By Dan O’Brien The lights are going out at the Old Allenstown Meeting House inside Bear Brook State Park after selectmen decided to flip the switch. Public Service of New Hampshire sent a bill to Allenstown Town Hall saying it would cut electricity service to the meeting house Oct. 29 because the town hasn’t paid its bill since ...

BY DERRICK PERKINSAfter two decades of flooding, Norbert Pestana was awash with relief when he learned town officials want to buy and demolish his Haigh Avenue home. Since 1983, Pestana has watched as the home where he and his wife Helen raised their family suffered seven 100-year floods. After Mother’s Day flooding in 2006 left his ...

BY DERRICK PERKINSTo keep a promise made to voters last March, Salem selectmen will dip deeper into the town’s unreserved balance rather than raise taxes in December. But higher town taxes will be unavoidable in 2010. The decision came Oct. 19 after Town Manager Jonathan Sistare presented options to the board: use reserves to maintain a ...

By Gretyl Macalaster Candia Fire Chief Rudy Cartier submitted a request for a leave of absence from the department on Friday, Oct. 9, after the release of a report issued by the Rockingham County Attorney’s Office that criticized his leadership abilities. Selectmen granted the request the same day. Although selectmen were not prepared to ...

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 ...

By Kathleen Bailey Lee Bartlett, welfare administrator for Epsom, puts out a sign when she’s meeting with a client. It reads, “Please meet with the next available clerk,” and she props it up several feet away from her office and Town Clerk/Tax Collector Dawn Blackwell’s service window. Sometimes it works, and she ...

BY DERRICK PERKINSSelectmen concluded a two-and-a-half hour public inquiry on July 13 into the alleged unethical conduct of Selectman Patrick Hargreaves without taking action against him. Hargreaves had come under fire from Salem Police Chief Paul Donovan for allegedly violating RSA 49-D:4 – non-interference by the elected body – ...

BY DERRICK PERKINSSelectman Patrick Hargreaves has come under fire for allegedly trying to use his position as a member of the board to influence a police officer during a June 13 confrontation with a patrolman. In a letter written to Town Manager Jonathan Sistare on June 15, Chief of Police Paul Donovan accused Hargreaves of improper and ...

BY DERRICK PERKINSSelectmen are preparing to take a hard look at the town’s finances as they face a potential loss of $1.3 million in state funding to the municipality at the start of July. Budget Committee Chairman Peter Rayno urged selectmen to take a creative and radical approach to budgeting this year during a joint workshop between his ...

At a recent Hopkinton selectmen meeting, part-time Fire Chief Richard Schaefer was appointed full-time acting fire chief. He will assume the full-time duties July 13. Schaefer has been a member of the Hopkinton Fire Department and ambulance squad for 30 years. He served as the part-time chief in 1999 and also served as full-time facilities ...