The Lakes Region is much more than a tourist attraction. It is the home to some 70,000 people, most of whom believe the lifestyle here is something worth protecting.

The Lakes Region boasts:

• 30 communities, varied in sizes and lifestyles
• Laconia and Franklin are primary cities, yet rural life abounds as well as tight knit towns, a variety to please multi-tastes
• economic opportunities that are as varied as are its cities and towns. Cottage industries are a contrast to large industrials. All share the dynamics of loyal and ambitious workers.

The population of the Lakes Region shares the ideals historically passed down by their forefathers:

• they have town meetings, small schools, and live with large spaces between them-communities like Center Harbor and Sanbornton
• they have city government, larger schools, and live in close knit communities like Laconia and Franklin
• they represent a cosmopolitan mix seeking more quiet lives than those areas they left; these are the towns like Meredith, Sandwich, Wolfeboro

The citizens of these communities are:

- merchants
- innkeepers
- laborers
- professionals
- farmers
- tradesmen
- artists
- craftsmen
- retirees
- fourth generation natives
- seasonal residents
- new arrivals

They are also citizens:

• who are self-employed, students, business executives who realize their companies could locate in a place where there are various sports to play
• who either possess or learn to cultivate New Hampshire’s fierce independent streak passed down since the days of the American Revolution
• who are people with a household income that far exceeds the national average
• who are proud of the Lakes Region and the role it plays in shaping the Granite State’s character.

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TOWN OF ALTON PO Box 659 Alton, NH 03809 Phone: (603) 875-2161 Fax: (603) 875-3894 E-Mail: alton@worldpath.net DEMOGRAPHICS Population 1997 Community 3,412 TAXES Local Property Tax Rate (per thousand): $15.49 Assessment Ratio: 1.00 Full-Value Property Tax ( per thousand): $15.49 1997 Valuation: Residential: 92.42% Commercial: 6.37% Other: 1.21%	CITY OF LACONIA Daniel E. McKeever, City Manager 45 Beacon Street East • Laconia, NH 03246 Phone: (603) 524-1270 • Fax: (603) 524-1520 E-Mail: mckeever@lr.net DEMOGRAPHICS Population 1997 Community 17,053 TAXES Local Property Tax Rate (per thousand): $27.54 Assessment Ratio: 0.99 Full-Value Property Tax (per thousand): $27.00 1997 Valuation: Residential: 76.88% Commercial: 23.07% Other: 0.05%
TOWN OF BELMONT PO Box 310 Main St. Belmont, NH 03220 Matthew H. Upton, Town Administrator Phone: (603) 267-8300 Fax: (603) 267-8327 DEMOGRAPHICS Population 1997 Community 6,151 TAXES Local Property Tax Rate (per thousand): $27.16 Assessment Ratio: 0.94 Full-Value Property Tax (per thousand): $32.26 1997 Valuation: Residential: 76.73% Commercial: 21.71% Other: 1.57%	TOWN OF MEREDITH Peter Russell, Town Manager 41 Main Street • Meredith, NH 03253 Phone: (603) 279-4538 • Fax: (603) 279-1042 DEMOGRAPHICS Population 1997 Community 4,972 TAXES Local Property Tax Rate (per thousand): $20.29 Assessment Ratio: 0.99 Full Value Property Tax (per thousand): $20.09 1997 Valuation: Residential: 86.09% Commercial: 12.64% Other: 1.27%
TOWN OF BARNSTEAD PO Box 11, Route 126 Ctr. Barnstead, NH 03225 Phone: (603) 269-4071 Fax: (603) 269-4072   DEMOGRAPHICS Population 1997 Community 3,185 TAXES Local Property Tax Rate (per thousand): $38.85 Assessment Ratio: 0.85 Full-Value Property Tax ( per thousand): $33.02 1997 Valuation: Residential: 97.25% Commercial: 0.00% Other: 2.75%	TOWN OF NEW HAMPTON PO Box 428 New Hampton, NH 03256 Phone: (603) 744-3727 DEMOGRAPHICS Population 1997 Community 1,748 TAXES Local Property Tax Rate (per thousand): $21.74 Assessment Ratio: 1.12 Full-Value Property Tax (per thousand): $24.35 1997 Valuation: Residential: 78.70% Commercial: 10.24% Other: 11.06%
TOWN OF CENTER HARBOR Box 140 Center Harbor, NH 03226 Phone: (603) 253-4651 Fax: (603) 253-8420 DEMOGRAPHICS Population 1997 Community 1,026 TAXES Local Property Tax Rate (per thousand): $17.13 Assessment Ratio: 1.00 Full-Value Property Tax (per thousand): $17.13 1997 Valuation: Residential: 91.98% Commercial: 6.70% Other: 1.32%	TOWN OF TILTON 257 Main Street • Tilton, NH 03276 Phone: (603) 286-4425 • Phone: (603) 286-4521 Fax: (603) 286-3519 DEMOGRAPHICS Population 1997 Community 3,330 TAXES Local Property Tax Rate (per thousand): $24.41 Assessment Ratio: 1.04 Full-Value Property Tax (per thousand): $25.39 1997 Valuation: Residential: 49.00% Commercial: 51.00% Other: 0.00%
TOWN OF GILFORD Dave Caron, Administrator 47 Cherry Valley Road • Gilford, NH 03246 Phone: (603) 527-4700 • Fax: (603) 527-4711 DEMOGRAPHICS Population 1997 Community 5,947 TAXES Local Property Tax Rate (per thousand): $23.98 Assessment Ratio: 0.94 Full-Value Property Tax (per thousand): $22.54 1997 Valuation: Residential: 88.07% Commercial: 11.03% Other: 0.89%	TOWN OF SANBORNTON PO Box 124 Sanbornton, NH 03269 Phone: (603) 286-8303 Fax: (603) 286-9544 DEMOGRAPHICS Population 1997 Community 2,222 TAXES Local property Tax Rate (per thousand): $21.56 Assessment Ratio: 1.06 Full-Value Property Tax (per thousand): $22.85 1997 Valuation: Residential: 90.84% Commercial: 6.61% Other: 2.55%
TOWN OF GILMANTON PO Box 550 • Gilmanton, NH 03237 Phone: (603) 267-6700 • Fax: (603) 267-6701 DEMOGRAPHICS Population 1997 Community 2,703 TAXES Local Property Tax Rate (per thousand): $32.34 Assessment Ratio: 1.02 Full-Value Property Tax (per thousand): $32.99 1997 Valuation: Residential: 95.92% Commercial: 0.85% Other: 3.23%

