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House panel weighs health exchange ban

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 09:30:04 EST

The insurance subdivision of the House Commerce Committee appeared split Wednesday over whether to prohibit state employees from even considering setting up a state health exchange under the federal Affordable Care Act, even after a national expert from the Cato Institute urged them to do so.

The expert, Michael F. Cannon, the Cato Institute's director of health policy studies in Washington D.C., literally had one of the absent lawmaker's seat at the table during the subcommittee's work session, unlike the local lobbyists who stood and sat at the back of the room.

Cannon was introduced by bill sponsor Rep. Andrew Manuse, R-Derry, who presented an amended version of House Bill 1297, which he thought would satisfy the concerns of some senators who do want to move forward on the health exchange.

The new version of Manuse's bill would still allow state officials to work with a federal exchange if the state doesn't create its own. Under the existing federal law, if the state doesn't set one up, a federal exchange would be imposed. Some raised the concern that the federal government would cut off Medicaid money under such a ban.

Still, on Monday, a coalition of business organizations came out favoring Senate Bill 163 -- now on the table in the Senate -- which would establish a state-run exchange.

"New Hampshire would be able to shape and control, to a greater degree, the structure and function of a state-based exchange than it would a federally-imposed one. Business leaders have a real and vested stake in what a health insurance exchange would look like in New Hampshire since they may consider shopping in an exchange or sending their employees to an exchange to buy health insurance," according to a statement released by the Business and Industry Association of New Hampshire. The BIA was supported by three chambers of commerce, various insurers, health providers, and such groups as Ski NH and the New Hampshire Auto Dealers Association.

But Manuse argued there is no difference between a state and federal exchange. The only "pleasure of a state exchange is the pleasure to pay for it," he told the panel. Any state exchange, he said, would be a "puppet exchange. Really the federal government is controlling it."

"The idea that New Hampshire will have more control is a mirage," echoed Cannon. "The federal takeover has already happened. Are you going to lend manpower to the takeover or refuse and force Congress to open the law to give the states more control?"

Because of the uncertainty surrounding the health reform law -- it is being challenged in the courts and by conservatives at the state level -- the state risks "creating a new government bureaucracy to create a law that could be overturned tomorrow," Cannon argued.

He noted that a loophole in the law would make it difficult to mandate that employers either provide insurance for their employees or pay into a fund that would cover them under federal exchange.

However, Paula Rogers, a lobbyist with Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield New Hampshire (which signed the letter in support of SB 163), the uncertainty is the very reason to allow officials to find out more information about whether a local exchange would make sense for the Granite State.

"There will be some major changes in the marketplace in the next two years, and there will be some large changes because of (health reform) and we agree with many of them," said Rogers. "Yes, there is a cost, but there are going to be arguments in March, so why cut it off in February? We should be realistic and plan to have all the tools at our disposal."

Committee Chairman John Hunt finally cut short the debate to take a straw poll.

While Rep. Don Flanders, R-Laconia, said, "We need some planning. If we completely shut everything off I can't support it."

But most of the other lawmakers seemed as uncertain about the bill as about the future of health care reform itself. Hunt put off any decision for another day. -- BOB SANDERS/NEW HAMPSHIRE BUSINESS REVIEW

For Unitil, '11 was a gas

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 20:15:43 EST

Unitil Corp.'s move into natural gas paid off big last year, the company reported.

The Hampton-based firm said it had a net annual income of $16.3 million, or $1.50 per share -- the largest profit in company history.

About $10 million of that net income came in the fourth quarter of 2011, even though gas and electric usage were down thanks to a milder winter. But for the year, gas usage was up 8.1 percent, while electric usage dropped a half a percent.

The company was able to improve the margins on those sales with a series of favorably rate cases.

Some of the increased gas profit also was attributable to cuts in expenses of more than $4 million. But it also reflects long-term trends, as residents and owners have been switching from both oil and electricity toward gas for heat. And the base price of natural gas remains comparatively low.

The company said gas now accounts for 45 percent of its operating revenue.

Translating that usage into sales, Unitil said gas operating revenue has gone up 4 percent, to $159.2 million, while electricity revenue has declined by 10, percent to $188.1 million. At the same time, the amount Unitil spent on gas declined $7 million and the amount spent on electricity dropped by about $22 million.

Unitil only got into the gas business in a large way in December 2008, when it purchased Northern Utilities Inc. and Granite State Gas Transmission Inc., practically doubling the number of customers and diversifying its offerings. -- BOB SANDERS/NEW HAMPSHIRE BUSINESS REVIEW

'Stalking horse' emerges in Isaacson bankruptcy

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 20:16:00 EST

Isaacson Structural Steel Inc. has a "stalking horse" that it's hoped can lead it out of bankruptcy with most of the firm's production and construction jobs intact, according to Bill Gannon, attorney for the Berlin-based company.

While Isaacson has talked to other interested parties, one company has made an oral offer for the operating license and the right to lease the property from the city, according to Monday's filing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manchester.

In the filing, the court was asked to support an exclusive agreement with a stalking horse to set the floor for a Feb. 22 auction. Bidders would have to beat that price with 120 percent of a break-up fee.

The filing implies that there could be more than one stalking horse, and Gannon said he was obligated to talk to other bidders until a firm offer is made.

But Gannon said he was particularly interested in this company as a stalking horse because it knows the fabrication metal business and would continue the plant as a going concern, keeping most of the manufacturing staff, although there could be some loss of administrative personnel.

About 110 people are employed in the structural steel part of the business now, according to Jack Donovan of the state Business Finance Authority.

"Our primary goal is to continue the jobs, the welfare of the employees," Donovan said, adding that has been the goal of many parties involved, including Gov. John Lynch.

Although Gannon would not release the name of the stalking horse, several parties involved with the bankruptcy said it was Heico Companies LLC, a company based near Chicago.

CEO Arnie Hanson reportedly told the Berlin Reporter last week that Heico was a very interested buyer in the company who decided to hold off making an offer until an environmental assessment and study could be completed on the property.

But Hanson reportedly said that the report showed it was clean. NHBR could not reach Hanson by deadline.

Donovan said there was another serious bidder in the same industry from the local area, but he too preferred Heico's possible bid, because a local company would be more likely to consolidate jobs, as opposed to outside company "wishing to make it its flagship."

Monday's stalking horse filing does mention Heico, but it's about a recent biomass contract involving an arrangement with Heico and its affiliate Zalk Joseph, a metal fabrication company in Wisconsin, a company that is very similar to Isaacson, according to Donovan.

Heico declined comment. Zalk Joseph executives could not be reached by NHBR deadline.

Heico -- not to be confused the publicly held Heico Aerospace down in Florida -- is a privately held holding company with over 35 businesses that generates $2 billion in revenues in four "platforms": Ancra Group, , and Pettibone L.L.C., Heico Metal Processing Group and Heico Construction Group, according to the company website. Zalk Joseph is part of the construction group.

While most of the companies are involved in manufacturing and construction, the company also owns the majority share in the NBA's Memphis Grizzlies.

The company is well known "as an investor in distressed situations and continues to have interest in those opportunities," according to Heico's website.

"Each of our businesses runs on a stand-alone basis. While they have great independence, our companies also benefit from the opportunity to share knowledge about markets, production processes and management practices with any of our other companies," according to the website. "This cooperative structure gives our employees a wealth of information and resources that empowers them to take their businesses to new heights."

A hearing on Tuesday was held to complete various details of Sugar Hill-based Presby Environmental's purchase of Isaacson Steel's warehouse, which employs 20 to 30 people. The smaller company mainly sells steel to construction companies, as opposed to Isaacson Structural Steel, which is primarily a construction company.

Presby Environmental, a firm that offers onsite wastewater septic treatment servies, was started by David Presby, an inventor and entrepreneur. Presby's father also started Presby Construction, a general contractor that builds steel buildings and has other construction and side businesses.

The sale would not include debts, receivables and $100,000 cash. Presby said it plans to keep the employees on the payroll.

At the Tuesday hearing, Gannon reported that Presby has upped its bid to $250,000 and the objection of various parties, particularly the city of Berlin and the Business Finance Authority, were tentatively settled.

But there was some tension in the hallway afterward, when David Presby himself demanded a closing then and there. The deal was finalized in Gannon's office Tuesday afternoon, subject to bankruptcy court approval. -- BOB SANDERS/NEW HAMPSHIRE BUSINESS REVIEW

N.Y. firm buys Kingsbury for $3.1m

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 10:47:21 EST

The last-minute $3.1 million sale of Kingsbury Corp.'s assets to Optimation Technology could not have been any better and it could have been worse, all parties agreed Monday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manchester.

The good news is that some 60 workers will get back three weeks of unpaid wages that they have thus far been denied since the Keene-based machine tool company's bankruptcy filing, seven engineers will keep their jobs -- with the possibility of others being hired back -- and some large secured credit holders will get nearly all their money back.

The bad news is that the plant will be shut down, the remaining manufacturing workers will be out of a job, and all workers and retirees will lose hundreds of thousands of dollars of accrued vacation time and other benefits.

Optimation CEO Bill Pollock, who attended the hearing, told NHBR that he will abandon the Kingsbury site in Keene and move the engineers to a nearby office park, the location of which he did not specify, with the intention of bringing back other former Kingsbury engineers and hiring others, increasing the staff size to 20 to 30 over the next several years.

Optimation -- which is based in Rochester, N.Y., with a satellite operation in Nashua -- plans to continue the Kingsbury "legacy," said Pollock -- machining primarily for the auto industry and keeping the Kingsbury name alive.

But because Optimation is more diversified, the engineers could design equipment for other industries when the automobile industry shrinks, as it has during the last several years, he said.

"It will be a lot more stable employment," Pollock said.

But that's little comfort to Don Maylin, a now-retired worker who used to paint parts at the company. Maylin, who was at the hearing, has spent years at the firm and even put off taking his paid vacation to help keep the company going.

The company stopped paying for health insurance in February 2009, and it "effectively prohibited" taking accrued time for two years, according to a United Auto Workers filing on the matter, both actions in violation of the union contract.

Maylin, however, saw it as voluntary sacrifice, a pulling together.

It was those three weeks missed pay last July that really broke Maylin, he said. Following a divorce, he lost his home to foreclosure. He just turned 62, so he now will now live on his Social Security, he said. And while he said he's glad he will get some $2,400 in back pay, he said he was owed some $12,000 more for accrued vacation time.

Hobbling on

Last week, there was a good chance Maylin and other workers would not get a penny for all their loyalty to a company that has been a fixture in Keene for 135 years.

Kingsbury, which employed 1,300 workers in its heyday, has hobbled on with less than a tenth that amount the last few years, before it declared bankruptcy at the end of September.

At the hearing on Friday, and continuing through Monday morning, objections and responses were flying, sent over the court's electronic system by the state Department of Labor, the UAW, TD Bank, which holds the mortgage on the property, and Utica Leasco, LLC and Diamond Business Credit LLC, which hold the lien on the equipment.

Nobody even contested Optimation's $2.6 million bid last week for the equipment, and the business, even though there was a lot of "dancing around with partners," hinting of greater bids to come, in the words of Kingsbury attorney Robert J. Keach.

So the bankruptcy auction was canceled, and all hopes for a higher price fell through. It looked like there would not be enough to satisfy even the secured creditors, much less the workers.

Utica complained that the equipment is worth more than the $1.7 million that they were owed, and Diamond threatened to thwart the deal unless they got a specific figure on what they were going to get.

But by Monday morning, Optimation upped its bid by $500,000 to $3.1 million, meaning that Utica would get $1.55 million, $200,000 short of its claim, while Diamond accepted $900,000, a $300,000 shortfall.

Workers would get $122,000 -- which basically covers the three missing paychecks. But the state Labor Department estimated that they were owed at least $224,000 if various benefits were included. And, it turned out, workers have been foregoing their vacation time for years.

According to the UAW's limited objection, workers were owed $350,000 on priority claims, counting health benefits, vacation and even union dues and nonpriority claims of at least $537,251 -- primarily older accrued vacation pay.

"It really is close to a million," UAW attorney Nicole Horberg Decter told NHBR.

But Horberg Decter told the court she was dropping her objection. "We did not see a better path. If we did, we would be fighting for it."

And the DOL said it would follow the union's lead.

