Not too many of my readers know that my interest in politics came about because my grandfather, George Wesley Hobbs was actually elected to the City Council of Auburndale for two terms in the late fifties and early sixties. The second time he was elected he got the most votes in town. Grandpa George actually supported his friend, the mayor of Lakeland, whose name I do not recall, for Governor of Florida in the 1966 election. His candidate did not win (he ran a poor third) but I remember election night well. Watching the returns come in, as disappointing as it was, fired up my excitement for politics. (Yes, I was a strange kid! George Romney was one of my heroes as a boy and I got to actually tell Mitt Romney how much I admired his father to his face in 2007!)
Well, my mother told me two things about Grandpa George: One, he warned his fellow councilmembers to be careful about Federal grants because they always came with strings attached. “There’s no such thing as free money” might have been a quote or paraphrase of his. The second thing was that when his political foes found out Hobbs wanted to move to the beach (New Smyrna Beach in fact!) they bought his house to get him out of town and off the council!
So I get my troublemaking honest – I inherited it!
But that is prologue to this story from another hero of mine: Hal Shurtleff: The New Hampshire town of Rindge is considering renouncing HUD and state development grants because they required Agenda 21 type changes in their town! Here’s the story in a local paper and a highlight or two.
A group of approximately 200 Rindge residents met at the Rindge Recreation Building on Tuesday night to hear Save Our Town Director Larry Cleveland, State Rep. Jack Flanagan of Brookline and State Rep. John Burt of Goffstown speak about their concerns with accepting N.H. Housing Finance Authority and U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development grants.
Cleveland began the non-town-sponsored meeting by sharing with the audience what he found out in January: The town of Rindge had plans to change the zoning regulations for the area at the intersection of Routes 119 and 202, and the town would be using $24,800 in grant money from the NHHFA and associated with HUD to help with these zoning regulation changes. The suggestions for these new regulations were outlined in the Rindge Charrette, a compilation of ideas created over a two-day intensive and open-to-the-public session in January 2012 with help from the Plan NH non-profit.
***
In reflecting on the meeting on Tuesday, Cleveland distilled quite a bit of information into an overall goal: “I want people to know about the Rindge Charette and the dangers of accepting money associated with HUD,” he said. “I’ve never been involved in politics before this, but this directly affects my life. And after seeing the support we had on Tuesday night, I want to use that momentum to stop all future HUD grants in Rindge,” Cleveland added. “I would like things to stay the way they are.”
And town leaders are listening and promised they want more input! This shows that an aroused citizenry can fight effectively and remain classy, too! So never give up! Get ICLEI out and work on all property rights killing measures! Also fight regional government, largely unelected but powerful! Never give up!
Article written by: Elwood "Sandy" Sanders
About Elwood Sanders
Elwood "Sandy" Sanders is a Hanover attorney who is an Appellate Procedure Consultant for Lantagne Legal Printing and has written ten scholarly legal articles. Sandy was also Virginia's first Appellate Defender and also helped bring curling in VA! (None of these titles imply any endorsement of Sanders’ views)
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