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Towns line up for their share of the federal stimulus funds

Hooksett Editor — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 19:31:00 GMT

BY MATT SCHOOLEY

State and town officials across New Hampshire have been preparing for the passing of the latest economic stimulus proposal, and now that it’s official, the waiting game begins for potential projects.

Several towns in the area began scrambling to finalize plans for projects in hopes that potential stimulus money could help fund some, if not all of the work.

In Hooksett, town officials scrambled to prepare a warrant article for residents to approve dealing with upgrades to the town’s wastewater treatment facility and compost facility.

The town is asking for $9.4 million for the project, with taxpayers paying 25 percent and the other $7 million coming from a potential grant from money made available to the state.

If the article is passed but the grant is not given to Hooksett, the article is voided.

“The article had to be rather vague, and the council had trouble getting their mind around it,” said Sewer Commission Chairman Sid Baines. “We did what we were supposed to do so we could be in the ballgame. We had to have something. We’re proposing something that can be adjusted at the floor.”

Bow taxpayers approved a sewer and water project in 2000, authorizing a $12 million bond designed to attract businesses to Route 3A.

The project has not yet gone forward for various reasons, but with plans for the stimulus coming closer to fruition, selectmen agreed to send the project out to bid in late January in order to be eligible when the proposal was passed.

Leon Kenison, chairman for the Board of Selectmen, said town officials have been cautiously optimistic as they hope for money to fund the project.

“On the one hand, we’re hopeful that we’ll be eligible for funding that will come through,” said Kenison. “However, on the other hand we are realists, and we know there are many others also seeking funding. It would certainly be nice if we could use some for this project.”

Bedford Town Manager Russ Marcoux said the town prepared a modest list of projects it hoped to have funded by the state, including work on Route 101.

In total, Bedford town officials asked for $8.45 million in projects from the state’s part of the stimulus money.

“Whatever money is put aside for local communities will be on first-come, first-serve and shovel-ready within a 90-day period. Most projects we can be ready if we have to be,” Marcoux said. “We’ve been in constant contact with the state throughout and we’re feeling fairly comfortable that it’ll be funded, but I am hesitant to say in total.”

In Gov. John Lynch’s recent proposed budget, he suggests suspending rebates on the room and meal tax and also revenue sharing, making up the difference with stimulus money.

Marcoux said those two areas would lead to a loss of a projected $1.88 million in revenues for the town, which would mean Bedford taxpayers would feel the impact of about 36 cents on the tax rate.

“I don’t think it’s been well thought out. There is no cookiecutter community financing. All of the towns are different,” Marcoux said. “For us to find out halfway through the year that we’ll lose revenue through the state is not conscionable to me. We need to be prepared.”

One project that will definitely receive assistance from the approved stimulus package will be the improvements on I- 93 at Exit 3 in Windham.

The project is currently out to bid, and project manager Peter Stamnas said with the down state of the economy, construction workers will be eager to get their hands on the work.

“We expect to receive a good number of bids. People are hungry, they’re sharpening their pencils and we’re getting competitive bids,” said Stamnas. “In most cases they just want to keep the people that they have employed. It’s going to keep people working, there’s no doubt about that.”

The project is being estimated at about $31 million, and was supposed to go out to bid last August until financial concerns delayed it.

Stamnas said seeing towns across the state preparing to receive stimulus money from the state is unlike anything he’s seen before.

“There’s always a line to get those available funds that are allotted for town infrastructure programs,” Stamnas said. “I think it tends to be years ahead that you have to plan. When there’s an opportunity for municipality to get the funding, it is a fairly rare occasion.

Rules change aims to stifle fouling, raise sportsmanship

Hooksett Editor — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 20:26:00 GMT

BY RYAN O’CONNOR

Consider this: Team A and Team B enter the final game of the regular season. Team A is in first place, and team B is out of contention. At some point in the game a player from Team A goes for the ball and trips a Team B foe in the process.

A yellow card is drawn.

Team A wins the game and locks up the top playoff spot, yet that squad isn’t headed to the postseason.

The yellow card, Team A’s 12th, eliminated the top squad from the postseason based on a new rule. It states, in part:

… Any team, whose players/ coaches receive a collective total of 12 yellow cards during the regular season, will be ineligible for NHIAA tournament play and required to attend a hearing with the Soccer Committee.

(Editor’s note: the rule can be found at nhiaa.org under “Policies & Procedures.”)

Consider the alternative
As recently as five years ago, athletes ran around the pitch with little fear of repercussions. Of course, there were injuries, but there was an underlying lack of sportsmanship as well, said Steve Beals, chairman of the soccer rules committee. He began recording data on the amount of warning cards handed out in 2002, when there were 714 yellow cards among Granite State sub-varsity and varsity boys squads. The girls accumulated 161 such warnings.

Those numbers increased slightly in 2003, and in 2004 the NHIAA instituted rules that, in addition to personal penalties levied against the offending player, disqualified a coach for a game following 10 team yellow cards in a season.

That year, the numbers dropped to 576 yellow cards among males and 124 among females.

In 2006, Beals said teams became noticeably complacent about the rules, and the amount of yellow cards jumped to 676 and 142, respectively.

Last year, such stats were recorded electronically for the first time and only included varsity numbers, which produced a large margin for error in the data, said Beals.

This season, with the new rules in place, Beals said there’s no doubt the policies are working.

“The amount of yellow cards is way down, and there are currently no teams ineligible for the tournament,” he said. “We’re certainly confident we’re moving in the right direction.”