"If the union is happy with the deal, we will not stand in the way," said senior assistant Attorney General Peter Roth, representing the DOL.

There is still some hope for the workers and other creditors in the sale of the Kingsbury real estate. Keach estimated that it could sell for $3.5 million to $4.5 million. After the mortgage and various expenses are paid off, that would leave about $800,000 on the low end of the scale, though how that amount will be split up remains to be seen..

According to Keene city assessment records, the land alone is worth about $1 million. With the building, the total is $4.2 million -- down from $5.5 million the previous year -- but that estimate is based on a still-operating business. Only the market could tell.

Judge J. Michael Deasy said he was "skeptical" of any price estimate given the current real estate market.

So were many other parties in the case, noting that there were unknown environmental problems on the property and other costs, such as security, maintenance, taxes and real estate fees.

In any case, Keach said he hopes that the final agreement will be signed by the end of the week, and that that whole transfer will be finalized in about six months. --BOB SANDERS/NEW HAMPSHIRE BUSINESS REVIEW

Economy, competition fueled Wiggin & Nourie's demise

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 11:13:21 EST

The confluence of an unstable economy, a tightly competitive legal market and an ongoing exodus of more than half its lawyers since 2010 all contributed to the decision to close down Wiggin & Nourie, one of New Hampshire's oldest law firms, its president said.

The law firm, which was established in 1870 under the name Burnham and Brown, informed employees last Thursday it would be closing both its Manchester and Portsmouth offices. Clients are still in the process of being notified of the closing.

The firm's dissolution date is set for April 1, but L. Jonathan Ross, president of Wiggin & Nourie, said he expects most clients and attorneys will have already moved on by the end of February.

Ross said there were 20 lawyers working at the firm at the time of the announcement, less than half the number of attorneys who worked there just a couple of years ago. The staff reduction left the firm with an unsustainably large overhead, said Ross, who has worked there since 1968.

"If you have a debt structure that's bigger than your legal manpower, then people's earnings are decreased by that," said Ross.

The law firm has a legacy of graduating lawyers into public service, including New Hampshire Attorney General Michael Delaney, state Supreme Court Justice Gary Hicks, U.S. District Court Judge Joseph Laplante and state Superior Court Judge Richard McNamara.

At the time of the announcement, Wiggin & Nourie also employed about 20 non-attorney staff members, about half of whom are still working to help wind down operations.

In a mid-2007 interview with New Hampshire Bar News, Ross talked about the firm's then-recent physical expansion -- which included a doubling of its space in Manchester and the addition of a Portsmouth office -- as well as its plans to eventually employ at least 60 lawyers. It employed 47 lawyers at the time of that interview.

Looking back on those goals now, Ross told NHBR, "The growth plan at the time was something we thought we could do, but over time it didn't happen in the way we had planned. So you always wish for that crystal ball and you haven't found it yet."

Ross is hopeful that the displaced staff will be able to find jobs in the state.

"I would guess that every lawyer here will be employed in New Hampshire in a very short time, and I would think so for the staff as well," he said. "One of the hardest parts of this, this place has been a family."

As for whether any attorneys will retire, Ross said he has no such plans, nor does he expect any other attorneys will.

"Well, I'm the old guy, and I'm not, so I don't think so." -- KATHLEEN CALLAHAN/NEW HAMPSHIRE BUSINESS REVIEW

Flotsam & Jetsam

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 13:00:11 EST

Map quest

So this is the thanks Executive Councilor Dan St. Hilaire gets.

The first-termer from Concord -- most famous, at least in some quarters, for being the deciding vote on cutting off state contracts with Planned Parenthood of Northern New England -- is not being treated too kindly by his Republican fellows in the House.

Turns out the members of the House special committee coming up with a redistricting plan are having a heck of a time figuring out how to make as many council seats safe for the GOP as possible. One way of doing it is to put as many Democrats in one district and leave the others as Republican as possible.

And which district would that be? A newly revamped District 2 -- the one St. Hilaire represents.

In their inimitably tireless approach to creative thinking, the panel members even have drawn up one plan that would stick the Democratic cities of Keene and Portsmouth on both coasts along with Claremont. If you try to figure that one out on a geographically accurate map it wouldn't be a pretty sight. And it's particularly difficult for St. Hilaire, whose district is already on the Dem-GOP fence.

And, in light of the aforementioned Planned Parenthood vote -- which likely Democratic opponent Colin Van Ostern has eagerly seized upon -- an even more Democratically inclined district would not be a welcome sight for the incumbent.

The voting boot

Let's make the assumption that they're uniformly for law and order. Which is why it's more than passing strange to hear the deafening silence from the voter ID crowd on putting James O'Keefe and his crew of Project Veritas scam artists in handcuffs after their lawbreaking video shoot that clearly depicts them committing voter fraud -- and violating wiretapping laws, to boot -- at several New Hampshire polling places.

Food for thought

You've got to start thinking there may be something in the water over at the State House.

Or is it the Kool-Aid?

Three bills that have come up for hearings in the last couple of weeks are a prime example of what happens when you can't see the forest for the trees.

The three measures -- House Bills 1688, 1650 and 1208 -- all purport to take the federal regulatory monkey off the back of food and beverage producers in New Hampshire.

The bills would allow food grown or produced and then sold in the state to be immune from federal regulation (HB 1650), prohibit the liquor commission from requiring federal label approval for New Hampshire beverages (HB 1208) and exempt maple syrup and raw milk produced and sold in New Hampshire from federal regulators (HB 1688).

All well and good. But it turns out the very producers these bills are aimed at don't want to be exempt from the regs.

"It puts us in a precarious position because we don't care for regulations, but this we feel goes a little too far," said Rob Johnson, executive director of the New Hampshire Farm Bureau Federation, at committee hearing on HB 1688.

All it would take is for a "Made in New Hampshire"-labeled product to be contaminated and make someone sick to damage the reputation of all food made in the state, Johnson told NHBR in a story that appeared online.

"What if there's a problem, like an E. coli issue? In the whole big global picture people would say, 'That's the state that didn't adopt full federal regulations.'"

Likewise, Trish Ballantyne, executive director of New Hampshire Made -- which promotes and markets products made in the state -- said the New Hampshire brand might actually be collateral damage in the war against regulation.

"That brand stands for not only authentic local product, but it means quality, and we’re concerned that in their desire to deregulate New Hampshire products, by labeling them ‘Made in New Hampshire,’ it’s going to cause a great deal of confusion."

Added Ballantyne: "I understand where they’re coming from -- I just don’t think its even what the producers want. I think that it’s very important, especially with food and any consumables, that we don’t need to be regulated to death, but I think to have certain things in place makes a lot of sense."

F&J TOTE BOARD Ray Wieczorek: The longtime District 4 Republican executive councilor says he'll retire after this term, ending more than two decades in Manchester and New Hampshire politics. Phyllis Woods: The ex-state rep from Dover says one term as a Republican National Committeewoman is enough. Maggie Hassan:

The former Democratic senator from Exeter unveils a turnkey campaign staff for her run for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination.

Julie Brown:

The Republican rep from Rochester is voted 2011 RINO Of The Year on the right-wing website GraniteGrok.com after being spotted with a "Tea Parties are for Little Girls and Their Imaginary Friends" bumper sticker on her car.

Bob Tewksbury:

The Concord resident and former Major League Baseball pitcher signs on with Standing Up for New Hampshire Families, a group calling on state legislators to keep same-sex marriage legal.

It's been making the rounds...

• The real tragedy of Rick Perry's now-defunct campaign for president is that Molly Ivins didn't live to see it.

• Go the head of the class if you knew that the very minute Mitt Romney insisted for the final time -- back in December -- that he wasn't going to release his tax returns it was only a matter of time before he did.

• Now that House Speaker Bill O'Brien and Majority Leader D.J. Bettencourt are disputing Rep. Susan Emerson's recount of an alleged incident of bullying by the speaker, it does raise a question of why they waited so long to respond.

• So when does the Legislature vote to hike the poorly performing tobacco tax by the dime it cut last year?

• It seemed like the tweet about "The Wiz" calling it quits after five terms on the Executive Council was still warm when Republicans from all over District 4 started coming out of the woodwork to state their intentions to succeed him.

USA Springs deal faces evaporation

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 10:18:03 EST

Even though an attorney for the potential Swiss financial backers of USA Springs told creditors on Thursday that they could still bail out the company and pay off creditors with a $60 million loan, nobody in the bankruptcy court in Manchester Thursday was confident it would happen.

In fact, most thought it was unlikely.

Indeed, while Judge J. Michael Deasy gave the order to extend the deadline to Feb. 29 to close the deal, parties were negotiating alternative arrangements that could include liquidation of the company, which is trying to build a controversial bottling company on the Nottingham-Barrington border. The plant would extract more than 300,000 gallons of water a day.

Indeed, creditors said the only reason they didn't oppose the Feb. 29 extension is that they wouldn't be able to complete an alternative proposal by next month.

The focus on Thursday was on Malom Group AG, the Swiss firm that in October said it was going to lend USA Springs $60 million to allow the company to pay off its creditors and complete the half-finished bottling plant.

Bankruptcy is only the latest obstacle to USA Springs, which has pumped millions of dollars to secure permits in the face of tenacious opposition of some residents who claim the project would threaten their drinking water and would use international treaties to trump environmental regulations.

USA Springs claims there is more than enough water available and the opposition is fueled by prejudice against foreigners, particularly Italians.

To get the Malom loan, an unidentified investor with USA Springs fronted $1.2 million to Malom. Creditors were skeptical when USA Springs asked the court to allow the loan to go forward, and they are even more suspicious of it now.

"I have not seen a shred of evidence that the $1.2 million was related to practically furthering this loan," Michael A. Fagone, an attorney with the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors, told the court on speakerphone.

Malom said the loan was held up by tumultuous financial markets in Europe and the detention by Swiss authorities of two of its key executives related to the activities of another company. But at least one of those officials has been released and the plan could continue, the company said.

Malom, represented by William S. Gannon, offered an affidavit outlining a timeline for a plan to sell notes with a $200 million face value that were issued by the military government in Brazil back in the 1970s.

But Brazil now takes the position that many of the notes are fraudulent, and generally does not recognize them. Malom, however, has explained that this was only Brazil's negotiating stance, and it would redeem such notes if their validity could be verified, which Malom contends it has done.

The problem is that even if they are valid, Brazil won't buy the notes until 2036.

But Malom hopes that it will still be able to sell off that debt to a third party, and is forming a company in the Cayman Islands to do so, in million-dollar denominations.

"It looks to me like it's OK," said Gannon. "But it's hard to tell because it's another country. It may or may not be accurate."

"Kind of like a commercial appraisal," said Judge Michael Deasy commented. "It's true if you believe all the assumptions."

Gannon said he was "extremely" if not "absolutely" sure that Malom was working day and night to make the USA Springs deal work. Malom has been communicating with him frequently, though he did have concern about "the lack of communication with the third parties" that Malom was supposedly talking to.

These reassurances did not win over Edmond J. Ford, attorney for Roswell Commercial Mortgage LLC, holder of the mortgage. Roswell claims USA Springs owed it about $10 million.

"We are concerned about the extraordinary amount of time and effort of chasing this," he said, adding that "we are in a different universe from where we started" when USA Springs assured creditors that Malom had the wherewithal to make the loan. Calling it a "leap of faith" that the deal would be funded would be "charitable," he said. "I don't know where this ends."

It ends, said USA Springs attorney Alan L. Braunstein, on Feb. 29.

"Either it is funded or not," Braunstein said. Braunstein also said he also was "skeptical" that Malom would be able to fund the plan, and was working with creditors on a dual track on alternatives in case the funding does not materialize.

Although timelines about these alternatives have been circulated, details have not been disclosed.

In the past, Braunstein has said that other lenders or buyers were in the wings.

If the Malom deal does close, the court set up the next hearing for May 1, with final court approval on September 28. That will be more than four years from when the companied filed for Chapter 11 reorganization. -- BOB SANDERS/NEW HAMPSHIRE BUSINESS REVIEW

Future construction deals fell $500m in '11

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 20:57:48 EST

The total value of future construction contracts in New Hampshire in 2011 lagged more than $500 million behind 2010.

