He's got time to work on his car, but not to build a new nursing home

Plans for a new nursing home bog down after commissioners failed to schedule a public meeting with the county delegation (Courtesy image)

To the editor:

Honestly it has been very interesting to sit in the audience of the Strafford County Commissioners weekly meetings, executive and delegation meetings to witness firsthand the uncooperative way a certain elected state representative is acting.
When elected as an official, you are elected to serve your constituents and to conduct the people's business. You serve all, not just those in your party affiliation.
In April the Republican caucus sent a letter to the county commissioners regarding the process the county had undertaken to develop a plan for a new nursing home. This is not a simple plan, but rather complex and this letter outlined many issues and concerns. At the end of this letter representatives of the Republican caucus expressed their desire for an investigation. They legally have the means to do this via state statute.
On May 6 County Commissioner George Maglaras responded to this letter and offered up not only one, but two ways of meeting with the Republican caucus.

The first option was meeting with Commissioner Maglaras privately with the Republican caucus, thus not having to post for a meeting and freezing out the public attendance. The second option was to meet and hold a Strafford County Delegation meeting in which the meeting would be posted and the public would have the right to attend. All state representatives in our county, the county administrator, county commissioners and the public would all be invited to attend.
The Republican caucus responded that they wanted to meet in public as a county delegation and offered up two dates in the month of May. One date was May 16th and the other was next week.
As I generally attend the weekly commissioners meetings, last week's question was the status on this meeting. County Administrator Bower chuckled before explaining he had tried to contact Representative Peter Schmidt, D-Dover, who is the Chairperson of the County Delegation the previous evening. Representative Schmidt was too preoccupied with his broken down car to deal with the people's business at that time and stated he would get back in touch. On Thursday, while attending the weekly commissioner's meeting, I once again asked about the meeting. Crickets from Schmidt! Administrator Bower added they could not hold it next week either due to posting requirements.
So, let us sum up the equation: letters from both sides sent and received + good faith communication to meet = Schmidt interfering with conducting the people's business! Hey Mr. Schmidt, if you cannot or you are unwilling to do your job, which is the people's business, perhaps you should consider stepping aside and let the delegation move forward.
We have wasted months. Let's clear the air, answer the questions the Republican caucus has and move forward with the people's business.

- Susan J Rice,

Rochester