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Plea to help youth center denied
By Scott E. Kinney
rockinghamnews@seacoastonline.com

February 11, 2005

DANVILLE - A petitioned warrant article concerning an additional $5,000 to support the Sad Café, located in Plaistow, drew the greatest attention from residents at Saturday’s deliberative session.

The article states that the money would assist in funding the position of a community program director, who would be in charge of grant writing for the youth center. In addition to Danville, residents of Plaistow, Newton, Kingston, Hampstead, Atkinson and Sandown will be faced with a similar article.

Resident Donna Starr, who said she has had ties to the organization for the last four years, asked town officials why the article was not supported by the Board of Selectmen or the Budget Committee.

Selectman Robert Moore said there were a number of reasons why selectmen did not support the article. He said $500 is already appropriated to the Sad Café from the town’s budget under the heading of Vendor Payments, which also contributes money to the Center for Life Management, the American Red Cross, the Vic Geary Center and Community Health Services, among others.

Moore said selectmen did not understand why Danville would pay the same amount as the town of Plaistow and added most vendors use a method to calculate what the town’s fair share would be.

Budget Committee Chairman Tom Billbrough said his committee used similar arguments to not recommend the article.

Starr said the number of kids that go to the Sad Café from Danville is similar to the number from Plaistow.

"Part of the reason it was not recommended was because we have so little knowledge of what takes place over there (at the Sad Cafe)," said Selectmen Chairman Ron Peddle. "We have to know a lot about the organization before we can contribute."

Peddle said the information brought forth by Starr was the first information on the organization that town officials had received.

Resident Chris Giordano asked selectmen if their view of the warrant article had changed after receiving information provided by Starr.

Moore said that his opinion was unchanged. The town contributes to more than a dozen different vendors that provide services to the town, and $5,000 is one-fourth of the town’s vendor budget.

"It isn’t fair to the town," he said.

Selectmen Peddle and Russell Pouliot also said that they would not recommend the article.

Overall it took residents little more than an hour to give consideration to the town’s 25 articles that will appear on the March ballot.

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