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This week's stories: (click on the headline
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We have listed the warrants and candidates
in advance of elections on March 9 so you can see them before
the vote. Election results will be posted as soon as we get them
on the night of March 9. See your town's warrants here:
Hooksett
School, Hooksett
Town (for May elections), Allenstown,
Auburn, Candia,
Epsom and Pembroke.
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Hooksett
Flood on aisle 2!
By JUDITH DIONNE
Staff Writer
jdionne@yourneighborhoodnews.com
"Nobody told me I had to bring my
swim fins to work today," laughed Hope Whittaker, who works
at Ben Franklin in the R.K. Plaza in Hooksett, on Friday morning,
April 2. "I actually saw ducks and seagulls out there this
morning."
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Apparently Mother Nature played an April
Fool's joke on store workers who showed up that morning to find
the parking lot was transformed into a small lake after about
5 to 6 inches of rain fell on southern New Hampshire in two days.
With the most severe rainfall happening on Thursday, April 1,
causing culverts and storm drains along Bypass 28 to backup and
overflow, this was no laughing matter.
Hooksett Fire Chief Mike Williams said the bypass behind Kmart
was flooded on Thursday night, primarily because the Holly Berry
elderly housing culverts had breached its banks, causing water
to spill out on the road. This aggravated an already bad situation
in the plaza.
However, Holly Berry project manager Jim Quirk said the plaza
is the reason that the culvert backed up.
"There is a stream that runs along the back of the home,"
said Quirk. "The culvert in the front of the home manages
the flow of the stream fine, but when the main drain under the
bypass backs up, there's nothing that can be done. The plaza
can't hold the amount of water that's dumped into it."
Hundreds of workers were sent home or told
to stay home on April 2 because power to the plaza had to be
shut off, said Williams.
Dollar Store employees had to receive their shipment in the front
of the store because the receiving bays were too far under water
to take shipments in the back, said employee Candy Young.
"I guess we'll get this in the store and leave," said
Young. A manager told her they were going to close because public
utilities were being shut down due to the water.
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WET WAIT Employees
wait outside the Hooksett Kmart Friday, April 2, to see if they
would be opening that morning despite the flood in the parking
lot. Shortly after, PSNH shut down power to the entire plaza
and sent the workers home. The plaza reopened Saturday afternoon
after damage assessment and cleanup was done in neighboring stores.
Judith Dionne Photos
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The water did not recede on its own, however. R.K. Associates
hired American Landscape to pump the water out of the lot and
out of the corner stores in the plaza, Cue & Cushion and
School of Ballet.
School of Ballet's Sandra Beauvais, the owner's mother, said
the school was decimated. Wall-to-wall carpet that ran from the
reception area down the hall had to be ripped up, she said. Additionally,
water seeped under their specially designed dance floors and
caused the seams to raise and buckle. They also lost large amounts
of paperwork and paper dance patterns for outfits that can't
be replaced.
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After American Landscape pumped close to
300 gallons of water out of the studio, Serve-Pro had to come
in and remove all the baseboards to drill holes in the walls
to allow them to dry, said Beauvais. They also cut close to a
foot of wallboard from the outside walls to remove the insulation
that was saturated with water.
"This plaza floods a lot," said Beauvais, "But
we've never seen anything like this. We've complained but nothing
seems to be done. We're pretty upset about the damage."
Bobby Baker of Cue & Cushion said they're just waiting at
this point.
"They (American Landscape) placed fans in here on Saturday
to dry out the carpet. They did a good job," said Baker.
"The bottom of the tables were touching the water, but we're
more concerned about the smell right now. We need to wait and
see how things dry out."
"There's no real blame here,"
said R.K. Associate's Peter Flynn. "Essentially, it was
a tidal effect. It was the deluge of rain and poor design by
the state."
The plaza will mildly flood in a downpour, but Beauvais said
she'd never seen the water rise as fast as it did the night of
March 31.
"When the water came to the curb, it rose over it and was
at our door in less than five minutes," said Beauvais.
