This is Brookline 603, a podcast created by Brookliners to shine a bright light on the civic life of a small New Hampshire town.

I’m Gail Chaddock. It’s not easy to run a town mainly with volunteers. Count them the next time you cast a vote in this town. We’re talking today with one volunteer who has served on Brookline school boards for 19 years. You’ve got to love it. Or [00:01:00] at least see a very good reason to be there. This podcast is all about being there — being aware of civic events, such as our upcoming town meeting on March 13th and the co op annual meeting on March 19th, and the ideas driving them. Being there to hear how some proposed change affects your neighbors.

Public meetings in Brookline aren’t always well attended or even typically well attended. But this year’s Town Meeting on March 13, next Wednesday, may be different, in part because the tax bills that Brookliners opened up for December were certainly different. 

In this episode of Brookline603, we talk with Laurie Kazantsev, local taxpayer attending her first budget meeting; Eric Pauer, seasoned budget hawk; and Tom Solon, with a 19-year record of service on local school boards. 

For a full transcript of this Episode 4, soon…

SThis is Brookline603, a podcast launched by Brookline’s to shine a bright light on the civic life of a small New Hampshire town. Today we’re talking about school spending with Andrew Corey, Superintendent of Brookline and Hollis schools. Budget talks have been going on since July, in public meetings that the public rarely attends. Thee can be hard conversations that fall out on predictable lines: voters with kids in schools vs. voters just trying to keep their homes – and worried that school costs are making that increasingly difficult. Laurie Toupin is our Education Correspondent.

Many people move to Brookline just for the schools. It’s a wonderful town in its own right, but the reputation of the school system is definitely a draw. As you know, and everyone knows, the tax rate is punishing. 79 percent of our property tax in Brookline go for school spending alone. People are getting ready to vote for the school budget in March. They have the opportunity to talk about the warrants at the Deliberative Session on February 7th. But many do not understand what they are voting for or against, or even some of the terminology used. So we’ve asked you to help shed some light on these issues. 

For a full transcript of this Episode 3, soon…

School costs account for 79% of the tax bill in Brookline,NH. Federal and state mandates and contractual obligations account for most of it. The balance is what voters can discuss at public meetings and kitchen tables until March 12 when the Brookliners vote on the budget and alternatives. This episode aims to help Brookliners have a voice in those decisions.

In this episode of Brookline603, we talk with Peter Webb, Brookline Town Moderator, and Michele Decoteau, Brookline Town Planner. Call it: How to dip a toe into the waters of town decisionmaking. We start with few words from a Brookline citizen on seeing his latest property tax bill. Finding thousands more to pay taxes is one issue. (We are struggling, too, and can’t help much on that.) But we can help neighbors learn more about the issues they will vote on next month — and the many other options they have to have a say in the process.

For a full transcript of this Episode 2

This is Brookline603 — a podcast created by Brookliners to shine a bright light on the civic life of a small New Hampshire town. For a small town, Brookline has had a rich history of local news – The Brookline Beacon, The Brookline News, The Brookliner, Comments, Our Place and then … no newspaper.

There have been lots of discussions in town about starting one. We all agreed this town needs a newspaper or something like it – and why not make it a podcast, committed to making local news accessible on a cell phone or a computer, and as helpful as we can make it.

For a full transcript of this Episode 1