Quote:
Originally Posted by tis
Rich, you are wrong, it IS a no rafting area. I have seen MP ticket people for 3 together.
I agree with you up, it is hard to tell where an area is.
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It's not
hard to tell, it's impossible to tell. First, a quote from NH regulations at
http://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/rule.../saf-c400.html
Saf-C 407.03 (a) (7) The area of Winter Harbor from the southern boundary of the town of Tuftonboro tax map 63, lot number 14 to the southern boundary of tax map 15, lot number 20;
I believe NH regulations take precedence to the NHMP website, which has ...
(7) Winter Harbor from the southern boundary of the Tuftonboro tax map 63, lot No. 14 to the southern boundary of tax map 51, lot No. 20.
Problem #1: They look the same, but they are not. Aside from the trivial omission of five words and the use of abbreviations, there is one glaring difference: The NH regulations quote tax map 15, not 51. The first thing I noticed back in 1998 was that there is no Winnipesaukee frontage on tax map 15. I assumed the regulation would be corrected, but it has not. So unless the regulation is re-written, it should not be enforced. So Bizer did the best it could. I found map 51 lot 20 and map 63, lot 14 and drew a line between them as depicted on Bizer's charts since 2000. If this were an error, why didn't anyone, including the NHMP, bring this to Bizer's attention until last fall?
Last fall, I received a disappointing letter from a boater who received a rafting ticket. So Bizer did further digging.
Problem #2: Unlike most towns, Tuftonboro tax maps are not just divided into lots. Their maps are divided into blocks (with a number inside a hexagon) then lot numbers. I don't know any other town that does this. There are three lots numbered "20" on tax map 51 and two lots numbered "14" on tax map 63. Which one do I pick? Bizer failed to notice multiple lots in 1998, so I connected the first "20" that I found on map 51 to the first "14" that I found on map 63. [Google "Tuftonboro tax maps"]
Problem #3: The shoreline of lot Map#51, Block#1, Lot#20 runs east-west. If that is the lot to which the regulations refer, which end is the southern boundary? There is no room for ambiguity.
Problem #4: No direction is specified. The regulation should say something like, "The area west of a line ... " but it does not. Regulations can not be ambiguous. Without a direction, someone might claim that the no-rafting area only applies to boats sitting on the line itself.
Incidentally, from my limited legal knowledge, "innocent until proven guilty" usually means innocent because guilt can not be proven in cases of ambiguous laws.
I wrote the NHMP two months ago asking for a clarification before Bizer's next edition (2016), but they have yet to respond.