As of Thursday, Oct. 16, the varsity boys teams in New Hampshire had accumulated roughly 232 yellow cards, and the girls garnered 50 cards in that time.

While the results aren’t open to debate, the reasons for success are.

Stuart Pepper has coached boys and girls for many years with Seacoast United, and he’s mentored seven years at the high school level – five at Hollis- Brookline, where his team won a state championship without receiving a yellow card all season, and two years at Bedford, where he’s guided the secondyear Bulldogs to the postseason, again, without a penalty.

Pepper, who said he coaches his players the same way no matter the playing field, conceded he’s torn on the issue of stiffer penalties.

“On the one hand, I support anything that cleans up the game and stops dangerous fouls. But my feelings are, this season, referees are more lenient on giving out yellow cards, and I think many fouls are going unpunished,” he said. “So in a way, I think it’s not helped a team like Bedford that’s a clean team and plays the game the right way.”

Competing without seniors and regularly facing larger opponents would force many teams to adopt a chippier brand of soccer. That hasn’t happened at Bedford High.

“We have players that play aggressive and do compete, but they understand how to play within the laws of the game. Giving away stupid fouls hurts you more anyway. You conceded possession, and you take players off the field,” Pepper continued. “You do see teams that are overly aggressive and use that style of play to win games, but with me it’s a moral and a spiritual thing you take with you as an educator and a coach. You’ve got a job to do, and it’s not just winning games. It’s developing young adults.”

Players are seeing that mentality applied throughout the state.

Following an early-season contest in which the Goffstown boys received two yellow cards in one game, senior Ian Downing said coach Randy Lovering pulled the players aside at the next practice. He told them to maintain their intensity while being wary of unnecessary fouls that could cost the team later in the season. The Grizzlies want to win, said Downing, but they want to be smart about it.

For his part, Downing said he’s still aggressive against players of similar height and build, but takes a more cautious approach when going head to head with a smaller player because he feels he’s more likely to be carded for incidental contact.

There’s little doubt the nature of play is more physical in the boys game, yet Kendrick Whittle, coach of the Salem High School girls soccer team, also has questions about the new rules.

“I think in girls soccer, officials are reluctant to give players cards anyway, but what’s happening is it’s taking the officials’ ability to control the game away from them because nobody wants to keep a team from the playoffs,” said Whittle, who acknowledged he supports keeping the game clean, but noted the difficulty in being fair when cards are such a subjective part of the game.

“People forget a yellow card is nothing more than a warning for hard play,” he continued. “What’s next? Are we going to start penalizing a hockey team for too many penalty minutes or a basketball player for fouling out two games in a row?”

Talking points
R. Patrick Corbin, executive director of the New Hampshire Interscholastic Athletic Association, said he and the 11- member soccer board consulted with state representatives throughout the region, which includes schools from New England, New York and New Jersey. He said Connecticut and Massachusetts have the best results in minimizing the amount of cards handed out, so the NHIAA has attempted to model its policies after those states.

“I’d say it’s just another step in what has been a multi-year process to get a handle on the enormous amount of yellow cards and red cards that occur in soccer,” said Corbin, who noted that players and coaches learned to take advantage of the previous set of rules, so it was deemed a priority to make the policies more stringent in those areas.

Since 2004, a team’s 10th yellow card resulted in a onegame suspension for the coach. The count would then recycle. Because a coach didn’t want to miss a playoff game, some sent in players to purposely draw a card with a few regular-season games remaining, all in an effort to reset the count.

That type of loophole, said Corbin, required elimination. At the same time, he added, the committee decided to become less restrictive in other areas. Card counts used to start in the preseason, during scrimmages and jamborees. That’s no longer the case.

“Speaking with officials and coaches, we determined there were a heavier amount of cards given out early, while teams and players were still transitioning younger players and those who played in more lenient summer leagues. We felt that really put teams behind the eight ball before they even got started, so now we don’t start counting until the first game (of the regular season).”

Corbin also said a team is notified when it reaches six yellow cards, giving the athletics director and coach an opportunity to correct the issue before it becomes a real problem.

In addition, Corbin said the NHIAA is making a better attempt to monitor officials because of complaints of a lack of consistency among referees across the state.

“We want to be able to count on good coaching and are increasingly trying to work with officials. If we want better sportsmanship and behavior, a good official can contribute a lot just in the way that they handle routine situations that occur in the course of the game, and a lot of that involves constant communication with players and coaches,” said Corbin. “Whatever system we put in, there are going to be cynics out there. But our primary concern is injuries and trying to protect the students.”

Downing said he’s certainly noticed a change for the better.

“I’m sure (the referee) doesn’t want to be that person that kicks a team out (of the playoffs), but they’ll still give a card when they need to,” said Downing. “I just think they’re more hesitant to throw the card for the more ticky-tack things. They’re more likely to pull you aside and talk to you about it now.”

Paul Ostberg said he can see both sides.

As an official and 10- year coach at Memorial High School, Ostberg said a good referee rarely pulls a card from his pocket.

On the other hand, he’s seen one of his players take a deliberate elbow to the head and another break their clavicle on a hard takedown. Neither play resulted in a card being issued.

As difficult as it is to see some rough play go unpunished, Ostberg sympathizes with many officials, not only because of the enormity of their task – two referees keeping track of 22 players on a 120- by 80-yard field – but also because he knows they don’t want to punish the whole for the conduct of a few.

