The fallout continues in the wake of the city’s shut down of the Tiki Bar and outdoor patio at KC’s Rib Shack. At a meeting with regulatory agency department heads yesterday, Mayor Ted Gatsas issued an administrative directive requiring any such action to be explicitly approved by the department head or their deputy. In an interview last week with Girard at Large, Gatsas said city agencies were wrong to act as they did. Following the interview, Gatsas scheduled the meeting held yesterday which he said was to see how city department heads could better coordinate their activities and otherwise improve the inspection and permitting process. In an interview with Girard at Large yesterday, Gatsas said he’d not only given the departments this directive, he also said he directed them to identify other problem cases in need of resolution and started the discussion about a one stop permitting process to simplify licensees’ lives. He will meet with the departments again next week.
In yesterday’s interview, Gatsas said that Planning and Community Development Director Leon LaFreniere was not aware of Code Enforcement Inspector Jim Tierney’s June 27th email to Health Department Inspector Mary Ellen Tufts stating he would shut KC Rib Shack’s Tiki Bar and patio down prior to constructing the timeline of events he presented to the Board of Mayor and Aldermen. When asked what action would be taken against Tierney or any other personnel that caused this commotion and withheld information from their department’s management about what they did and when they did it, Gatsas would only say it’s a personnel matter and he’s not going to discuss it. LaFreniere did not return the call we made late yesterday afternoon. We’ll have more on our conversation with the mayor during the show.
News from our own backyard continues after this.
The infighting continues at the Hooksett School Board where chair Trisha “The Gavel” Korkosz said she’s looking into sanctioning Vice Chairman David “The Pariah” Pearl and board member John “Angry Elf” Lyscars. The two had requested copies of correspondence that Superintendent Charles “Chucky the Super” Littlefield sent to neighboring districts inquiring about their interest and ability to take all of Hooksett’s high school kids. After the board shot their motion down on a 3 to 2 vote, surprise, they filed Right to Know requests with Littlefield and Superintendent Nathan Greenberg of Londonderry. Greenberg released the emails and Lyscars posted them to facebook. That, said Korkosz, violates board policies requiring the minority to support the decisions of the majority. Korkosz is rumored to be looking for a way to use this incident to expel them from the board. You just can’t make this stuff up. We’ll have more on this during the show.
A little girl that went missing was found safe and sound. Nine year old Kyevannah Karam was reported missing Sunday night around 9. She was last seen visiting neighbors on Central Street. Apparently, she decided to sleep over a friend’s house on Amherst St., but nobody thought to notify the parents. Police retrieved the little girl yesterday morning from the Amherst Street home after being told she was there.
St. Mary’s Bank has announced the donation of the lobby mural in its soon to be demolished headquarters to the Manchester Historic Association, which in turn will loan the piece for an extended period to the American-Canadian Genealogical Society. The large mural, which has been in the credit union’s McGregor Street location since its opening in1970, was removed yesterday and will soon be installed in the American-Canadian Genealogical Society’s building on South Elm Street. St. Mary’s is building a brand new headquarters that doesn’t have sufficient wall space to house the mural, which has become an icon in the Franco Community whose heritage it reflects.
Finally this morning, seems that the struggling economy hasn’t affected state liquor sales, which set a record last fiscal year. Six hundred nine million dollars in booze was sold by the state last year, an almost seven percent increase over the prior year. The news comes on the heels of a record setting year in lottery sales.
That’s news from our own backyard, Girard at Large hour ___ is just 30 seconds away.
The city decides it is best to prohibit growth of private enterprise, I guess hiring people and paying taxes is not in the best interest of the city. Yup, those tiki bars are so very dangerous to our health…I shudder at the very thought of them operating and existing.