Candia News : business

Businesses step up to pay for bug spray in Candia

Hooksett Editor — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 19:54:00 GMT

Car World Used Auto Parts owner Jeff Kantor did not want the town to have to take money from other departments to pay for emergency mosquito spraying, so he went door to door to local businesses and raised $2,915 to fund the spraying, which began Friday, Sept. 25.

“I said I think businesses in town can rally and raise the money,” Kantor said.

An educational effort has also been put forth, with a seminar on avoiding Eastern equine encephalitis, or EEE, at Moore School on Sept. 29.

Selectmen voted to conduct emergency spraying of Moore Park and Moore School after learning the state’s only confirmed human case of EEE this year was a 3-year-old girl from town.

“The reason I rallied is I felt terrible that this little girl had come down with that and I knew some alpacas in town that had contracted the disease,” Kantor said. “I said, ‘It is not going to be much to raise that.’”

The cost for three rounds of emergency spraying, plus the cost to apply for the emergency permit came to $2,250. The remaining balance of the money raised will go toward next year’s mosquito program if approved by voters in March.

Sarah MacGregor, president of Dragon Mosquito Control Inc. in North Hampton, said the insecticides should be effective for up to four weeks.

“It will kill mosquitoes that are there that night and will continue to provide control for the upcoming weeks when mosquitoes land on the vegetation,” MacGregor said.

Businesses that contributed to the fund for EEE spraying include ATS Equipment of NH, Inc.; Becker Transportation, Inc.; Candia Getty Station; Candia House of Pizza; Candray Pet Care Center, Inc.; Car World; Carleton Robie Ent. Inc.; Coppola Physical Therapy & Fitness Gym, LLC; Cutting Edge Industries, LLC; D&M Auto Repair, Inc. D.C.; Mobil; High Speed Technologies, Inc.; Jack Roberts Autobody; Lahr’s Transmissions Speed & Performance Shop, LLC; Machine Solutions, Inc.; Page Street Leasing, LLC; Pasquale’s Ristorante; Pleasant Hill Landscaping, LLC; Severino Trucking Co., Inc.; Stubby’s Place; and Synaptic Engineering.

Grocer expresses interest in Exit 3

Hooksett Editor — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 20:52:00 GMT

BY JENN McDOWELL

One response has already come back from a grocery developer interested in the 12-acre parcel off of Exit 3 in Candia.

The Exit 3 Committee announced the delivery of Requests for Proposals to area grocers. More will be sent out shortly, said committee member John Cole, who compiled the document outlining the town’s intent for the property’s use.

“They’re looking at it, and they’re very interested,” said committee chairman and Selectman Joe Duarte about the responding party.

The deadline for official responses is Jan. 28, but committee members have agreed to adjust that deadline if necessary.

After that, the committee will set up meetings with interested parties to go over their plans for developing the property. Those meetings will likely be nonpublic to protect the developer’s plans, but committee members added that public information meetings introducing potential developers to the community will be scheduled before any deals go through.

The packets have been on display for public viewing in the past few weeks at the Town Hall, Smyth Library, Stubby’s Restaurant and Fred’s Auto.

The request states the town’s intent for the developer to finance, design and construct a minimum 40,000-square-foot “concept style grocery store.” It goes on to say that Candia residents have expressed interest in including a pharmacy and family- style restaurant in the development.

It includes the criteria by which potential developers will be considered, which include “a demonstrated knowledge of rural development” and “a demonstrated cash liquidity to ensure the satisfaction of all commitments and undertakings.”

The document asks for a financial analysis to ensure that the developer is monetarily fit to take on the project, which would include the developer’s cash flow projections for a period of ten years.

At a meeting on Nov. 26, Cole said the packet was submitted to DeMoula’s first, as the community members voiced enthusiasm for getting that particular grocery store. Packets were also submitted to Harvest Market and Vista foods, he added.

Duarte said the town counsel, Bart Mayer, thoroughly reviewed the draft of the packet and cleaned up some of the language to make sure there were no misconceptions of any of the building and financial specifications listed in the document.

“It’s pretty concise. It’s clear,” Duarte said. “I don’t see many places where they could go astray.”

Committee members agreed site walks should be encouraged for the community as well as responding developers in order to see first hand what the land truly offers.

The committee will meet as needed in the coming months until responses come in prompting meetings with potential buyers, committee members agreed.

Following that will be the public presentations prior to a final decision on the developer.

Before the project can go much further, a petition circulated through town in October asking the land sale be resubmitted to voters. It requires a warrant article be passed in March to get the voters’ blessing.

Voters approved a town warrant article in 2003 giving the Selectmen the right to vote to sell and acquire the property for the purpose of building a 40,000- square-foot retail establishment after hosting two public input sessions.

The article also allowed Candia residents to submit a petition prior to such a vote with the signatures of at least 50 registered voters asking the land sale decision be brought to voters again at Town Meeting.

The question: “Are you in favor of the proposed sale of town property at Exit 3?” will now be included on the town warrant in March.

OHRVs cause trouble for Candia business

Hooksett Editor — Wed, 23 May 2007 21:42:00 GMT

BY NICHOLAS BROWN

A town-owned sand pit off Brown Road has been a hot spot for Candia police in recent weeks.

On May, 16, the town’s road agent, Dennis Lewis, reported that a Caterpillar-brand front-end loader belonging to a subcontractor had been vandalized while parked in the pit.

Police Chief Michael McGillen said windows were broken, apparently by some sort of projectiles.

McGillen said police didn’t find specific evidence of the projectiles, but said the damage to the windows will likely cost about $500.

“We didn’t find any rocks or any bullet casings,” he said. Police are still investigating the incident.

On May 7, police responded to a call of off-road vehicles in the pit, which has posted signs prohibiting the use of off-road recreational vehicles, or OHRVs. A group of people on motorized dirt bikes fled once police got to the scene, said McGillen.

“One of them got stuck on a hill,” McGillen said, and the rider told police he didn’t know the other riders until he met them on a nearby path earlier that day.

The rider, a 16-year-old from Derry, said he’d also flipped his bike earlier, and he was taken to a nearby hospital. The rider got a New Hampshire Fish and Game Department summons for riding an OHRV on posted property, McGillen said.

The department got other calls regarding illegal or inappropriate OHRV use on that weekend, he said, which is common when the weather warms.

He’s one of several area police chiefs worried that the Fish and Game Department’s OHRV grant – which Candia has received in each of the last four or five years – will be removed from the state’s budget.

McGillen and selectmen have each written local legislators to fight for the grant program, which provides money to pay for officers overtime to do occasional patrols on all-terrain vehicles.

“We’re not out there, every day, but it’s sporadic and you never know what you’ll find,” McGillen said. “From all the citizens I’ve heard from, they think this is a good program.”