Craig: In search of uncounted votes.
Defeated Manchester mayoral candidate Joyce Craig has filed for a recount. She went to City Hall yesterday to make the request. In a Facebook message posted on Wednesday, Craig said she quote “believe(d) that all the voters who put their faith in me deserve to have their votes counted.” Per the city charter, the three member Board of Recount must set a date for the recount within seven days of the request, so look for this matter to be settled by next Thursday at the latest.
In addition to setting the date, the board will decided the fate of challenged ballots, to determine whether or not a vote is counted for either candidate, if at all, when ballot counting observers for either campaign disagree with the ballot counter about who a ballot is cast for. In his weekly Wednesday interview on Girard at Large, Mayor Ted Gatsas said Craig would be within her right to ask for a recount given the vote tally, but that he would move on with the city’s business as normal, not expecting the recount will overturn the result.
Candia: Deadbeat school district.
The Candia School District has failed to pay the Manchester School District the capital costs required by its tuition contract for the past fourteen months. That gem was brought to light by Mayor Ted Gatsas in an interview with Girard at Large on Wednesday. Gatsas said the Candia School Board had suspended the payments despite clear language in the contract obligating the town to pay its share of the improvements done to Central High several years ago.
The Candia board has opted to exercise a clause in the contract allowing for early termination of its tuition agreement with the city and recently announced it had negotiated a twenty year deal with Pinkerton Academy, subject to the approval of the town’s voters in March. Gatsas hinted that legal action might be forthcoming from the Manchester Board of School Committee, which has yet to act to enforce the contract.
Pinkerton Academy: Still mum on AP Exam results.
Just a side note on Pinkerton, its Public Relations Director Chip Underhill has yet to respond to our request for information about how its students fared in the recent A P Exams. Given that the Manchester School District made a big deal of how well its students performed on the tests and given Mayor Ted Gatsas‘ question about how the district compared with Pinkerton, we thought we’d make our own inquiry and find ourselves wondering why they’ve not answered. Don’t worry, though. We’ll keep trying.
News from our own backyard continues after this.
Jasper: Shuffles the leadership deck.
New Hampshire House Speaker Shawn Jasper announced the addition of two legislators to his leadership team, along with several promotions in light of Majority Leader Jack Flanagan’s resignation from the leadership team. Merrimack Rep. Dick Hinch was promoted from the position of Majority Whip to Majority Leader. Raymond Rep. Kathleen Hoelzel has been promoted from Deputy Majority Whip to Majority Whip, replacing Hinch and Goffstown Rep. Claire Rouillard will take over as deputy majority whip for Hoelzel. Nashua Rep. Peggy McCarthy was appointed assistant majority leader and Bedford Rep. Terry Wolf will serve as an Assistant Majority Whip under Hoelzel.
A new report released by the Alzheimer’s Association says New Hampshire Medicaid spending on people with Alzheimer’s and other dementias will increase nearly sixty percent by twenty twenty five. The report, The Impact of Alzheimer’s Disease on Medicaid Costs: A Growing Burden for States, found that the state’s current two hundred twenty million dollars in Medicaid spending on seniors with Alzheimer’s and dementia will increase to three hundred thirty million dollars million over the next ten years.
Carroll: Report a “wake up call.”
Seniors with Alzheimer’s and other dementias rely on Medicaid at a rate nearly three times greater than other seniors due to the long duration of the disease, the intense personal care needs and the high cost of long-term care services. Approximately fifteen percent of the state’s two thousand fifteen Medicaid budget is spent on people with Alzheimer’s and other dementias. This number is expected to rise as the population ages.
“This report should really serve as a wake-up call to our public officials,” said Heather Carroll, of the Alzheimer’s Association of Massachusetts and New Hampshire.
We’ve linked to the full report findings from this newscast at Girard at Large dot com and to a recent interview we conducted with Carroll on the topic.
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