“My biggest thing is I don’t think the actions of an individual player should result in a team getting suspended. If you want to punish the player, punish the player, but don’t punish the team for one or two players’ actions,” said Ostberg. “It’s really a terrible thing to have a good season and then not be rewarded by going to the playoffs.”

The Memorial mentor admitted, however, play is cleaner this season, and he said coaches are doing a better job of policing their own players.

Ostberg’s team is one of the cleaner units in the state. The Crusaders maintain a 10-4-0 record and sit in fourth place in Class L. They have two yellow cards all season, and both warnings were given to the same player.

“One of those times (the player) was warned twice not to say anything, and he persisted. I give that official a lot of credit in that situation,” said Ostberg. “It’s amazing what happens when an official calls a player by their first name. That’s the key. Education and communication is probably the best way to get it solved.”

At games, some adults cross the line of unacceptable behavior

Hooksett Editor — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 13:45:00 GMT

BY RYAN O’CONNOR

Sitting at a youth hockey conference, watching what was likely to be another boring prerecorded training video, Kermit Brunelle sighed.

On the screen, Don Lucia, coach of the national champion University of Minnesota ice hockey team, was giving a speech.

“A lot of people think I have the best job in hockey, and I tell them, ‘You know, I have the second- best job in hockey,’” said Lucia. “‘The best job is being the head coach at an orphanage – no parents to deal with.’” Brunelle chuckled.

The Bedford native has been coaching youth hockey in the greater-Manchester area the past decade.

For nine years, he woke before sunrise, brought his son or daughter to a frigid ice rink and taught half-awake children to skate, handle the puck and, most importantly, play hard and clean. Only this year did he shed the added pressure of coaching one of his own children.

He’s been able to handle the lack of sleep and multiple layers of clothing well enough.

In fact, the experience has generally been positive, even rewarding, but it’s parents who think their child deserves more playing time than another, or those who vocally second-guess a coach or official, that grate on his nerves.

That behavior, said Brunelle, does not reflect the true nature of youth sports.

In some cases, emotions run high; in extreme cases, people are hurt, even killed. Usually, it’s the child who suffers.

Pressure points
As a Little League coach in Goffstown, Bob Gurskis knows all too well the weight parents can put on coaches’ and players’ shoulders.

In a town where baseball roots grow deep, he feels like just another weed to be plucked from the infield dirt, even after leading the Goffstown 9- and 10- year-old tournament team to a District 1 title in 2007.

“Some parents are so demanding, I literally have to talk to them and say, ‘Hey, lighten up, you’re taking the (kid’s minds) out of the game,’” said Gurskis. He said he’s talked to several players so disenchanted they’re ready to quit the sport rather than continue into Babe Ruth. It’s no wonder, he said, that at least one study indicates only 9 percent of children play organized baseball after the age of 12.

Gurskis grew up playing in Nashua and competed in semipro ball. He relocated to Florida and coached Little League there before moving to Goffstown. The attitude toward junior baseball in Goffstown – as compared to everywhere else he’s lived – is astounding, he said. “This year, even more than ever, I think it’s kind of 50-50.

Half the families and half the people involved understand baseball is entertainment. It’s a game. Coaches teach you to work hard. Sports is a healthy thing,” he said. “The other half take the game so far to the opposite direction. Every play is life or death. Every pitch is the last out of the World Series.”

And Gurskis said that mentality has reached the softball diamond, the soccer field and the football gridiron, among other playing surfaces.

“Everyone gets emotional,” he said. “But it becomes personal. ‘Why is your son getting the starting assignment and not mine?’ or ‘Why is he playing four innings and mine is only playing three and two-thirds?’”

Gurskis has clashed with fellow board members and coaches who have exhibited such an attitude, both at games and behind closed doors.

He can deal with the shots fired at him. It’s the collateral damage that concerns him.

“The pressure comes down on the kids, and that’s not what you want,” he said. “They’re going to find pressure in life without us. We don’t need to put more on them.

“Let’s help them try to be successful and analyze and improve what they’ve done wrong rather than scream at them for swinging at a bad pitch.”

It’s not just the coaches and players who are targets.

Leon Kenison of Bow began officiating baseball in high school when he was forced to substitute for a group of absent umpires. Roughly 50 years later he’s still listening to parents, coaches and players question his rulings. Most of it is background noise.

“Because of my gray hair, I guess I don’t get as much grief as some of my younger colleagues, whether it be from parents, coaches or players … But it’s tough to say because I’ve really trained myself not to hear that stuff,” said Kenison. “I know the younger (umps) let it get to them a little. When I’m in the stands I prefer to be a silent spectator and only positively encourage those on the field, but if I’m umping and someone gets really bad, I’ll just turn to them and say, “Gosh, I could use some help.”

There is constant recruiting for umpires, added Kenison, who said he’d rather be officiating than coaching.

“The coaches get a lot more pressure from parents in terms of, ‘Why doesn’t my kid play more?’” he said. “Not only do they have logistic stuff, in terms of scheduling practices and finding fields, which is a nightmare, but they have to deal with the parents of a 12-year-old kid who is going to break into the Major Leagues next week.”

Kenison has umpired and/ or coached at every local level, from Little League to high school to American Legion and beyond, and he’s seen the sport and the attitudes evolve.

In the past, a disruptive parent would be reprimanded and usually calmed by peers. These days, it’s not necessarily a parent’s actions that create problems, said Kenison, it’s inaction. “A kid (is) throwing a hissy fit when they think they’ve been tagged out or something like that,” he said. “… I’m not saying parents should reprimand their kids right on the field, but I certainly don’t see folks getting involved (in discipline) like they did 20 or 30 years ago. I think it makes it harder on the coaches more than anyone.”

