Concord, NH – Weather models such as the Global Forecast System are coming into closer agreement that New Hampshire is due for its first block-buster snowstorm in quite a few years. Normally the fact that the worst of the storm is due for Friday night through Saturday would be good news since it would not affect schools or most businesses.
But this storm, officially named Nemo, arrives at a time that many of our towns are holding their mandatory annual “Town Meeting” or “Deliberative Sessions” on Saturday as part of their budgeting process. Nemo will cause many of our local towns to delay the meetings that have been scheduled for quite some time. Most of these towns are SB2 towns which function to state law that spells-out exactly how the local government should function.
During a Deliberative Session, town voters meet to review all the town warrant items that will be voted on by residents at a later date. During these sessions, voters can submit amendments especially to articles that involve money and taxes. Those articles are the result of months of activity by the town various committees such as the budget committee or selectmen. Many towns are struggling with the economy and, especially in New Hampshire, they are facing additional expenses due to downshifting of some of the retirement costs from the state government. With these added expenses, these meetings take on added importance and there are strict time-lines that have to be followed.
Local residents should check with their town hall for revised dates. Many towns have prior established “snow dates” that were scheduled in the event a major storm such as this happened.
The latest information on Nemo is that the southern part of New Hampshire can expect something on the order of 2 feet of snow with local higher amounts and high winds from late Friday into mid day Saturday. Even in New Hampshire that amount of snow will be causing significant problems in trying to keep roads open for traffic. Power companies from as far away as Tennessee have reported they are deploying crews to this region to help with possible power outages. According to the National Weather Service, some areas especially near the southern New Hampshire border may experience blizzard conditions.
As of this morning, some stores are already reporting they are running low on supplies as people start to stock up on supplies.
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