News
Hartland voters successfully petition for school budget revote
By CHRISTINA DOLAN
HARTLAND — The School Board is preparing to warn a budget vote for the third time this year after a successful petition by residents to hold another round of balloting.On April 2, voters narrowly approved an $11.1 million school budget by a vote of...
Grantham doctor indicted on drug and fraud charges
By JOHN LIPPMAN
BURLINGTON — A 48-year-old Grantham doctor has been indicted on charges that he engaged in illegal drug distribution and health care fraud through a network of treatment clinics he owns in northern New England. The charges link him with another former...
Lebanon approves extra money for landfill gas project
LEBANON — The City Council last week approved an additional appropriation of nearly $725,000 for a project that will convert greenhouse gas emissions from the city’s landfill into electricity.The goal is to reduce emissions in the city by 3,500 tons a...
Charlestown Route 12 bridge work to begin Monday
CHARLESTOWN — On Monday, the New Hampshire Department of Transportation will begin rehabilitation of the Route 12 bridge over the railroad tracks just south of downtown.The project will require one-lane alternating traffic over the bridge both day and...
City Council approves Trues Brook Road bridge project
LEBANON — The City Council last week unanimously approved a design for a project intended to widen a section of Trues Brook Road and replace an aging bridge over Bloods Brook with a wider span.The $4 million project near the intersection with Derby...
Hanover officials look at reducing downtown traffic lanes
By PATRICK ADRIAN
HANOVER — Town administrators are exploring ways to improve pedestrian safety at two busy downtown intersections.The town is wrapping up a pair of studies this week — one at the intersection of East Wheelock Street and College Street, and another at...
Upper Valley winter shelters kept dozens warm and dry
By PATRICK ADRIAN
LEBANON — Organizers of two new emergency shelters, which kept dozens of Upper Valley residents off the streets this winter, are reflecting on the season and sorting out how to continue the service.Earlier this month, Lebanon’s emergency shelter for...
Republicans have made illegal immigration a top issue in NH — sometimes with misinformation
By ANNMARIE TIMMINS
Gov. Chris Sununu has put nearly $2.3 million into tackling what he calls an illegal immigration crisis on two fronts: $1.4 million for a law enforcement task force along the state’s 58-mile border with Canada, and $850,000 toward this month’s...
Owner of Friesian horse facility ordered to pay care costs for seized animals
By TIFFANY TAN
A southern Vermont resident is on the hook for $38,600 that an animal rescue organization spent to care for numerous horses that the state seized from him last year.At an April 18 hearing, Vermont Superior Court Judge John Treadwell ordered Robert...
House committee weighs bill that would require teachers to answer parents’ questions
By JEREMY MARGOLIS
At a parent-teacher conference a decade ago, Tina Kim Philibotte learned her child was gay.The disclosure took Philibotte — a self-described progressive and now one of four public school diversity, equity, inclusion and justice administrators in New...
New ‘incentive calculator’ launches to help Vermonters electrify their homes
By JUAN VEGA DE SOTO
To celebrate Earth Day, two nonprofits announced the launch of a Vermont-specific incentives calculator to electrify everything from your car to your water heater. Rewire America, a national electrification nonprofit, worked with Efficiency Vermont on...
I-91 South between Bradford, Vt., and Fairlee closes Wednesday
BRADFORD, Vt. — A 6-mile stretch of Interstate 91 South between Bradford, Vt., and Fairlee will close to traffic for an extended period beginning Wednesday.All southbound drivers will be diverted to Route 5 at Exit 15 in Bradford, according to a...
Former principal of South Royalton School released from prison
By JOHN LIPPMAN
HARTFORD — A former educator convicted for secretly video recording teenage girls at his Sharon home was released on Monday after serving more than four years behind bars.Dean Stearns, who pleaded guilty in 2018 to charges of promoting sexual...
Upper Valley residents among advocates for NH aid-in-dying bill
By LIZ SAUCHELLI
HANOVER — Before she moved to Hanover, Susan Gillotti was hesitant.“I said that I wanted to move a continuing care retirement community in New Hampshire, but I was really afraid of doing it because I’d lose my entitlement to medical aid in dying,”...
Crowd turns out to honor late Ascutney Fire Chief Darrin Spaulding
By ULLA-BRITT LIBRE
WEATHERSFIELD — An estimated 1,500 people filled the Weathersfield School gym for a funeral for Ascutney Fire Chief Darrin Spaulding on Saturday.Among those attending were Spaulding’s family members, firefighters in uniform, and others wishing to pay...
Feds to reimburse Vermont $22M for cleanup costs following July floods
By TIFFANY TAN
The Federal Emergency Management Agency is sending Vermont $22 million to cover its costs of cleaning up debris and stabilizing state buildings in Montpelier following last summer’s historic flooding.The bulk of the federal reimbursement to the...
NH man convicted of killing daughter, 5, ordered to be at sentencing after skipping trial
By KATHY McCORMACK
CONCORD — A judge has ruled that a New Hampshire man convicted of killing his 5-year-old daughter must appear in person for his upcoming sentencing after he didn’t attend his trial.Adam Montgomery, 34, had attended his first day of jury selection in...
Catholic Medical Center to lay off 54 workers, citing ‘financial stress’
By PAUL CUNO-BOOTH
Catholic Medical Center in Manchester will lay off 54 employees as a response to financial difficulties, hospital leaders said.President and CEO Alex Walker announced the layoffs to staff in a memo Thursday. The hospital will also cut some workers’...
A Life: For Kevin Jones ‘everything was geared toward helping other people succeed’
By FRANCES MIZE
SOUTH ROYALTON — Nicole Lepre, a former student at Vermont Law and Graduate School, told her professor Kevin Jones that she was interested in some of the more nuanced policy related to electric vehicles. “Then Kevin was like, ‘Well, why don’t you help...
The fraught path forward for NH cannabis legalization, explained
By ETHAN DEWITT
New Hampshire’s cannabis legalization effort has reached a tricky crossroads.A year after Gov. Chris Sununu announced he would support a legalization approach that meets a number of strict conditions, the New Hampshire House has passed a bill. That...
