Peter Morrissette (7-23)

To The Daily Sun,

This letter is in response to Warren Hutchins comments in the July 23 Daily Sun about the former St Helena Mission Church in the Weirs Beach community.

Warren Hutchins claims the neighbors would not have a problem with housing on the property but when we look at his record and the Planning Board they have a problem with 90 percent of the stuff that goes before them. Just ask some of the car dealerships in town how user friendly they are — and I can list 10 more besides. For example: When PEM constructed the apartments on Washington Street in Laconia, We went to the Planning Board with all the plans and info that met every regulation and requirement necessary needed to get approval that night but did not get approval that night. Instead, the members of the board made changes to the plans because of personal opinions, not regulations. I spent a total of $2,000 on coping fees (so much for our recycling program) to get this thing approved. I had a quote of $3,000 to $3,200 from my engineer but I spent $7,200 because of all the changes they made me do to get approvals. My guy who did the engineering (I quote: He works all over the state and the City of Laconia made him jump through more hoops to gets this done than he had seen in years. They made Concord and Manchester look easy, which are normally two of the toughest towns to get anything approved).

The reason why Hutchins wants me to do the housing is then the Planniing Board — which he is the chairman of — will have control over what happens at the property. While its before the Zoning Board he has none. This Monday night the city counsel votes on whether Hutchins should continue as the chairman of the planning board and They need to ALL VOTE NO if this city he going to move foward. But we are going down a slippery slope when we have people on these boards that want to tell us how often to mow a lawn. The funny part about wanting to put a few Motorcycle or waverunners inside the church is if I build the 20 units there they all can use the building for storage or community hall with all these people going in and out with noise and or a community party, what ever they want and the neighbors have no say because that's ok. I try to understand what concerns they have about one company renting the building for storage, the windows you can not see in or even tell whether the building is empty or full. So Mr Hutchins, unless you plan on writing me a check to buy the building you can have all the opinions you want but for now I am going to take this as far as I need to to get it done so get your check book out and lets battle because you have pushed me all you are going to. There is not one of my projects in the City that is not better after I bought it whether it is the Mechanic Street or Washington Street Apartments, the Single Family Homes (5 of them) or the Party Store on Court Street which we have received the Golden Hammer Award just recently. I took a business with 4 employees 29 years ago to more than 80 now,my businesses have done alot for the City whether that is a donation to LRGH or a clean up project of the by pass from Belmont all the way to Sawyers Dairy Bar for the last 3 years or more than $15000 donated to the children aution over the years. So we will see if your just a big mouth or your going to put your money where your mouth is. So please people come to the meeting in August for the show because I will be going to that meeting ready to battle. I hope the neighbors on Pendleton Beach Association like big oragne snow fences so that we can keep all the people and illegal parking out.

Thank you Peter Morrissette