Brunelle can relate.

On the ice, he teaches children to play with respect for themselves, their foes and the game, minus the violence generally associated with hockey. He knows other coaches preach a similar approach.

Yet many pupils still exhibit selfish tendencies.

“It’s the trips home from the rink after games,” said Brunelle. “(Parents are) talking about the performance of their individual child, where on the bench we’re stressing team play.”

Every now and then he witnesses the effects of a parent coaching from a distance.

“A lot of parents, I think, try to live vicariously through their children,” he said. “But parents yelling from the stands in such a manner that a child can hear it, that child usually takes it as criticism and internalizes it as a negative experience for them.”

Indeed, such actions generally serve as a deterrent to participate, said Kate Hays, who practiced sports psychology in Concord for 25 years before moving her practice to Toronto in 1997.

“Ironically, a kid may lose interest in being involved in sports because of the huge amount of negative energy involved,” she said. “(The parent) is thinking they’re protecting their kid or standing up for their kid, but most kids actually find that type of intervention embarrassing and feel more pressure to perform.

“Essentially, what may ordinarily be a fun activity with friends begins to have a lot of emotional pieces that in turn create long-term implications.”

Jim Bail not only coaches and serves as a Little League board member in Windham, but he scouts players for the professional ranks.

At one particular American Legion game in 2007, Bail was asked by Concord coach Avril Cate to take a look at a couple players.

Bail obliged and, after the game, pulled one particular athlete aside and told him he’ll never have a chance at the next level if he continues to throw fits over an umpire’s calls.

“I see parents softening their kids up a little more than is good for them,” he said.

More than ever, he added, parents are turning their children into victims.

“(The players) aren’t taking enough ownership for their own issues,” he said. “They try to pout their way onto teams or try to pout their way into starting positions – with mom and dad in the background saying how unfair it is – instead of bucking up and doing it themselves.”

Even in youth football, said Dave Tremblay, a coach receives their share of parent-generated headaches.

Tremblay has coached football at the youth and high school level for roughly 10 years.

“Generally, I think you have two different types of parents,” said the current Pembroke Academy head coach. “You have the parents who expect their kids to be all-stars, and then you have the parents who kind of have the fear of the unknown, the ones who get nervous when their kids are practicing five days a week, and they’re getting used to the physicality of the sport.” The latter is easier to deal with, said Tremblay.

He remembered one incident when he coached the Hooksett Hurricanes.

A neighbor, whose child played under Tremblay, decided to confront him because of a perceived lack of playing time.

A mildly heated exchange ensued, recalls the coach, but he said he learned from the experience.

“First of all, the Pop Warner rules set forth and regulate playing time, but I’ve just learned to be really open with everyone and let them know up front how it’s going to be. I also spread the responsibility among my coaches, so it’s not just my decision, and parents can’t single out one person.”

Even if disagreements occur, Hays said these kinds of moments offer opportunities to positively resolve problems.

More importantly, she said it’s necessary to communicate with the child and identify and separate the aspirations of the young athlete from the parent.

Proof positive
One of Brunelle’s most memorable moments as coach involved a youngster from Minnesota who had transferred to New Hampshire and was moving back to the Midwest with his parents.

“I received an e-mail thanking me for my efforts as a coach, and more importantly it said the one thing the boy remembered is, at the end of the game when you shake hands, you’re supposed to take your glove off.”

That, said Brunelle, was indicative of parents who care, and there are many of them, he said.

In fact, all parties interviewed for this story acknowledged they’ve generally had positive experiences with youth sports, and they said there are some encouraging trends.

Leagues around the country are taking proactive approaches to eliminating inappropriate behavior.

Kenison noted that approximately 10 years ago the New Hampshire Interscholastic Athletic Association created a policy that mandates any coach or player ejected from a game must sit at least one additional contest. A second violation brings an immediate end to that individual’s season.

Several other organizations, said Kenison, including Babe Ruth, have adopted similar policies. “It’s sort of a motivational tool to make people behave, and from what I’ve seen, it’s made a heck of a difference,” he said. “People previously felt they could have their say anytime they wanted, and now we just say, ‘See ya.’ I think that’s had a very sobering effect on malcontents and makes the umpiring job much easier.”

Brunelle said USA Hockey and Granite State Youth Hockey have created a parents code of conduct and are enforcing zero-tolerance policies concerning a parent’s verbal or physical abuse of a player, coach, fellow parent or official.

If an individual breaks the code, he said, a 30-day suspension follows, and those punished must go before a board and request reinstatement.

“I think it’s needed just to make sure parents understand this is a game,” said Brunelle, “and winning and losing is not that important, as long as kids continue to develop as players and people.”

Bow man dies in motorcycle accident

Hooksett Editor — Wed, 28 May 2008 19:17:00 GMT

BY GRETA CUYLER

As rain began to fall the night of Wednesday, May 21, Jameson Thissell, 35, called his wife to tell her he’d be home soon.

Minutes later, the motorcycle he was riding went out of control along Hackett Hill Road in Hooksett. The case is under investigation as to why Jameson Thissell of Bow veered out of his lane at 5:55 p.m. on Wednesday, May 21.

Thissell’s bike hit a car driven by Peter Cooke of Hooksett, who’s son was a passenger. Neither was hurt in the accident.

Thissell, who was wearing a helmet, was pinned under the car and although emergency crews worked to revive him, it was too late.

