Milford voters face big decision
NASHUA, N.H. >> Milford voters head to the polls Tuesday for annual Town Meeting day at the high school gymnasium. There’s one item on the ballot in particular (Warrant Article 24) that’s being heard around the world, and it involves a young boy named Lukas.
Although I don’t live in Milford, the topic concerns a piece of nostalgia similar to one from my own childhood that I grew up with in Nashua.
For 129 years, Milford’s fire horn has blared each morning at 11:45. Decades ago, it signaled to nearby granite quarry workers that it was lunchtime. The historic horn atop Town Hall has also roared in the past when there was a fire emergency or school was canceled because of snow. Then last August, the horn, which is run via compressed air, was silenced out of respect for a 12-year-old boy with autism. Lukas Fowler is triggered by its daily, loud blast causing him to have panic attacks, where he feels “the world will explode.”
I like Milford, a charming town with a population of about 16,000-plus. I chatted briefly over the phone with Milford Town Clerk Joan Dargie for permission to use a photo.
She is one of the nicest town/city clerks I’ve ever spoken with. These clerks know their communities like the back of their hands and are a wealth of information.
Some folks living there feel that the antiquated warning device should remain in daily use. Others find the horn annoying and want it retired, especially to accommodate a vulnerable child. And that split in opinion resulted in a petition signed by more than 1,000 residents initially asking that the town “reinstate and then continually operate the fire horn in its regular and historic daily use in perpetuity.”
Clerk Dargie tells me that the wording of the warrant article has since been changed to a legal form:
“Shall the voters of the Town of Milford NH direct the Board of Selectmen to appropriately memorialize Milford’s historic Fire Horn? To additionally direct the Board of Selectmen,
Town Administrator, or any other municipal department, at their discretion, to operate the Fire Horn as they deem appropriate.”
Pro-horn supporters, however, believe that the horn has always been the people’s property and is being taken away for insufficient cause.
I feel for the Fowler
family. They’re decent, hardworking parents who moved to the community in 2015 and are doing the best for their son who has a disability. It’s been difficult and emotional for them because unkind remarks have been made. I even noticed a newspaper article about Milford’s divided town “across the pond” in the United Kingdom’s Daily Mail publication. That’s how far and wide news travels these days via social media.
I grew up with the sound of the boodang, the city’s nickname for the massive air horn perched high atop the old Central Fire Station years ago at 14 Court St., downtown. Its loud blast was used to communicate with residents whenever there was a general alarm fire or when school was canceled because of snow.
Many set their clocks and watches to the boodang. It would ring nightly at 8 p.m.
The town of Hudson’s fire department also had an air horn that was tested twice daily for 60 years at 8 a.m. and 8 p.m.
Fire (air) horns became outmoded as modern technology advanced, and now when multiplealarm emergencies come in, firefighters receive messages via smartphones.
What do you think? I understand town pride and historic preservation, but more importantly, I believe that every child should feel safe and supported in their community.