Tomorrow is St. Valentine’s Day? Have you placed your order with Jacques, yet? Pretty much the last day you can pre-order. 6 2 5 5 1 5 5 gets it done now. If you’re one of those last minute guys, they’re open tomorrow from 7 to 7.
Liar liar pants of fire! That’s the summary of the sixteen page report issued by the Attorney General’s Office following the investigation of Alderman at-Large Joe Kelly Levasseur. While the A G’s Office declined to file criminal charges, worried it might not be able to prove Levasseur intended them to investigate the false claims, despite his sending them the complaint, they summarily rejected as “untrue” and “unfounded” all the charges made by Levasseur which include: Accusations of intimidation, assault and interference with a police investigation by Manchester Police Patrolman’s Association President Steve Maloney, a cover up of that assault by Police Chief David J. Mara, a cover up of the threats not made by a not off duty not police officer by Mara and claimed Mara knowingly allowed the intimidating acts to happen. After exhaustively interviewing fifteen witnesses and after enduring four months of Levasseur stalling his own interview, the report summarily rejected each and every claim made by Levasseur writing that all evidence suggested that Levasseur was untruthful in his claims that he was assaulted by Maloney and that the Manchester Police Department did not interfere with an ongoing assault investigation by the Hooksett Police Department. Mayor Ted Gatsas declined comment for this article saying the report spoke for itself, which is essentially what Mara told us in saying he would likely issue a formal statement on the matter today after he had more time to digest it. Levasseur did reply to our request for comment. In an email he wrote and I quote, with all it’s misspellings and grammatical errors: “Yes, I will respond, first your an idiot and not a reporter, as much as you wish you were and second, why did you put a picture of Joni Nunn‘s apartment building up as part of your profile picture? Are you a sick man? And, I know the name of the woman you sexually harassed. Why do you hate women? Any comment?” End quote. We’ll be examining this report in a special extended version of Public Safety This Week with Jim Gaudet starting at seven. Oh, before we leave the topic, a couple of questions for Manchester’s aldermen: One, what will you do about one of your members who has now been proven to have lied about your police chief, police department and individual officers and two, do you think you might want to revisit Levasseur’s accusations against the Manchester Dog Park Association? Just wondering. Inquiring minds want to know.
News from our own backyard continues after this.
The earth shook in Goffstown last night as the board governing Goffstown’s public access television station made some interesting changes. Now, not only are they going to allow public comment at the meetings of their governing board, they’ve decided it’s not such a good idea to impede the public’s ability to obtain video copies of public meetings. During the public comment session, State Rep. John Burt referenced the Budget Committee‘s actions preventing him from obtaining a copy of their meeting and offered them some helpful advice. He also answered critics on the Budget Committee who said he shouldn’t have video because he might do things they don’t like. We’ll have the details this morning when Burt calls in to share his tale.
The harmonious folks at Hooksett School Board were at each other again last night. Vice Chairman David Pearl and member John Lyscars came out swinging, decrying the meeting’s lack of information from schools other than Pinkerton Academy. Several attendees at the not so accurately named High School Information Night, protested the lack of information from other schools, saying it was wrong for the board to essentially be promoting Pinkerton. Board Clerk Cheryl Akstin said it was entirely appropriate to present information about Pinkerton because that was the question on the ballot and that the town needed to know about the option they were being asked to approve or reject. While there was some support for that proposition, which came largely from members of the Warrant Article Committee that put the presentation together, others seized on Akstin’s admission that Manchester wasn’t invited because everybody’s already familiar with them. “Not so” said citizens who came to the mic. Many with younger children are not familiar with the city’s schools, but are being asked to vote on questions that will affect their children’s education without having the opportunity to learn about or question Manchester schools. The committee’s presentation of the comparative costs between Manchester and Pinkerton drew heavy fire with resident Ray Miclette challenging the accounting trick that added the capital costs Hooksett is contractually obligated to pay Manchester over the next four years to the per pupil tuition cost of Manchester schools, which in conjunction with projecting declining Manchester enrollment, showed skyrocketing per pupil costs over the next five years. Miclette argued those costs will be paid whether zero or all Hooksett students go to Manchester and, as a fixed cost, it belongs to the district, not Manchester whose tuition is actually noticeably lower than Pinkerton’s. Of course Miclette was gaveled by Board Chair Trisha Korkosz for not being respectful of the Hooksett School Board. Pearl and Lyscars said it was the Hooksett School Board that had not been respectful of Hooksett citizens by failing to offer them input on the high school matter by cancelling and refusing to hold informational meetings, use surveys or properly investigate Pinkerton as an option on everything from transportation to academic performance, which one resident said was sub par and under performing noting the school’s test scores are in the bottom half of the state. He said given their facilities and resources, they should be in the top twenty. They’re not. Oh My HEAD! Be sure to check out our real time blog of the meeting.
That’s news from our own backyard, Girard at Large
