Berry: Returns fire
Seems the Hooksett School Board didn’t take too kindly to the letter sent by its Manchester counterpart over the status of tuition negotiations. In a letter received by the city yesterday, Hooksett School Board Chairman Mike Berry said their board categorically rejected Manchester’s charge that they have failed to negotiate a new agreement in good faith. In the three page letter, Berry documents Hooksett’s various offers to the city, complaining that other than the letter sent last month by Manchester School Board Vice Chair Sarah Ambrogi, Hooksett has only received verbal offers, all of which they rejected.
Ambrogi: Lobbed the first verbal bomb.
A key complaint expressed in Ambrogi’s letter was that Hooksett Superintendent Charles Littlefield and Attorney Gordon Graham said they had no authority to negotiate with Manchester at their meetings back in October, which generated Manchester’s complaint that Hooksett wasn’t negotiating in good faith; a charge the nearly three page long letter does not directly dispute. Despite it all, Berry did say that Hooksett was willing to continue with negotiations in pursuit of a long term agreement, but said that an agreement must be approved before January sixteenth so it can make it onto the ballot for voter approval in March’s elections
MPD: Donating Bikes
Renovating, selling donated bikes
The Manchester Police Department will now be donating all of its unclaimed bicycles to the Queen City Bike Collective, which is located at 373 Union Street at Neighbor Works Southern New Hampshire’s Community Room. The Collective is a non-profit organization that accepts donated bikes, repairs them and sells them at discounted rates. They work to get community members, including youth, on bikes and helps riders learn to repair and maintain them. The department has already donated approximately thirty bikes since the program started in July. Of course, they’d rather return the bikes to their rightful owners. So, if your bike is missing and you want to see if they have it in custody, call 6 6 8 8 7 1 1 and ask how you can take a look at their inventory. And, if you’d like to register your bike and get one of those unpeelable stickers with a license number, that’s a pretty good way to ensure your bike is returned if it’s recovered after disappearing, you can get that info from the department as well.
Not the kind of shoes they’re looking for.
The Currier Museum of Art and Webster Elementary School are hosting a shoe drive in conjunction with the Currier’s upcoming exhibition, Killer Heels: The Art of the High Heeled Shoe. They are looking for new, closed-toe shoes or boots, to be delivered to the Currier between December first and January fifteenth. Please note that the Currier is closed on Tuesdays and be sure to check their open hours at Currier dot org before dropping off shoes. If you have any questions, please visit CURRIER.ORG/shoes-schools-campaign-2015/ or contact Lynn Thomson, Manager of Family and Community Engagement at the Currier at lthomson@currier.org. Webster is the only school where people may bring shoes directly if the so choose. Whatever is collected at the school will be added to what is collected at the Currier and distributed as needed around the city.
News from our own backyard continues after this.
Manchester: Last week for curbside collection
This is the last week of curbside yard waste collection in Manchester. From December through March, persons possessing residential permits may dispose of yard waste from their personal residence at the city’s Dunbarton Road Drop Off Facility at no cost. Commercial permit holders will be charged 7 point 5 cents per pound. Logs and branches up to eight feet in length are now accepted. Stumps are not. All facility permits are five bucks and good for one year from date of purchase. The city will, in January, provide curbside pick up of Christmas trees only. We’ll have those details once announced. Note: We will not promote the pick up of so called “holiday trees.”
The Goffstown Police Department has announced that workers will be on the Goffstown Rails to Trails trails blowing leaves all this week from nine to four.
Red Pine Scale Insect: Tree killer
The Manchester Water Works will be removing stands of Red Pine trees over the next five years in response to the imminent threat posed by the invasive Red Pine Scale Insect, which comes from Japan. This insect has caused widespread devastation throughout New England over the last fifty years and has recently arrived in the Granite State and has had a profound impact.
Red Pines: Will be cut before they’re killed
The Water Works has worked with the state’s Forest Health Specialist to determine that removing all Red Pine trees in the Lake Massabesic Watershed is the best course of action. Red Pine Stands exist in around twenty separate areas totaling about four hundred acres. The plan is to cut eighty acres per year over the next four years, with eighty having already been cut last year. We’ve linked to information provided by the Water Works regarding the issue from this news read at Girard at Large dot com. Red Pine Poster Red Pine Scale Presentation
Auburn: Budget Committee to review school budget
The town of Auburn Budget Committee will meet on Thursday night. On the agenda is the school budget. Presentations regarding high school tuition, the S A U’s budget and other items are on the docket. Student transportation and other support services are expected to be discussed as well. The meeting starts at seven o’clock at Town Hall.
That’s news from our own backyard, Girard at Large hour ___ is next!
[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/235578597″ params=”auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&visual=true” width=”100%” height=”450″ iframe=”true” /]