Known as “Jamey” to those closest to him, Thissell leaves behind his wife, Sarah, and three children -- Rebecca, 7, Nicholas, 2, and Victoria, 6 months.

“He was so full of life, he had such a full heart and loved everybody,” said Sarah Thissell.

Thissell was headed home when the accident happened, Sarah said. He had gone to check out a new motorcycle.

Thissell and Sarah met at Middlebury College in Vermont, would have celebrated their 10th wedding anniversary June 13. Thissell worked as an emergency room doctor at Concord Hospital.

“I don’t know many people who, given one-tenth of Jamey’s enthusiasm and joy in life wouldn’t be noticeably improved for it,” said Peter Blume, a doctor in the emergency department at Concord Hospital who worked alongside Thissell.

Thissell’s parents, Richard and Merrilee Thissell, live in Goffstown. Richard Thissell is the assistant principal at the Middle School at Parkside in Manchester. The couple has two other sons, Jeremiah of New Hampshire, and Joshua of Boston. “(Jamey) was my firstborn, he did so much good for so many,” said Merrilee Thissell. “There were countless times when he stopped on the highway at the scene of an accident to help someone -- he’d grab his (medical) kit and go.”

Merrilee Thissell said it appears Thissell’s motorcycle slipped on a wet patch of road. Peter Cooke extends his sympathy to the Thissell family.

“We really feel upset for Jamey and his family, all his family members, we’re really sad for them all and our hearts go out to them,” Cooke said.

At Concord Hospital, where Thissell had tended to thousands of patients during his four-year tenure as an emergency room doctor, he was remembered as a caring physician.

“Jamey had a passion for life and exhibited a joy for living each and every day,” said Michael Lynch, a doctor and president of Concord Emergency Medical Associates, where Jamey worked. “As an exemplary physician, he was skilled, committed and caring, and a valuable member of Concord Emergency Medical Associates and Concord Hospital.

Sharing laughter and lightheartedness, he was especially loved by his emergency department colleagues and co-workers. Our hearts are broken for his wife and young children. We will miss him greatly; our hospital and our community has suffered a tragic loss.”

Thissell always wanted to be a doctor, his mother said, and he worked as an EMT after college.

Sarah Thissell said her husband received one or two thank you notes from emergency room patients each month. Once, he spent 45 minutes trying to track down where a patient could get his special-order medicine.

“During Jamey’s residency, the chaplain of the medical school came up to me and said, ‘Jamey has the best bedside manner of any doctor here,’” Sarah said. “He touched a lot of people, he was an amazing doctor. He really cared about his patients.”

Thissell’s mother said one of her favorite memories of her son is when he called her from college to tell her there was someone he wanted her to meet.

That “someone” was Sarah, his wife of nearly a decade. “I think he knew she was the one,” Merrilee Thissell said. “She’s my best friend -- I don’t know what I’d do without her right now.”

Hooksett police Sgt. Kristofer Dupuis said he has no reason to believe alcohol or drugs were factors in the crash.

He said state law requires those involved in a major motor vehicle accident to undergo blood tests, which the Cookes had done at the hospital.

Streets are full of potholes; money is running out

Hooksett Editor — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 20:40:00 GMT

BY MATT SCHOOLEY

Long after the snow has melted beneath the warm rays of spring sunshine, New Hampshire towns will still be feeling Mother Nature’s wrath. This time, it won’t be barraging residents from the sky. Instead, it will hit them under their tires.

“I was coming from Hannaford the way I come up every day,” said Jane Stanton-Turcotte of Goffstown. “I come up the road, wasn’t paying attention and bang! It was horrifying. I drive a car that can take anything, but my eggs went everywhere. “When I opened the back of my hatch, it looked like someo

ne had already made breakfast.”

Public Works and Highway departments across the state are struggling with how to fix poor road conditions, and many towns are also struggling with budget issues as an extremely harsh winter winds down.

During Hopkinton’s annual Town Meeting, voters approved the addition of $53,000 to the Public Works Department budget, as selectmen informed voters that the town has already gone over its allowance in salt and sand, and is on pace to do so in several other areas.

Goffstown Director of Public Works Carl Quiram said this winter has been the most devastating in a long time.

“It has been the worst in recent memory, and it’s just the way the weather has been,” said Quiram. “It’s been an unwinnable battle with potholes. We have a lot of new potholes on roads we wouldn’t have anticipated.”

Stanton-Turcotte’s pothole disaster happened on Laurel Road off College Road in Goffstown. “The sign says ‘Frost Heaves,’ but that’s not what it should say. It should say ‘Caution: Amusement Park Ahead,’” she said. “They (potholes) are everywhere.

Just going down St. A’s Drive is terrible, and so is my street. We have Manchester beat this year. It’s like when you go in the ocean and float over the big swells, except you’re driving in the street.”

Budget dilemmas
For Quiram, in addition to the battle with potholes, his and other departments in town are facing another battle.

“We took some heavy budget cuts, so it’ll make for an extremely tough year. You do what you have to do,” Quiram said. “We’re not going to not salt roads because we have no money. That’s where the policy comes in. Are we just going to ride it out? Or do we have to hold off on some summer projects?”

Jim Stanford, Bedford’s Director of Public Works, said he has not yet run into issues with salt, as the town built a new salt shed in 2004, and has been able to stock up in that area.

