John Markland: Howards resort to fear-mongering and lies to get their way

To The Daily Sun,

I felt compelled to write this letter to my fellow residents of Alton because of a letter that was submitted to a neighboring newspaper from our Representative Ray Howard and his wife, Barbara. While I feel it appropriate to endorse a candidate that you feel is best suited for selectman, I find it reprehensible to print blatant lies against his opponent, especially when you hold the position you currently hold. Our residents deserve better respect and they deserve the truth. I hope to set the record straight.

The Howard's state they never remember me voting for any reduction in any line item of any department’s budget when I served on the Budget Committee. In most cases, the Budget Committee submits a budget back to the Board of Selectman that is lower than was originally submitted and the selectmen generally agree with that number which goes on the town ballot that you, the townspeople vote on. One such instance in which I was directly involved was the questioning as to why we had a separate budget on animal control when we had no animal control officer. That was later reduced and combined with the Police Department budget.

As selectman, the Howards accuse me of not attending my committee assignments. The only one I recall not being able to attend was a committee that met during the day, in which no member of the selectmen could attend because we all worked, so they just assigned it to me.

The Howards claimed I pushed the Planning Board to spend $2,500 in my support of some recreation facility at a price tag of $5-7 million. I’ve never attended any Planning Board meeting, I’ve never seen any plans for a $5-7 million recreation facility, and the “All in for Alton” group they refer to was organized by the Planning Board in the development of a Master Plan.

If that doesn’t scare you enough, they then tell you that we had large tax increases while I was in office. These increases were due to the implementation of a Capital Improvement Program that many residents felt was important in the proper planning of major expenses in town and statutorily is initiated by the Planning Board; again, I’ve never attended any meeting with the Planning Board.

Lastly, regarding employee salaries…the Board of Selectmen decided to change the step and grade pay scale to a merit-based increase based upon performance. This was initiated at the same time a salary study was conducted that was supposed to have been regularly completed but had not been done in years. We also increased the salary for CDL certified drivers in trying to hire drivers for the Highway Department when no one was applying for the position.

I find it disappointing that someone representing us uses fear-mongering in hopes of getting his candidate elected. It makes me wonder if we are properly represented in Concord and the county?

John Markland

Alton