Gilead Select Board Chair Robert Ensslen writes and distributes a newsletter to residents to keep them informed about Town matters. Rose Lincoln

GILEAD — When Robert Ensslen ran for select board last year he said if elected he would create a newsletter to keep townspeople informed. “Even in small town government there has to be transparency, people have to know where there money is going,” he said.

He followed through on his promise and has written three quarterly reports so far that educate and inform Gilead’s approximately 200 residents about what is happening in town government.

In the autumn newsletter under the heading “Taxes,” he wrote, “Oh that dreaded season is upon us, and property taxes will be going up again due to increased costs of schooling, fuel, road work, utilities and every other item under the sun … what I have learned in my short tenure is that about two-thirds of all the tax revenue raised goes to educate some 20 students… ”

In the “Gilead Winter Newsletter, 2024/2025,” he visually breaks it down with a hand drawn pie chart. The largest slice of pie says “school 62%.” On other smaller pie wedges are other services the town pays for.

The winter newsletter is in a bin at the town transfer station and available in a different bin outside Town Office. It is just above the absentee ballot box. If you dig in the back of either bin there may be an autumn and summer newsletter to take, too.

Gilead Select Board Chair Robert Ensslen writes and distributes a newsletter to residents to keep them informed about Town matters. Rose Lincoln

He said he hasn’t received much feedback, “but that doesn’t deter me. I still want to get the word out there. I just want them to know that the town’s selectmen are trying to do something about costs, expenses and taxes and we’re trying to make a difference. I like them to know where their money is going.”

Ensslen was an educator, spending about 30 years in a Pennsylvania high school teaching Industrial Arts. When he moved to Gilead with his wife, Terry, he tutored children in the Bethel area. He said his young students like the book he is writing, a children’s book for middle schoolers of mini-mysteries. He has 13 chapters written, so far. He said once he has it polished he would like to get it published. The setting is a fictitious coastal Maine town called Puffin Cove.

Besides writing his newsletter and working on his book, Ensslen works as a manager at the ski and snowboard tuning center at Sunday River’s South Lodge.

On the back of his winter newsletter, he offers thanks toward the Gilead historical society members, “If you drive on Route 2 heading east from Shelbourne, NH into Maine, once you cross the bridge spanning the Wild River, look to your left and you will see a beautifully restored train depot and school house located right next to the Gilead Town Office and Town Hall. Those buildings represent the efforts of a small crew of workers who have lovingly relocated them to their present site, and restored them.”

In the winter newsletter, he talks about awaiting FEMA reimbursement for the December 2023 flooding, and about DEP at the transfer station. He offers his goals for 2025. The last of these is, “I would like to see a sense of ‘community’ return to Gilead. 100 years ago Gilead was a thriving town with schools, churches, boarding houses, a store and even a post office … we can once again become a town where people choose to settle, and are happy to call home.”

A new flier reminds voters why they should come to Town Meeting at 7 p.m. on Saturday, March 29, at Gilead town office. “Let’s get together to share and discuss ideas, vote good people into key positions, and keep excessive spending down.”