Working on a calendar year budget, Stanford said he is not sure yet what financial challenges his department will face. “I’ll let you know in November,” he joked. “You look at a day like today and say maybe we’re through this. But in November and December you never know. The sun is a lot higher now, so if it snows, it doesn’t stick around as long.”

Stanford said Bedford is not having as many struggles with potholes as other towns, but is struggling in other areas. “It’s not so much the potholes, but more the deterioration of the pavement and the frost heaves,” said Stanford. “It isn’t like all of the sudden one pothole pops up, but we have roads where the whole section of pavement has failed.”

Bedford has a computerized pavement management database that shows every road in town as well as its length, when it was constructed and the condition of it.

Although two road bonds in Bedford were defeated on Election Day, Stanford said the town still has money left from two previous road bonds.

Dale Hemeon, Hooksett director of highways, said the routine for his workers is the same on a daily basis. “I send out a crew for potholes every day if it isn’t snowing,” he said. “To end this battle, you put them in today and they’re gone tomorrow. It’s been a rough winter. There’s been a lot of damage. It’s really strange.”

Hemeon said he is far over on his overtime, fuel and salt budgets. The town’s budget goes from July 1 until the end of June, so Hooksett still has just over three months remaining on its current budget.

Another problem on the roads has come with the amount of snow.

“The tough part was that we have no more room to put snow. The banks are so high. We need to just get through until April when we can get some asphalt,” said Hemeon. “For the first month of spring we’ll be out paving and patching roads.”

Bow’s Chum Cleverly goes against the Public Works norm in neighboring towns, as he said this winter has been no different from other winters in his recent memory.

“We haven’t done much different from other years. Every year is average. Some years there a few more on some roads, and none on others. It’s always similar,” said the Public Works director, who said he has the most trouble with roads that were paved long ago.

Cleverly said he does expect cost issues for next year, with prices on the rise.

“Trying to keep the roads in good shape with the increasing cost of asphalt is big. Next year, we’re expecting a 30 percent rise in cost of salt,” he said. “I assume that the manufacturing and transportation is the cause of that with the increased cost of oil. I just talked to two truckers who have parked their trucks and won’t move until cost of fuel goes down.”

Temporary fix
Departments are constantly putting cold patch, a compound that is only meant as a temporary fix, into potholes. Hot top is not available for towns until sometime in April, which means many departments are fixing the same potholes on a daily basis.

“The people have to understand that at this time of year, these situations are beyond our control, it’s Mother Nature. Drivers have to slow down and make sure they have proper air inflation in their tires so they don’t blow their tires out,” said Russell.

“Some of them we could patch three times a day. The cold patch is a temporary fix, that’s it. Nothing replaces putting hot top in.”

Russell said the Salem department already has to turn its attention toward potential flooding in addition to filling potholes. His workers are spread thin.

“I have 12 employees who are dedicated to the streets for a town this big to maintain all of the sidewalks and drainage,” he said. “People think we have a 400-man department, but we don’t. We have 41 total in the Department of Public Works, but only 12 assigned to that section.”

In Hooksett, Hemeon summed up what many Public Works employees are feeling across the Granite State. “It’s been a long, frustrating winter for everyone – my guys and the residents,” he said. “Hopefully, spring isn’t too far away.”

Champs - for openers – Amoskeag Rugby wins preseason title, eyes New England crown

Hooksett Editor — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 21:08:00 GMT

BY RYAN O'CONNOR

Don Dumais is a dentist who plays rugby.

But despite the stereotypes, the Bow resident said there are few teeth lost in the sport, though he can remember a few instances where one player’s mouth met another player’s skull, and the result wasn’t pretty.

“Most guys are pretty good about wearing their mouth guards, so you don’t see too much of that anymore,” he said.

After playing in college, Dumais was only a spectator for many years until he was recently convinced by one of his dental hygienists to join the Amoskeag Rugby Football Club.

In 2006, the Amoskeag Rugby Football Club finished New England Division 1 runner-up. This year, everyone involved, from the players right up to the club president, expect the squad to finish on top.

“We’re one of the smallest markets and have one of the best teams,” said president Bob Bishop of Bedford, who played more than a decade with the club before retiring two years ago. “Last year it was us, New Haven and the Boston Irish Wolfhounds, so as a small-market team, bragging rights are pretty important.”

If bragging rights are their goal, they got an early start on the competition, winning the Premier Division of the Can-Am rugby tournament – the largest in North America, with more than 120 teams – in Lake Placid and Saranac Lake in New York on Aug. 12.

Amoskeag began tournament play with a close contest, beating the Penn State Alumni team, 13-12, before defeating Ottawa, 7-0, via forfeit.

In the semifinals, Amoskeag faced a much larger New York’s Old Rhinos team and took a 38-12 victory, which set up a rematch with Penn State Alumni in the finale.

Though the opposition took an early 8-0 lead, captain Russ Dolan answered, scoring on a break started by MVP Chris Pierce of New Boston. Amoskeag led 10-8 at the half. Behind 10 kicked second-half points – two penalties and a conversion – from Pierce, Amoskeag won, 18-8, to take its first Can-Am title since it started competing in the tournament in 1992.

“This is one of the biggest achievements in the history of the club,” said coach John Banarhall of Auburn. “I couldn’t be prouder of the way the boys played this week against such strong competition. This is a great beginning to the upcoming Division 1 season.”

And that’s the way the players are looking at the successful trip to New York – as the start of something special.

Amoskeag kicks off its season against Albany on Sept. 8 at the Dartmouth Rugby Complex, though they play most of their home games in Pembroke.