And in December 2011, future construction contracts totaled 13 percent less than they did in the same month the previous year.

That's according to industry information service McGraw Hill Construction, which collects and releases the figures monthly.

Total future contracts across all construction sectors totaled $1.42 billion in the state in 2011, down from the $1.98 billion recorded in 2010. Some of the discrepancy may be attributable to the drying up of federal stimulus funds, some of which could still have been funding projects in 2010.

Year over year, the total value of future construction contracts was down in all construction sectors.

Nonbuilding contracts -- which include projects like bridges, highways and dams -- took the biggest hit, down 55 percent from $660.1 million in 2010 to $299.6 million in 2011.

Future residential construction was down 17 percent year over year, from $529.7 million in 2010 to $440.7 million in 2011, and nonresidential contracts were down 14 percent during the same period, from $792.6 million to $683 million.

In December 2011, total future construction contracts totaled $56.4 million, which was down from the $64.6 million in December 2010 and the $94.9 million in November 2011. -- KATHLEEN CALLAHAN/NEW HAMPSHIRE BUSINESS REVIEW

N.H. should prosecute the fake voters

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 01:02:04 EST

Conservative and ethically challenged activist James O'Keefe is back in the news, once again, manufacturing edited videos to make a case he can't produce with existing facts.

On New Hampshire's primary day, O'Keefe and crew committed voter fraud at polling locations in Manchester and Nashua by impersonating recently deceased New Hampshire voters -- some of whom had only passed away days ago -- and then illegally filming their interactions with New Hampshire poll workers without knowledge or consent.

Those interactions can be seen on a video sent around by O'Keefe's group, Project Veritas, in an effort to bolster support for a photo identification bill that would require a limited number of ways to prove your identity at the polls.

O'Keefe's decision to break the law and disrupt New Hampshire's primary is being met with the contempt it should.

First and foremost, the stunt was incredibly disrespectful to families still grieving the loss of a loved one -- one clip uses the name of a New Hampshire veteran less than 10 days passed. That alone should give one pause as to O'Keefe's credibility.

And, like many previous O'Keefe productions, it is edited to portray only the message he would like you to believe, not the reality of what took place.

For example, it appears that O'Keefe specifically chose older individuals to impersonate and listed the ages of the recently deceased voter to make it appear as if someone should have questioned a 20-something-year-old voting for an 88-year old. But New Hampshire doesn't list birth dates or ages on the voter file -- a potential public policy point O'Keefe could have made if he wasn't focused on manufacturing stories of fraud.

The video also shows only select footage, and purposely leaves out a clip in which a New Hampshire poll worker busts the O'Keefe team when she realizes whose ballot they are trying to obtain. That story was covered in the Boston Herald the day of the primary, but is not highlighted in O'Keefe's version.

If anything, all this video proves is that localities do not update their deceased voter information often enough. What it does not prove is that voter fraud is a rampant problem in New Hampshire, outside of the staged actions of the individuals in question.

In fact, it suggests quite the opposite. O'Keefe did not have his team actually cast ballots because they assumed that was the moment they could be charged with voter fraud.

Unfortunately for them -- and good for election protection -- even impersonating a New Hampshire voter is considered voter fraud under state and federal law. But more to the point: O'Keefe's decision not to cast a ballot is a sign that the system and penalties in place deter would-be offenders.

Of course, O'Keefe and his team did break the law and did film themselves doing it, and for whatever "public service" or "citizen journalist" cover they want to try to plea, they should be held accountable. In fact, based on state laws and statements by the Attorney General's Office, O'Keefe and his team now face several potential charges of voter fraud and identify theft, in addition to illegally filming individuals without their permission. In essence, they could lose their own right to vote as a result of their misguided actions.

To which we say: good. We agree with the New Hampshire Republican Party chairman who said, "Anyone involved in voter fraud should be punished to the fullest extent of the law."

O'Keefe should be prosecuted, and the New Hampshire public officials and candidates who are endorsing his illegal activities should reconsider the message they are sending.

Zandra Rice Hawkins is director of Granite State Progress.

New fuel standards deserve support

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 01:01:59 EST

Land Use Change Tax, local control under fire

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 01:01:54 EST

House Bill 1515, which proposes major changes to the assessment and use of the Land Use Change Tax, threatens local control, raises significant concerns on several levels, and should be killed.

First, the bill provides that the failure to pay all property taxes on current use land within 30 days after the date of notice of tax will constitute a change of use, triggering payment of the Land Use Change Tax, or LUCT. This is an extremely harsh penalty that, to our knowledge, municipalities are not seeking.

The bill also provides that land will be considered changed in use and subject to the LUCT if the landowner does not notify the local assessing officials within 30 days that the land has changed from one qualifying use to another. That is unnecessary and extremely harsh.

Second, the bill provides that if any LUCT assessment is not paid within 30 days after the due date, the property shall be deeded to the municipality. Again, this is extremely harsh and is neither in the interest of the property owner nor the municipality. Municipalities generally do not want to acquire land because of unpaid taxes -- they simply want the taxes paid.

The bill repeals the provisions of RSA 79-A:25 that, upon majority vote of the legislative body, allow placement of a portion of any LUCT revenues into a conservation fund. This is a tool that many municipalities have used very successfully to fund acquisition of land or conservation easements. It is an important element of local control and represents an option that should be preserved for municipalities.

Finally, the bill repeals RSA 79-A:25-a and 25-b, which authorize the establishment of the LUCT fund, an accounting mechanism that allows LUCT revenues to be segregated from the general fund until the legislative body within a traditional town meeting setting addresses the use of that revenue at the next annual meeting. There is no reason to remove this local option for the vast majority of communities in New Hampshire with traditional town meetings.

The disposition of LUCT proceeds as part of New Hampshire's current use program has been a topic of robust conversation and debate among citizens within our state's communities since the program was established in 1973. Local control, however, should be preserved, and the changes proposed as part of HB 1515 are contrary to the interests of New Hampshire communities and the state as a whole.

Todd I. Selig has been Durham town administrator since 2001.

Health reform: imperfect, but it beats the alternative

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 01:01:50 EST

Just before the primaries, I met a woman who didn't have health insurance. She was not my patient, but was one of those truly Good Samaritans we hear about. She was driving a patient of mine to my office. She was afraid of the Affordable Care Act because it mandated health care coverage. I didn't understand.

"Don't you want health care?" I asked.

"I can't afford it!" she replied.

She explained that she heard that under "Obamacare" the government would fine her if she didn't buy health insurance by 2014. She couldn't afford the fine. She couldn't even pay $50 a month for health care. Like many, she was living from paycheck to paycheck. Yet she was willing to drive a friend over 30 miles away to a doctor's appointment.

"God is my health insurance," she explained. "I pray that I won't get sick."

Here in New Hampshire, one out of every 10 citizens has only God for health insurance. As a physician, I have great appreciation for the powers of the Almighty, but even the most faithful could use a little extra help from us mere mortal doctors and the feeble might of the health care community.

If this Good Samaritan were to come down with a major illness -- a bad auto accident or cancer, it is likely that she and her husband would go bankrupt in an effort to pay for her treatment.

There were 1.5 million bankruptcies in the United States in 2010, and over half of those were associated with a serious health condition. The cost of medications, hospital stays, doctors' fees and health insurance continues to rise at a rate far above inflation.

When you consider the multimillion-dollar salaries and compensation packages for the top executives of those same insurance, pharmaceutical and pharmacy companies, it becomes clear that our medical care system is dysfunctional.

In 1918, Republican Sen. Hiram Johnson of California coined the phrase, "The first casualty when war comes is truth." This expression seems particularly apt when it comes to the Affordable Health Care Act. The truth about this legislation has suffered casualties from both sides of the political aisle.

The health insurers have fought back with a media campaign of their own claiming everything from loss of personal physicians and loss of jobs to a massive increase in the national deficit. Scaring people with misstatements and exaggerations seems to be the strategy for rallying public opinion against it.

For the record, written into the Affordable Care Act is an exemption from the fine for people at or below the poverty level.

There are some solutions for people like the Good Samaritan I met in my office. There are nonprofit, federally funded clinics as well as volunteer organizations to assist individuals and families who have no health insurance. However, the resources of these organizations are stretched to the max, and their combined efforts are still not enough to meet all the medical needs in the community.

More work, more volunteers and more donations are still needed as more and more people lose their health benefits or are unable to afford the soaring costs of health insurance.

There are many folks, such as the Republican candidates running for president, who want to get rid of the Affordable Health Care Act altogether. It is by most measures an imperfect solution to an incredibly complex problem. But then what?

We can't afford to stay on this path. We can't afford to replace "Obamacare" with no care. Unfortunately, the free market system of health care got us into this mess; it's not going to get us out of it.

Unless we come together to address the inequalities of our health care system, we're all going to be saying "God is my health insurance."

Dr. James Fieseher of Portsmouth is vice president of the New Hampshire Academy of Family Physicians.

New law shreds public education

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 01:01:45 EST

On Jan. 4, the New Hampshire Legislature passed House Bill 542, a bill that took effect immediately and grants parents unprecedented powers to direct the education of their child in public schools.

Specifically, the new law - sponsored by Rep. J.R. Hoell, R-Dunbarton - allows parents to object to any course material, requires school districts to devise an alternative acceptable to parents, and doesn't require parents to offer an explanation for the curriculum change they are demanding.

But before offering my critique, let me emphasize the critical importance of parental input in a child's education, and that public schools already provide formal and informal lines of communication for parents and community members to request changes to school policies, including the curriculum.

On what basis do advocates of the law argue that any parent's belief about any curriculum-related matter trumps the community's long history and collective wisdom about how best to educate its children? Given limited resources, why shouldn't the democratically elected school board have final authority?

It's quite ironic that conservative legislators who are rabid about the importance of "local control" won't allow local communities to decide if they want to create policies that privilege parents' views over that of the school board.

What is a school to do when parents say they don't want their child to learn about the Holocaust because it never happened or that earthquakes and floods are a sign of God's wrath (or the devil's work) and need to be included in the teaching of earth science?

The current law requires communities to teach fringe views and outright lies in their schools to the children of objecting parents.

In addition, what is a community to do when a parent objects to having his or her child learn about local, state and national public policy issues, especially given that citizenship education is an essential mission of public schools?

If a community is committed to developing democratic skills and understandings, why must it accept a parent's objection to this kind of educational experience? And, over time, if enough students learn ridiculous fringe views and fail to learn how to participate in public dialogue, what will become of our democracy?

Finally, the U.S. Supreme Court (see Pierce v. Society of Sisters) and our lower federal and state courts (see Davis v. Page, a New Hampshire case) have consistently found that a community's curriculum is controlled by the community's elected school board, not individual parents.

At a time of shrinking school budgets, why would New Hampshire legislators pass a law that clearly violates established law, opening the door for hundreds of lawsuits - and additional legal costs to taxpayers - because local communities refuse to agree to every parent's request?

I know of no other state in the nation that has enacted such radical and sweeping legislation. Also shocking is that two-thirds of the House and Senate voted to override Gov. John Lynch's veto of the bill.

If you're concerned about the current shredding of our public schools by state legislators who are ideologically committed to radical notions of individual liberty and the belief that what is good for a community is best achieved by an unregulated, competitive marketplace, then it's time to engage your own citizenship action skills.

Joe Onosko of Portsmouth is an associate professor in the University of New Hampshire education department.

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 01:01:41 EST

Bad hiring practices can hurt your business

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 01:01:37 EST

In business times like these, most employers are just trying to make ends meet, keep the employees they have, keep their customers happy and keep their doors open. When the opportunity to hire a new employee comes along, they question the very need for that extra expense.

When they do finally decide they can afford it, many companies immediately risk that investment by not doing several simple things. These things will help to assure the success of that employee and make them a valuable, contributing member of the "team" they have been hired to work with.

For starters, every company "should" have very well crafted, written job descriptions that encompass all aspects of the job they are placing new hires into ("old" hires as well). It should be crystal clear to the employee, the supervisor of the area where he or she will work and co-workers exactly what is expected of the employee.

A strong part of that job description should be a physical capacity description of what the job requires of the employee -- bending, lifting, carrying, driving skills -- so that employees without those capabilities and capacities are not placed in harm's way. This can easily be avoided by having a comprehensive written job description and a "pre-placement" physical exam that the new hire, who has been offered the job, must successfully "pass" before he or she can start.

