Dunbarton news

Dunbarton native proved main cog in KSC’s strong play

Goffstown Editor — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 20:27:00 GMT

BY STUART KAUFMAN

No longer driving baseballs around ball parks, Jeff Perkins is spending his days driving a lawn mower around the well-manicured fields at Saint Anselm as a member of the college’s grounds crew.

The four-year Keene State College standout and Dunbarton native said he enjoys sprucing up the St. A athletic facilities, including the baseball field where, as a player at Goffstown High School, he played several first-round tournament games.

“It’s a really nice field,” said Perkins, “but not as nice as my home field at Keene State.”

You can’t blame Perkins for favoritism. As the team’s centerfielder and leadoff hitter the past four seasons, he not only set Owl career records for runs, 165; hits, 204; doubles, 45; and stolen bases, 56, but, more importantly, he helped lead KSC to a pair of NCAA tournament berths, including a first-ever Little East Conference championship his junior season.

“I would be hard pressed to find anybody who had a better four-year career than Jeff,” said KSC associate head coach Marty Testo. “When I sat down and looked at his numbers, it was unbelievable.”

Named to All-New England, All-ECAC, and All-LEC teams as a senior, Perkins’ success transcended numbers. His range as centerfielder took him to the deepest parts of ball parks, where he’d catch most every ball he could reach. As leadoff hitter, he reached base nearly 60 percent of his plate appearances. Most important, consistency was his calling card.

“That’s the way I always played,” Perkins said. “I’ve never been a hot-shot trying to hit home runs. I just show up and do the same thing every day.” Perkins credits his father, Ken, for instilling in him a plate discipline that left pitchers shaking their heads.

“He got me to understand the importance of getting on base,” Perkins said. “He really opened my eyes to the possibility of playing with limited power and still making an impact on the game.”

After earning all-state honors and helping Goffstown High challenge for Class L supremacy, Perkins refined his skills with the help of Greg LaRocca, a local hitting instructor who once played in the Cleveland Indians organization, and Ken Connerty, a former coach at UMass-Lowell.

Though he had several college options and spent a year Loomis Chaffee School in Windsor, Conn., Perkins’ decision to roam the vast expanse of Owl Stadium’s center field brought a smile to the face of KSC coach Ken Howe, who recruited Perkins heavily out of high school and stayed in contact with him while he attended prep school.

“When they first told me about the history of the position at Keene State, I took it with a grain of salt,” said Perkins. “After I realized how important it was, my goal was to carry the torch for four years.”

Perkins’ arrival at KSC in 2006 marked a renaissance in the program’s fortunes. The Owls posted their first 30-win season and tied long-time conference rival Eastern Connecticut for the regular-season Little East championship. However, they lost a pair of hard-fought games to the Warriors in the LEC tournament finals.

“I could sense the disappointment among the upperclassmen,” Perkins said. “I really understood the magnitude for the team to reach the postseason tournament.”

The following year, KSC earned its long awaited at-large berth to the NCAA tournament and, a year later, captured its first outright conference tournament title.

Perkins’ average climbed to .391 his junior season, and the Owls earned redemption in the conference tourney. Climbing out of the losers’ bracket, KSC defeated ECSU, 1-0, with former Goffstown High teammate Jamie Morin tossing a three-hitter. The next day, Keene State swept Southern Maine to win the crown.

Perkins culminated his KSC career with a senior season that included a .453 batting average and team-high 57 runs scored. He hit safely in 35 of 41 games. Perkins consistently let his bat do his talking.

“I’ve always been a pretty reserved, quiet kid,” he said. “It’s just who I am, and sports doesn’t change who I am. If anything, it’s helped me build my character.”

Perkins, who earned his degree in safety studies with a minor in criminal justice, said he will miss his teammates, “from the guys who were on my side on the field to the guys who got cut in the fall. They were there the whole time, supporting me.”

Dunbarton Selectman gets county seat

Goffstown Editor — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 19:16:00 GMT

By SARAH LEBRUN

Dunbarton resident and selectmen Chairman Les Hammond was recently elected and sworn in as a Merrimack County commissioner on July 6.

