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Notice of Public Hearing

Amendment to Subdivision Regulations

The proposal is to amend Planning Board Subdivision Regulations with changes to timelines, notice requirements, Board of Adjustment interaction, snow plowing near wetlands, and some edits. Some of these are needed due to recent state law revisions.

Amendment may be viewed at town office or through link below, which is a link to the agenda containing this topic and other items. Zoom instructions are also provided in that link. Questions or comments may be sent to bergeronjh@gmail.com

https://tinyurl.com/pb-agd

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The New Hampshire General Election

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 2020
Canaan Fire Station
62 NH Route 118
Canaan, NH
8:00 am to 7:00 pm

September 8th Voting Results

What can you recycle?

Did You Know?

Canaan Police Department has body and cruiser cameras to assure accountability.

Tom Marlar Remembered

Tom Marlar worked as the Town's Mechanic for the past three years. During the time that he worked with us, he saved the Town a total of $95,000 by completing repairs that previously had been sent to third party repair services. Tom absolutely believed that this was his duty. He worked as hard as he could to save money for the taxpayers.

Tom Marlar died on Friday, August 14th of a massive heart attack in front of the ambulance bays.

It is the consensus of the Town Selectmen and employees that Tom was the best mechanic that had served the Town in the last fifteen years. He was able to fix anything mechanical in the Town and often in very little time. In the winter, he could also be seen plowing snow in one of the trucks.

It wasn't just the Town and taxpayers he helped. He personally helped many of the people he worked with when their cars had problems. He never charged for it and he was offended if you declined his help.

All of the Town crew that responded to his heart attack were emotionally shaken and felt that they had lost an important friend.

Tom was a little concerned about the possible conspiracies that might affect us but he also had a deep and personal understanding of his own role in the universe and was respectful of the divine and other people.

I think of Tom as one of my friends and I will miss him professionally and personally.

Tom was product of the US Marine Corps where he was trained as a diesel mechanic. After working for 22 years at RSD Leasing in White River Junction, he joined the Town of Canaan "to cut down the commute". Tom was previously married to Victoria Wallace Marlar with whom he had a son; Thomas Marlar Junior. Thomas Junior graduated from Mascoma High school in 2011.

It will be very difficult if not impossible to replace him. We will certainly miss his excellent work and the annual tax savings that he generated.

Michael Samson, Town Administrator

The Canaan Board of Selectmen strongly recommends the use of MASKS inside of buildings and stores and where social distancing isn't possible.

As you travel around Canaan you may notice John Coffey, the Town of Canaan's Water and Sewer Operator, working on the roads with an intern from the University of New Hampshire.  They are measuring and mapping the water system and will be using this information as a base point to locate and confirm our existing water system.

Goose Pond Dam

Emergency patch provided by Paul DeSantis with aid from Ethan Harris.

Update from Goose Pond Association about State dam.

This dam update is about the long-term plans for the dam, which is unrelated to the breach in a few wood boards that we had on August 8th.  I presented the following information to attendees of the Annual Meeting. For those that missed it, here we go...

1- The dozen orange core monitors have been in place for over a year and checked weekly by DES.  They have revealed significant leaking.

2- It has been determined that the earthen portion is deformed (and comprised of material insufficient for its purpose) and the concrete portion is partially cracked.  They believe there is a level of safety risk downstream, and have determined that major repairs are needed.

3- Engineering of such repairs is currently underway, which should be complete in 6-9 months.

4- Once a plan is complete, the scope of repairs will be better understood and an effort to estimate costs takes place.

5- Once costs are understood, a Budget Request would take place in late 2023 / early 2024.

6- If approved, work would begin late 2024 at the earliest and continue into 2025.

7- This will be a major drawdown similar to 1980 when more than half the lake was bare with only the deepest sections in the very middle holding water. Most of that will be in the fall, winter and early Spring.

8- The re-fill will be in phases, determined by work progress, with the intent to re-fill as soon as possible.  The contractor will be under a performance penalty clause to avoid delays & disruption to lake recreation, as much as possible.  

9- It is WAY TOO EARLY in the process to answer any specific questions about how much, when, what if, etc. etc.  We've had good communications with DES on this, and will update the GPLA accordingly as the process unfolds. The intent is to limit disruption to recreation activity in Summer 2025, but there will be no guarantee. This is a projected timeline with a number of major variables.  But after discussion with DES, we all felt it was important to give our residents a heads up at this point. At this point, we wait on the process...

Once the patched boards have been repaired by DES, I will send out an update.