In this manner, the examining physician can successfully avoid "passing" prospective hires who could be potentially injured by placing them in the job for which they are not suited. Workers' comp claims and/or replacing an injured worker come at an enormous cost and can be avoided with proper screening of new employees.

Long-term rewards

Perhaps one of the biggest "mistakes" many companies make when hiring a new employee is "training" them by having them shadow a longtime employee who is thought to be the "best" worker in that department.

In many cases, they are the most productive workers, but are also the ones who know all the shortcuts and wrong ways to do things that allow them to get a lot done. Most often, because they have been doing the job for a long time, they are able to "beat the system" by not getting injured because they know how to get away with it.

It's not that they are bad people or bad employees -- they are just used to doing it a certain way. It is well documented that 80 percent to 90 percent of all work-related accidents are the result of unsafe acts or unsafe work practices. The last thing employers should want to do is pass along those bad work practices to new employees who, in turn, can then pass them on to more new hires.

The biggest things that do the most in helping to minimize these issues is the use of well-crafted standard operating procedures and a new hire orientation.

SOPs should incorporate all proper safety procedures including lockout/tagout, personal protective equipment and proper tools and safe work practices for all processes and jobs.

New hire orientation should include a lot more than showing new hires their parking spot, the cafeteria and locker room and then passing them off to Joe or Mary who have been with the company for 20-plus years, just because they have been with the company for 20-plus years.

Putting all of these programs together is labor intensive and time consuming, but will result in long-term rewards and well-trained employees with safe and effective work practices.

Scott Lawson, president of the Scott Lawson Companies in Concord, can be reached at 800-645-7674 or info@slgl.com.

Narrowing the generational divide at work

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 01:01:33 EST

I was listening to a network talk show and heard the pundits denounce a certain group as lazy and caring about nothing more than video games and pop culture. I've heard the presidential candidates talk about them using the words "entitlement" and "lacking values." When I speak to groups about the Future of Everything project, in most cases the first question is, "How can we accomplish anything with this group?" Who is this much-maligned and oft-misunderstood group? The millennials or "Generation Y."

As with other prejudices, the passive-aggressive dialogue is slipped in between the issues, and just accepted by the rest of us as fact. In fact, these false claims and stereotypes are symptoms of change and progress that plain old scare the pants off some people.

When I was speaking to a group in Washington this past summer, one woman said that social media was destroying our society and the next generation. She was so upset she left the presentation. The fact is that society is changing, social norms are changing and the way we do everything will be different.

This includes the generational perspectives of how we work. Refusing to engage this group and their norms is counterproductive at best, disastrous at worst.

The most common issue I hear about the younger generation is that they don't have a "good work ethic," aren't loyal, and lack respect. None of these assertions is true. There are good, loyal and respectful workers in all generations. What we need to consider are the norms, perspectives and motivators of all groups and tap into them.

Newer workers have the same needs and aspirations as we do, they just have a new perspective about the methods to achieving them.

Moving forward

If companies want to attract good workers today, they tout transparency, empowerment, work/life balance, the ability to do interesting work and the ability to work in teams. In fact, many jobs require these workplace competencies.

If we do a comparison of generations, it is the millennials who not only embrace these values, they excel at them. By definition, millennials are transparent, feel empowered and like working in teams. But when they leave work "on time" because they have to make the aerobics class, they are criticized for not sharing our work ethic.

They might ask for flex hours, but are denied that because they need to have a presence in the office. Or they want to network, but are told they have to do that on their own time. They tell the truth about the wastefulness of a process or method and are seen as disrespectful.

There is a big contradiction to what we claim we want in our companies and what we are willing to accommodate.

The truth might be that millennials are the best workers to move us all forward and are held back by old thinking and outdated management norms. Rather than criticize them for speaking up and staying true to their own values, we should invite them into the conversation and allow them to teach us what they know.

Millennials have watched loyal employees hit the unemployment rolls, experience downsizing or have their jobs outsourced. Younger generations are conditioned to these realities, so they don't even try to understand work tenure or the value of benefits. It's not that they don't want these things; it's that they don't trust or understand their value.

The reason I hear these generational concerns is that there is a divide, a misunderstanding and a reliance on outdated workplace norms. Empowerment can't be just talked about, it has to be embraced. Teams can accomplish more on some projects, but all generations need to trust that approach.

Respect works in both directions. If we respect the younger generation, they will respect us. Loyalty can be achieved by optimistic millennials and progressive companies, if we listen to and understand each other.

When I am asked why the generational work ethic is different, I respond by emphasizing that the problem is ours, not theirs. We are the leaders, therefore we need to create the bridge between us.

Dr. Russ Ouellette, managing partner of Sojourn Partners, Bedford and creator of The Future of Everything Project, can be reached at 603-472-8103 or russ@sojournpartners.com.

Reflections on the primary that was

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 01:01:27 EST

They came, we voted, they left - all in a flash! About a week after the 2012 New Hampshire presidential primary on Jan. 10, what lessons should we take from it and what impressions are there?

Because there was such a short time between the Iowa show and the New Hampshire primary -- seven days -- and because a number of the candidates did not come straight to New Hampshire but took detours, the intense "all politics all the time" feeling was limited to more like four or five days.

Of course, in 2008, there were hotly contested primaries in both major political parties, with observers remembering seeing the Clinton and Obama motorcades passing each other on Elm Street, while Sen. John McCain held a news conference in another part of town.

ABC News set up a major studio adjacent to Manchester City Hall from which all of America could see the various campaign supporters demonstrate in favor of their candidates against the backdrop of a giant American flag on the west façade of City Hall. This time, ABC canceled its reservation for the same space, pleading poverty. That may be the poster child for this primary.

Another factor was the presence of a perceived front-runner and quasi-favorite son candidate, Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor and part-time Wolfeboro resident.

Other candidates faced his lead in the polls, campaign organization and substantial financial resources at a disadvantage, and that probably affected their efforts.

Much has been said about the role the large number of debates and forums have played in this primary, as opposed to "retail" politics. The ups and downs of various candidates' fortunes as the alternative to Romney have been tied to debate performances, and candidates seem to have relied on them as opposed to traditional organization to produce results in the election. As shown, organization counts.

*****

What of the results? Romney, as expected, finished first, and did so with a strong finish, higher than many predicted the night before. Texas Congressman Ron Paul, with his band of libertarian voters, many of whom might not vote in the GOP primary if he were not on the ballot, finished second. Hard-working former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, who put all his apples in the New Hampshire basket, was rewarded with third place, albeit in the high teens against more than twice as many votes for Romney.

Trailing in fourth was former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, who came close to Romney in Iowa but had no base in New Hampshire, and closely behind in fifth was Gingrich. Both got less than 10 percent each.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who skipped New Hampshire except for the debates, was skipped by the voters, who gave him about 1 percent of the vote.

Observations? Romney did well, was the first non-incumbent in a long time to win both Iowa and New Hampshire, and was ratified by New Hampshire as the organized, financed candidate to beat. He is in a strong position going forward, although he needs a field with the more conservative candidates, both socially and philosophically, still in the race to split the vote of non-Romney voters.

Huntsman (for whom I voted) never caught on sufficiently. He should have emphasized his conservative record as a governor and sought Republican votes, rather than seeking Democrats and independents, who either cannot or are unlikely to vote in a primary. It was fairly obvious that he had no place to go after New Hampshire, and he withdrew on Martin Luther King Day in favor of Romney.

The other candidates were a source of wonder on election night, when they tried in vain to make good news out of bad.

Ron Paul, of course, who is trying to make many valid points (along with the other ones he makes) could take pride in a good showing. It is fairly obvious he is not serious about election, although he is serious about what he says, and much of it is a reminder of important constitutional principles.

Santorum and Gingrich, however, in trying to make less than 10 percent each into a reason to go forward, were a thing to behold.

South Carolina should be the place where others join Huntsman at the exit, although who they endorse when leaving may be different.

Will the New Hampshire primary survive? Yes. Do some changes need to be made? Yes -- the time between Iowa and New Hampshire needs to be lengthened and the parties need to take back control of the process. Will that happen? Not if recent history is any guide. But, as always, it not only was fun, but New Hampshire had a major say in the future of the United States, and was serious in carrying out that responsibility.

Brad Cook, a shareholder in the Manchester law firm of Sheehan Phinney Bass + Green, heads its government relations and estate planning groups. He also serves as secretary of the Business and Industry Association of New Hampshire.

The limitless opportunities of marketing online

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 01:01:22 EST

Today's nimble small business owner has a special advantage. Thanks to the Internet, entrepreneurs have a unique ability to learn new ideas and immediately apply them to their companies. Here are four Internet trends that small businesses can leverage to their advantage.

e-commerce is booming

According to the latest Internet World Stats, 78 percent of Americans use the Internet. IT facts reports that the average American spends nearly 33 hours online every week. But most Internet users aren't just surfing the Net. Almost 60 percent of Americans watch TV and surf at the same time. This means that if you have a project or idea to sell, the Internet is a prime marketplace for distribution.

It also means that a strategic marketing mix is essential to reaching prospective customers.

e-marketing trumps traditional marketing

Many savvy small business owners are moving marketing online and realizing extraordinary success. Consider that small business advertising is a backbone of Google. The medium has been a boon to small business owners who pay only for qualified leads or clicks. The upshot is that e-marketing tools can quickly connect and help build relationships while saving precious marketing dollars.

Consider this compelling statistic about email marketing: EmailMarketingReports.com shared in November 2011 that the Direct Marketing Association puts email marketing's ROI for 2011 at nearly $44 for every one dollar invested.

The new consumer face

Today's 85 million baby boomers and 50 million Gen Xers are giving way to the Gen Y group -- the boomers' 76 million kids who are sophisticated, computer savvy and independently minded.

The Pew Research Center survey cited above also found that 90 percent of Americans 18-30 are Internet users.

According to a 2010 article in the Washington Post that referenced a Census Bureau report, Hispanics accounted for about half the growth in the U.S. population since 2000. Half of this market is comprised of young Hispanics under the age of 27, making this another Internet-savvy group. It is estimated that number of Hispanic Internet users will surpass 29 million users by 2012.

Social media make everything personal

Facebook and Twitter provide personal paths for businesses to engage directly with their customers and make a brand more approachable. A business can create buzz through online events, videos, tweets or blog entries that attract attention on a one-on-one basis.

When engaged effectively, social media can drive brand awareness, grow a customer base and increase website traffic. Over time, these supporters can become advocates for your business.

Now is the time to incorporate new marketing strategies, tactics, and ideas. New online tools, when paired with the courage to try something new, provide limitless opportunities to grow your business.

Peter Marsh is vice president of business services for Comcast's greater Boston region.

Succession planning: a case history

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 01:01:18 EST

Every owner of a successful privately owned company must eventually confront an important question: What sort of future will the company have when you retire? Although I am not ready to retire yet, I nevertheless found myself being asked this question more and more often over the last few years.

The firm I formed in Wolfeboro in 1984 is an independent wealth management firm. The families we serve select us largely because of the quality of our staff and our ability to deliver objective advice. And they want assurances those qualities will be preserved. While an obvious choice would have been to sell the company to a larger competitor and cash out, it was equally obvious that this could have been a disastrous choice from the perspective of key employees and the families we serve, because our core values of independence and objectivity likely would be compromised at some point.

Our succession planning project took about two years - one year for study, analysis, discussion and preparation, and another year for the first stage of implementation. The preparatory work included many hours of discussion with senior staff to gather information, address their concerns and keep them informed as the planning progressed.

Planning for the company to remain independent required that we address many difficult questions, including:

• When is the best time to begin planning for succession?

• Is the founder really ready to transfer authority and control to someone else?

• Should the new leader come from within, or be hired from the outside?

• Can we successfully develop the future leader from within our own ranks?

• If we hire an outsider, how can we be sure that the new leader will work out?

When we appoint a new leader, will we risk losing one or more key people to opportunities elsewhere?

• How will customers react to the announcement that the founder is starting to transition key responsibilities to others?

• How can key employees afford to purchase the company? Will the current shareholders agree to sell at a value that is low enough for key employees to be able to afford to purchase shares? What tax planning issues are involved in this decision?