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A drainage grate behind Kmart collapsed
following the flood. Peter Flynn from R.K. Associates said the
company is responsible for all the cleanup and damage repair,
which includes fixing this sinkhole.
Judith Dionne Photo
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In the wake of everything, trying to reopen the plaza quickly
to help recoup losses was R.K. Associates' main focus throughout
the day Friday and Saturday, said Flynn. He said Ken Andrews
from the Hooksett Building Department worked through the weekend
to assist them, to make sure all the water was dealt with so
that power could be restored.
"Businesses may have lost money, but thankfully nobody was
hurt," said Flynn, "Monetary losses can be recouped
but life can't. We will be working with the state to rectify
this problem, because it is an ongoing concern."
Hooksett
Packard resigns
Town administrator on the job just three
months
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By LARA SKINNER
Staff Writer
lskinner@yourneighborhoodnews.com
Deciding between a family and a job is
never easy, but Town Administrator Arthur "Chuck" Packard
had to choose his mother.
After three months in the position, Packard said he can't split
his time between the demands of the administrator position and
the needs of his mother anymore. He announced his resignation
on Thursday, April 1, and now the search for a new administrator
will start again.
"It's not one of the proudest or happiest moments for the
town of Hooksett," Councilor Douglas St. Pierre said.
The council had searched for a new administrator since Michael
Farrell left in June 2003. Councilor Mary Ruel was the head of
the search committee, and she said she is disappointed that Packard
could not stay on.
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Chuck Packard
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A special meeting was scheduled for
Wednesday, April 7, to discuss a few different items, St. Pierre
said. He planned to ask the council to enter into an executive
session as well to discuss Packard's resignation.
"I think the job is just really a very involved job,"
Ruel said.
Packard agrees. One of the reasons he left was because he couldn't
dedicate the time he wanted to the administrator's position.
"I can't just do this as an 8-to-5 job and then let someone
else take care of it when I go home," Packard said.
He started working for the town with a military background in
management, and had run Travis Air Force Base in California for
two years. Before starting the Hooksett job in January, Packard
compared running a small town to running a military base. Some
of the differences were a bit more than he was expecting though.
"There are a lot of forces at work (in Hooksett),"
he said.
In the Air Force, Packard said, when he gave someone an assignment
they had the authority to follow it through to the end without
coming back to him for any kind of authorization. In a municipal
setting there is a lot more follow-up once a job is started,
he said.
He has to check-in with the council for approval, and then there
are the various committees and subcommittees to work with. Packard
said it felt constraining.
Adding to his concerns is his mother's health. He is trying to
take care of his mother, who had a stroke and is now in a 24-hour
care facility. When Packard moved back to Hooksett from California,
it was to help his sister take care of his mother, and he said
the administrator's job didn't allow enough time for that.
Packard said will stay on as administrator until the end of April
at the latest. The council will have to decide how to handle
the search for his replacement and who to choose as an acting
administrator in the meantime.
Councilor Paul Loiselle held the acting position for six months
during the last administrator search, and St. Pierre said Loiselle
is "gun shy" about taking it on again.
Ruel said she hasn't had a chance to talk to Packard since his
announcement, and said his resignation could be a sign that the
council should evaluate how the town office staff, the available
resources and the office organizational structure all fit together.
Councilors and residents should also keep working on the many
issues facing the town, Packard said. Building a Route 3 connector,
rehabilitating the Village School, finding more space for the
town offices, and planning for commercial and industrial growth
in town were priorities for the short time he worked as administrator.
"Get Hooksett into the 21st century and make it a place
that has a good mix of industrial and commercial businesses,"
he said.
Most of all, Packard said he learned that town employees are
not overpaid and underworked. They are, he said in his resignation
letter, hard working and underappreciated.
"The bottom line is: I'm going to be really sorry to see
him go," Council Chairman Michael DiBitetto said. "He's
a good man and was building great relationships."