-Best wishes to all,

Canaan Town Library

The library is now open by appointment. Three days a week, you will be able to schedule a 30 minute appointment for you and members of your household (up to a total of 8 people, infants and toddlers count!) to use the library. Face masks will be required and we will ask you to sanitize your hands when you enter the library. We also ask that you practice social distancing while in the library. A limited number of 30 minute in- person appointments will be available each week.

You can:
• browse the stacks
• check out materials
• use a computer
• send a fax
• make photocopies

For folks who would like to grab their library materials and go -- Library Take Out is a great option!

Please call 523-9650 or email circulationdesk@canaanlibrary.org to learn more and schedule your appointment. Please remember that we are excited to see you and your families, but currently, there will not be time to visit or linger. We will be happy to assist you in finding materials and answering reference questions. To make appointments available for a larger group of patrons, we ask that you be prepared to check out materials that can last you and your family 3 weeks. If you need to supplement these materials, feel free to use our Library Take Out program. For more information please visit our website: https://www.canaanlibrary.org/

Granite State Dog Recovery

“The Race Against Time”

Every so often we come across a dog that is in desperate need of help. Last weekend our team was working on the husky mix who was roaming in Springfield NH when we were made aware of another dog that was in desperate need of rescue.

While waiting for our husky friend to cooperate and go into the trap we decided to check out another situation in Canaan NH. Our team arrived in town and spoke with the Canaan Police Department who told us that there has been a dog roaming around town over the last month. This dog would not allow anyone to get close enough to him or her and would run off the second someone tried to help.

The goal over the next week would be to get the dog eating in one location so it could be successfully trapped. Local Residents Sherrill & Jason Took on the task to make this happen as we live pretty far away. While speaking to them about the situation, we were able to successfully trap the other dog in Springfield, so we jumped back in the van and we were off.

Camera was set in the location of where our brown and white friend was hanging out, we were unsure if it was a coonhound, pointer, a mixed breed we knew nothing else other than it was a dog in need of SERIOUS HELP.

Well the 1st night was successful and the dog was on camera, almost all night long eating and then looking for more to eat. It Bingo, it was a red tick coonhound, but who was this? where did he belong? How far did he travel?

Monday Night we headed back to Canaan NH and set the trap with high value food and sat and sat. Well our friend showed up for dinner, but he was so scared he would not enter the trap, circled it , backed up, ran from it but would just not go in. Before he headed back home, that evening we tied open the trap. When driving up in the fence, this lost scared dog ran to the fence line to see if we were his ride out of town, but realized we were not and quickly retreated into the darkness.

On video, we could tell based on this dogs behavior we needed to immediately STOP wasting time with the trap and set up the Gracie Kennel. If he did go into the trap it would misfire and slam him in the back which could in the end spook him out of the area.

So once again our team was back on the road the following night to set up the Gracie Kennel. Upon arrival we had a very curious coonhound watching us but quickly disappeared when he figured out we could see him. We set up the kennel, tied it open and baited it. Yes, hard to just drive away when you actually have eyes on the dog, but we were unsure if he would even go in and there would be no catching him, so that was not even option. The old saying goes you can NEVER OUTRUN A LOST SCARED DOG BUT EVENTUALLY YOU CAN OUTSMART THEM!

Well, the dog we named Sneaky Pete once again made a appearance stretching in for the bait trail and then quickly backing up. Pete got braver by the minute finally going in the kennel and running out with a mouthful of food. Through-out the evening he ran in and back out and did this for hours.

Morning quickly came, and things took a turn for the worst! There was a threat called into the town officials that if something was not done about this dog he would loose his life! Pete was getting himself into a situation on private property, but to Pete it was a fun game of grab the traffic cones and make a B-Line for it! Pete would play hide-n-seek and you cannot catch me with that silly golf cart so you should just park it Mr land owner.

Everyone in town rallied for for the dog and his best interest. The culverts were blocked the holes in the fences were blocked to keep Pete for going on private property. Clearly if a dog wants to be somewhere he will find a different way to enter the property.

Once again on Thursday evening in the race against time, we headed to Canaan NH. We quickly and quietly set the kennel with chicken stuffed with meat and wrapped in bacon and and headed out of the area to wait patiently. We yet again had another pizza for dinner while using the dashboard of the van has our dining room table, that is what you called gourmet dining at its best.

Well, it quickly became dark and we noticed two men headed into the area where the dog is known to hang out which was not a good thing. We asked them what they were doing, and they said they had permission to be there and headed into the area. Once again one there way out we asked them and they said they were there to look for the dog and that there were sent there by the property owner.

We sat and waited and waited for hours and Pete was a no show! We wondered if he was ok, did something happened we just did not know. Where was PETE, morning quickly came and Pete was still not there, honestly we had a horrible feeling that this would not end well.

