“It’s becoming bigger than a police issue, bigger than a DPW, a Parks and Rec. This is a community problem,” Sereno said at the time.
In a Police Department memo, officers wrote that trash generated at encampments there gets into a culvert system used to move water from the area of an old landfill to the Piscataquog River. Public Works employees have been required to clear trash from the culvert to prevent its obstruction.
Later in August, Select Board members approved spending up to $4,500 to clean up trash at the encampments near Sarette Field.
New Hampshire RSA 236:58 prohibits pitching a tent, erecting any other campsite or sleeping on the ground within the public right-of-way or on public property without written permission to do so. Sereno asked town officials to consider a local ordinance that’s more specific than state law and that would include cooking.
In drafting the proposed ordinances, Horne looked to ordinances already in place in cities like Manchester and Nashua. A key difference between the way those cities handle the same issue is that in Nashua, the city provides a warning period of 15 days, posted and verbal, before breaking down unauthorized encampments.
Goffstown’s ordinance delegates enforcement authority to its Police Department and does not specify a required notice period before taking down a camp. Town officials previously expressed the desire to allow the police department discretion in handling those affairs.
Anyone who violates the ordinance is subject to a fine of up to $1,000.
Dining and Cooking