Allenstown News : Concord

Two die in head-on collision

Hooksett Editor — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 19:50:00 GMT

BY JENN MCDOWELL

Two Concord residents died in a head-on collision with a car containing two Allenstown residents on Route 28, according to police.

According to Allenstown Police Chief Shaun Mulholland, the two Concord residents were traveling south in a Kia Spectra when they crossed the center line and collided head on with a Plymouth Neon in the northbound lane at 9:39 p.m. on Friday, April 19.

The Judith Wright, 44, of 15 Academy St., Concord, in the Kia died at the scene. The driver of that vehicle, Russell Wright, 50, also of 15 Academy St., Concord, was flown to Dartmouth- Hitchcock Medical Center.

Police were still working the accident scene when the call came that he had succumbed to his injuries, Mulholland said.

The two occupants of the Neon survived, although the driver, 46, was still in the hospital at press time with head and leg injuries and was in and out of consciousness, Mulholland said.

The Neon’s passenger, whom Mulholland described as a juvenile, suffered the least extensive injuries, including some small bone breaks in her legs, even though her side of the car took the brunt of the impact.

That’s because she was the only one out of the four people wearing a seatbelt, Mulholland said.

“I think it would be a far different outcome if they were wearing seatbelts. Normally, we can’t say that with certainty, but in this case we can,” Mulholland said.

An officer, whom Mulholland said would remain unnamed, witnessed the accident just south of the Suncook Business Park on Route 28 when he went there to remove a radar trailer from the area.

At the section of Route 28 where the crash occurred, the speed limit changes from 50 mph to 35 mph.

Mulholland said speed was not a factor in the collision, as indicated by the radar trailer’s readings on the vehicles, but police are investigating whether alcohol or drugs were involved in any way.

“That’s being investigated very closely right now,” Mulholland said, adding investigators were waiting for the opportunity to speak with the Neon’s driver.

An accident reconstruction team was heading out to the accidents site, just north of the intersection of River Road and Route 28, on Monday, April 21, to try to recreate the collision and determine a cause.

Mulholland said it is unlikely that charges would be filed in the case.

“The only person who could be charged is now dead,” he said.

Mulholland said Allenstown has not had a fatal accident on Route 28, which heads into Pembroke and then into Epsom, since 2004.

Before 2004, the town averaged two fatal car accidents per year on that stretch of road in town, Mulholland said.

“The reason why they’re so bad is because the speed limit is 50. You’ve got a closing speed of a 100 mph,” Mulholland said, referring to the total impact speed of two cars crashing together. “You’re going to have injuries with that.”

Mulholland said Route 28 was closed down for about four hours while Allenstown, Pembroke and Epsom police and firefighters cleared the accident scene.

McGonigle found guilty

Hooksett Editor — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 13:41:00 GMT

BY GINGER KOZLOWSKI

Former Allenstown Police Chief James J. McGonigle Jr. will likely spend nine months in jail after pleading guilty on Friday, March 30, in Merrimack County Superior Court to stealing money from the Allenstown Police Department, Allenstown Police Association and the New Hampshire Cadet Training Academy.

McGonigle, 58, of Concord, stole more than $8,000 between 2000 and 2006 from the three organizations. He pleaded guilty to two counts of theft by misapplication of property with regard to more than $1,000 taken from the police department. That money had been seized by local police during a drug investigation and was supposed to be kept for evidence.

He also pleaded guilty to one count of theft by misapplication of property for treating cash meant for the police academies as if it were his own.

The plea agreement calls for one year in the House of Corrections, with three months suspended, on one charge of theft, as well as a consecutive threeyear state prison sentence for the other two thefts. McGonigle also agreed to pay restituion up to $13,650.

A presentence investigation will take place before the actual sentencing is set.

Crowd protests state plan for fueling station

Hooksett Editor — Thu, 02 Nov 2006 18:14:00 GMT

By Nicholas Brown
Staff Writer

Area residents flooded the Pembroke Academy cafeteria in opposition to a building plan they worry could permanently contaminate the water source that feeds Pembroke, Allenstown and parts of Hooksett and Concord.

The gathering was a public informational session on Monday, Oct. 30, during which representatives from the state Department of Transportation presented plans for what would be the department’s largest fleet fueling center, currently proposed for Route 106 just north of the Pembroke town line.

About 75 people attended.

Residents and some local legislators questioned the effects spills from the facility proposed to sit atop the second largest aquifer on the state might have on the water source. While the location is compliant with state environmental standards, DOT representatives said, it is about 300 feet from wellhead protection areas in Concord and Pembroke, and 2,000 to 3,000 feet from a Pembroke well.

“I think you’re taking a terrible chance with a natural resource that can’t be replaced,” said Pembroke resident Joyce Heinrich. “Why can’t that (facility) be placed somewhere else?”

DOT Contamination Program Manager Dale O’Connell said the department has been eyeing the site next to the DOT’s new highway garage to replace its current Stickney Avenue, Concord, fueling location for years.

“Our fleet is there,” said O’Connell, “so it makes sense to have our fleet fueling center there.”

Preliminary plans include three 10,000-gallon tanks, two for gasoline and one for diesel. The fueling facility, which would be self-service, 24 hours a day, could serve the DOT fleet, along with a host of other state and local government agencies, O’Connell said.

Project engineer Ronald Laurence, from Portsmouth’s Jaques Witford, said the proposal, whereby each fuel tank would have two fiberglass walls surrounded by a concrete vault, well exceeds state environmental standards. Laurence also outlined a number of mitigating tools, like elaborate alarm systems, that could be taken to protect the water supply in the event of leakage from the tanks, or fuel runoff from the site.

The DOT, which has scores of fueling tanks statewide, is in the process of updating all its single-walled tanks to meet double-wall standards. The Stickney Avenue, said O’Connell, meets current regulations, but has been slated for replacement for years.

“The major reason we’re moving it is because we want it to be by the highway garage,” said O’Connell.

Funding for the proposed Route 106 facility, estimated to cost about $750,000 to build, was actually scheduled for next year, said O’Connell, but the timing of the project has been pushed back.

Some state legislators, several of which showed at the recent meeting, have been lobbying for a change in location for months, and the DOT held a similar informational meeting with the Concord Planning Board recently after a directive from the governor’s office.

DOT representatives also expect to meet with Allenstown residents on the subject, said O’Connell.

“This is not a done deal,” he said of the facility. “We’re willing to hear you out.”

O’Connell suggested a fueling facility on any new site is a tough sell.

“No matter where we put this, we’re going to impact something,” he said.

Some area residents, however, testified to the specific value of water as a resource.

“If there’s anything more precious in the United States today than water, I don’t know what it is,” said Pembroke resident Bob Sala.

Allenstown resident Armand Verville asked, “If contamination occurs, how will my family be safe?”

“This is something you’ve got to be thinking about,” he said. “There’s got to be a better place for that.”

O’Connell said a time has not yet been scheduled for the Allenstown public informational meeting.