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In keeping with a statewide philosophy of individual choice and community orientation,
public education within the Lakes Region from preschool to secondary curriculum:

• accommodates its citizens through locally elected Boards of Education to set policy and budget
• establishes elementary plants within neighborhood concepts
• extends secondary schooling in regional cooperation where curricular variety is needed in areas of sparse population
• provides special arrangements by way of tuitioning students to programs of special needs
• offers vocational exploratory programs in cooperation with the state Vocational Department of Education
• Private education complements the educational venue in the Lakes Region offering:
• schools at elementary and secondary levels that are religious in orientation with transportation for participants
• schools where sensory techniques, like Montessori, are geared to provide early training in the kinesthetic mode
• preparatory schools of established reputations that accommodate boarding and day-students: Tilton School, Holderness School, New Hampton School, Proctor Academy in Andover, and Brewster Academy in Wolfeboro he Lakes Region is center to a variety of programs where academics and/or vocational training is available for high school graduates and adults who desire to improve business skills or obtain degrees.

In Laconia, two institutions meet the educational needs of the Lakes Region adult work force.

New Hampshire Community Technical College offers Associate Degrees, Diplomas, Certificates and Training Programs in business, general studies and technical areas. They can be accessed at their website www.laco.tec.nh.us.

New Hampshire College, a private college in Manchester, has a well established satellite located in Gilford. This center offers Associate and Bachelor degrees in business and liberal arts and a Master degree in Business Administration.

New Hampshire College is one of the first institutions of higher
education in New Hampshire to provide Distance Education through its website: www.nhc.edu.

Recently New Hampshire College and New Hampshire Community Technical College established a 2 plus 2 program whereby the NHTC students can continue a program toward a bachelor's degree without interruption at NHC. The opportunity serves the industrial community with an additional option for employees to enhance job skills and personal goals.

Also available to Lakes Region citizenry are campus facilities of Plymouth State College; Franklin Pierce College satellite based in Concord, NH; School for Life Long Learning, a division of the University of New Hampshire with a center in Manchester; and Dartmouth University, Hanover, NH.

Educational opportunities are paramount to the Lakes Region employer as well as to employees. Thus a variety of efforts to improve the quality of skills and/or background have been successfully initiated in the area.

— To assist the adult to address the question of finishing basic education

• the Laconia Academy was created to provide GED review and testing so alternative ways of high school graduation might be gained.

— To assist the adult to upscale job skills

• the state office of Employment Security in Laconia features NH Works, an electronic bulletin board designed to bring employees and employers together. The new effort of custom matching workers’ skills with employer needs is one reason unemployment has decreased in the area.
• Internships and school-to-work partnerships produce reality of the workforce into one academic setting. These opportunities are available both at the secondary level as well as during the collegiate program.

Educational partners

In an area like the Lakes Region, efforts to communicate and educate are ongoing with a variety of agencies, citizen groups, as well as some businesses that attempt to enhance the hinterland.

• The League of New Hampshire Craftsman constantly presents programs of instruction in two locations: Sandwich and Meredith, NH
• The New Hampshire Humanities Council provides programs throughout the state with speakers and book discussions as well as other areas of history, architecture and archeology.
• Specific state agencies like Fish and Game give both practical instruction to hunters as well as programs about caring for the environment.
• Forestry, land conservation, land trusts, the Audubon Society, Loon Preservation Committee, Appalachian Mountain Club, water quality groups are some of the agencies that program frequently in the Lakes Region.
• Local libraries with special grants often present artists and speakers to enhance local culture.

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