Throughout November the Town was bombarded with endless bad press concerning the Nottonson-Sarcione case…

http://www.unionleader.com/pda-article.aspx?articleId=50d01725-e96e-4ca6-9ce2-f157dd729a30

Including the lurid USA Today headlines of part Bambi or part Godfather…

http://blogs.usatoday.com/ondeadline/2006/11/part_bambi_part.html

You can Google Nottonson-Sarcione to see articles in Texas, on freerepublic.com, on Channel 4 News, etc., among the many articles chronicling the case of Derry Conservation Commisioner Elinore Sarcione’s strange interlude at Rockingham County Fish and Game Commissioner Stephen Nottonson’s house, which featured criminal threats, trespassing, and possession of deer’s head and entrails. Ms. Sarcione was all worked about her disdain for hunters.

And then, in front page news in the Derry News on 11/22/06, in an article titled “Sarcione: Officials told me to keep quiet,” we learned, according to Ms. Sarcione, that members of the Derry Town Council and the Conservation Commission conspired to buy her silence by allowing her to resign for illness rather than cause. (She had resigned on 11/13/06, citing Lyme disease, signing her resignation letter it is widely reported, when it was offered to her in the parking lot of the police station by a fellow commission member.)

In the mean time, in some sort of a colossal blunder, the Town Council has apparently improperly received her resignation and she is supposedly to be shortly reinstated, despite her behavior and the ongoing police investigation into her activities at the Nottonson home.

And, while these esoteric happenings are taking place, it appears that the members of the Derry Fire Department chose to launch a nationwide campaign from a blog at firehouse.com, apparently designed to intimidate Councilor Janet Fairbanks because she brought concerns from one of her constituents to the council and Chief Klauber about the use of Town’s expensive hook and ladder as some sort of a “ride” at a members wedding.

This madness appeared in another front page article in the Derry News on Friday, 12/1/06, titled, “Councilor takes heat for fire complaint.”. The postings were of such a tawdry and personal nature that the individuals had to have personal knowledge of her private life and her e-mails and came from as far away as Colorado.

Ms. Fairbanks, who could’ve demanded a full examination of the Town’s computers, chose not to, with a warning that future personal attacks of a similar nature would not be tolerated.

Interestingly, as soon as concerns were raised, the blog and the accompanying article from the Union Leader were removed by firehouse.com at the immediate request of the anonymous attackers, giving further credence to concerns about their origination.

These activities follow the DFD’s refusal to assist awoman at 245 am on a cold and windy night, who had locked herself out of her home with her dogs, by telling her over the phone to simply, “Call a locksmith.” So much for the serve and protect angle and the service for taxes angle.

All of these FD capers follow our latest massive tax increase, the FD’s reduction in services, the apparent refusal of the FD to allow civilians, (ie taxpayers) free entry to the fire stations we pay for, memos canceling all public fire department appearances and assistance, like parades and school visits, and the Chief’s wrangling with the Town manager, councilors, and an increasingly inimical relationship growing between the FD and the townsfolk.

And now we learn, sadly, that the Town manager, Russ Marcoux, may be leaving, to go to another NH town as manager…

The Town is in an absolute uproar, especially in view of the upcoming Council’s decision to re-award our tax dollars to the disgraced Derry Economic and Community Development agency, who director, Jack Dowd, had jumped from Chair of the Council, last July, to become the DEDC executive director for 60K a year, in a move viewed as highly suspicious by many, with legal opinions singling this out as suspicious. All taken against the better judgment of Marcoux, a majority of the townspeople, and good honest sense of any kind, given the DEDC’s past problems with embezzlement, the indictment of their past director, and the supposed co-mingling of Town and private monies.

On top of this, Dowd’s name is now being floated as apossible successor for Marcoux, even before the vote is taken by the Council onthe DEDC plans awarding Jack and the DEDC a contract for economic outreach.

Folks are growing restive with the reviews of these amateur hours, carnival acts, and cheap vaudeville appearing on the front pages of the Union Leader, the Eagle Tribune, the Derry News, to say nothing of national blogs and newscasts, as well as seeing the whole shabby affair play out in color on Channel 17 local TV on Council meeting night.

Whoa, you could turn this into a movie with Randy Quaid playing Dowd, Woody Allen playing Chirichiello, Meryl Streep playing Fairbanks, Ralph Fiennes playing Marcoux, Maury Chayken playing the fire chief, and have it directed by Ken Burton.