Tonight, the Rochester City Council voted against joining The Granite State Futures program, which is New Hampshire’s implementation of Barack Obama’s Sustainable Communities Initiative.
A few weeks ago, about 50 people (from Rochester and many surrounding communities) showed up at a City Council workshop to voice their opinion against this program, which includes an approximate $30,000 planning grant. It wasn’t until tonight’s vote that someone showed up to speak in favor of the program – Regional HUD representative (and Republican), Greg Carson, who was ill during the night of the workshop.
At least 70 people showed up tonight for the vote.
In these economic times, grant money like this is tempting for cities and towns that are likely in financial straits. But Rochester has accepted Federal grant money in the past and got burned; they apparently heard the warnings from the public, and gave sufficient weight to prior experience.