When the final decision was before the council in December 2003,
it was a close vote between Packard and Allenstown's Administrator
David Jodoin. Councilors may go back to the list of applications
they had from the last search or start the search over again,
St. Pierre said. But nothing is certain until the council can
discuss the situation.
Allenstown
Wrangling over ATV bill
By RUSS CHOMA
Staff Writer
rchoma@yourneighborhoodnews.com
Just when opponents of all-terrain vehicles,
or ATVs, thought they had blocked trails for the year, the issue
is back in legislation.
Only days after the Senate voted to stall a proposed bill that
would have allowed ATV trails in Bear Brook, another with the
exact same language may be heading to the House of Representatives
floor soon.
At a hearing on Wednesday, March 31, in Concord, dozens of supporters
on both sides of the debate turned out to hear testimony on the
new legislation. The bill, dubbed Senate Bill 343 (SB343), as
originally written, dealt with the specifics of ATV operation
on private land and the loading and unloading of the recreational
vehicles on highways.
However, an amendment has been proposed containing language that
would allow ATV trails in Bear Brook State Park.
Permission for trails was originally granted in a bill passed
several years ago; however, a spat over the distance the trails
must be from public well heads has held up the opening of any
trails.
Currently the law dictates that trails may not come within 4,000
feet of a public well head but supporters of the original
legislation said that number is supposed to be 400 feet. According
to Sen. Robert Flanders (R-District 7), the 4,000-foot number
was nothing more than an error. Despite Flanders' assertion,
on March 11 the Senate sent the legislation he had sponsored
to fix the "error" (SB349), to a study committee.
That legislation may not come back again this legislative session,
but the text of the bill may now appear in SB343.
Armand Verville, an Allenstown resident who has been vocal in
opposition to the trails, said the same language already defeated
was being brought up again.
"It's exactly word for word the same," Verville said.
"They took the body and the contents of (SB349). Absolutely
nothing has changed."
The most recent legislative effort to change the setback rate
was proposed by Rep. Charles Royce (R-Jaffrey), who insisted
the effort was purely to correct an error. Royce is chairman
of the House Resources Committee, the committee holding the hearings.
"It was an error and that's all, and I want to see the error
corrected," Royce told the committee.
Royce pointed out that thousands more ATV riders have registered
vehicles since the original legislation was passed, encouraging
more trails. Higher registration fees were meant to pay for more
trails.
Anger over bill
A visibly furious State Senator Jack Barnes (R-District 17),
told the committee he is irritated he had been given no warning
of the new legislation, and said the attempt to reintroduce the
language already stalled by the Senate is "dirty pool."
"If this comes down, there will be a big fight on the floor
of the Senate," he promised the committee.
Barnes told the committee there is more than a simple error at
stake. Specifically, he said, the committee needs to consider
that Allenstown is not financially able to offer emergency services
for trail riders.
"(Allenstown) is a plaintiff town. They're a very poor town," he
said. "If someone gets hurt, who pays? They're already on
a default budget and we just keep sticking it to the town."
Rep. Mike Whalley (R-Alton) argued that Allenstown's financial
problems are not the issue, but rather the correction of the
error. Whalley railed against those he said are trying to use
a mistake to argue the merits of the legislation again.
"It is not appropriate to take advantage of a mistake that
was made," he said. "If there was a 40-foot (instead
of 4,000-foot) mistake, it would not be appropriate for the ATV
community to take advantage of that."
Walley testified that what originally passed, requiring a 4,000-foot
setback, "was not what was intended."
Good reason to wait
Despite his assertions, a number of other witnesses testified
that there is, in fact, good reason to wait and take a closer
look at the implications of moving the setback to 400 feet.
Judy Silva, a representative of the New Hampshire Municipal Association,
said what matters is that when the original legislation passed,
everyone saw the 4,000-foot setback.
"The language the public saw is what is in the statute,"
she said. "I can't tell you whether it was a mistake or
not. I'm not privy to that. But neither was the public."
Norman Provencher, representing Pembroke Water Works, also testified.
Pembroke Water Works serves Pembroke, Allenstown and parts of
Hooksett.
