By SCOTT DOLAN
Union Leader Correspondent

    GOFFSTOWN --- The planning board on Thursday, August 11, 2005, postponed its vote on whether to endorse the school district's proposed site for a kindergarten after hearing concerns about wetlands on the site.
    The vote on the site for the town's first public kindergarten is non-binding.
    Engineers for the school district, from True Engineering, outlined plans for the site - showing a study of where the proposed 16,000-square-foot building would go on a 26-acre parcel of town-owned land on Elm Street and then where an elementary school could be added in 2011.
    The discussion shifted quickly to wetland concerns raised by members of the audience, and ultimately led the board to request more information and a study by the town engineer before addressing the proposed site again on Sept. 15.
    Voters in March 2004 approved funding public kindergarten and this March approved transferring ownership of town-owned land across Elm Street from Glen Lake beach to the school district.
    The planning board voted last month to recommend sub-dividing the land to give the school district nearly 26 acres, and the board of selectmen is slated to decide next Monday (August 15) on whether to sign over a deed.

    The school board does not need further approval from the planning board, since planners have no authority over what the school board can do on land it owns, Planning Board Chairman Richard Georgantas said.
    "I'm sure it will be reviewed, but we have no enforcement rights of this process," Georgantus said. "(School officials) do have to follow the state rules. They may not have to follow ours."
    Georgantus said any further vote the board takes would consist only of recommendations to the school district.
    Superintendent of Schools Darrell Lockwood said the school district meanwhile has requested permits from the state to build and is waiting to hear back.
    Collis Adams, a certified wetlands scientist who works for the state, was among the most vocal members of the audience.
    Adams pointed out a flaw in the plan as designed now, indicating where it does not meet the wetlands buffers required by the state.
    Adams is also chairman of the town's conservation commission and regularly sits as a voting member of the planning board, but recused himself this time because his home abuts the site.  He also spoke as a representative of the Goffstown Residents Association, a group opposed to the school district's plan for the Elm Street site.
    Several other residents spoke in opposition.
    Catherine Gorman cited a report by the town's conservation commission that called the site "inappropriate" for construction of a school building.

    "We need a kindergarten, and we're going to need an elementary school, and unless this site is capable of handling both we're doing the town a disservice," Gorman said.  "I have yet to be convinced, based on the conservation commission report, that this is an adequate site."
    Conservation commission member Kimberly Peace said she is not anti-kindergarten, but questioned the environmental impact of the school construction as planned.
    "Almost all of the development and the road is going in the wetland buffer," Peace said.
    Other residents also spoke in favor of the school district's plan.
    Lissa Winrow said the town has already approved paying for the construction and the longer it takes to build, the more it will cost.
    "We need a kindergarten in this community whether it is a standalone or not," Winrow said.
    Jeffrey Tate, vice chairman of the school board's appointed kindergarten building committee, questioned why the town board needed to consider state requirements before making its vote.
    Lockwood urged the planning board to move quickly, so the school district can begin construction on schedule at the end of September.
    "To waste a month at this point may be problematic," Lockwood said.
    Georgantus said the school district has not yet even received permits from the state.
    "I think we would very much like to see a plan with the state requirements on it," he said.