Looks like Manchester City Solicitor Tom Clark should have paid a little better attention to the questions we raised about the legality of the city banning employees from possessing firearms on the job or in the workplace back in August. In response to questions asked about the legality of the move by Ward 10 Alderman Phil Greazzo, Clark sent city Human Resource Director Jane Gile a letter late last week saying he’d revisited the proposed workplace violence policy. Initially he said he didn’t believe the city as an employer would be regulating the possession of a firearm by enacting a policy that banned their possession on the job. After Greazzo brought it up in public session, though, he took another look and lo and behold decided the city was regulating the possession of a firearm, which is contrary to state law. The appropriate course of action, he said, would be to remove the language banning guns from the workplace violence policy. We’d like to thank the listener who brought the law to our attention back in August. We’ve posted Clark’s letter with this newscast at Girard at Large dot com.
Is there a conspiracy afoot to drive Alderman at Large Joe Kelly Levasseur down ballot? According to our sources, Joe thinks so. The City Clerk’s Office released the sample ballots for the coming November election last week and Levasseur’s name was placed third in the alderman at-Large category and Levasseur didn’t like it. Incumbent Dan O’Neil was at the top and challenger Will Infantine was second. The other challenger, Dan Mattingly, was in fourth position. The top two vote getters will be elected in November. Some, like Levasseur, think that ballot position is critical in the race. While two sources would not go on the record about Levasseur’s conspiracy rant, City Clerk Matt Normand acknowledged he’d received text messages from Levasseur on the topic inquiring why he was third on the ballot while saying others suggested there was a conspiracy to drive him to the bottom. According to Normand, state law governs ballot placement. The number of contestants for an office are placed in a hat, a number is drawn, that person is first on the ballot and the others follow behind in alphabetical order. The numbers were pulled by the Secretary of State last year before the contestants were known and so no, there was no conspiracy to drive Joe down the ballot, just the one he’s apparently trying to say exists to get people upset on his behalf. We’ve posted a cheat sheet on how it works with this newscast at Girard at Large dot com.
News from our own backyard continues after this.
St. Mary’s Bank, the nation’s first credit union, released a couple of big announcements. They opened a brand new mortgage center in the city of Concord last week and gave a two thousand dollar grant to the Mental Health Center of Greater Manchester. The Concord Mortgage Center, located at 2 Pillsbury Street will serve the mortgage needs of members in the Greater Concord area, the Lakes Region and the Upper Valley. The Center offers members one-stop shopping for any mortgage need, from applying for a mortgage to closing. The grant to the Mental Health Center will create a new mobile responsive Web site for Bedford Counseling Associates, one of the Center’s affiliated programs which provides counseling to children, teens and their families. Both releases with all the details are posted with this newscast at Girard at Large dot com.
The Bedford Police Department announced it will host its first annual Senior Talk session. The goal of the event is to provide seniors information that will help them avoid being victims of fraud, identity theft, and other crimes. It will also teach important safety tips and make seniors aware of the various programs the department has to engage and protect seniors, such as the Are You Okay? program. Senior Talk will be held on October seventeenth at two o’clock in the Bedford Public Safety Complex. All members of the public are, of course invited to attend. We’ve uploaded B P D’s press release with all the details for your review.
Save this date, too! The Merrimack Rotary Club will host it’s annual Turkey Trot 5 K on Thanksgiving Morning, Thursday, November twenty eighth. Race registration begins that morning at seven and the race begins at eight. We’ve posted their press release with all the details with this newscast at Girard at Large dot com.
That’s news from our own backyard, Girard at Large hour ___ is on the way
