.gov/sites/g/files/ehbemt326/files/inline-documents/standards-socialstudies-framework.pdf+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox-b-1-d




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11/15/2020

Congratulations to Louise Andrus

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[Press Release - send to Beacon, Lifelines and Friends of Danbury & Salisbury, FB pages]


I offer my congratulations to Louise Andrus for winning a seat in the New Hampshire House of Representatives for the 2021 - 2022 term. I wish Louise the best of luck in her new role representing the best interests of the people of Andover, Danbury and Salisbury before the General Court and in the House Committee to which she is currently seeking assignment. I hope Louise accepts my sincere offer of help and advice - there is a huge amount to learn about the complex machinery of government, and there are several bipartisan initiatives in progress that directly aim to improve the wellbeing of the citizens of our district. Louise (and any concerned citizen) can call me at home to discuss the progress of these. My number is (603) 735-5756. 

To the citizens of Andover, Danbury, Salisbury, my friends and supporters, I express my sincere and heartfelt thanks. I have really enjoyed getting to know so many folks in our district, and hearing your inspiring stories, your troubles, your hopes and your fears. It has been a wild two years, during which I have received so many constructive ideas and “paid forward” whatever I can to the people in our community and in our state.

I will continue to work for the people of Andover, Merrimack district 1 and throughout NH as an empowered citizen. I intend to continue to keep you informed of developments via these pages.


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10/20/2020

Energy Action plan 2020-2050

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[A text-only version of the Foreword is below. Click here to see the full 60-page version with graphics, or cut and paste thus URL in your browser. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1YpU_U48Qpj4nCM0f0CC4d2fcCiWG40SVCzQWyXsWJj0/edit?usp=sharing]

A Renewable Energy Future for New Hampshire

An Action Plan with a Focus on Demand and Consumption
 (  Oct. 13, 2020 )

Foreword (Robert Backus, Peter Somssich, Ken Wells) 
The best time to plan for the future is now.  Despite our current issues surrounding our  health in the pandemic and our severely depressed economy, we nevertheless must not fail to plan for our children and grandchildren’s future, and that of our state of New Hampshire.  
In 2018 many of this paper’s authors were involved in producing the white paper: “A 100% Renewable Energy Strategy for New Hampshire’s Future”.  Its purpose was to be a counterpoint to the “New Hampshire’s 10-Year State Energy Strategy Plan” issued by the Governor’s office in April 2018.  We felt that the plan was grossly inadequate and just endorsement of the status quo. Our white paper was intended as a tool to inventory all of the NH home grown renewable energy resources that our state already had available.  Our state has many realistic opportunities to increase our readily available renewable energy supplies, with offshore wind installations and importation of onshore wind and hydropower.  Our 2018 white paper also emphasized the desirability of increasing energy efficiency by all users.  It focused primarily on in-state electricity generation and usage.  But electricity generation accounts for only 45% of the energy that our state produces annually. In this 2020 Action Plan we will focus instead on the much larger amount of energy that is consumed in New Hampshire, which is about evenly split between transportation, residential power and home heating, and commercial plus industrial consumption.
In this 2020 Action Plan, we will outline a framework for a comprehensive energy plan. We will discuss why certain components are important to such a framework, and what actions have already been undertaken, or should be undertaken to promote a path to a 100% clean, renewable energy future for our state.  
A framework for action on our state’s total energy demand must begin with a vigorous attempt to reduce our energy use for electricity, heating and transportation.  Since such actions will have an impact on our state utilities, we must find ways of providing the kind of incentives to them that encourage them to partner with us in such an effort.  Hand in hand with our effort to reduce our energy demand, we must support in-state development of renewable energy sources, whether by industrial users, municipalities or residential/community efforts.  All energy generators using renewable sources such as solar, wind, hydro and biomass, should be allowed to sell their energy at a fair price into the main grid. In parts of our state where the energy resources and demand are poorly matched, forming collaborative microgrids or “energy islands” could allow adjacent municipalities or regional entities to cooperate. By creating a local microgrid, they will be able to attract new and support existing businesses, while creating new jobs and reducing the financial burden to taxpayers of the combined municipalities.  Furthermore, pursuing the possibility of using energy storage facilities to complement intermittent energy generators, allowing energy to be stored for that time when it is most needed, must be part of any New Hampshire energy independence and reliability effort.  Our vision of New Hampshire’s transportation system must also change to anticipate more electric cars and trucks, as well as vehicles powered by compressed gases such as propane and hydrogen.    
During the past two years the NH legislature has attempted to promote numerous initiatives to move us forward on our path to a renewable future.  Unfortunately, most of these efforts were blocked as the result of partisan politics and a resistance to change.   Any action plan needs to recognize the political and practical realities in New Hampshire, so that we know how to begin.  Most of us can agree that a clean, renewable and sustainable energy future is our common goal that we all share.  However, different people define the terms “clean”, “renewable” and “sustainable” somewhat differently, so the co-editors suggest that we begin work to standardize our language about these concepts.  For example, a “renewable” energy source should be one that, with proper management, will not be depleted over time and will continue to be available. Such a definition precludes fossil fuels, such as coal, oil and natural gas, and also nuclear energy as it is currently deployed. A “sustainable” energy source is one that will continue to be available, at a price including externalities such as health and environmental impacts, that society deems affordable. That is why an energy source with volatile prices, that faces depletion, or builds up a toxic waste product is not sustainable.  Finally, most people would agree that a “clean energy” source is one that neither generates climate-endangering greenhouse gas emissions (e.g. CO2 or methane) nor creates any other hazardous consequences.  
Because not all of the authors agree on the preceding definitions, and because we wish to be practical with our recommendations for actions, some of the proposals related to energy may not seem to be in total harmony with an action plan which hopes to have as its goal, not just a clean energy future, but a 100% sustainable and renewable energy future for our state. However, one area where we all agree completely is the great potential inherent in Energy Efficiency in improving all aspects related to energy.   We want to emphasize that a renewable energy future continues to be our goal, but our long journey must begin from our current reality.  
We have recruited a group of authors with specific knowledge and expertise in energy topics, to explain the importance of these areas for our state, and to suggest actions that effectively address those areas. This action plan does not represent a consensus view of all the topics discussed, but gives voice to several points of view that are part of clean energy’s political reality.  That is why the author of each contributed section is clearly identified; they are representing their own view. When a specific author is not listed, that section was contributed by the coeditors, using the various sources cited. Despite these shortcomings,  we believe this action plan provides a good resource for policy-makers and lawmakers to use in setting a course toward our energy future.   The authors recognize that climate change is already occurring and prompt adaptation to this fact is imperative.  But they also see adaptation as a positive economic opportunity, because New Hampshire's aspiration to a 100% renewable energy goal will bring new opportunities and benefits to all the people of New Hampshire, while mitigating and perhaps helping to reverse the global effects of climate change.


