“Overall goal of SB 11: Enable a municipality to establish a water and sewer district within a specific area to attract and sustain commercial development”
So, Monday morning, May 6, I’m on the radio talking about upcoming legislation and bring up SB 11 and that, in my opinion, it was a real Trojan horse disguising a long-wished for entre for cities and towns and the state of NH to tax private well and septic owners to pay for the mistakes and mismanagement of municipally-owned and operated water and sewer systems.
Next day, out of the blue, I get this email from Senator Nancy Stiles – how in the world she got my email address I have no idea:
Susan,
An email was forward to me and I’m not sure you understand why SB11 was put forward. It didn’t come out of a study. One of my selectmen group was in need of services and didn’t want to put them through the whole community but to provide business with nee[sic] for water and sewerage. One town has the water supply and the other has the septic in place. SB11 ENABLES two communities to share resources through an MOU. No one cares how they set up who pays for what as long as the two communities agree. Included in the legislation is a requirement that if they hate each other 5 years down the road it is predetermined and agreed on how the break up will occur and who has what responsibilities. TOTAL local control to solve a problem. Instead of drafting legislation for one/two particular towns I made it ENABLING legislation for any community that saw a need. NO mandate to do anything. Hope this helps. Stop in my office sometime to say hello.
Nancy F. Stiles
Senate District 24
603 271-6933
So, I write back:
Senator,
If you want to rub two sticks together around here, you have to go get a burn permit. So I leave my house in a 4000 pound (ish) SUV, drive 5 miles to the nearest Fire Station, and then hand the Fire-Fighter my ID. (If I was just doing something as unimportant as, say voting, they could just check my name off a list.)
