GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
It's back! Winter that is, at least for a day or two. And it's not just the snow: Maybe you noticed the drop in temps that came along with it yesterday? That was an arctic front coming through, and the cold air behind it has settled in. Highs today in the lower 20s—with gusty winds from the northwest dragging wind chills into uncomfortable territory in some spots. Upper teens tonight.They're back! Still, you know it's spring when black bears start casing the joint. Here's one on Occom Ridge in Hanover, in a video from Ernie Parizeau.They're back, II... At least Occom Ridge's bear didn't break and enter. Over in Grafton Saturday night, Melissa Campney and her husband looked out their dining room window "and there was a really big bear stuck on the porch—eating the porch, as a matter of fact," Melissa tells WMUR's Scott Cook. The bear spent 45 minutes trying to get out—removing sheetrock, trashing screens—before they were able to free it.Meanswhile, back on Occom Pond... The Hanover Fire Department rescued a deer that broke through the ice Friday. Firefighters responding to a call about a deer in distress found it about 100 feet offshore. They decided they could try a rescue, broke a channel through the ice, and then, says the department's press release, "Lt. Jeremy Labombard and FF Kevin LaHaye donned ice rescue suits and were able to successfully make their way to the deer, secure it with rescue harness, and assist it to shore." It recovered. Oh, they add: Don't go out on the ice!!! Release and photos at the link.Downtown Hanover gets its ice cream back. In a new spot—the corner by the Nugget where The J List used to be. John Lippman reports in the Valley News that Kim and Scott Smith, who own Red Wagon Toy Co. and 37 Central Clothiers in Woodstock and The Ivy Edit in Hanover, aim to open Hanover Scoops (a sister scoopery to their Woodstock Scoops) in May. It'll be managed by their daughter, Alison, who runs The Ivy Edit nearby, and will source from W. Woodstock's Mountain Creamery and E. Arlington's Wilcox Ice Cream.SPONSORED: Do you like unwanted phone calls on your landline? Me neither. George Lightbody here. I've spent the last two years creating impTM-- a smart-home product that completely stops unwanted landline calls. Based in Hanover, we are about to launch nationally. But first, we’d like to offer 30 Upper Valley residents the chance to try for free. Receive a free unit in exchange for candid feedback. Must have a smartphone and a landline with caller ID. If interested, email me at [email protected]. Sponsored by www.joinimp.com.Turmoil at Norwich Public Works. The department's faced a sexual harassment investigation and the departure of much of the road crew, Jim Kenyon writes in the VN. He contends the town tried to hide the fact that a private investigator was looking into the issues by having its law firm do the hiring, and tots up the departures. Town Manager Rod Francis responds to Kenyon's column, writing that it's common practice for law firms to keep investigations at arms length by hiring an investigator, and says, "We are working hard to build a cohesive, supportive and respectful workplace.""Innocent people, affected by forces outside their control, who must, nevertheless, suffer the consequences.” Those are the subjects of Ann Young's paintings at AVA Gallery, one of four solo exhibitions celebrating Women’s History Month there. In Artful, Susan Apel tours Young's work, all done before the Ukraine war and, Susan writes, "eerily prescient, or maybe it is just that war and strife are an ever present part of the human condition."Employees sue D-H, alleging mismanagement of retirement funds. There are four named employees and potentially "thousands of others" who are part of a class-action suit brought in federal court in Concord, writes the VN's Nora Doyle-Burr. The plaintiffs contend that the hospital, its board, and an investment oversight committee "paid 'excessive' recordkeeping and administration fees on two defined contribution plans for D-H employees," Doyle-Burr writes.Pandemic migration: the visuals. The Census Bureau on Thursday released changes in county population between 2020 and 2021. Every county in NH and ME saw fewer births than deaths, but both states and VT more than made up for it with new migrants. All four counties in the Upper Valley grew between .6 and 1.5 percent, according to the bureau's map. Fastest growth in northern New England was in Carroll County, NH (which includes towns bordering Lake Winnipesaukee as well as Conway and other White Mountain towns) and Lincoln and Piscataquis counties in Maine.Where things stand on NH redistricting. In NH Bulletin, Amanda Gokee rounds up the state of play: Gov. Chris Sununu's riposte to the GOP plan he's said he'll veto—his map makes the 1st District a bit more Republican and the 2nd a bit more Democratic; the Senate's new Exec Council map, which makes Democrat Cinde Warmington's district more Democratic and every other district but one more Republican; and new House maps, signed into law but likely to face legal challenges from towns (including Canaan and Hanover) that could have gotten a dedicated representative but didn't.Scott signs gun measure. On Friday, Vermont's governor signed into law the compromise bill he'd proposed after vetoing the legislature's first effort to close the so-called "Charleston Loophole" on gun sales. VT law had allowed sales to go forward when background checks weren't completed within three days. Legislators had tried to close that loophole entirely, writes Anne Wallace Allen in Seven Days, but in the end went ahead with Scott's insistence that the waiting period last seven days.VT House invests big in roads, bridges, transit... and EVs. It gave final approval to two bills on Friday that together put $866 million into transportation, writes Lola Duffort in VTDigger. The bills, which now go to the Senate, put $22 million toward cutting the cost of buying an EV and $19 million toward EV charging infrastructure along highways, roadways, at workplaces, and at state parks. Road paving will get $158 million, a third more than last year, and state highway bridges $58 million, up 17 percent. Bike/ped spending gets $20M.Want to know how to pick up a duck? Not that it comes up often in everyday life, but whenever it does, this guy's got you covered.
Lousy video quality but big sound, big hair, and Lindsey Buckingham absolutely going to town on guitar.
See you tomorrow.
Written and published by Rob Gurwitt Writer/editor: Tom Haushalter Poetry editor: Michael Lipson About Rob About Tom About Michael
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