Rep. Aylward: Wow! What a Day in Concord, and Beyond. . .

Lighten Up!

I ordered a chicken and an egg online.
I’ll let you know which comes first.

—Good Housekeeping

WELCOME TO “NIMBY” NEW HAMPSHIRE

A bevy of senate and house bills which are attempting to address New Hampshire’s housing crisis (which is an aspect of Republican's "Contract with New Hampshire') have drawn controversy — but of course! SBs 84, 281, 163 and 170, along with HB 410, are being criticized as effectively stripping all ‘local control’ of zoning, from local municipalities. Come on, let's not be so dramatic!

From reducing minimum lot and road frontage sizes; to prohibiting mandates that occupants of housing units be related by blood or marriage, and creating “extraordinary restrictions” on residential properties, there is uproar heard from one rural town claiming these bills would ‘urbanize’ rural New Hampshire. Really?

During my campaign I stated that I would support ‘reasonable oversight of local zoning’. This is because I've seen little to no effort being voluntarily made by communities to quickly address the housing shortage, at which point, I believe the state must step in and do their jobs for them.

Then there are many small towns lacking the talent needed to undertake the type of land use planning needed to address the housing crisis. Land use board members are volunteers, and didn't sign up for what would most certainly turn into a full-time job proposing a wide variety of zoning ordinance amendments, that if not skillfully crafted and completely understood and accepted by the Legislative Body (i.e. voters), such could be defeated resulting in a complete waste of time.

These bills are far from draconian, and will not turn New Hampshire into a landscape of towering apartment complexes, as some assert, but instead, are common-sense measures needed to overcome the NIMBY (not in my backyard) mentality that is contributing to ridiculously high housing and property tax costs, lack of senior and workforce housing, which are increasingly making New Hampshire a less desirable place to work and live.

Now is not the time to discourage legislative oversight of some aspects of zoning, because we are beyond the 'tipping point'. I believe that it's already too late and that it will take Herculean efforts and sacrifices to bring the housing crisis under control. Unfortunately, the worst is yet to come, in my opinion.

The Titanic accident happened twenty minutes before midnight. If New Hampshire is the Titanic, and the iceberg is the housing crisis, I'd say it's like eleven, forty-five p.m.

ANDOVER-BEACON NEWSPAPER NO MORE

The last issue of the Andover-Beacon will be published in June 2025. In 2018, the community newspaper carried a story about my award-winning brownies, and since 2022, I contributed to a monthly column for state representatives.

Knowing that Andover residents received the paper for free, that it was delivered direct to their mailboxes, I became worried about the newspaper’s sustainability when, after asking numerous attendees of Andover’s (2024) Forth of July event if they read the Andover-Beacon, nine-out-of-ten residents replied that they did not!

Asking one such resident why not, they responded “We use the paper for fire starter’. I was blown away, and as the result of my informal poll, could not imagine how the paper was surviving.

Turns out -- all along it was not, and I'm not at all surprised by news of the paper’s demise. It is what it is. Much thanks to the Andover-Beacon for providing the opportunity to keep constituents informed, for staff’s hard work and dedication.

YOU’RE FIRED!

It’s been eerily quiet on the legislative front, and feeling like a second Spring break with no sessions scheduled subsequent to the session held on April 10th, when we heard HB 2, (the budget bill), in the midst of which a Republican made a motion to table, that took almost everyone by surprise. There was a scramble to caucus, and after which, a motion to take the bill off the table was made, and the bill ultimately passed the full House.

But the relaxed, ‘being on vacation’ feeling was rudely interrupted when receiving an email from the Committee to Elect House Republicans, involving well-respected Republican member, Lisa Mazur, that was titled “I just got fired”.

Curiosity piqued, I read on, and to my horror, learned that after standing up for female students at Weare Middle School, by making public comment at a school board meeting, relative to a biological male being allowed to use female-only school bathrooms, and about which she expressed opposition, the next day, Representative Mazur was terminated from her employment.

Representative Mazur indicates that her employer terminated her without warning or explanation, this after giving her a ‘glowing review, and new laptop’ just the day before — so the reasoning for her termination, if not based on poor work performance (the facts and circumstances don’t add up), or coincidence (I don’t believe in coincidences) — is subject to speculation.

If a parent of a middle-school-aged daughter (or of an adult daughter and remembering to back then), and she told you that she didn’t feel protected in what is supposed to be a private space for biological females; felt any biological male could represent themselves as female relative to bathroom use; was uncomfortable and confused; had to ‘hold it’ all day; and has wet herself because she refuses to use student bathrooms. What would you do?

Perhaps you would consider exercising your right to free speech — but, then again, maybe not, if not knowing your employer’s political inclination, and there being any hint of possible retaliation.

Or might you be left with no choice but to place your daughter in a school that has a perfected bathroom policy, which means that if a student is not comfortable, for any reason, then they can have access to a space where they have the degree of privacy they need, where they will not be worried about the presence of another student, regardless of gender? I mean, what an extraordinarily good idea!

But to FORCE young girls or women to share private spaces with biological males, as the Democrats want? What an extraordinarily bad idea!

Please view this video of Representative Mazur making public comment at the meeting, her message a sterling example of the conservative values held by the Republican Party.

SCHOOL BOARD MEETING VIDEO SEGMENT:

https://electhouserepublicans.com/so/03PP9LQYL?languageTag=en&cid=a30bc976-24d7-445c-84de-c50c4763fa6b®ion=2dd7f5cb-f702-4042-a20f-07c65252e71b

Consider donating to our cause, as we fight the Democrat Party to protect girls and women in private spaces, and in sports. To donate, go to: https://secure.anedot.com/committee-to-elect-house-republicans/donate-online

Deborah Aylward is a resident of Danbury, NH, a state law-maker and citizen activist. deborah.Aylward@gc.nh.gov

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