The cheapest watt of energy is a "negawatt" - a watt of energy saved. Because that saved watt was not lost, was not purchased, and was not produced, energy efficiency produces “negawatts” that are the lowest-hanging fruit available to us.                       
- Reps Balch & Mann 


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10/16/2020

Your Right and Duty to vote!

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KDW for the Beacon Oct 15, 2020

As I write this, we are on the brink of what I’m sure will go down as one of the most-talked-about elections of our time.

The United States of America, despite its struggles and faults, is arguably the oldest and most successful democracy on the planet today. A crucial feature has been our long tradition of expanding free and fair elections to all our citizens, regardless of race, gender or socio-economic standing. It has not been a smooth road, however. To ensure that all of us can continue to participate in the voting that is central to our democratic republic, all citizens should take an active role in our democracy and vote!

Your vote DOES matter!
If you are a person who has never voted before, whether you have recently reached voting age, or recently become a naturalized citizen of the United States, or have simply never chosen to exercise your right, now is the time to play your consequential role in this important process. There is same-day registration at the polls; just bring your ID (proof of age, domicile and citizenship) and ask the friendly poll workers to guide you to the Supervisor of the Checklist.

New Hampshire Leads the Way

New Hampshire is justifiably proud of its important leadership in the process of choosing our leaders and policymakers, and in underscoring the power of the people in ensuring the smooth transfer of power from one election cycle to the next.  New Hampshire is well known for hosting the first-in-the-nation primaries, which affords anyone who wishes to get involved an unsurpassed opportunity to meet the prospective candidates of every party, ask them questions directly, and inform them of our views on issues that are important to us. This last one is perhaps the most unique opportunity we have in our state - as the first voters candidates see on the campaign trail, we get to influence the candidates’ stump speeches and platforms in their earliest, formative stages.

There is another reason we New Hampshirites can take pride - we have about the highest voter turnout in the nation, according to electproject.org. Of all the states, only Minnesota consistently bested New Hampshire’s admirable 72.5% turnout of eligible voters in the past three presidential elections. New Hampshire Secretary of State Bill Gardner takes pride in this figure, saying his goal has been to make New Hampshire the easiest state in the Union to cast your vote in.

