NEWS & NOTES Budget talks begin
As the legislature gears up for its next session, state agencies and state-funded organizations have begun to make their bids for more money. The University System of New Hampshire proposed to freeze in-state tuition if the legislature approves a 12-percent increase over the next biennium, the Union Leader reported. It would also waive tuition for valedictorians and salutatorians from each New Hampshire high school. According to the UL, another initiative developed by Democratic state Rep. Wayne Burton would create a scholarship fund that would provide $4,000 annually to local students. How to secure the funding is an open question, but Burton wants to combine state general funds with buy-in from the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation and revenue from a new tax on business. Meanwhile criminal justice departments that have been understaffed and pressed into longer service amid a drug crisis are asking for some relief. The AP reported the Attorney General’s office is requesting funds to pay for a new medical examiner. The two existing MEs are on track to conduct more autopsies this year than the industry recommendation due to a rise in opioid overdoses. The chief ME is reportedly just starting to examine deaths from July. And the Department of Corrections is asking for about $30 million in part to pay for continued overtime for its corrections officers, NHPR reported. The department has struggled to hire more guards during the labor shortage, with 115 unfilled positions. About $10 million of the total requested would be used to staff the new women’s prison set to open next fall in Concord, and another portion would be used to hire six new probation and parole officers assigned to the state’s drug courts. Correction A Quality of Life Index item on page 9 of the Nov. 24 issue incorrectly identified a farm being used for a refugee farming program. The correct name of the farm is Our Story Hill. The Organization for Refugee and Immigrant Success partnered with The Russell Farm & Forest Conservation Foundation to secure the land for $90,000.
Voter fraud claims
The New Hampshire Secretary of State’s office says there’s no evidence of widespread election fraud despite President-elect Donald Trump claiming on Twitter that the election outcomes in New Hampshire and other states were skewed against him due to “serious voter fraud.” He tweeted fraud also took place in California and Virginia. In an earlier tweet, Trump stated that he only lost the popular vote (which Clinton leads by more than 2 million votes) because of millions of people whom he alleged voted illegally. Election officials, Democrats and even leading Republicans pushed back against the false claims, CNN reported. Republican strategist and former New Hampshire Attorney General Tom Rath tweeted there was “no fraud, serious or other, in this election in NH.”
Immigrant kids
Dartmouth College is joining with more than 200 colleges that have signed a letter asking the new administration to continue the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, which protects people who were brought to the country illegally as children from being deported. NHPR reported Dartmouth President Philip Hanlon reassured students that the school will do everything it can to mitigate any effects from a change to DACA, which Donald Trump has pledged to overturn. The letter signed by the universities and colleges called the program a “moral imperative and a national necessity.”
Safe stations
The Safe Station program in Manchester, which opens city stations to addicts seeking treatment and directs them to area services with the help of treatment provider Serenity Place, is carrying a far bigger caseload than originally expected. Fire Chief Dan Goonan told NHPR that they expected a few participants each month but instead the program has seen about 150 monthly. Goonan said its 800th person was served on Thanksgiving since the program launched earlier this spring. But more than half of those have come from outside of the city, some from other New England states. Nashua launched its Safe Station program earlier this month.
HIPPO | DECEMBER 1 - 7, 2016 | PAGE 4
The city of Concord is starting to install so-called smart water meters in about 2,000 homes, the Concord Monitor reported. The new system will send wireless signals to passing city vehicles to monitor for potential problems like leaks.
Manchester schools
The stage has been set for infighting at the school board in Manchester over the hiring committee that reviewed candidates for the superintendent job. The Union Leader reported board member Connie Van Houten brought forward allegations of charter violations in allowing Vice Chairman Art Beaudry on the Special Committee on the Superintendent Search. Houten argues in a letter sent to Mayor Ted Gatsas that Beaudry should have recused himself since he had previously filed legal actions against an internal candidate, Assistant Superintendent David Ryan, whose candidacy was not public knowledge. The committee selected Bolgen Vargas after fellow finalist Vincent Cotter removed himself from the running. Ryan announced his resignation effective June 30, 2017, at a Nov. 14 meeting.
CONCORD
After more than 38 years of digging for a new municipal Hooksett well in Milford, city officials are coming up short, the Telegraph of Nashua reported. The latest test site Goffstown west of Osgood Pond had too little water. MANCHESTER
Bedford
Amherst
Marijuana law
Now that Maine and Massachusetts legalized recreational marijuana in the last election, advocates believe this will be the year New Hampshire decriminalizes possession of small amounts of cannabis. NHPR reported Democratic Rep. Renny Cushing is championing the effort and turnover in the state Senate and governor’s seat may prove more friendly to such a change. The House has repeatedly passed decriminalization but it has died in the Senate. Past governors have been cool to the idea, often vowing to veto such a bill, but Governorelect Chris Sununu has expressed support for decriminalization, say-
Residents in Allenstown are worried that the town won’t plow Riverside Drive, a half-mile stretch of road along the Suncook River, this winter because of a rule change that removed an emergency lane designation. The Concord Monitor reported residents fear being snowed in as some live along the road and others use it to drive their kids to the bus stop.
Milford
In a presentation on special education spending to the school board in ManchesDerry Merrimackter, Superintendent Bolgen Vargas said there are more than 2,800 students with Londonderry disabilities out of nearly 14,000 students enrolled in the 2016-2017 school year, NASHUA the Union Leader reported. The cost to the district for the last school year is estimated to be $377,000.
ing it would save the state money and resources that could be spent on more serious drugs like heroin and fentanyl. New Hampshire is the only New England state that has not decriminalized small amounts of marijuana.
Pierce, the only president to have hailed from New Hampshire. The AP reported the auction was set to take place on Nov. 29 in New York and the letters are said to be worth between $15,000 and $30,000. Pierce’s birthday is Nov. 30. The papers include 90 letters between Pierce and his secretary Sidney Pierce papers The New Hampshire Histori- Webster. The papers would add to cal Society hopes to buy papers at the society’s already large collecauction that belonged to Franklin tion of Pierce-related items.
WENTWORTH-DOUGLASS
The deal that would see Massachusetts General Hospital take over Wentworth-Douglass Hospital in Dover is one step closer to getting approved, NHPR reported. The New Hampshire Attorney General gave a thumbs up to an aspect of the proposed acquisition, which is contingent on WDH continuing the same degree of community charity work in the region. The hospital also agreed to add eight full-time mental health workers to help build up the area’s mental health and substance abuse treatment system. The AG will release its findings from a second review by the end of the year that will focus on potential concerns over competition.
QUEEN CITY RESIDENTS
Manchester detectives are picking up the pieces of a criminal mischief spree in the city that included 25 complaints in the North End, two complaints in the South End and one on the West Side. According to a press release, victims reported vandalism and damage to Christmas decorations as well as vehicles, fencing and porch railings. One house window was broken and most vehicle damage involved broken windows and mirrors. The incidents took place from the evening of Nov. 21 through Nov. 26. Anyone with information about the spree is asked to call the Detective Division at 792-5500 or Manchester Police Crimeline at 624-4040.