It’s now Friday and still no Pete on camera. There was another threat made against this dog, he was either going to be shot or poisoned by Saturday evening. We made a desperate plea to find his family or even knew this dog. The post was shared 1000’s of times but still no owner, no family. We did get many responses for people that were willing to help and rally around to catch this beloved dog. Amazing, what we will all do for the love of a dog.

Friday evening, we were absolutely exhausted and running on maybe 10 hours of sleep for the entire week but we literally in a Race against time to catch Sneaky Pete. Thankful Jason & Sherrill and their daughter Carmen offered to bait and set and then wait hours for the dog to show up. Our team was on camera duty that evening, and waited and watched for Pete to make an appearance.

Finally at 1 AM Saturday Pete showed up to dine, in and out but not triggering the trap. Every step he took in was gut wrenching to watch, come on Pete just grab the meat buddy. Finally, he took the bait and BINGO THE DOOR SLAMMED SHUT, WE BEAT THE STOP WATCH PETE WAS SAFE AND SOUND!!!

Jason ran to the trap, and Pete sat there no barking, no growling no nothing, he seemed to say finally someone caught me thank goodness. Pete needed to be carried out of the kennel has he was not going to stand-walk or even move. Pete was brought to a secured area where he would be carried for in the morning.

Well once in the house, it was determined that Pete had a name plate on his collar! THE BEST NEWS EVER, his owners name and phone number along with town was on the collar which determined he was from approximately 30 miles away. We were able to make contact with his owner early Saturday morning!

Well Pete was really named Hank! Hank was only a 9 month old puppy who was missing since June and was only 7 months old when he got away, They did not think he would be able to survive the woods of NH and actually stopped looking for him two weeks ago has they had no sightings of him. They were pretty surprised when they received our phone call to find out their dog did survive and was SAFE! Hank was very relieved to see the truck he had been looking for and then to see his owner. Hank jumped into the back of the truck with his tail wagging and said I am finally going home!!!

We are beyond thrilled he had a collar, and tag so this reunion could be possible. Remember even if you do not have social media, get your dogs missing photo out there somehow and everywhere possible. We searched everywhere for a missing coonhound and came up empty handed we were very relieved he had a collar with tags.

We are so happy that this story had a very happy ending, as if Hank did not cooperate I am not sure what the conclusion of this story would have been.

Again, thank you to everyone in the Town of Canaan and beyond that rallied for the love of this dog!  Thank you to the Canaan New Hampshire Police Department, and everyone else that worked in the town that helped to make this recovery possible.

A huge thank you again to Jason Hurley and Sherrill and Carmen Zani for all your help as we could not have done it without you!

WELCOME HOME HANK, WE ARE GLAD YOU ARE SAFE, YOU SILLY PUPPY!

The Williams Field playground is now open.

Warning! There is no disinfectant used on the playground equipment. 

New mulch has been laid down as part of the 2019 flood repair work.

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Absentee Voting

The State of New Hampshire established a process for registering to vote by mail amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Guidance and instructions can be found via the @NHSecretary website: https://bit.ly/2Y5YkJl or click HERE

Any voter who is concerned about contracting or spreading COVID-19 may vote absentee in the 2020 elections.  Any voter may request an absentee ballot for the 2020 Elections based on concerns regarding COVID-19. Any voter who is concerned about COVID-19 should check the “disability” box.

You can also vote absentee IF ANY OF THE FOLLOWING APPLY:  

Absence: You won't be in town during polling hours on election day.  

Disability:  You are unable to vote in person because of a disability or  illness. This includes concerns about COVID-19.  Work obligation, childcare or caring for infirm adults during polling hours.  Religious commitment prevents you from appearing in public at the polls.

To vote absentee:   You need to be registered with the town you live in to vote.  If you are not a registered voter and want to register online, start by clicking HERE.

1. Check your registration to make sure you are registered correctly by clicking HERE. 

2. To go to the Secretary of State's main page,   Request your ballot now by submitting the completed Absentee Request Application for each election to your town or city clerk's office by mail, email, fax, or in person.  This form should be available at your town clerk's office and can also be downloaded from the Secretary of State’s homepage by clicking HERE for “Voting During the COVID-19 State of Emergency.  

3. Check your mail for your official ballot. Your ballot usually arrives about 30 days before the election.  

4. Fill out your ballot from home. Make sure to sign it.  Read the instructions carefully and make sure you sign the envelope.  

5. Return your ballot to the town or city clerk's office.  You can send it in the mail or drop it off in person.

The New Hampshire General Election is:TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 2020. *

For additional questions about voting, please call the  Voter Assistance Hotline at 603-466-VOTE

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