• What is the most appropriate governance structure for the company's future?

• How should we handle the details of transitioning authority and responsibilities for leading the company? How quickly should the transition occur?

• What ongoing role should the founder have, if any?

• What if the succession plan does not work on the first try?

• What, if any, outside assistance do we need to help with succession planning?

The owner's obligation

One of the keys to a successful internal transition is having at least one employee who wants to bear the risks and responsibilities of being a business owner. Often, there are no employees who want to assume that burden - that's why they became employees rather than starting their own businesses. Many entrepreneurs have difficulty attracting and retaining employees who are strong candidates to succeed the entrepreneur.

We made extensive use of a battery of tests administered by consultants who are experts in succession planning. The feedback from the test results helped senior employees learn about their strengths and weaknesses as leaders and managers. This process eventually resulted in the selection of a capable candidate who was already a member of our team.

Once our new leadership was announced, it quickly became evident to me that I had a major obligation, which is to ensure I made room for others to provide direction and exercise control. I had to allow our new leaders the freedom to manage in their own way, which might be very different from my style.

This requires constant vigilance on my part, to avoid interfering. Employees are like finely tuned antennas constantly searching for signals from the company's leadership. A signal that is ambiguous or contradictory is bound to have a negative impact.

Succession planning is far more complicated than most founders may realize, and a successful transition requires careful planning. I can testify that the rewards are worth the effort.

Roy Ballentine is founder of Ballentine Partners, Wolfeboro, a national wealth management firm.

Is N.H. a scrooge to young families?

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 01:01:13 EST

At the post office the other morning, I took a hard look around me. I live in a town that supports New Hampshire's largest state university. Durham desperately needs young people for its strength, its vitality and its future. But on this winter's day during winter break at UNH, all I saw around me were gray-hairs. No strollers, only walking canes. No toddlers in tow, only old people waiting in line.

Not that there is anything wrong with being old, mind you. It's just that a mountain of recent research has indicated that the future of this and any state depends on its ability to attract young families and young workers who will support our economy and take care of us aging baby boomers.

Demographer Peter Francese, director of forecasts for the New England Economic Partnership, has been worrying about this trend for a long time. In 2008, he and Lorraine Merrill, New Hampshire's agriculture commissioner, published a book called "Communities and Consequences" that warned that the state's human ecology was becoming imbalanced. Five years later, their concern appears to be a reality.

"The 2010 Census tells us we have at least 22,000 fewer schoolchildren in New Hampshire than we did 10 years ago," said Francese in a recent conversation. "That's a 6 percent decline." Francese said that New England as whole has nearly 200,000 fewer school-age children than the region had 10 years ago.

Francese says this lack of school children deeply threatens our state's future. The cost per pupil goes up, while schools have many fixed costs tied to staff, maintenance and compliance that don't change as student population falls. Taxpayers, who tend to look primarily at the cost per pupil, have regularly voted down much-needed school-improvement tax increases.

"We have created this problem by not focusing on how we can make New Hampshire attractive to young families," said Francese. "We're subsidizing old people like me at the expense of young families."

Somehow, many vocal New Hampshire community activists seem to have gotten it into their heads that an increase in young families with school-age children equals an increase in property taxes. They couldn't be more wrong.

The fact is, young families and children are vital to our state's economy. Young families spend more money, work more, earn greater profits for companies and contribute more to the federal and state economy than we gray-hairs do. Our schools should be filled to capacity and our communities should be allowing one unit of housing for young families for every unit allowed for elders.

The economic impact

In 2009, the state Legislature passed a law requiring communities to provide opportunities for workforce housing. Any positive effects of this legislation on attracting young families to our state has yet to be seen. One very real economic impact on employers is that they have to fork out more and more for relocation benefits in areas where workforce housing is slim, like New Hampshire.

More and more employers believe that the lack of suitable, affordable housing for young families is hurting our chances of full economic recovery.

The current trend is not sustainable. Who do you think will drive that ambulance when your time comes? Who will repair our roads, fix your car, clean your teeth, replace your leaky heart valve, teach chemistry or Chinese to your grandchildren? Who do you think will launch the next great technical innovation that will make your old age easier?

It probably won't be the aging boomers living in your town's 55+ housing development.

Here at UNH I see brilliant graduates, who have invested their money, time, energy and passion into getting a good education, and will carry huge burdens of debt for that education well into the future, fleeing the state.

As they leave here, they tell me they want to find a place that looks and feels younger. They want to live in communities that have adequate child care and great places for young families to find things to do. They want to find a cutting-edge job in an economically and socially vibrant area. But most of all, they want to live where other young families live.

The Stay Work Play initiative (stayworkplay.org) is a good start, but without deep incentives for young people to move here (e.g., affordable workforce housing, great schools, and communities that welcome and recruit young people), the initiative will stall.

So the next time our town gets together to decide about issues that affect young families - encouraging workforce housing and not just 55-plus communities, fully funding badly needed school repairs, building sidewalks and parks that young families can enjoy, and funding programs geared at young parents - I know what I'm going to do.

I'm going to think about my chat with Peter Francese and cast my vote for balancing New Hampshire's human ecology.

Dr. Malcolm Smith, family life and family policy specialist with UNH Cooperative Extension, teaches in the University of New Hampshire Family Studies Program. He can be reached at 603-862-7008, or malcolm.smith@unh.edu.

Excellence in N.H. architecture honored

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 01:01:08 EST

The creation of a new performance space at the historic Music Hall of Portsmouth and the renovation of another historic building -- the Newbury Center Meeting House in Newbury -- have won the highest accolades in the American Institute of Architects New Hampshire Chapter's 2012 Excellence in Architecture Awards.

The awards, presented Jan. 20 at the New Hampshire Institute of Art in Manchester, annually honor New Hampshire projects that "exemplify excellence in overall design, including aesthetics, clarity, creativity, appropriate functionality, sustainability, building performance, and appropriateness with regard to fulfilling the client's program."

All told, six projects were recognized at the event, along with another two buildings that won the annual People's Choice Awards, based on voting by the public.

Winners of the top Merit Awards were TMS Architects of Portsmouth for its work on the Music Hall Loft, a new space just around the corner from the Music Hall, which was built in 1878. The 124-seat Loft features live performances and films in more intimate setting that the 900-seat Music Hall (itself named an "American Treasure" in 2005).

Members of the jury noted that the architects "used incredible imagination in this project. The amount of transformation from before to after is really inspiring. Both the public spaces and the office spaces are treated appropriately for their different uses. Nothing is out of proportion, they were smart about materials, leveraged lighting and graphics to great effect, and spent money in the right places but kept the overall costs low."

General contractor for the project was John P. DeStefano of Portsmouth.

The other Merit Award was presented to Richard M. Monahon Jr. AIA Architects of Peterborough, for its renovation of the Newbury Center Meeting House.

The early 19th century building had been in serious disrepair for many years, including incremental decay from site drainage and failed roofs and structural failures in the three primary girders, sidewall posting, sills and floor framing.

The level of damage required the complete removal of the interior plaster and lathing. Restoration also included new timber-framed roof trusses, new interior plaster to match to original and a detailed removal and reconstruction of the cupola. Interior paint finishes were cleaned and restored to their original color palette.

Wrote the jurors: "This is a true historic project, and even though the decisions were fiscal, the right alternative decisions were made. What was done here is terrific and respectful and the jurors could find not fault. Even the framing, which is not visible, was treated in an historic way. The quality of details is exceptional and the level of care extraordinary; no short cuts were taken. The project shows really unusual details; the architects were really thinking and cared. Lots of love went into this project."

Contractor manager was North Branch Builders of Concord.

Winners of Citation Awards were:

• Samyn-D'Elia Architects, Ashland, Holderness School Dormitories and Faculty Residences, Holderness: Ward D'Elia of Samyn-D'Elia Architects worked with members of the Holderness School community to design new LEED Gold certified dormitory housing for 48 students and residences for six faculty families. In order to house many students and faculty in a single area without having the buildings become overpowering, the site plan and building design was developed to resemble a small New England neighborhood with the visual aspect broken into smaller components. The project serves as a template for sustainability programming at Holderness School with student involvement in setting energy conservation goals, exploring sustainability options, job site recycling and ongoing monitoring of electricity, propane, and water use through a real-time, Web-based energy kiosk in the living room of each building.

Design/builder: Milestone Engineering and Construction Inc., Concord. Landscape architect: Pellettieri Associates Inc., Warner.

• H3 Collaborative Architects, New York, N.Y., and Daniel V. Scully Architects, Keene: Stonelea, Dublin: The house, an 1891 cottage, has been renovated with both the goal of historic preservation and net-zero energy in mind.

The goal was to modernize the compound to be Grandmother's Gathering Place, a family retreat. This project, which also added a garage and mechanical room, is as energy efficient as possible, including geothermal wells, heat pumps and solar hot water. It also produces 100 percent of its required electricity with photovoltaics. A new kitchen, bathrooms, a swimming pool and spa have been added within the original structure.

Construction manager: MacMillin Construction Inc., Keene. Landscape architect: Jane Macleish Landscapes, Washington, D.C.

• Eric Thompson Design, Columbus, Ohio, ThinkHouse, Jaffrey: A cabin for writing, studying and reading in the forest on Frost Pond in Jaffrey, The ThinkHouse is designed as a place for peaceful contemplation. To achieve this feeling, the study was raised up from the ground and into the trees, which not only adds to the experience of nature but also minimized the disturbance of the site that a conventional building foundation would require. Extensive windows, especially on the north side where daylight is glare-free, give the writer an experience of being in the forest with natural light filtering through the trees.

General Contractor: Cedarwood Development Corp., Jaffrey.

An Honorable Mention for Unbuilt Architecture was presented to Julie Rahilly of Nashua, a student at Wentworth Institute of Technology, for her design of The Annex Connector for the Boston campus. People's Choice Awards were presented to Frank Anzalone Associates of New London, for its residential Pleasant Lake Landing project in New London. Bruss Construction of Bradford was the construction manager. Winner of the favorite commercial project award was the Northeast Rehabilitation Hospital at Pease in Portsmouth, designed by JSA Inc. of Portsmouth. The contractor was North Branch Construction.

Also at the 28th annual awards event:

• The 2012 Clinton Sheerr Award for Excellence in New Hampshire Architecture was presented to James Somes, founder of the architecture firm JSA Inc., Portsmouth. The Sheerr Award honors and promotes New Hampshire architects and their architecture that exemplify excellence in design at the highest level. In presenting the award, architect Patricia Sherman noted that "he saw the profession of architecture as a way to bring generosity and collaboration into the competitive business of architecture. Success was the common denominator in all of Jim's efforts, but not for himself. He treated his clients as partners in successful projects. He treated his peers as friends even though they were competing for the same job. If you were a young person interested in architecture he found you a job, usually in his own office. He mentored his employees and encouraged them to start their own businesses."

• AIANH named Linda Ray Wilson an honorary member, an award bestowed on non-architects who have given distinguished service to the profession of architecture or to the arts and sciences related to architecture within the state of New Hampshire. Wilson was recognized for her outstanding work and dedication in steadfastly preserving, protecting, and honoring the built environment of New Hampshire.

• Winners of the Intern/Young Architect Design Competition were also recognized. Adam Lemire of LineSync Architecture in Wilmington, Vt., took home first place. Andrew M. Queen, of Washington, N.H., and an employee at Pro Con Inc., Manchester, and Nathan Stolarz AIA of Medford, Mass., who worked at TMS Architects in Portsmouth for six years and is now employed at Prellwitz/Chilinski Associates in Cambridge, Mass., tied for second place.

Training mandate proposal riles N.H. nonprofits

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 01:01:03 EST

Does the live free or die philosophy of the New Hampshire Legislature pertain only to organizations making a profit? That's what officials at many of the state's nonprofit organizations are beginning to wonder after the Senate passed a bill mandating that state charitable organizations send at least one member to a training session with a heavy focus on fiscal management and ethics.

"It continues to be irritating to us," said Michael Ostrowski, CEO of Manchester-based Child and Family Services, which does $7 million worth of business - about half of its budget - with the state. "I thought this Legislature believed in less regulation. It's intrusive into a private organization, a business that happens to be nonprofit in structure."

