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Hooksett junior softballers finish perfect season

Hooksett Editor — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 18:47:00 GMT

Hooksett, sponsored by Granite State Physical Therapy, completed an 11-0 season by beating Dunbarton twice, then coming from behind to defeat Merrimack Vlley, 19-11, in the Hooksett Invitational Tournament.

Behind the pitching of Sam Desaulniers, who collected seven strikeouts, Hooksett beat Dunbarton, 10-2.

Desaulniers, Amber Young and Emily Miville all went 3- for-3 at the plate. The Hooksett defense also came through, limiting Dunbarton to just two runs.

Hooksett then scored 11 runs in the third and fourth innings, then hung on behind fine pitching from Shannon Argo to again defeat Dunbarton, 16-13.

Argo struck out six and was backed by solid defense from her teammates.

In the season finale, Merrimack Valley broke ahead with four runs in the top of the sixth inning to take an 11-7 lead, but Hooksett rallied for 12 runs with two outs in the bottom of the sixth to win the game.

The comeback began when Desaulniers reached base on a third strike and took second on the subsequent overthrow.

The team, mentored by manager Jay Lievens and assistant coaches Bob Read and Marc Pilotte, also included Shannon Martin, Alexis Lievens, Ashley Pilotte, Lindsay Read, Kim Wallace, Elaina Lavigne, Sara Kelley, Malory Supan and Bryanna Pearson.

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.”

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.