“The fitness it takes to play at this level is just incredible. I mean, you basically need to be a top-level college athlete to make our A squad.” said Dumais. “It’s an 80-minute match, and there’s really not a lot of stoppage of play.”

Should Amoskeag win the New England Rugby Union, it advances to a national tournament and compete against 15 other teams from around the United States.

For details, visit rugbynh.com.

Rapid development

Hooksett Editor — Wed, 22 Nov 2006 17:56:00 GMT

MST’s success surfaces from focus on individual improvement

BY SAPNA PATHAK

Steve Van Der Beken can’t tell you how many undefeated seasons he’s had. He can’t list how many career wins and losses he’s compiled, nor can he recount how many plaques and trophies he has in his home.

He’s a coach with no use for awards and individual accolades. Instead, he’s the type who can remember the names of nearly all the hundreds of swimmers he’s mentored.

The only important numbers to him are the ones showing his swimmers making personal progress.

It’s this unique style that Van Der Beken brought to the Manchester Swim Team Rapids four seasons ago.

By the way, the club has won three outdoor state championships in as many years and will try for a fourth this year.

“We’re really just concerned with each swimmer getting better,” said Van Der Beken. “If each and every swimmer improves, the team will improve as a whole, and that’s the only thing that matters – steady improvement.”

Van Der Beken, joined by assistant coaches Jean Mitchell, Bill Ewing and Mike Peterson, holds two-hour practices six days a week. Van Der Beken uses practice time to perfect stroke mechanics and work on drills designed to strengthen and build cardio endurance.

Though team members vary greatly in age, Van Der Beken relies on high school seniors Ashley Green of Hooksett, Nick Catano of Goffstown and Amy Burke of Bedford to lead the team.

MST travels to meets on weekends with one overnight excursion for a meet hosted by Bowdoin College in Maine. Van Der Beken, who’s been a swim coach for more than 30 years, also splits his time as head swim coach for Manchester Central.

Though the financial cost of being a swimmer is not high, Van Der Beken said it’s the mental and time commitment that can be difficult at times.

“These kids are giving a lot to swimming,” said Van Der Beken.

“They’re giving up some of their social life, trying to balance things out with school, plus trying to make something of their time in the pool, be it go on to college or more.”

Van Der Beken described his swimmers as “a rare bunch of kids,” saying he’s most impressed with the sacrifices made to be a part of the team. This year, Van Der Beken’s roster includes around 60 swimmers.

“We sometimes go head-to-head with teams with more than 150 swimmers,” he said. “Today, a lot of kids would rather play a game, so we lose some kids to other sports. But the ones who stay can really have good careers later. Those are the stats I remember.”

Neighborhood-area members of the championship-winning team include: Christina Denbow and Zachary Denbow of Hooksett; Carter Pribis, Alaina Pribis, Stephen Muzzey and Kaelin Willette of Concord; Katie Donovan, Savannah Lavoie and Kathryn O’Neil of Auburn; Bow’s Stephanie Lynn, Kerry McMann, Katie Jenkins, Robert Jenkins and Richard Jenkins; and Bedford’s Leah Burke, Scott Ewing, Riley Ewing, Kelsey Ewing, David Delahunty, Linda Delahunty, Maria Colella, Kyle Colella, Katherine Berg, Hayley Berg, Karam Sandhu, Milan Sandhu and Neelam Sandhu.

Real estate reality, Home prices still strong, though slower to sell

Hooksett Editor — Fri, 22 Sep 2006 16:39:00 GMT

By Staff Writers

Sharon Livingston has seen a change in the housing market first hand. Two years ago, she and her husband offered to buy their Windham Colonial-style house about an hour after it went on the market.

“I snapped it up,” said Livingston, who paid $629,000 for the house.

“It was such a small market (then), “ she added. “There were hardly any houses.”

The Livingstons are now moving to Tilton and their Colonial is up for sale. Their asking price is $619,000.

The house has been on the market about three weeks. A few people have looked at it, but there are no buyers yet, she said.

“It’s such a different environment (now),” Livingston said.

Area real estate experts and agents suggest the recent shift is more like a return to normalcy than an impending catastrophe.

“The market is not all the doom and gloom you see in the media,” said Jeff Keeler, owner of Pembroke’s Keeler Family Realty and chairman of public policy for the New Hampshire Association of Realtors. “The sky is not falling.”

Keeler said many homes have been staying on the market longer, frustrating many sellers. But he said sellers and real estate brokers have been living the high life until now.

“What we’re seeing is a reaction to 11 solid years of appreciation,” said Keeler.

Keeler described the last six months as a kind of “plateau” period.

No cooldown in Hooksett

Ken Culbertson, owner of Hooksett’s Coldwell Banker Culbertson Realty, said the problem relates more to educating sellers and real estate agents who may unreasonably still expect to seal a good deal in three to six weeks.

“Right now it’s more historically normal,” he said. “It’s normal for it to take three to six months.”

One sign of a reasonably active local market, said Culbertson, is that a wave of new Hooksett homes are selling at prices unseen in town before.

“Houses are being built in Hooksett that are $100,000 or $150,000 higher than they’ve ever been here,” said Culbertson.

Hooksett Assessing Coordinator Sandy Piper said one Hooksett home sold for $624,000 in August.

Reviewing the numbers and types of home sales in recent months, Piper said she’s noticed little, if any, cooling effect.”

“Honest to goodness, I don’t see it cooling down,” she said.

Piper said there are perhaps more homes on the market, but said sales numbers aren’t lagging.

