Candia News : Deerfield

Celebrating a new courthouse

Hooksett Editor — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 20:28:00 GMT

BY TOBY HENRY

Candia District Court was visited by more than 30 state and local officials on Monday, Sept. 29, as they attended the official introduction of the state’s newest justice building.

“It’s a beautiful facility, it certainly gives them enough room to conduct court business, and it’s centrally located,” said former Auburn Board of Selectmen Chairman Harlan Eaton. “I would have liked to have kept in in Auburn, but it wasn’t in the cards. I’m very pleased it came here.”

The new Candia District Court on Route 27 (Raymond Road) officially began hearing its first cases in late July after it replaced the now-defunct Auburn District Court on Priscilla Lane. Last year, state officials chose Candia for the site of a new district court to serve the residents of Auburn, Candia, Raymond, Northwood, Nottingham and Deerfield because that town is located in the center of the district it serves.

Officials who spoke at the open house praised the work by Severino Trucking, the local contractor who built the facility.

Linda Hodgdon, commissioner of the Department of Administrative Services, hailed company head Ron Severino for his vision in crafting the building’s traditional brick exterior with its notable Roman columns.

“He really put a lot of himself into it, with a lot of nice finishing touches,” she said. “Very thoughtful.”

As he addressed the crowd in one of the courthouse’s two courtrooms, presiding Judge David LeFrancois said the courthouse was the culmination of discussion that began as early as 2001 on where the new courthouse should be. LeFrancois said that even seven years ago, a number of problems were affecting the Auburn court building, and ultimately, more than a dozen locations were looked at before Candia was chosen.

“What we have from that seed that began in 2001 is ... a beautiful new public building,” he said. “What we have now is a district (court) that is smack in the middle of our six towns.”

Commissioner Hodgdon also said the new building, which was designed by Mary Belecz of the state Bureau of Planning and Management, may ultimately “become the template” for future court buildings across the state. Area officials including Candia Selectmen Chairman Fred Kelley to Chairman James Headd of Auburn’s Board of Selectmen gave the new building high marks.

Headd recalled a time only a few decades ago when visiting circuit judges had to make do with the crowded court conditions in the basement of the Auburn Town Hall.

“I remember pictures of people hanging on the stairs,” he said. “If you had a rather interesting civil trial, you couldn’t pack the people in.”

Police Chief Michael McGillen also noted that new hightech touches such as a camera system and a lockable defendant holding area add a new level of security that the former court lacked.

“We’re very pleased with the facility,” he said.

District court relocates to Candia

Hooksett Editor — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 19:09:00 GMT

BY TOBY HENRY

The former Auburn District Court is now an empty building after personnel relocated the last remaining files and documents to their new Candia location.

On Monday, July 21, court personnel said they were all but finished with the building that has served as the area’s main criminal and civil courthouse in the area for more than 20 years.

As the last documents were packed up for the trip down Route 101, Deputy Clerk Maureen Murphy said there was little else in the building.

Murphy said she and her fellow court officers were looking forward to Candia’s new building, which is about twice the size of the former Auburn court and has a much larger office area and a second courtroom.

“It’s a more secure building and very spacious,” she said. “Right now there’s not much left here really, just some file cabinets and that’s about it.”

Last year, state officials chose Candia as the new location for the district court, which serves thousands of residents living in Auburn, Raymond, Candia, Nottingham, Deerfield and Northwood, and contractor Severino Construction of Candia recently wrapped up work on the new 8,000-square-foot building. The new facility at 110 Raymond Road (Route 27) was the scene of much activity on Monday morning as workers brought in furniture, computers and thousands of documents while court employees began setting up the new office area, which appeared to be twice the size of the room they’d previously shared in Auburn.

In an earlier interview, Court Clerk Joann Lemay said she’d already completed a full tour of the new building, which she said was similar in design and layout to the Franklin District Court. Lemay said she anticipated everything would be “business as usual” when the building opens to the public.

Judge David LeFrancois, who has presided over the district court for the past nine years, also inspected his new location on Monday, and he said the new building should be free of the infrastructure issues that sometimes delayed court at the Auburn location. Although court staff and local officials did not know much about the history of the former court building, Judge LeFrancois said that problems with termites and plumbing sometimes delayed scheduled cases.

“It was just time to find a better facility,” he said. “The town of Auburn has been a very good host for many years, and we really appreciate that.”

Currently, there are no plans for the old Auburn courthouse.

As of press time court officials said all signs indicate that the building was going to open to the public as scheduled on the morning of July 23. The telephone number for the Candia District Court is 483-2789.

Candia to vote on state rep.

Hooksett Editor — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 20:04:00 GMT

BY JENN McDOWELL

The candidates for District 1 state representative are campaigning in Candia, Deerfield, Northwood and Nottingham for votes.

Polls will be open in Candia from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 22, at the town office building to select the winner for a seat left vacant when Robert Johnson of Northwood retired from the post in October.

Town Clerk Christine Dupere said Moore School Principal Bob St. Cyr was “ecstatic” that a third election in the past few months would not disrupt the school day this time.

Only 58 Candia voters took part in the primary election on Dec. 18 in which Jim Sullivan of Deerfield won the Republican candidacy over Don Gorman, also of Deerfield.

Maureen Mann of Deerfield ran as the uncontested Democrat, gaining 31 votes from Candia. In all four towns, 346 voters came out to the polls. Mann got 183 votes, Sullivan 126 and Gorman 37.

Sullivan, a member of Deerfield’s Budget Committee, described himself as a fiscal conservative, adding he would like to “get a grip” on spending and taxes in the state.

He is campaigning “the old New Hampshire way,” he said, including going from door to door in the district. “I want to listen, learn and understand before I form an opinion,” he said.

Maureen Mann, managing editor of The Forum, an online newspaper covering the district’s four towns, said she thinks the biggest issue hitting towns right now is the cost of an adequate education which the state will decide on in the coming months.

“I will be fiscally responsible. I think it’s important to protect the rights of individuals, and I think it’s important to be attentive to local as well as state issues,” Mann said.