However, state Health and Human Services Commissioner Nick Toumpas, who asked for the bill, insisted it was necessary.

"Several organizations are failed, and when an organization just outright fails, there are concerns for the people being served by that organization," Toumpas told NHBR. "If they are financially fragile, the boards need to be trained to understand what their fiduciary duty is."

The Senate passed Senate Bill 177 on Jan. 18 with a compromise amendment that stripped out some of the original measure's most controversial requirements.

The original bill would have required that all organizations that receive a total of $250,000 from government at any level must provide third-party training to all board members as well as the CEO and CFO every four years. If they didn't comply, they would face getting cut off from public funding for two years or be fined $5,000 for each instance of noncompliance.

That bill was sent back to committee in March 2011 in the face of pushback from nonprofits.

The amended version -- the one voted on Jan. 18 -- now would require that one board member go through the training every other year, with penalties to be named later by the charitable trusts unit of the state Justice Department.

The four hours of training would have to include "instruction on fiduciary responsibilities, financial controls, relative responsibility and authority of boards of directors and corporation employees, ethics and federal and state laws and regulations governing nonprofit corporations."

Michelline Dufort, advocacy director at the New Hampshire Center for Nonprofits, estimated the bill would affect about 300 organizations.

For and against

Most of the state's larger nonprofits already have trained board members but routinely send them to conferences for more training, said Dufort, although some smaller organizations might find the extra requirement a bit of a hardship. "It's more the members feel they should not be mandated."

"Most of the organizations are highly professional," said Ostrowski of Child and Family Services. "My CFO has an MBA. We have three or four accountants, a bunch of attorneys, a retired judge. This kind of legislation is sort of an irritation."

State Sen. Sylvia Larsen, D-Concord, voted for the bill in committee, because she was initially "relieved" at the changes, but she came out swinging on the floor of the Senate when it came up for a vote.

"Many of New Hampshire's employers are in fact nonprofits. We are a state that tries to not intrude on those businesses and a nonprofit is a business" she said. "We are not asking our for-profits to supply proof of financial training, but somehow we are moving to the nonprofit world and feeling that we can mandate they provide that information. This mandate will be burdensome on our nonprofits who already (have) lean staffs and cutbacks in revenues."

Nonprofits already have to file Form 990s with the Internal Revenue Service and register with the state charitable trust unit. And in seeking government contracts, they have to complete applications that ask about their financial expertise, said Larsen. Indeed, state agencies could include proof of training requirements in their request for proposal language, she said.

Besides, she said, it's hard enough to get people to serve on the boards of nonprofits. "This bill might have a chilling effect on those willing to lead a nonprofit," said Larsen.

While Democrat Larsen led the anti-mandate charge, several Republican senators defended the bill.

"It's just a short number of hours of additional training which could be supplied by the charitable trust division," said Sen. Sharon Carson, R-Londonderry, sponsor of the bill. "So you have one person who goes to this training that can give this training back to the other members of the board. We can get an organization that runs much smoother."

The training can even be conducted over the Internet, added Sen. Jim Luther, R-Hollis.

And Sen. Bob O'Dell, R-Lempster, a sponsor of the bill, said he was "little bit dismayed" at the debate.

"We are talking about organizations that are willing to take money from the state of New Hampshire. I think they ought to be willing to have one of their board members go for a couple of hours of training every couple of years."

(According to the language of the bill, the mandate applies to organizations that contract with any governmental entity, not just the state.)

Larsen wanted the bill tabled, and she was joined by a few Republicans senators, who apparently were persuaded by concern about government mandates: Jim Forsythe of Strafford, Fenton Groen of Rochester and Senate President Peter Bragdon, of Milford.

S.B. 177 was sent to the House on a voice vote. How the training mandate will play out there remains to be seen.

Mid-life career changes: the rule, not the exception

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 01:00:58 EST

Robert Barmore hadn't planned on a second career after decades as a designer, developer and builder of vacation homes in Colorado.

"This was a niche market and we thought it was mostly recession-proof," Barmore said. But his assumptions were tested when the early tremors of a collapsing real estate market began to be felt in early 2007. Within a few years, his former business was no more, and Barmore and his wife Susan transplanted themselves to Portsmouth.

Barmore began an unexpected second entrepreneurial career, this time as CEO of Therma-Hexx, a company that designs and manufactures what he calls a "game-changing" technology that turns concrete slabs into energy producers.

Barmore is not alone in branching out. Second, third, or even fourth careers have been nothing new for Americans even during flush economic times. But the economic upheaval that began in 2008 may have had a more seismic impact on career and job choices at any time since World War II.

"I believe the effects of this recession have required people to change careers much more than in previous recessions," said Ross Gittell, a University of New Hampshire economist who was recently appointed chancellor of the state community college system. For example, during the recovery from the severe real estate-based recession of the early 1990s, Gittell said while many people left the state in search of employment, most did not have to change careers.

But Gittell said the "creative destruction" aspect of capitalism unleashed during the recession of 2008 was different. State budget cuts have led to a historically high number of public servants being laid off, moving production tasks overseas has led to the decline of many low- and medium-skilled manufacturing jobs, and sizable productivity gains due to greater technological applications have led to a need for fewer people.

"There has been major transformation in a lot of industries," he said.

Different this time

"I saw the writing on the wall for the economy," said Barmore.

He said his business model of building and selling high-end vacation homes on speculation had survived economic downturns since the 1980s, but he realized it was no longer going to be viable as the Great Recession reared its head. "You could see the coming economic bubble was going to be bad."

Barmore and his wife began the process of de-leveraging themselves from their old lifestyle and began a four-year journey of different jobs and attempting to sell homes on Nantucket and in Colorado. It was during this time frame that Barmore brought his concept for ThermaPAVER from conception to production.

"I was looking for change and I'm a creative guy," said Barmore.

Shifting his focus from construction deadlines to finding the right manufacturer in China, he secured a grant through the Green Launching Pad program at the University of New Hampshire and rounded up a second round of investors after realizing it would be unlikely that he could self-finance the company.

Finding that financing has been even more difficult this go-round, said Mary Collins, director of the New Hampshire Small Business Development Center.

Collins -- whose agency offers counseling and assistance to new and established small businesses -- says the shock of the downturn has been different from other recessions and has made it even more challenging to pursue entrepreneurial dreams due to a lack of cash.

"That's the main difference I see," Collins said. "More people had retirement money they could tap into to start their own businesses. Many people coming out of this recession don't have the cash available, and it's a critical issue."

In the past year, Collins has hired part-time SBDC business counselors who are themselves in the midst of career changes.

Dartmouth graduate John Casey returned to the area after working as a financial adviser on Wall Street and in the film and entertainment industries.

"I left Florida as the economy was falling apart," Casey said.

After a career working on a much bigger financial scale, Casey is happy to offer assistance and insight to a wide range of entrepreneurs striving to succeed and is using the opportunity to network in preparation for his next career shift.

He's under no illusion that the economic situation will greatly improve soon.

"The great stock market crash of 1987 was a slight bump in the road. This is much worse, much more protracted, with severe unemployment," Casey said. "I don't see the economy recovering for years because there are deep-seated problems with the economy and the nation's tax structure."

Just how deep and quantifiable the career and employment changes stemming from the recession of 2008 may not be known for years. But a groundbreaking 30-year study covering 1979 to 2009 by the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that job market fluidity had already been extensive before the recession - and the era of punching the proverbial clock at the same job for decades had become more myth than reality, especially for the youngest of the baby boomers.

The National Longitudinal Survey of Youth results for those born between the years 1957 and 1964 found that workers held an average of 11 jobs from ages 18 to 44 (a job is defined as an uninterrupted period of work with a particular employer). An additional breakdown from the survey showed that 25 percent held 15 jobs. Only a minority of respondents, (12 percent) held from one to four jobs during that 26-year time frame.

The survey covered 9,964 men and women who were ages 14 to 22 when first interviewed in 1979 and ages 43 to 52 when interviewed most recently during the 2008-09 period. Formal education was a main variable -- workers with higher education levels had fewer jobs than those with lower education attainment.

As for Robert Barmore, he said his second career is moving at supersonic speed.

ThermaPAVER came from a simple but challenging quest -- how to derive energy from the natural heat collectors known as pavers, the large concrete slabs found on high-rise building rooftops, pool and deck patios, plazas and sidewalks.

"Their temperature can surge to over 140 degrees Fahrenheit on sunny days, creating an intolerable environment," Barmore said. "In winter, snow and ice accumulate on them, rendering the areas dangerous or unusable."

Barmore began tinkering and tinkering some more over 3 1/2 years until he began to see the outlines of ThermaPAVER, which is in the process of being patented.

"We decided to roll the dice on this," he said about his second career.

With a potential $1b in deferred maintenance needs, USNH prepares a plea to the Legislature

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 11:30:32 EST

Just over a decade ago, the science facilities at the University of New Hampshire were so outdated that the school tried to shield prospective students from even seeing them.

"We used to make every effort to avoid showing students our building," said Bill Hersman, a UNH physics professor who teaches out of DeMeritt Hall, which was originally built in 1914. "The classrooms and research labs in DeMeritt Hall were so deplorable we tried to avoid them even seeing it."

Home to the school's physics department, DeMeritt was prone to vibration because of its wooden frame. Its ceilings were too low to house large equipment, it needed a new roof, and didn't have sprinklers or an up-to-date fire alarm system.

"The rooms I had my labs in had wooden floors. They were creaky, and there were spots where the wood would poke up," said Jacob Berg, a UNH computer science major who graduated in 2009 and who now works as a software engineer at BAE Systems in Nashua. "The lab benches were old, and we used old equipment, from the '70s or '80s."

"All of this academic work was done basically in a dungeon," said Hersman. "Ceiling tiles were letting go and crumbling and damaging my equipment and nearly injuring my students and post-docs."

A long shot?

With its structural deficiencies, DeMeritt wasn't the only science building in the university system that required almost total overhaul to be brought into the 21st century.

Elsewhere on the UNH campus, more buildings cried out for similar repairs. Murkland Hall was built in 1926 and never underwent a major renovation, its foundation deteriorating and facing serious fire safety issues.

Kingsbury Hall, home of the college of engineering, wasn't ventilated, couldn't be air-conditioned, and didn't even have enough power to run all of the computers housed there. James Hall, built in 1930, and Parsons Hall had similar issues.

And that was just at UNH. The only science facilities on the campuses of Keene State College and Plymouth State University also required updating if they were to continue to attract students.

Faced with this reality, the University System of New Hampshire drew up a plan to beef up its science, technology, engineering, and math -- or STEM -- facilities. They called the effort the Knowledge Economy Education Plan, or KEEP.

KEEP was envisioned as a way to attract and keep strong students in the state, arming them with the skills to respond to New Hampshire's future workforce needs and emerging high-tech economy.

The university system appealed to the Legislature for capital appropriations to fund KEEP, and in two phases lawmakers committed more than $200 million over a 12-year period for the renovation and enhancement of the buildings.

It was the single largest investment made in the university system in the history of the state.

Now the university system is asking for follow-up funding from the state for KEEP's successor program -- called KEEP-UP -- to address deferred maintenance projects throughout the system, which it says could cost upwards of $1 billion over the next two decades.

It has proposed a one-to-one match between the university system and the Legislature to the tune of $180 million each over the next three biennia.

But given the current spending climate, the likelihood that the Legislature will make such a large commitment seems a long shot, particularly on the heels of a 45 percent reduction in the university system's operating budget approved in the last budget cycle.

"(I'm) certainly not going to say they wouldn't get anything, but I'm sure it won't be anything like what they would like to get," said Rep. Gene Chandler, R-Bartlett, chair of the House Public Works and Highways Committee, who received a copy of USNH's report outlining its KEEP-UP request.

Dire situation

By most accounts, KEEP has been an undisputed success, but one that required the university system to shoulder a huge risk.

When the university system first appealed to the Legislature in 2000 for $185 million in state appropriations over six years, it amounted to publicly admitting to prospective students that its facilities weren't cut out for cutting-edge research or education.

"Our quiet little secret is we have serious infrastructure problems at UNH," Joan Leitzel, then-president of the university, told the Portsmouth Herald in early 2001. "One reason we haven't talked about it publicly is we don't want to scare away prospective students."

