The town of Salem, NH has put “The Granite State Futures” program on their agenda tonight, for September 17th.

The meeting will be held in the Knightley Room on the bottom floor of the town hall and starts at 7:00 PM.

There are two times, one at the beginning and one at the end, that people are allowed to speak on any topic for fifteen minutes. If you ask the chairman, Pat Hargreaves he might allow you to speak during the specific agenda item on Granite State Futures. Anyone can attend the meeting in the town hall.

The Board of Selectmen meetings are televised live on cable TV Channel 23. It is also replayed during the week and you can watch the meetings on the internet on the TV Channel 23 website.

The town manager has stated in email that Salem has not joined the regional planning commission.

From one of our activists: “I have viewed a recent copy of the Municipal Partnership Agreements from the Granite State Futures, the document lists Salem as “Committed to sign the MOU” (memorandum of understanding). Signing this MOU and/or the subsequent ‘agreement’ will remove all local control from the board of selectmen and place all land resource management into the hands of Federal agencies such as US-DOT, HUD, and the EPA. These agreements, although couched in the terms of ‘local control’ and ’stakeholders’ are not at all in the under control of the local selectmen but manipulated through central planning at the Federal level with grants to the Regional Plannig Commissions. As I understand it in NH, all federal grants monies are sent to the Nashua RPC (NRPC) which distributes the money in smaller amounts to the other RPCs in the state to facilitate the such ‘planning’. This money has federal strings attached, accepting this money, even through a simple MOU, may legally bind Salem to the ‘regional plan’. This is very dangerous for our property rights, I urge you to be very cautious before you proceed with either the MOU or the ‘agreement’.”

Salem Board of Selectmen Meeting
Monday, September 17, 2012 at 7:00 PM
Salem Town Hall – Knightley Room on the bottom floor of the town hall
33 Geremonty Drive, Salem, NH 03079