Gatsas: There WILL be public comment.
Manchester Mayor Ted Gatsas told the Girard at Large audience in an interview yesterday that the public will be allowed to comment at Monday’s special meeting of the Board of School Committee. That’s when state Commissioner of Education Virginia Barry will be on hand to answer the board’s questions about a variety of issues it has contested with respect to the Common Core national standards, use of Smarter Balanced Assessment, waivers to the No Child Left Behind Act and a state pilot program on student assessments.
Barry: She’ll now hear from the public, too.
News reports from a local newspaper erroneously reported that Gatsas wasn’t going to allow questions or comments from the public at the meeting, infuriating advocates and parents who wanted the opportunity to raise their comments and questions in the commissioner’s presence. Not so, said the mayor yesterday who, in reply to our question on the matter, simply stated: Quote “As with every meeting, there will be public comment.” He said he had no idea where those reports about there not being public comment allowed came from.
Mailboxes: Getting vandalized in Candia
The police in Candia have issued another press release regarding mailbox vandalism in town. On the morning of April 28th, they say they received reports of approximately five acts of vandalism to mailboxes that had occurred overnight and they’re asking anyone with any knowledge of the above events are asked to contact the Candia Police Department at 4 8 3 2 3 1 8.
Sanders: Running for President
Quote: “It’s not just that, for forty years, the middle class has been disappearing. It’s that 99% of all new income is going to the top 1%, and the grotesque level of wealth and income inequality today is worse than at any time since the late 1920s. The people at the top are grabbing all the new wealth and income for themselves, and the rest of America is being squeezed and left behind.” End quote. That’s just part of what Vermont’s self proclaimed Socialist United States Senator Bernie Sanders had to say in an email to supporters announcing that he will be a candidate for President in the Democratic primary. Among the motivators cited by Sanders in his decision to run were the Citizens United decision from the U S Supreme Court, which he said allowed billionaires to rig the system and Global Climate Change, which he referred to as quote “central challenge of our time.”
News from our own backyard continues after this.
LED Conversion has begun
Crews from Siemens have begun replacing Manchester’s approximately nine thousand streetlights with LED fixtures. The project is expected to be completed over the next four months. According to a press release issued by the city yesterday, the installation process begins in the neighborhoods off of Boynton St. on the Southwest side and will progress towards the downtown. Additional installation crews will be added over the next few weeks and will be dispatched to the southeast off of Brown Ave. and to the northeast near Wellington Rd. The installation work will concentrate on residential neighborhoods for the first two months before extending into the busier areas of the City. Installation crews will focus on specific fixtures during the first phase of the installation process, therefore not every fixture will be replaced during this first pass by the installation crew. At the completion of the project all streetlights that are paid for by the city will be replaced as part of this project.
Casino Lou: Another casino bill loses big
It was a consequential day in Concord yesterday as the New Hampshire House of Representatives, once again, killed the expansion of gambling. A motion to adopt Senate Bill one thirteen, sponsored by District Twenty State Senator “Casino Lou” D’Allesandro, Democrat from Manchester, failed on a vote of one fifty six to two oh eight. A motion to kill it passed two twenty three to one forty one. We’ve linked to the bill and to the available roll call votes from this newscast at Girard at Large dot com. There’s even an audio stream of the debate, so we’ve linked to that too! D’Allessandro, by the way, expressed shock and surprise at the vote and declared “today was not a good day” on his Facebook page. Sorry, Lou.
Hassan: Pledges veto
The House also adopted Senate Bill one sixteen by a wide margin, two twelve to one fifty. That’s the so called “Constitutional Carry Bill” that would allow people to carry concealed weapons without permission from their local police departments. The bill would not change any of the laws governing who was eligible to own a firearm, it would just make it so that people could have them under a jacket or sweater, in their purse or pocket, or the glove box of their car without needing permission of the police to do so. That makes sense when you consider that New Hampshire is a so called “Open Carry” state that does NOT require permits to carry a gun in plain sight, such as in a holster on your hip.
Guns: Can be legally carried in the open, but not in secret, without police permission
Her Highness, the Governess Margaret Wood Hassan has said she will veto the bill. That got state G O P Chair Jennifer Horn to her keyboard. She issued a statement saying, in part quote “Law abiding Granite Staters already have the right to carry, but need to ask permission to carry in their cars, under a jacket, or in a purse. Too often, local officials deny or delay permits for no good reason, denying people the basic right to self-defense.” She said Hassan’s veto promise had more to do with currying favor with out of state anti gun groups for her looming senate run than it did with protecting NH residents.
That’s News from our own backyard, Girard at Large hour ___ is next!
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