But the direness of the situation necessitated it, she said. Things had even gotten so bad that the UNH engineering program was at risk of losing its national accreditation, and the system could no longer scrape by appealing every two years for the state to fund a single project at a time, she said at the time.

"Once we have gone public with this, we won't retreat," Leitzel told New Hampshire Public Radio in 2001. "There is nothing short of full renovation that will remedy these buildings."

As part of its large lobbying effort, system officials led countless legislators on what were basically carnival-of-horror tours of the campuses' most antiquated buildings.

Hersman remembers the dean leading lawmakers through his classroom and citing it as the best example of "the pinnacle of high-quality research being done in the worst possible laboratory space."

The risk of going public paid off. The plan found widespread support, including from business leaders who saw the need to attract top students in critical shortage areas to the universities.

The Legislature appropriated $100 million for KEEP in 2001 -- pared down from the $185 million the university system had initially requested. It then approved another $109.5 million in a second phase in 2005.

On top of state money, the university system added about $40 million in supplementary funds, much of which came from private support.

"We worked hard with getting that private support," Ed MacKay, chancellor of the university system, told NHBR. "Most of that private support would not have come if there was not the fundamental commitment on the part of the state."

And over the last 12 years, the buildings have been brought totally revamped.

DeMeritt, once shrouded from prospective students, became "the showcase of the university," said Hersman. After being replaced at a cost of $20 million -- $18.8 million of which came through KEEP -- the facility now has "everything you could hope for in a modern science building."

Additions were made to Boyd Hall at PSU and the Putnam Science Center at KSC for labs and classrooms. Kingsbury was "completely revamped" and made engineer-friendly, said Berg.

After KEEP, said MacKay, the system saw a noticeable, and immediate, uptick in its enrollment of STEM students.

At Keene, the number of biology, chemistry and environmental studies majors all more than doubled between 2004 and 2010.

PSU had 72 graduate students in the sciences last year, up from just five in 2002, and undergraduate science enrollment more than doubled from 137 students to 311 over the same period.

And at UNH, enrollment in the College of Engineering and Physical Sciences has risen 75 percent in less than a decade.

"These efforts will pay real dividends in terms of enabling the state to sustain the growth of its economy," said MacKay.

Deferred maintenance

Following KEEP's success, USNH has now turned its attention to major and ongoing deferred maintenance projects in the form of KEEP-UP.

In 2007, USNH hired Boston-based VFA, an independent facility assessment firm, to assess its deferred maintenance needs. The firm determined that over the next 20 years, it would cost about $600 million just to maintain the existing level of deferred maintenance for academic buildings alone.

And that figure didn't include soft costs, like architectural fees and permitting or code compliance costs, which it said could push that figure to over $1 billion.

In October, as directed by House Bill 25, the university system filed a report to the state Legislature outlining its funding request for KEEP-UP.

In that report, it proposes a dollar-for-dollar match between state capital appropriations and the USNH operating budget for deferred maintenance and general upkeep of its academic facilities. It seeks support starting at $50 million in fiscal year 2014-'15, $60 million in '16-'17, and $70 million in '18-'19.

"We can't be complacent with where we are now. We need to continue to make these investments to attract individuals to this state," said MacKay. "We cannot depend on our historical migration patterns. We have to do more to 'grow with our own.'"

Any formal requests for capital funding won't be submitted until spring 2013, he said.

But, said Representative Chandler, the university system has already gotten a considerable amount of funding over the last three capital budgets. Thus, he added, "It will come down to priorities like everything else."

"We can't overfund one particular segment of the state to the detriment of other things that need attention," said Chandler.

Plus, he said, most state-owned facilities are overseen by the Department of Administrative Services, which gives the state more of a say in deciding which buildings need work.

"We don't have that filter with the university system, so we rely on what they think their priorities are," said Chandler. "I think it could use a little looking at, because I'm not sure we're necessarily putting the right amount of money into the right buildings."

Right now, whether USNH will get the money it wants is still very much up in the air. "It's going to take some convincing," said Chandler. "But they're usually pretty good at that."

Q&A with Community college chancellor Ross Gittell

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 01:00:49 EST

For the past two decades, University of New Hampshire economist Ross Gittell has been on a research quest to understand and decipher the diverse New Hampshire economy. But on Feb. 1, Gittell makes a dramatic career change from scholar and researcher to top administrator when he assumes the post of chancellor of the Community College System of New Hampshire.

Gittell, who holds degrees from the University of Chicago, University of California and Harvard, has also been vice president and forecast manager of the New England Economic Partnership, one of the top economic forecast providers in New England.

Gittell said he is "tremendously excited at the opportunity to lead this vital organization, at a time when the role of community colleges has never been more important" and added that he intends to aggressively raise the profile and program capabilities.

He will also take over at a time when the seven-college system deals with a 20 percent funding cut and a 7.7 percent increase in tuitions in 2011-2012.

Q. Why did you decide to make a career change?

A. I think it's the next step from teaching and research to pursuing strategic initiatives and opportunities to build broad support for the community college and to show how important its role is in the state economy.

I think that the CCSNH had been perceived as a sort of stepchild for too long. It does different things than the University System of New Hampshire, but that doesn't make it any less prestigious or important in having an economic impact and providing significant economic opportunity.

Q. Had you thought about a career change before?

A. For more than 20 years, I have done a lot of economic research on the state's economy and been part of many discussions about what makes the state unique, its strengths and weaknesses. I have thought about a change from the perspective of making an impact from a leadership position.

It's important for our economic future that the 25,000 students in the community college system get a strong education, and to make education affordable for working families. It's also important for the system to be even more flexible to provide a place for worker retraining.

I have a reputation for my research and understanding of the state economy and I am coming from the University of New Hampshire. This gives me the understanding as a leader to be a spokesperson and upgrade the status of the community college system in the state.

Q. What are some of the strengths of CCSNH?

A. The CCSNH has built strong external relations with industry, the University System of New Hampshire and secondary education in the state.

You can look at the development of Safran USA and Albany Engineered Composites coming to Rochester in a combined operation and the partnership with Great Bay Community College that will help fill more than 400 manufacturing jobs. This is an example of the community college system playing a critical economic development role, and frankly I know it has been a role that's not fully appreciated in many corners in the state.

I will speak out publicly and continue to strengthen relationships and job-creating programs with the business community.

Q. Will you still keep working with the New England Economic Partnership?

A. I will still be involved in a voluntary leadership position. It's really important to stay current and understand the economy to help develop the role and programs we need at CCSNH.

Q. How different do you think it will be to testify before the Legislature as an advocate rather than an economist?

A. That will not change. Everything I do will be fact- and research-based. I'm not going to advocate for things that are not doing well, and if there are problems, I will speak publicly about working to correct them. I will emphasize that the CCSNH mission at our seven campuses is to advance economic opportunity for individuals.

As the economy at large recovers slowly from the recession, it's important to remember how important it is to have an institution that provides a win-win solution - worker retraining programs for displaced workers or those seeking a career change and training a workforce whose skills are a strong match with the needs of industry. I believe this combination of trained and educated workers is the key to help attract new firms and spur employment growth.

NHBR About Town: Speedway Children's Charities

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 01:00:45 EST

Last month, the New Hampshire Motor Speedway and the New Hampshire chapter of Speedway Children's Charities donated more than $150,000 to 47 organizations throughout New England that support underprivileged children. Representatives from the groups accepted the funds during a Gift of Lights holiday celebration last month.

NHBR About Town: New Horizons for New Hampshire

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 01:00:41 EST

Maureen Manning, left, president of the New Hampshire Association for Justice, and Ellen Shemitz, right, the association's executive director, present Charlie Sherman, executive director of New Horizons for New Hampshire, with a $7,855 donation, which was raised at a holiday benefit auction and will support the efforts of the Manchester soup kitchen and homeless shelter.

NHBR About Town: Seacoast Family Food Pantry

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 01:00:37 EST

Catherine Edison, left, of the Portsmouth Rotary Club's Basic Needs Committee, and fellow Rotarian Mark Sullivan, right, present checks totaling $3,600 to Margie Parker, second from left, pantry director for the Seacoast Family Food Pantry, and Diane Giese, the pantry's executive director, which will provide an entire year of milk for 300 food pantry families.

NHBR About Town: Patriot Award

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 01:00:32 EST

John Neylon, ombudsman of the New Hampshire Committee for Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve, presents Jannette 'Nettie' Olson, RN at the Children's Hospital at Dartmouth, center, with a Patriot Award, for her support of Amanda Bailey, right, a pediatric patient-care technician, during her six months in Iraq with the New Hampshire Air National Guard. Patricia Graffum, RN, was also honored with the award, for her support of the family of MEDEVAC pilot John Williams as he spent a year ferrying wounded military personnel in Iraq for military treatment in the Vermont Air National Guard.

NHBR About Town: Laconia Savings Bank

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 01:00:27 EST

City officials and members of the Rochester Chamber of Commerce joined Laconia Savings Bank employees in celebrating the opening of the bank's newest branch on North Main Street in Rochester at a ribbon-cutting ceremony held earlier this month.

NHBR About Town: American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 01:00:21 EST

Cheryl Cutting, lead New Hampshire ambassador for the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, Peter Ames, its state vice president of health initiatives, and volunteer Rachel Chretien were among the more than 40 volunteers and supporters of the ACS CAN who attended a New Hampshire primary night watch party at Margarita's Mexican Restaurant in Manchester as part of a national voter education campaign to raise the profile of cancer issues in the 2012 elections.

NHBR About Town: Regency Mortgage Corp.

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 01:00:15 EST

Maureen Lemay and Quentin Keefe, left, co-owners of Regency Mortgage Corp., celebrate with their staff at the groundbreaking of Regency's new home in Hooksett, which is scheduled to open in June.

NHBR About Town: Boy Scouts of America 20th Annual Lakes Region Good Scout Award Luncheon

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 01:00:09 EST

Barry Leonard, senior vice president for commercial services at Laconia Savings Bank and chair of the Boy Scouts of America 20th Annual Lakes Region Good Scout Award Luncheon, congratulates Rodney Dyer, senior partner at Wescott, Dyer, Fitzgerald & Nichols, P.A. on being selected as the 2011 Lakes Region Good Scout Honoree. EPTAM Plastics was also recognized as the corporate honoree at the luncheon, which raised more than $45,000 for the Daniel Webster Council to support scouting in the region.

Senate bills target jobless benefits rules

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 00:01:00 EST

Should municipalities and nonprofits be required to reimburse the New Hampshire Department of Employment Security after a longtime employee quits and gets a job somewhere else, only to be shortly laid off?

That's the question raised by Senate Bill 257, and by Harry S. Vogel, executive director of the Loon Preservation Committee, based in Moultonborough.

As a nonprofit that recently broke away from the Audubon Society of New Hampshire, the Loon Committee had a choice to pay unemployment security taxes like a private business, which are assessed based partly on previous experience, or to reimburse the state for the cost.

Although the Loon Committee hasn't laid off anybody in years, Audubon has, so the Loon Committee- like most nonprofits -- chose the reimbursement option. But, to Vogel's surprise, Employment Security said the committee was liable for 44 percent of unemployment benefits of a former employee that hadn't been laid off by the committee, he said.

Under SB 257, all of an employee's time would be charged to the employer that laid him or her off.

"It would shift the burden," said state Labor Commissioner Tara Reardon, who did not take a position on the bill.

Sen. Ray White, R-Bedford, however, had problems with the idea. The recent recession drained the unemployment fund, increasing taxes on business. "My bill went up 400 percent, and I never laid anyone off," he said, addressing Vogel. "It seems to me you got the benefit of a free ride, and when something adverse happens you want to change the law."

In a related measure, Sen. Sylvia Larsen, D-Concord, said she intends to amend her bill that would give unemployed workers more time on the Return to Work program so it can be sent to a study committee. The program, instituted last year, allows recipients to work in a training capacity at a business for six weeks while still collecting benefits, with the hope that they can be hired. SB 377 would have doubled the period from six to 12 weeks.

Larsen said she thought employers might need more time to train workers, but Commissioner Reardon said that the program was working just fine as it is, with some 65 percent of trainees ended up being hired.

She said that if workers were subsidized by unemployment benefits any longer, employers might use them as free labor rather than as potential workers.

