The race for U S Senate became more interesting over the weekend with the announcement by former Senator Bob Smith that he will enter the race. In an interview with James Pindell of WMUR, Smith said he’d changed his mind about running because no big Republican name had come forward to campaign for the office. Conservative activist Karen Testerman and former G O P State Senator Jim Rubens have officially entered the race while former Bay State Senator Scott Brown has traveled around the state testing the waters. Smith, who moved to Florida after losing the seat he held in a primary to then Congressman John Sununu, said he will move back to his home in Tuftonboro, where he’s summered since moving, and expects to formally launch his campaign in January. According to Pindell’s article, which we’ve linked to with this newscast at Girard at-Large dot com, we should expect to seen Smith file his paperwork in the near future. Rubens released a statement saying quote: “A Republican will win this race and address our nation’s debt crisis and stagnant economy only if our party nominates a candidate who can unite the party and win back young voters, women, and fiscally-conservative independents.” End quote. He called that a new path for Republicans which he said his campaign represented.
Hooksett School Board Member John Lyscars has published what he calls a Hooksett High School Strategy in a bid to get the board to coalesce around a way forward for the town’s students. The board has been embroiled in colorful controversy as a majority of its members have damned the torpedoes in pursuit of a tuition contract with Pinkerton Academy that will supplant Manchester as the town’s school of record while establishing several so called satellite schools that would be governed by Memorandums of Understanding. In his plan, Lyscars, who campaigned on a platform of giving Hooksett parents choice in where they send their kids to high school, said it is critical that the board develop a process that allows receiving districts to know how many kids to expect for budgeting purposes and that Hooksett determine how it will handle a situation where there are more kids that want to go to a school than the school will allow. Late last week, Lyscars said the board was considering a special meeting for tonight to make these decisions and amend and or adopt Memorandums of Understanding with Bow and Londonderry before their school boards meet this week. From what we can see, no meeting was scheduled and Londonderry has cancelled it’s school board meeting scheduled for tomorrow night. We’ve linked to Lyscars’ plan with this newscast at Girard at Large dot com.
News from our own backyard continues after this.
The Manchester Historic Association is inviting one and all to visit the Millyard Museum on Saturday, December seventh from ten to four for a day of family fun. Admission is free. The schedule of activities includes a story hour and hands-on craft activities for children, Christmas music karaoke, old-fashioned yarn spinning, guided tours of the museum, and raffles of gift certificates and other great prizes. The Museum Shop will feature unique history-themed brass ornaments, books and inexpensive toys and other gift items. This year’s limited edition ornament commemorates 100 years of Gill Stadium and honors Manchester police officer and professional baseball player John “Phenomenal” Smith. For further details, please visit the website Manchester Historic dot org. Be sure to mark your calendars!
There will be another public meeting on a proposed rezoning of Second Street tonight from six to eight at St. Raphael’s Parish in Granite Square. Staff from the Southern New Hampshire Regional Planning Commission, the group under contract with the city to conduct the access management and overlay zoning study, will present proposed changes to the zoning and planning board regulations governing the corridor which stretches from the Bedford border to Granite Street. The public will be allowed to comment on the proposed changes. The effort generated controversy in late October when a so called Health Impact Study blamed obesity in the neighborhood on area restaurants and suggested the city consider changing the zoning to reduce the density of fast food restaurants. Residents and business owners at the meeting forced planners to admit the data used was general data taken from a variety of sources and not collected from neighborhood residents themselves.
That’s news from our own backyard, Girard at Large hour ___ is straight ahead!
