FRIDAY, OCTOBER 14, 2011
VOL. 20 NO. 122
BERLIN, N.H.
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Study looks at social capital and N.H. Grand BY BARBARA TETREAULT THE BERLIN DAILY SUN
COOS COUNTY -- A new study looks at how social capital - the ties or connections between people - was successfully used to help launch the countywide New Hampshire Grand branding project. Michele Dillon, a professor of sociology and a senior fellow at the Carsey Institute at the University of New Hampshire, argues that social capital can be used to achieve regional cooperation in rural
economic development. As an example, she said the branding project’s ability to launch a county-wide brand was facilitated by the effective use of the county’s social capital resources. Dillon noted that Coos County lost 18 percent of its manufacturing jobs between 2000 and 2006, largely as a result of paper mill closings. With the county ‘s unemployment rate the highest in the state, the region began to look at tourism development as one way to revitalize the local economy.
Locks of Love
A variety of organizations and businesses joined together in 2007 to hire Roger Brooks of Destination Development Inc., to do a site assessment of the county. Two years later, the new Coos marketing brand, ‘New Hampshire Grand: Grand Resorts, Grand Adventures’, was launched. In her report, Dillon writes that the successful launching of New Hampshire Grand “was in large part due to the strategic way in which bridging social see STUDY page 6
Lynch: ‘Still a need for the Conway bypass’ BY TOM EASTMAN THE CONWAY DAILY SUN
CONWAY — Four-term New Hampshire Democratic Gov. John D. Lynch says it’s time for the people of Conway to decide whether there is still a need for the now-unfunded Route 16 bypass. The long-delayed project has been pushed back to at least 2022. It has been dropped from the state’s next proposed 10-year transportation plan, meaning the state doesn’t plan to start on it for at least a decade, if not longer. Speaking at the Mount Washington Valley Economic Council’s monthly Eggs and Issues breakfast forum at the North Conway Grand Oct. 7, Lynch said, “It’s been my experience as governor that people have not agreed as to how the bypass should go. I have been to numerous meetings here, and you’d get people arguing with each other about whether the bypass should be depressed (reduced in size) or not; where it should be expanded, whether there should be rotaries. I think ulti-
mately the community needs to agree what that bypass should look like.” He said he believes there is still a need for traffic relief locally, even though critics contend that the need for the roadway has lessened, given the construction of North-South Road and other incremental changes made during the first five phases of the ninephased bypass project. “I still think there’s a need for one [the bypass],” said Lynch, answering a reporter’s question after the forum, “but the community really needs to come together and to agree once and for all as to what that bypass should be.” As to the funding question, Lynch said, “The legislature cut a lot of money for the Department of Transportation, but at some point that money will go back in and it could be there for a bypass but I think now is the time for people to agree what that bypass should be.” see BYPASS page 7
GPD taking back unwanted drugs Emma Schoenbeck getting her hair cut by Dena Dandeneau at Hair by Dena in Berlin. This is the third time Emma has donated her hair for Locks of Love. Locks of Love is a program that takes the hair donations and makes wigs for people in cancer treatment that have lost their hair. Hair must be 7”-10” long to donate.
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GORHAM -- On October 29, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. the Gorham Police and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) will give the public another opportunity to prevent pill abuse and theft by ridding their homes of potentially dangerous expired, unused, and unwanted prescription drugs. Bring your medications for disposal to the
Gorham Town Hall at 20 Park Street. The service is free and anonymous, no questions asked. Last September, Americans turned in 242,000 pounds—121 tons—of prescription drugs at nearly 4,100 sites operated by the DEA and more than 3,000 state and local law enforcement see DRUGS page 7
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