New Boston News : Goffstown

Libraries offer adult reading programs

Goffstown Editor — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 20:19:00 GMT

BY CAROLE KLEMENT HUXEL

Many times, adults may ask themselves, “Why should children be the ones having all the fun?” Well this summer, the adults are the center of attention at the Goffstown and New Boston public libraries.

Both libraries already have adult programs in place for their patrons. Book discussion groups take place inside the libraries and online. Audiobooks are available on cassette, CD, iPod Shuffle, direct download and a new audio format called the Playaway. There are enrichment programs during the day and in the evening to accommodate a variety of schedules, and the Goffstown Library offers a monthly writer’s group called The Blank Page.

Patrons don’t look for adult-themed summer reading programs, yet they are very receptive to the idea once it’s offered.

“We knew there would probably be an audience,” said Sandy Whipple of Adult Services and Outreach in Goffstown.

Pat Fickett, assistant director of the Whipple Free Library in New Boston, said, “A lot of the moms are mentors for their child’s reading program,” so the initial audience was already built into the library.

The Whipple Library has nearly three dozen adult readers signed up for their program, even though summer is considered a slow time of the year.

The librarians in Goffstown wanted to do a Medieval theme program for a long while, and director Dianne Hathaway had no problem deciding on Readers of the Round Table for summer 2008.

“A Medieval theme is so rich with material and potential,” said Whipple. The summer began with a Medieval Faire, complete with period costumes and entertainment, and carried through many of the family programs in July.

Whipple Free Library in New Boston chose Basking in Books as its adult theme, reminding patrons that summer reading should be, “A time to bask in books, follow an author, an interest or just dabble in the delights of reading whatever you desire.”

Both libraries are holding raffles that encourage adult readers to enter their name in a weekly drawing each time they finish a book or attend an event. Prizes contributed by many local restaurants, gift shops, gas stations, spas, flower shops and bakeries, among other well-known establishments, are going out to several people each week.

Among the many scheduled events in Goffstown were a program on the American Ballad, featuring John Perrault, former poet laureate of Portsmouth, and an introduction to labyrinths with local artist Diane Ryan.

“We started talking about this last year and wondered, ‘Why not?’” said Whipple. “We began providing adult programs almost monthly in January, and we’ve been focused outward on the entire community,” not just children.

This year, 2008, is an important year for the Goffstown Library, as they have opted to participate in the Finlay Challenge.

The Finlay Foundation has challenged every public library in New Hampshire to increase their cardholders, and the library with the biggest percentage growth will win $25,000. The Readers of the Round Table summer reading program was already well in the planning stages when the challenge was announced, but the staff in Goffstown are using every opportunity to win that reward.

Squirts and Mites take titles in state and Boston

Goffstown Editor — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 19:28:00 GMT

The New Hampshire Avalanche Squirt ’98 AAA team rolled through the Metro Boston Hockey League regular season, posting 35 wins without a loss.

The postseason was no different.

The top-seeded Avs, coached by Mike Potvin; his assistant coaches, Joe Silva, Mark Leach and Gary Saklad; and goaltender coches Bill McWhinnie and Bryan Ash, completed a record-breaking season with a 4-1 semifinal- round win over CD Select from Albany, N.Y., and an 8-0 drubbing of the Springfield Jr. Pics in the championship.

The team included players from Bedford, Hooksett, Goffstown, New Boston, Pelham, Concord, Londonderry, Manchester, Derry and Merrimack.

• • •

The Avalanche ’99 AAA team, the top seed in the tournament, won the Tier 1 Mite state championship.

The Avs handled the Jr. Monarchs, 5-2, and tied the Flames, 2-2, in the preliminary rounds.

In the semifinals, the Mites outshot the Nashua Panthers, 29-10, en route to a 3-1 win. They carried the momentum from that victory into the finals, opening an early 2-0 edge in an eventual 5-1 win.

• • •

The Avalanche Squirt ’97 AAA team won the Metro Boston Hockey League championship.

The Avs defeated the Edgewood Hawks in the semifinals, 2-0. Jeremy Duhamel connected midway through the third period after receiving a pass from Chad Thompson. Cam O’Neil’s empty netter in the final minute secured the win.

