BRADFORD—It’s a town meeting season unlike any other in the past. With COVID-19 upending traditional practices, municipalities have been given some flexibility on how to conduct their annual town business meeting.
But Zoom meetings and Australian ballots are not the only features for town meeting this year. In several area towns, there will be competitive races with multiple candidates standing for selectboard seats.
In Bradford, there are five candidates in all seeking a spot on the board. Incumbent Carole Taylor is the only registered candidate for a seat with a two-year term.

ORFORD—It appears that changes implemented over the past two years have resolved budgeting problems that led to an $800,000 deficit in 2018-2019.
Early on in the Rivendell Interstate School District’s Feb. 4 board meeting, professional auditor Tyler Paine briefed the board on the district’s finances for the year ending June 31, 2020.
In that period, the firm found new as well as recurring issues that they identified as “deficiencies” in Rivendell’s business practices.
Paine noted that thee audit of the district’s finances was the “smoothest one we’ve had this year.”
“There’s no [further] planning or consideration needed from the district at this point,” Paine said. “Any comments or suggestions have been well-received by financial administrators.”

WELLS RIVER—The governing body of Wells River Village is bereft of a quorum after the resignation of one member and the sudden passing of another.
The village, incorporated in 1888, is an independent subdivision within the town of Newbury. It maintains a municipal water and wastewater system and its own highway department serving a village population of approximately 399 people, according to the 2010 census.
A three-member board of trustees oversees these services and a village clerk, holding an annual meeting and elections the third Tuesday each March.

WOODSVILLE—The Haverhill Selectboard voted on Monday night to seek a public hearing by state regulators on a proposal to expand capacity and increase emissions at the biodiesel plant in the business park in North Haverhill.
The board’s vote comes as the biodiesel’s plant’s owner, Renewable Fuels by Peterson, have filed a request with the state to modify its permit with the state. According to its application, the company wants to install new equipment that would increase generating capacity from 6.8 million gallons per year to 7.8 million gallons per year.
The equipment would also increase methanol emissions, which is a regulated air pollutant, according to a summary of the request by the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services.

ORFORD—A proposed 2021 Orford municipal budget is roughly level-funded with last year’s, according to an overview provided by selectmen at a public hearing last week.
Selectboard chair John Adams said the plan for 2021 is approximately $7,000 less than the 2020 budget, despite increases in employee health insurance, wages, and other costs.
“We figured out various ways to hold that down,” he said during a public hearing on Jan. 21 held via teleconferencing software.
The proposed operating budget is $1,158,454.