Cast your Vote!
It is important that every American citizen casts their one ballot and participates personally in our “government of the people, by the people and for the people”. Be an informed voter, and fill in your choices for all 14 offices on the ballot. Here in Andover many volunteers have been working hard for months to enable us to do just that. The New Hampshire Attorney General reviewed the Andover team’s work for the September primary election and deemed it “an excellent operation.” Since this spring, there have been months of teleconference discussions and training between the NH Secretary of State’s office and the sworn moderators, town clerks and supervisors of the checklist of all 221 towns and 13 cities in New Hampshire.

The widest possible range of options were made available for Andover voters to cast their ballots:
    ⁃    You could vote in-person on November 3 while wearing a mask, using the north door of the Andover Elementary / Middle School polling place.
    ⁃    You could vote in-person without a mask, using the south door of the AEMS polling place.
    ⁃    You could vote early by requesting a ballot to be mailed to you, and then returning the ballot either by bringing it directly to the Town Clerk or through the mail. (However, it must arrive by 5pm on Nov 3 to be counted!)
    ⁃    You could use the drive-through voting option offered on October 24 or 31 at Andover Town Hall.
    ⁃    Absentee ballots can also be obtained and cast at the curbside voting station on Election Day.

Note that the official ballot and absentee ballots are identical. Every ballot is marked “Absentee Ballot and Official Ballot” and is placed in the ballot box before counting begins. Care has been taken that your right to vote by “secret ballot” has been protected.

As COVID-19 has necessitated further expansion of our right to free and fair elections, the state of New Hampshire has responded promptly and conscientiously. In every case, the customary checks and security measures are observed to ensure that each voter is on the Andover voters checklist, or that new voters have gone through the usual process involving identification and voter registration. New Hampshire’s election procedures, and particularly Andover’s all-paper secret ballot system are the result of literally centuries of experience in making democracy work. Be sure to be part of it and VOTE!


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9/30/2020

Candidate Profile 2020

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Ken Wells candidate profile for Beacon


As your current Representative in Merrimack county District 1, including the towns of Andover, Danbury and Salisbury, I have worked hard on issues that affect us all.

Principal among these is the unfair and unconstitutional way that New Hampshire relies on property taxes, taxing people in different towns at unequal rates for essentially identical properties. Moreover, the state’s habit of “downshifting” its constitutional obligation “to provide adequate education” not only places extra burden on towns, but has had a growing effect over the years at driving young people and young families away from NH. Today, 62% of NH’s high school students leave the state seeking education and opportunities. Most never return, and other young people are not coming to NH in equal numbers to live and work. This is an ominous trend for NH’s future that policymakers must address.

An issue personally important to me and to most NH people of every political stripe, is protecting the quality of NH’s natural environment. The natural beauty of our forests, mountains, streams and lakes, plus the wildlife all around us is vitally important to our quality of life, whether you are an avid hiker, kayaker, rider, hunter or fisherman, or if you just like to take it easy and enjoy the scenery of a beautiful day. Moreover, our region’s natural beauty and resources are important to so many of our livelihoods, as we rely on tourism and forestry to make our livings.

I’m proud of my votes to help keep our property taxes in check and significantly increase funding through revenue sharing for our towns, our schools and our University system. I’m proud of having voted for Paid Family Leave to help families cope, especially vital during this pandemic. I’m proud that I have been able to use my extensive experience and background while serving on the House Science, Technology and Energy Committee. I have been the author of a bill to give loggers equal protection to landowners under the law, two bills to get the sneaky influence of “dark money” out of NH government, a bill to reduce both pollution and people’s energy bills by pushing for improved technology and efficiency on the electric grid, and a bill to “level the playing field” so that new NH energy enterprises have a chance against subsidized fracked gas from out of state.

I’m happy to have used my influence to do good and to bring people together in spite of their initial positions of conflict. I used that influence to compel internet companies to engage with the Danbury Broadband Committee, ultimately succeeding in an agreement to provide high-speed internet to every household in Danbury. (I’m currently working on the same for unserved parts of Salisbury.) I also have brought together people of both parties, and from industry and education, to begin building an industry-sponsored apprenticeship program, so our young people can continue their education after high school and launch their careers without incurring debt, and even collect a paycheck as they learn on the job.

Please have a look at my website electkenwells.org to read in detail about how I have worked for you the past two years. There’s much that still needs to be done! I respectfully ask for your vote so I can continue to represent your best interests in the House of Representatives in the upcoming session.

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    Ken Wells represented Andover, Danbury and Salisbury in the New Hampshire House of Representatives during the 2018-2020 session. He currently serves on the Andover Planning Board and is the President of a education non-profit "NH Forward" (an unpaid position).

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