In the finals, the Avs outlasted the Springfield Jr. Pics in a shootout after a 2-2 tie. Goalie Michael Robinson turned aside both shots he faced, and Nicholas Burgess and Cole Anderson scored. Burgess and Colton McAllister tallied in regulation, with assists credited to Thompson and Isaac Segal.

The team earlier took second in the Tier I state championship.

• • •

The New Hampshire Avalanche Mites ’00 team beat the Worcester Crusaders in double overtime, 2-1, to become the Mite minor champions of the Metro Boston Hockey League. Reese Popkin, assisted by Kyle Greer and Cody Sullivan, scored the first goal for the Avs, tying the match. Ryan Sledjeski, Cameron Leborgne, Brett Bliss, Daniel Israel and goalie Conner Laurendeau kept the Crusaders scoreless for the remainder of the contest.

First-overtime attacks by forwards Parker Roberto, Cade DeStafani, Drew Parsons, Josh Connor and Mick Pitarys were thwarted, but, 14 seconds into the second OT, Greer found the back of the net on a pass from Sullivan. The Avs, 11-6-1 in MBHL play this season, dedicated the win to defenseman Mason Hobbs, who was unable to make the playoff games.

Three New Boston skiers breathe rare air of regionals

Goffstown Editor — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 23:49:00 GMT

BY RYAN O’CONNOR

One by one they took their turn: three skiers from one school, all representing one town at one exclusive event.

Though their ages and ethnicities varied, Goffstown High School’s Julie Clark, a junior; Milos Bohonek, a junior foreign-exchange student from the Czech Republic; and Thomas Joy, a freshman, were the only three Division I skiers to participate in the Eastern High School Alpine Championships (EHSAC).

The three New Boston residents joined 21 other Granite Staters competing at Cranmore Mountain from March 14 to 16. To get there, each had two top-10 runs, in a combination of slalom and giant slalom, at the Meet of Champions at Gunstock on Feb. 21.

To have three skiers reach the EHSAC is unprecedented at Goffstown High School, said coach Elizabeth Moody, who started the team in 1994 when her son Ben was a student at GHS. “I don’t know if it’s anything in particular we’ve done (as a program),” said Moody. “Probably, we’re just lucky having three skiers that came in that have skied quite a lot.”

At Cranmore, Clark finished 16th overall on slalom with a tworun combined time of 1 minute, 49.29 seconds. Her second-run, 52.34 seconds, was ninth best among over 200 starts. On giant slalom, Clark took 56th with an overall time of 2:02.48.

For the boys, the second run was canceled in giant slalom, which gave Joy a 15th-place finish with a one-run time of 51.26 seconds.

On slalom, the freshman earned a 28th-best time of 48.82 seconds in his first run, but faltered on his second attempt and came in 82nd with a combined 2:02.48.

Likewise, Bohonek’s 53.35- second run took 28th among second attempts, but he did not finish the first try.

Clark has been on the GHS team since her freshman year and has reached the Meet of Champions each season. The berth at Eastern Nationals is her first. A National Honors Society student, she has been skiing since she was 3 and has competed since she was 8.

Clark’s father is a diehard skier and coach, so her affinity for the sport is not a stretch. “My dad used to race in college, and my older sister used to race too, so it’s just a family thing,” she said.

In fact, Clark’s sister, Abby, along with Moody’s son, Ben, are the only two Grizzlies to reach Eastern Nationals prior to this year, said the coach “Julie’s just a much stronger skier than most girls her age,” said Moody. “She’s probably got a lot more mileage … She’s just so strong on the slopes.” Clark said her two male teammates really impressed her this season.

“Thomas is very good skier, especially for being so small and young,” she said. “And I think Milos is a really strong kid. He’s done very well for himself coming over from the Czech Republic.” Like Clark, Joy and Bohonek have been skiing nearly their entire lives.

Competing at Pat’s Peak since he was a child, Joy’s transition to the high school circuit was relatively painless.

Moody said Alpine skiing is one of the few sports where a freshman can be just as successful as a senior, though she added that Joy is an exceptional talent. “It’s kind of different being up there (at Cranmore) with all seniors and juniors knowing I’m one of the youngest kids,” said Joy. It’s a lot of fun, just different for me.”