"Our wells in that area are only about 70 feet deep,"
he told the committee. Provencher also expressed concern
that with more trails it could lead to more vandalism of pump
houses.
Despite the calls for more study of the setback areas, Whalley
ridiculed the idea that the Senate is actually planning on studying
the issue.
"If you believe the Senate is going to study that legislation
and come up with a resolution in the form of legislation, then
I've got a bridge to sell you," he told the committee.
Last to testify was Verville, who said as much of a worry as
the trails are for him, it also causes him concern that Allenstown
has virtually no say in the matter.
"I told them our score for representation in the Legislature
was 424 to 0," he said. "None of our representatives
live in Allenstown.
No one on that committee was from Allenstown. No one that was
involved in this study (of possible trails) were from Allenstown.
These are all outsiders making decisions for us."
Hooksett
Route 3 bypass, Village
School top Town Meeting concerns
By GINGER KOZLOWSKI
Staff Writer
editor@hooksettbanner.com
Concerns about the future
use of Hooksett Village School and plans for a bypass road dominated
the Town Meeting on Saturday, April 3.
Residents added money to the town's operating budget to cover
hauling of sewage made necessary by the stopping of a composting
program in town, boosting the budget by $170,000 to $13,053,164.
A proposal for a new town engineer met with resistance and was
zeroed out by those in attendance.
Few of the other articles were amended at the meeting and will
be presented to voters for approval on Tuesday, May 11, with
polls open at Cawley Middle School from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Village School
Preserving Village School as it is and using it as a community
resource were on the minds of many at the meeting.
Article 10, which would authorize the town to accept the school
and land from the school district for $1, also called for raising
$70,775 for the first year's expenditures on heat, utilities,
insurance and minimal maintenance. That figure was amended to
$30,000 because the budget committee had problems with the higher
figure.
"Will you let organizations use the building?" asked
David Paquette, pointing out that many organizations would like
to make use of the building right away. Town Council Chairman
Michael DiBitetto said no decision had been made about the immediate
use of the school building, but would keep the request in mind.
Village School's reuse was one of the top priorities determined
in the town's master plan, said Dawn Stanhope, one of the founders
of CEDCOH, the Community Economic Development Corporation of
Hooksett. She also urged the council to use the building to its
best capacity.
Gutting the school is not an option, though some at the meeting
said they'd like to see that happen.
"I think the land and old building are fine," said
John Vaillancourt, "but the new building should be demolished."
"Maybe we should gut it," said Peter Farwell.
Paquette took immediate exception to such an idea.
"I want assurances from the town right now," he said,
" that this building will not be razed. This is historic.
It's not to be given to the town to be razed."
Destroying any part of the building would go against the agreement
made with the school district to keep it intact if accepted,
and town councilors agreed it needed to stay as is.
Traffic solution
If Hooksett ever wants a bypass to be built, "We do it now,
or we do it never," said DiBitetto.
To do it now, residents will have to approve spending $150,000
on a feasibility study, land acquisition and associated costs
listed in Article 14.
One problematic issue for some at the meeting had a problem with
was spending local dollars on a state road. While that could
be setting an unpleasant precedent for the town, it is the best
way to send a message to the state that this road needs to be
built now, said Dick Marshall, a Hooksett planning board member.
He talked about his 30 years of asking the state Department of
Transportation to do something about Hooksett's traffic, and
how Hooksett is always put off. Hooksett isn't even on the state's
10-year plan of road improvement. Taking the step of funding
this study shows good faith to the state, he said, that this
road is needed.
"Without that study," said Marshall, "we're going
nowhere again."
Residents David Ross and Farwell did not agree with the need
to spend the money.
"This is a bad idea, a very bad idea," said Farwell.
"The idea the town could fund $150,000 now we have
other more important problems."
Ross agreed that it was a waste of money.
"The big master plans are not our business," he said.
Town Councilor Michael Jolin explained that it is the towns who
invest in planning, however, that get onto the state's 10-year
plan.
