In follow up to Julie in Manchester’s call late last week, we’ve obtained the following information from the Manchester Public Works Department about the city’s recycling program. We’ve confirmed that there are, in fact, no more of the sixty five gallon blue toters residents must now use to recycle and there is no money in the budget to purchase more. However, Public Works Director Kevin Sheppard is hopeful that once the department is free and clear of winter, there might funds to obtain another five to six hundred. To date, the city has distributed nineteen thousand one hundred of the blue bins to the twenty three thousand five hundred properties from which it collects trash. Sheppard says that since the bins went into use, the city’s collected another fifteen hundred tons of recyclables, an increase of thirty four percent. However, tonnage tossed away by the city has only declined by less than seven percent. And, while the city has saved about one hundred seventy five thousand dollars on disposal costs, it has a long way to go before it recovers the million bucks it plunked down on the blue barrels. We’ll be talking trash with Ward 1 Alderman Joyce Craig this morning. She’s chair of the city’s Solid Waste Committee and a key figure in the disposal discussions.
Town officials in Goffstown are planning a retirement party for outgoing Selectman Phil D’Avanza and some in town are crying foul over the planned festivities. While invited attendees are being asked to pay twenty five bucks a head to defray party costs and provide the long term selectman a parting gift, Girard at-Large has received multiple emails showing that paid town staff, including Town Administrator Sue Desruisseaux are organizing the event and soliciting town employees on town time using town email. Critics charge that it’s not a retirement party so much as it is a town employee sponsored campaign event designed to show the love for D’Avanza just three days before his name appears on the ballot for Planning Board in what is likely to be a hotly contested race. Don’t spill the beans, though. It’s a surprise party! Uh, oh. Looks like I goofed.
One more note from the Goffstown this morning. School officials sent an email to parents on January thirtieth advising them that the district is quote “experiencing disruption with our ability to send email” and that they quote “anticipate a resolution sometime tomorrow.” They apologized for any inconvenience and let parents know in the email they sent advising they couldn’t send email that their phones were still working.
News from our own backyard continues after this.
Conservatives and liberals across the state are howling over comments made by Senator Jeanne Shaheen, Healthcare Queen in an interview with a Concord radio station on Friday about the devastating loss of access to doctors and hospitals New Hampshire families have suffered as a result of Obamacare. Saying hindsight is twenty twenty and that she did not design the plan that’s stripped twenty two thousand Granite State families of their coverage and removed ten of the state’s twenty six hospitals from Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield‘s provider network along with twenty five percent of the state’s primary care physicians, Shaheen said changes in the the law needed to be made quote “at least for those who are willing to pay more, that they have that option of going to their doctor and hospital no matter what their insurer does.” So, in other words, you can keep your health plan, keep your doctor and keep your hospital if you can afford it, according to Senator Jeanne Shaheen, Healthcare Queen. I guess if you can’t pay more to keep what you had, you’re out of luck and left dependent on the government system, which was the plan for the unwashed masses all along, wasn’t it? We’ve linked to the interview. The ear popping statement is made within the first two minutes.
Msgr. Ed Arsenault, the former Chancellor of the Diocese of Manchester who went on to be the President of the St. Luke Institute in Maryland is going to the clink, copping a plea deal with prosecutors that admits guilt on three felony counts of theft, one count each for the Diocese of Manchester, Catholic Medical Center and the estate of the late Msgr. John Molan. If the judge accepts the plea deal, Arsenault will spend at least four years in jail. Of course, nobody’s saying anything about the specifics of the crimes because the investigation continues. For its part, the Diocese issued a statement noting it brought the matter to the A G’s attention and fully cooperated with the investigation in which the FBI and the US Attorney‘s Office were also involved. The diocese expressed its gratitude to the A G and supporting law enforcement agencies for their quote “exceptional diligence and professionalism” and said it would continue to pray for all involved and for the continued vitality of the Catholic Church in New Hampshire.
That’s news from our own backyard, Girard at Large hour ___ starts just moments from now.