Joy said he trains nearly every day, from first snowfall through the final melt.

Though raised half a world away, Bohonek’s upbringing wasn’t much different.

“My parents and my grandparents spent a lot of time in the mountains,” said Bohonek. “My parents are more climbers, but for some reason they decided to teach me how to ski. I started when I was 3.”

The transition to New England skiing was easy, he said, as conditions are much like those he experienced in the Czech Republic.

During the fall, however, he and his family took several trips to Austria to get an early start on the season.

The difference in countries, he said, is roughly the equivalent of skiing in New Hampshire vs. Colorado.

Bohonek said his home school only has a club program, so the opportunity to compete at the varsity level made the school year in New Hampshire more than worthwhile. The fact he’s met so much success makes it all the better.

Good gourd! – 1,100-pound pumpkin wins first for Goffstown man

Goffstown Editor — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 21:29:00 GMT

BY DAVE CHOATE

Peter Carter had never won first place at a fair for his giant pumpkins before and had actually planned to take this year off from competitive growing. One really big pumpkin changed that.

Carter, of Goffstown, won the popular giant pumpkin contest at the Hills- borough County Fair with the same pumpkin which won him the grand prize at the Rochester Fair. The gargantuan gourd weighed in at 1,101 pounds at the Hillsborough Fair and 1,095 pounds at the Rochester Fair, easily winning the grand prize in both.

“It’s quite a story, really. We had nine guys lifting up a 886 pounder for me and then go for one that looked about the same size-wise. When the same nine guys went to lift (the 1,101 pounder) they had no such luck,” Carter said.

The winning pumpkin had to be fork lifted onto a palette and was then brought to the fair for its winning weighing.

It was the largest pumpkin Carter has grown in the 12 years he’s been trying.

“A pumpkin that size has to come from a special seed, and mine came from the world record holder last year, a 1,502 pounder in Connecticut. You also need a good soil and pesticides and fungicides to keep away the bugs and fungi that prey on pumpkins,” he said.

Another 800 pounder in Carter’s garden went to good use on Sept. 23 when his daughter was married with the enormous pumpkin as the backdrop. He also grew some much smaller gourds for his daughter.

Carter said growing the pumpkins is an ultimately rewarding experience.

“It’s sort of fascinating to see how they grow, because they grow by as much as 30 pounds a day. It’s also fun to see people stop and look because they’re always pointing, smiling and yelling about how big they are,” said Carter.

Right now the pumpkin is still at the Rochester Fair, and Carter said he is unsure what he will do with it. If it doesn’t rot before then, he said he might enter it in Goffstown’s Pumpkin Regatta.

Carter encouraged anyone who wants to try their hand at growing the behemoths to contact the Giant Pumpkin Grower’s Association of Goffstown or to visit their Web site at www.nhgpga.org.

State to decide when school year ends in New Boston

Goffstown Editor — Wed, 16 May 2007 20:35:00 GMT

BY ROD HANSEN

Students at the local school won’t have to make up for time missed due to the April floods, if the state Department of Education grants the district a waiver.

Members of the School Board voted to request a waiver at their meeting on Wednesday, May 9. If granted, the waiver would allow the school to end its year Friday, June 22, rather than Tuesday, June 26.

Superintendent of Schools Darrell Lockwood will apply for the waiver through the commissioner of education, New Boston Central School Principal Rick Matthews said.

School Board member Jamie Neefe moved that Lockwood apply for the waiver. The motion passed unanimously without discussion.

The waiver will compensate for days lost to the spring nor’easter, which forced New Boston Central School to close the week of April 16-20.

Prior to voting to apply for the waiver, board members and Matthews spent the previous half-hour considering how the school could improve its emergency procedures in future natural disasters.

Many roads were closed throughout town during the storm’s first few days, cutting school bus transportation off from neighboring Goffstown.

Lockwood said he had been in communication with Matthews throughout the emergency, and also kept in contact with Road Agent John Riendeau to track the progress on road repair.

River Road posed one of the School District’s main concerns during the storm aftermath, Lockwood said.

That road, also known as Route 13, is the main thoroughfare connecting Goffstown and New Boston.

“Did I hound them about it? Absolutely. But I wasn’t pushing to have something opened prematurely,” Lockwood said.