DiBitetto agreed that the investment is needed.
"If we don't start moving this forward, we will lose the
opportunity to get this highway," he said. "I assure
you, 10 years from now than land will be paved over, any chance
of an alternate road will be gone. We must establish the right
of way, then seek state or federal funds. We do it now or we
do it never."
"There's nothing more important to the future of this town
that this bypass highway," said Steve Korzyniowski, a member
of CEDCOH and the master plan committee. "There are acres
and acres of industrial property that will be opened up as a
result of this bypass highway. I highly recommend it. Traffic
on Route 3 will only get worse. This will bring good jobs into
our community."
Composting
The final article of the warrant, Article 34, asked the town
to rescind any funding of a composting plant. Joan Bailey, a
resident who lives across the river from the sewer plant and
has gotten sick from the odors that came from composting tests,
argued that composting should not be done at that location, and
money for composting should be used to truck the biosolids out
of town.
However, sewer commissioner Sid Baines said the $3.5 million
already approved for composting cannot be used for trucking.
"This is a safe operation, one the town can be proud of,"
said Baines. "The people across the river are in a panicked
state. There's no talking to them."
Allenstown
Drawing for art supplies
By RUSS CHOMA
Staff Writer
rchoma@yourneighborhoodnews.com
In a time of budget cuts,
the art students at Armand Dupont Middle School are taking matters
into their own hands.
More accurately, they're taking pencils into their own hands,
and using their art skills to raise money for the art supply
budget.
For the second year running, students in the Gifted and Talented
class are selling numbered prints replicating pencil sketches
they made of notable town landmarks.
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At $15 a piece, this year's
series features, among others, the old White Rabbit Inn, the
town's first post office and the McDowell House.
This year, six students
sketched the drawings based on photographs, and then hawked the
prints on Election Day. So far, they've sold 14 prints,
raising $210 for next year's art supplies.
For the students, it's a labor of love.
Seventh-grader Brenda Shively, who sketched the stone bridge
in Bear Brook Park, said the cause was worthy.
"I did it to help out my art club," she said. Last
year's fundraising effort, which Shively and several other also
took part in, raised more than $700.
"From the money we
raised last year, we bought all of our supplies," said eighth-grader
Sarah Wheeler, pointing to a stack of sketch boards.
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MAKING THEIR MARK Members of the
DuPont School's Art Club display their pencil drawings of Allenstown
landmarks. Numbered, framed prints of each drawing are available
for $15 each, with all proceeds going toward art supplies. From
left, holding the framed originals of their sketches, are Steven
Gerrish (the old post office), Kacie Pardie (the McDowell
House), Sarah Wheeler, back, (Evans School), Shauna Durst (White
Rabbit Inn), Brian Juranty (Plourde House) and Brenda Shively
(Bear Brook Park stone bridge.) (Russ Choma Photo)
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In addition to the boards, which are used by all art students
at Armand Dupont, the funds also paid for pastel paints.
The club has 20 students who Allenstown art teacher Vicki Kneeland
has selected for their artistic talent and enthusiasm.
Sixth-grader Shauna Durst, who drew the White Rabbit Inn, said
not only did she enjoy helping out the club, but she is looking
forward to a future in art.
"I want to be a dog groomer and an artist," she
said. "Art is my best thing. And when I do it I can
feel confident of all my abilities."
Kneeland said the club encourages that confidence and enthusiasm
for art.
"You can tell these kids just love art," she said.
"I just hope to impress them to use art in their life. But
there are some who (they) just can't take in (to the club) because
of the (lack of) space."
But Kneeland has big plans for the students she does have in
the club, and hopes to use the money the group collects to finance
those plans.
"My dearest dream is to take this group down to the Boston
Museum of Fine Arts," she said. "But it's $40 a child
just to get in. So I've been squirreling away some of this
money for that. But I don't know how we'll make it down there
at least not this year."
The original drawings can be viewed at the town offices. Prints
are still available - to purchase, contact Vicki Kneeland at
Armand Dupont Middle School.
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