Rally for Londonderry Property Owners 12/3 3:00

[KBCraig]

I still support him on the Eminent Domain issue, and he might be the best choice in his election, but that's about it.

The beauty of the Underground is that, completely unlike political parties, we will support other members where we agree with them, fight them where we don't, and still be friends out for pizza and beer.

Parties lead to all-or-nothing absolutism, where party affiliation counts for more than principles.

Kevin

[Tom Sawyer]

Inspired by the successful rally... an updated NHfree.com sign (13 x 19in). This one should "read" better in photographs.

I think that one is very good.? How do you make these?? Also, I think you should take the FSP off of it because I think the NH Underground is not just FSP members and I can see a day when it has dozens of non-FSP members.

Thanks... glad you like it. I used Photoshop CS for the graphics.

If I lose the FSP I would feel obliged to lose the cool "Porcupine" "Don't Tread on Me" flag. I need to give credit where credit is due... I wouldn't even be involved if it wasn't for the Free State Project idea. I didn't even become aware of the NH Underground until we went to the Porc Fest.

However, in the future it would be very easy to customize to meet people's preferences.

[Fluff and Stuff]

If I lose the FSP I would feel obliged to lose the cool "Porcupine" "Don't Tread on Me" flag. I need to give credit where credit is due... I wouldn't even be involved if it wasn't for the Free State Project idea. I didn't even become aware of the NH Underground until we went to the Porc Fest.

What about putting the Old Man, a tree, or a snake on the flag?

[Kat Kanning]

John sent in some nice photos from the airport

http://www.soulawakenings.com/underground/tikiwiki/tiki-browse_gallery.php?galleryId=50

[Michael Fisher]

Thanks, John!!!  Those are awesome!   

[TackleTheWorld]

Nice pictures, Thanks!

I heard Jeremy Noyes from the White Mountain Land Club was there.  Can anyone find him in a picture?

[Kat Kanning]

Standing there with me...

[KBCraig]

Cool, now I know who the guy is who's been running his butt off all over the state setting up WMLC! (Even though they had to call it something else.)

Kevin

[Friday]

Did anyone copy the text of the article about the protest that appeared in the Concord Monitor before it went into the pay-per-view archives? If so, please post it here; I want to send it to the FSP and request that they mention it on the home page (which hasn't had a news update in over two weeks now).

[Kat Kanning]

I never saw it online 

[Pat McCotter]

The article Saturday morning 12/03/2005
http://www.concordmonitor.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051203/REPOSITORY/512030307/1221

Londonderry / Manchester

? ?
Eminent domain fight sparks airport rally?
Libertarian group takes up man's cause?


By MARGARET MENGE
For the Monitor


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
December 03. 2005 8:00AM


When you put a Marine's back up against a wall, he comes out fighting. That's how Al Baldasaro of Londonderry describes his dispute with the state over 5 acres taken from him by eminent domain for an access road to the Manchester Airport.

Baldasaro, a retired Marine sergeant, is going to court to challenge the taking, arguing that the state is seeking to preserve more than 750 acres of wetlands when it is only using 12 for the road.

"Our land has nothing to do with the access road. They're not building anything on it. We're five miles away from there," he said.

His fight has caught the attention of local Free Staters and other libertarians, who plan a protest rally at the airport this afternoon.The issue of eminent domain has also become part of Baldasaro's own campaign for a seat in the Legislature.

Libertarians were already on high alert after the U.S. Supreme Court's June decision affirming the taking of private property in Connecticut for a commercial development project.

"We don't want to become like New London, Conn., where they're just handing out property to developers," said Kat Dillon, who operates a libertarian Web site called New Hampshire Underground (nhunderground.com). She has organized today's rally hoping to draw attention to the issue.
Dave Ridley, another libertarian activist, says eminent domain is the perfect issue for the group to take a stand on, because the state's involved. "It makes it everyone's business," he said.

Baldasaro is one of about 70 property owners in north Londonderry whose land the state has been acquiring for wetlands mitigation for the road that will connect Manchester Airport with the Everett Turnpike. Many of the property owners have already settled with the state. Others are in negotiations with the Department of Transportation over the amount of money they have been offered for their acreage.

Jim Pincence, the only other property owner whose land has been taken by eminent domain so far, lost 109 of his 112 acres. He is suing over the issue of just compensation, arguing that the state's offer doesn't come close to the assessed value of his land. Pincence declined to say what the state offered.

But other property owners in the area have been offered $1,000 to $3,000 per acre. Baldasaro was offered about $2,000 per acre for 4.9 acres. He bought his house on 6 acres for $287,000 in 2002.

The state stands by the appraisals and the land acquisitions. "We have a project that was found to be a necessity and in the benefit of the state," said Bob Barry, who has managed the wetlands mitigation for the Department of Transportation. "The lands that we're looking at are really not developable."

Baldasaro's house is perched on a small hill that gives way in back to a low and reedy marsh. Its part of the Little Cohas Marsh and the town watershed, but it's land that Baldasaro says is manmade wetlands, with the water level kept high by a dam the state was supposed to dismantle last year. He's fighting the taking itself, insisting his land is not for sale at any price.

Tom Dolan, chairman of the Londonderry Town Council, is more sanguine about the state's land acquisitions. "The land itself is going to look no different," he said. "The same ducks will be swimming there, the same fishing will go on, as if nothing's happened."

Baldasaro disagrees. "It is going to change," he said. "I have no control over anyone walking back and forth on my property, in my back yard. I have children. I have no control of any hunters that are going to shoot there."

He sent a letter a month ago to state offices and to all of his state representatives saying that as a veteran of the Gulf War, he remembers what it was like to give the Kuwaitis back the land that Saddam Hussein had taken. Even if it was only a pile of sand, it was theirs, he says.

The land for the Manchester Airport access road is, unlike in the Connecticut case, being taken in connection with a public project. But Lou Thompson, a land use specialist, former employee of the state Department of Environmental Services and Pincence's brother-in-law, says the standard ratio of land conserved for wetlands mitigation for public projects is 5 to 1. He says that sometimes, when the land in question is especially ecologically sensitive, the ratio may go up to 10 to 1. But in this case, the state is taking more than 50 times the amount of wetlands that are going to be used for the road.

Why so much? Barry says the mitigation plan is the result of having to satisfy two federal agencies and two state agencies, all of which had different interests.

"The Department of Environmental Services and New Hampshire Fish and Game wanted to see that the Little Cohas Marsh was protected from further development and degradation," he said. Fish and Game, he says, in particular, wanted to preserve corridors to allow wildlife to move through the land to the Merrimack River.

Baldasaro, meanwhile, is running as a Republican in a Dec. 20 special primary election for state representative - and has made eminent domain part of his platform.

State lawmakers, in fact, recently crafted legislation to strengthen protections for property owners in New Hampshire in the wake of the Supreme Court'sdecision. But the bill's main thrust, says Republican Sen. Robert Odell, is to clarify that state law prohibits takings for private development. So it is not likely the bill would have any affect on the airport area property owners.

(The New Hampshire Underground's eminent domain rally will take place this afternoon at 3 at the Manchester Airport's main terminal.)

------ End of article

By MARGARET MENGE

For the Monitor

[Friday]

Thanks, Pat!

[Kat Kanning]

Varrin was saying that Tom Parker was out of town for a while.  Perhaps they don't have anyone else editing their webpage.

[Pat K]

It's on the FSP front page now. 

[Friday]

Excellent!