Several communications measures could improve residents’ information in future emergencies, Lockwood said. He advocated adding an emergency section to the student handbook and updating the school Web site to include information on transportation options.

School Board member Kevin Collimore recommended using the school Web site to post directions. He noted that many of the calls to the Police Department during the storm involved people seeking alternate routes to their homes.

Travel to and from the school was difficult during the emergency because the road in front of the building had washed out, Matthews said. Families using the school as an emergency evacuation center had to get there via a special access road behind the school.

A total of 11 families went to the school for evacuation purposes, while approximately five stayed overnight, Matthews said.

Lockwood and Matthews said many of their problems during the storm occurred trying to communicate with the media.

Although Goffstown and New Boston are both a part of School Administrative Unit 19, Matthews said some outlets failed to understand that New Boston could be closed while Goffstown was not.

“Some of (the media outlets) had a hard time separating Goffstown from New Boston,” Matthews said.

To supply parents with the latest information at times of failed Internet access and power outages, Lockwood also recommended establishing a system where Matthews can leave a voice mail message informing parents of the latest developments.

Burglaries prompt police summit

Goffstown Editor — Thu, 07 Dec 2006 17:30:00 GMT

BY ROD HANSEN
New Boston’s police department has been leading the effort to curb a recent spate of home burglaries affecting several local communities.

New Boston’s police department has been leading the effort to curb a recent spate of home burglaries affecting several local communities.

“All the surrounding towns have had an influx of (burglary)- type crime over the past few months,” said police Sgt. Frank Kochanek, who helped organize two recent summits among local police departments to address the problem.

New Boston has experienced four home burglaries in the past month, Kochanek said. Neighboring communities including Bedford, Weare, Deering and Goffstown have also experienced outbreaks in criminal activity, he said.

Such an increase in the number of burglaries generally occurs during during the late fall and early winter and is likely tied to the holiday season, he said. “People are down and out this time of year,” Kochanek said.

“They’re hard on their luck, and what happens is an increase in crime.” A study of burglarized homes in New Boston shows the homes to be fairly secluded, though they are connected to major state roadways such as Route 114, Route 77 and the 2nd New Hampshire Turnpike, Kochanek said.

“The homes that were hit are in places where they could get out of the area fast,” Kochanek said. The burglaries all show signs of forced entry, he said.

The police department is working with other agencies to determine possible links in the crimes, Kochanek said. Areas under investigation include similarities in the dates and times at which the burglaries occurred, connection to major roadways and items stolen, he said.

Kochanek offered some ideas on how residents can protect themselves. He said homeowners should be sure to lock their doors and windows, keep wallets or checkbooks in a secure place, and send out the word if you’re going away for an extended holiday vacation.

“If you’re going to be away for a long period of time, it’s a good idea to tell the police so we can check your property,” Kochanek said. “You might also talk to a neighbor and have them look out for any unusual activity while you’re away,” he said.

New Boston is not alone in its recent rise in criminal activities. Nearby Weare has also seen four recent home burglaries, said Weare Police Chief Gregory Begin.

Though the chief declined to discuss specifics of the cases, he said items taken included money and jewelry. He also cautioned residents to take extra security measures.

“Some of these burglaries have been through locked doors, but make continued efforts to make sure your doors are locked, and keep an eye on your neighborhood,” Begin said.

Weare police are coordinating their investigation with neighboring communities, Begin said. Lt. Mark Bodanza attended the recent summit in New Boston, he said.

Goffstown has also been hard hit by burglaries lately, with that town reporting a total of eight confirmed incidents since Oct. 1.

The break-ins show signs of both forced and non-forced entry, said Goffstown Sgt. Rob Browne. This indicates some residents may have left home without taking the proper precautions.

“People have a hard time remembering whether they locked or didn’t lock a door. In cases where they do forget, that is an opportunity” for burglary, he said.

He also said most of the burglaries have involved money and jewelry, and agreed with Kochanek that residence should inform police and neighbors of any plans to go away.

He also suggested something as simple as a “beware of dog” sign could keep potential prowlers away.

Although Browne said recent burglaries are a cause for concern, he said he doesn’t consider the numbers exceptionally high.

“Any time someone’s home gets broken into, it’s a major event,” Browne said.