“I’m finding a lot of people who have homes in Hooksett are buying new houses in Hooksett,” she said. “They’re upgrading.”

Why there’s a change

Keeler said while the local market may not be as disastrous as many may perceive, a portion of the housing market is creating a statewide crisis.

He suggested town restrictions on developers, like growth controls and excessive fees, that have cropped up in recent years have led to a shortage in affordable housing.

“The towns put as many impediments as they can on residential growth,” he said.

The result, said Keeler, is that builders build more expensive homes in order to make a profit.

Keeler said the New Hampshire phenomenon has led to a surplus in homes in the $350,000 to $500,000 range, but said there’s still a need for housing for young families, which he suggested invigorate local economies.

“There’s none of it being built,” he said. “$225,000 and below, it’s pretty much still a seller’s market.”

Livingston agreed with that assessment. She thinks a huge building glut in town has changed the market.

“I think it’s obvious that the activity level has certainly slowed down compared to six months ago and I think sellers have to negotiate a little more than they did six months ago,” said Sandy Heino of Sandy Heino and Associates Realty in the Bow/Hopkinton area. “Part of it is just this time of year, in the fall, when things usually slow down, and I think part of it is when people listen to the TV or the radio and hear that it is a buyer’s market and things are going to get worse, they believe it,” she said.

Slower to sell

“Our inventory of houses is very high, with a low inventory of buyers. Lots of sellers, but there aren’t as many buyers as we’ve had in the past,” said Anna Fish of Century 21 Advantage Realty, with offices on Mast Road in Goffstown.

While Fish said prices have remained static over the past half decade, buyers are not as quick to snatch a home off the market.

“A few years ago, the prices were about the same as they are now,” Fish said, “but if I bought a house in January, I could sell it in six months and make a profit. I can’t do that now.

“People are beginning to realize the party is over, we’re back to where we were before it started. People are starting to realize that, because their houses are sitting longer,” Fish said.

To offset the change, Heino said sellers are offering incentives to build buyers confidence such as paying points and closing costs, offering one-time price reductions during open houses, or updating appliances and flooring.

“Sellers need to make their house stand out above everything else,” she said. “You only have one chance to make that first impression.”

It had been a “seller’s market” the past decade, according to Nancy Casagrande, general manager of ERA The Masiello Group in Windham.

Now, there are more homes than buyers, she said.

“Obviously, we are in a buyer’s market,” Casagrande said. “Prices are adjusting.”

Casagrande said that, conservatively, prices of existing homes have come down 10 to 15 percent.

Average home prices

Home sale prices show a wide range of numbers. The 63 home sales in Goffstown between July and August ranged in price from $50,000 for a mobile home to $435,000 for a residence, while New Boston saw 25 home sales spanning $10,000 to $770,000 and Weare’s 41 home sales covered financial territory from $54,000 to $412,000, according to data from Real Data Corp., an online database tracking public record information in New Hampshire and Vermont.

Goffstown saw 140 home sales in 2005 for an average of $258,958, according to information from the Northern New England Real Estate Network. The same report shows 39 home sales in New Boston last year averaging $386,162, and Weare showing 81 home sales with an average price of $246,795.

Of 41 standard house sales in Pelham between mid-June and mid-August, the average price was $398,571.

The highest sale was $660,000 for an eight-room Colonial-style house built on nearly six acres last year. The lowest sale was $206,000 for a 1974 Cape Cod-style home situated on one acre.

In July and August, 40 traditional homes including two exceeding the $1 million mark changed hands in Windham. The average price was $481,135.

At the highest end was a modern/contemporary Beech Street home in Windham that fetched $1.225 million. At the other end was a 34-year-old condominium that sold for $153,466.

More foreclosures

Real estate agents said foreclosures have increased.

Joanne Riopel of Innovative Realty in Pelham said sometimes a family buys a new home before their current one sells and carries two mortgages. But the house they left doesn’t sell as quickly as they had hoped, and the family finds themselves in a financial bind.

Reviewing the number of foreclosures in Goffstown, one town official pointed to a sharp jump in that statistic.

While Goffstown has record of 14 foreclosure notices since June of this year, the town counted 15 foreclosures in all of 2005.

“It seems like a lot of foreclosures,” said Deputy Tax Collector Rene Millson. “I can tell you the folder (of foreclosure notices) is pretty fat.”

National trends

“While new-home sales have been quite strong throughout 2005, we see a cooling of the market to a healthy and more sustainable pace in the months ahead, as substantiated by recent surveys of our builders,” said NAHB chief economist David Seiders. “For 2006, we expect to see a 6 percent to 7 percent drop in sales, but certainly no reason for alarm. This would make 2006 the second or third best year in housing history.”

If you must sell

A seller’s best bet it to listen to their agent when setting a price for their home, Fish said.

“If you’re moving and you need to quickly, you better list it for what your agent tells you to list it for, because they know. A lot of the reason why houses are slower to sell is because sellers start out with an asking price that’s too high,” she said.

“Right now is a good time to buy and some buyers are making offers with great, great reductions to sellers,” Berge Nalbandian of Berge’s Real Estate in Salem said. “I’ve been doing this for 50 years and it’ll come around again like in the years prior.”

In the meantime, builders have been giving discounts and extras in new homes that aren’t normally included, he said.

Nicholas Brown, Darrell Halen, Rod Hansen, Jim Devine, Joseph Edgerton, Ryan O’Connor Steven Andrews and Robert Inks contributed to this story.