Hammond will fill the remainder of JD Colcord’s term. Colcord stepped down as commissioner after six years in office. Hammond’s term will end in January 2011.

“County government is run very professionally with very dedicated employees, and I am looking forward enthusiastically to working with all 700 county employees to continue providing county services,” said Hammond.

When Hammond saw a notice in the paper that the county was accepting resumes and letters of interest to fill this position, he decided to throw his hat into the ring.

State Rep. Stephen Shurtleff at state, a friend of Hammond, then nominated him.

According to Hammond, the Republican and Democratic parties each nominated a candidate. The Republican candidate pulled out, and Hammond was left to run against another Democrat. Hammond is a lifelong resident of Dunbarton and has served as a selectman for 16 years. Prior to that, he was the town moderator for 14 years.

He also worked for the state of New Hampshire for 14 years.

“I was in charge of financial planning, accounting, audits, computers – all the management activities,” said Hammond.

He also owns a small business for 23 years, Great Meadow Enterprises, a land excavation and development company.

“I have a pretty comprehensive financial background,” said Hammond.

Hammond is one of three Merrimack County commissioners. The other two commissioners are Leo Bernier of Concord and Elizabeth Blanchard of Penacook.

For questions or concerns about county government, residents can call Hammond at home at 774-4026, or at the county offices at 228-0331.

Students to launch rocket in Nevada in September

Goffstown Editor — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 20:25:00 GMT

By PATRICK O’NEILL

Working with rockets is no easy business. But one group of students from Dunbarton has already become experts.

This club, made up of eight middle and high school students from Weare, Dunbarton, and Hill, will compete in the ARLISS project in September, a program that allows students to build and launch a scientific payload inside a rocket in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert.

Mark Kibler, a teacher at Weare Elementary School, is their adviser.

“We’re building the payload to go in the rocket,” said Kibler. “They gave us the specifications and we made one (a rocket) to test with.”

The payload consists of an atmospheric sampling probe, or ASP, that the students built, plus the pod that will contain it. The students have been working on the ASP for months, and the goal is for the ASP, after launch, to measure atmospheric conditions, including temperature, humidity and altitude.

“When it gets to the ground, you plug it (the ASP) into the computer and a graph will come up and give data results,” said Chris Kibler, Mark’s son and one of the students.

The students will be successful if everything comes back to the ground properly, they can recover the ASP safely and it gets valid results. They will launch with five other teams, including a team from Stanford University, colleges in Japan and a group in Montana.

The project starts Sept. 13. The team will most likely launch on Wednesday, Sept. 16. The event is not a competition, so there will be no winner, only a banquet at the end of the week to recognize and award plaques to all the teams.

“The launch window will be probably between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m., just because there’s so much prep work,” said Chris. “I think Tuesday will probably be the calm before the storm. I foresee three to four hours of prep work.”

The students have been working on projects like this for years now, and three of them, Chris, Tyler Becker and Mollie Dowst, now seniors in high school, started when they were in eighth grade. Their first project was to launch a rocket with an egg in it and safely land the rocket without breaking the egg. Other rocket projects have taught them valuable rules about thrust, weight and other concepts in rocket building.

“The first time (we built a rocket) it didn’t go very far,” said Tyler. “It was too heavy for the motor.” “We want it straight and stable, like a dart,” said Mark.

ARLISS, which has worked with students for the last 10 years, sent the club specifications to build their own rocket to test with before going to Nevada. There, the students will have a rocket prepared and ready for them. They may have to adjust the ASP to fit the rocket though, and they face several other decisions before they leave.

“We haven’t decided what motor to put in yet,” said Mollie. The motor plus the rocket fuel will determine how high the rocket will fly, which the team estimates could be between 30,000 and 50,000 feet.

The team is also deciding on whether to add another sensor to the ASP, which would monitor carbon monoxide and methane in the atmosphere. Adding this sensor could mean they would have to reconfigure parts of the ASP.

The other members on the team include Tom Zervos, Sean Doherty, Jessica Chapman, Andrew Mahn and Anna McGuire.

Mark hopes that as some of his team goes off to college or into high school that they’ve learned as much as they can along the way.

“It’s never really been about the rocket,” he said. “The rocket was a vehicle for the learning.”