A study committee would try to find out what the state could do to tell more businesses about the problem, Larsen said.

In other commerce committee business, those selling insurance for cell phones or iPads would be doing so under a limited insurance license by the retailer, if SB 350 makes it thought the legislative process. But that might not be easy, since the state Insurance Department wants to put the idea on hold.

The bill is championed by Jim Hatem, a lobbyist representing Asurion LLC, a Florida-based company that says on its website that it has more than 5,000 employees and policies with some 95 million consumers.

Currently, most retailers have no licenses. Instead they are classified as "enrollers," said Hatem, "so it's not

perfectly clear if something goes wrong."

This bill makes it clear that it is the retailer who is the insurer, though Asurion or some rival company would provide various services, such as making sure consumers don't go without a cell phone while the old one is ﬁxed or replaced.

The bill calls for training and disclosure, primarily by handing consumers a brochure. The Insurance Department however said it wants to her from the National Association

of Insurance Commissioners to draw up model legislation, which it expected in about a year.

Hatem said it would take much longer and urged the committee to act.

White said he's a bit suspicious whenever a large company comes in asking for regulations, arguing that it could be a sign that it wanted to make it harder for competition to enter the market. -- BOB SANDERS/NEW HAMPSHIRE BUSINESS REVIEW

N.H. industry sees hope in extended lumber deal

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 22:32:16 EST

The United States and Canada have announced a two-year extension of the Softwood Lumber Agreement, which those in New Hampshire's lumber industry say is good news.

"Most everybody that I know that's producing softwood lumber right now would think it's positive," said B. Manning, sales manager at Durgin & Crowell, which has manufactured eastern white pine lumber in Springfield since 1976.

Under the deal, the Softwood Lumber Agreement, which was due to expire in 2013, will remain in effect through October 2015. It was originally enacted in 2006 to put an end to a divisive and ongoing trade dispute between the two countries.

The dispute stemmed from the claim by those in the American logging industry that the Canadian government was unfairly subsidizing its timber. Most Canadian timberland is owned by provincial governments, which were charging private firms low fees to log on government land.

In response, the U.S. instituted a 27 percent fee on imported Canadian timber in 2002.

In 2006, the two countries reached an agreement, under which the U.S. agreed to stop imposing duties on Canadian lumber, and Canada agreed to an export tax to offset the subsidies when prices dropped below a set amount. As part of the deal, the U.S. also agreed to return about 80 percent -- or $4.5 billion -- of the duties it had collected since 2001 to Canadian exporters.

Still, the agreement has not been without disputes. In 2011, the London Court of International Arbitration found that Canada had breached the terms of the agreement when Ontario and Quebec offered provincial assistance programs to support the softwood lumber industry.

Also last year, the U.S. announced it was seeking nearly $500 million in damages on charges that the British Columbia government broke the trade agreement by classifying timber that had been damaged by a beetle infestation as salvage, which sells for 25 cents a cubic meter.

"They're selling that wood at a pittance," said John King, owner of King Forest Industries in Wentworth. "They reclassified tremendous quantities of wood. It's just a way of skirting the agreement."

That dispute is expected to go to arbitration next month.

King said it was good news the extension was in place, but expressed frustration at the length of time that it takes to arbitrate the disputes.

"We need our country to enforce our trade laws," said King. "We can deal with anybody that's doing things the way they should be doing it, but we can't compete against the Canadian government."

Despite these disputes, the agreement is one that has benefited both countries, said Manning.

"The agreement adds certainty, stability, to the business in a very uncertain economic environment, and I think that prior to the agreement, nobody really knew exactly where they stood," he said. "When the two countries came together on an agreement of this magnitude, it adds stability and a certainty to business, which is good for everybody."

The two-year extension buys the countries some time to discuss what changes may be made to the agreement down the line, said Manning.

Both countries have also agreed to a commodity check-off program, which would act as a marketing arm for all of North American softwood lumber, similarly to the "Got Milk?" program that promotes the dairy industry as a whole.

"I think there's more positive than negative things going on at the moment," said Manning. -- KATHLEEN CALLAHAN/NEW HAMPSHIRE BUSINESS REVIEW

Senate bill seeks to ban drinking games at bars

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 19:50:35 EST

Should the state expressly ban games and contests involving alcohol at bars -- games like beer pong? Or does a law like that run the risk of targeting people simply for betting a beer over a game of darts?

Senate Bill 251 -- sponsored by Sen. Amanda Merrill, D-Durham, at the behest of the Dover Youth to Youth organization that works toward reducing substance abuse by their peers -- doesn't mention beer pong specifically. But it would pertain to any game in which a patron is encouraged to consume alcohol as a condition for participation or any other game that "encourages excess conception of alcohol."

(For the uninitiated, beer pong involves players throwing a ping pong ball across a table with the goal of landing it in a cup of beer at on the other end. If the ball lands in the cup, the other player must drink it.)

"When they are playing games like beer pong, they tend to drink faster than they normally would," testified Maddie Retrosi, a junior at Dover High School, at a Senate Commerce Committee hearing on Tuesday.

The state already has laws on the books against encouraging too much alcohol consumption, said Sen. Andy Sanborn, R-Henniker, owner of The Draft, a sports bar in Concord. Sanborn, who was recently promoted to vice chair of the Senate Commerce Committee, clearly indicated that he didn't see the need for more laws.

"We are already prohibited from doing what you are trying to prohibit," he told Merrill.

But Dana Mitchell, a former police captain who said he was speaking on behalf of the Dover Police Department (which sponsors Youth To Youth) said he thought the state should to spell out that prohibition.

"People are more likely to follow the law if it is clearly stated, and it is our position that it is not clear," he said. "It's the functional equivalent of having a law on the books for drivers not to drive recklessly, saying that you don't need rules on drinking and driving. When a lot of smart people disagree what the law says, that's a sign we need some clarification here."

However, if you are going to go after problem drivers, "you don't put your radar on a dead-end street," retorted Eddie Edwards, director of enforcement and licensing for the State Liquor Commission. Most drinking games don't occur in bars, but on campuses, he said.

Edwards also echoed the view that the laws on the books, and the Liquor Commission's regulations, already prohibit games that encourage excessive drinking.

Henry Veilleux, a lobbyist for the Lodging and Restaurant Association (of which Sanborn is a board member), said the bill is an overreach and puts games like "pool and darts very much at risk." -- BOB SANDERS/NEW HAMPSHIRE BUSINESS REVIEW

Stay Work Play seeks businesses' support

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 00:01:00 EST

Stay Work Play -- the organization whose goal it is to encourage 20-to-30-year-olds to pursue their careers in New Hampshire -- is looking for small and large businesses and other organizations around the state that share its focus on retaining the state's young educated workforce.

The group, along with Gov. John Lynch and the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation, has sent out invitations to more than 50 organizations to attend an event on Thursday, Jan. 26, in Concord. The organizations will be urged to take part as part of Stay Work Play's board of advisers.

Securing a young workforce is vital to New Hampshire's economy, and Stay Work Play is leading the way in an effort to make our state more attractive to young workers, said Kate Luczko, Stay Work Play's executive director.

She said the event will help kick off a new phase for Stay Work Play and "help better bridge the needs of our business community with the needs of our student population who are currently looking beyond New Hampshire's borders for professional opportunities."

While the Jan. 26 event is by invitation only, more information about the Stay Work Play board of advisers can be obtained by visiting http://stayworkplay.org/about-us/board-advisors or contacting Luczko at 603-860-2245 or mailto:kate@stayworkplay.org. -- NEW HAMPSHIRE BUSINESS REVIEW

ProPhotonix says it expects a better 2011

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 20:43:37 EST

ProPhotonix Ltd. says it expects to report about $17 million in revenue for 2011, an increase over the $15.2 million it reported the previous year.

In an earnings preview released last week, the Salem-based company said the gain came despite a slowdown in orders and shipments for certain product lines -- a situation that the firm expects to pick up toward the second half of the year.

The company, formerly known as StockerYale, has most of its operations in England and Ireland. It says it expects to break even if certain generally accepted accounting practices are not taken into account, such as the interest it pays on its debts.

ProPhotonix did not specify what its net loss before taxes might be, though it did say that its revenues and losses before taxes are "in line with market expectations."

The company said it doubled it size of its U.S. sales force and doubled its R&D team, but did not offer any expense figures.

ProPhotonix is now mainly sold on the AIM exchange -- part of the London Stock Exchange -- after it sold off its U.S. assets and left the Nasdaq under a delisting warning.

Its stock is still being traded in the United States on the Pink Sheets, under the old StockerYale ticker symbol, STKR.

On Monday the stock was trading at 8 cents share, matching up a 52-week low. -- BOB SANDERS/NEW HAMPSHIRE BUSINESS REVIEW

North Country firm makes offer for some of Isaacson Steel

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 20:43:26 EST

Isaacson Steel Inc. wants to sell off some of its warehouse business for $225,000, but the fate of the larger bankrupt company - Berlin-based Isaacson Structural Steel Inc. -- is still up in the air, according to recent bankruptcy court filings in Manchester.

Presby Steel LLC, a newly formed corporation that will be run by Presby Environmental Inc. in Whitefield, plans to continue the Berlin warehouse operation, which has about $4 million in sales and employs about 20 people, selling steel to various construction companies.

The bankruptcy court still needs to approve the proposed sale. A hearing is set for the end of the month to do so.

Isaacson Structural Steel Inc. (ISSI) and its affiliate, Isaacson Steel Inc. (ISI) filed for Chapter 11 reorganization on June 22.

ISSI is the larger entity, involved in providing steel for buildings throughout New England, including the 20-plus story Liberty Mutual building being built in Boston, a $24 million project. There are still several buyers interested in that larger entity, but no offers have been made public, according to those involved with the bankruptcy.

Back in June, ISSI owed twice as much as it owned -- a $12.6 million gap.

ISI's balance sheet was a little more positive, with $2.78 million in assets and $2.26 million in liabilities, but the two companies are intertwined, since ISSI owes ISI $1.6 million.

Presby Steel would only be buying ISI's warehouse business, not the company. The sale would not include debts, receivables and $100,000 cash.

"We bundled what we could in order to save the jobs," said William Gannon, a Manchester-based attorney for the bankrupt Isaacson estate. "That's really why we are doing this."

The warehouse would not be bid on in a bankruptcy auction, but St. Johnsbury, Vt.-based Passumpsic Bank, which holds a lien on both businesses, would be able to place a "credit bid" on the property.

Passumpsic pushed Isaacson into bankruptcy after freezing the company's assets last year. Indeed, last week the bank filed an objection to continue operating the warehouse because it was losing money, arguing that the bank would have less cash to collect on the shell that will remain behind.

The bankruptcy court, however, ruled on Monday that it would allow the company to continue operating while it was being sold.

Presby Environmental, a Sugar Hill company that does onsite wastewater septic treatment, was started by David Presby, an inventor and entrepreneur. Presby's father started Presby Construction, a general contractor that builds steel buildings and has other side businesses.

"There will be some synergies that could lead to expansion," said David McMahon, general manager of Presby Environmental. "But our main objective is to maintain employment."

ISSI, which last year employed as many as 160 people, is the state's 16th largest privately owned company, according to NHBR's 2012 Book of Lists.-- BOB SANDERS/NEW HAMPSHIRE BUSINESS REVIEW

House bill seeks to exempt N.H. food from federal safety rules

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 00:01:01 EST

A bill that would exempt foods produced and sold in New Hampshire from federal food safety regulations is running into opposition from some of the very groups the bill says it would help.

A hearing on House Bill 1650 is scheduled for Friday. Sponsored by Rep. Josh Davenport, R-Newmarket, the measure would establish a "Made in New Hampshire" brand for foods that are grown or produced in the state.

Under the bill, so long as those foodstuffs were labeled as being "Made in New Hampshire" and sold only within the state, they would be subject only to state regulations and exempt from federal regulations.

Bill sponsors say it would promote the state's agricultural economy, help small farmers and expand access to fresh, healthy foods.

But the New Hampshire Farm Bureau Federation, which represents the interests of farmers in the state, has come out in opposition to the bill, which it said "goes too far."

"There does need to be some oversight, and we recognize that," said Rob Johnson, executive director of the Farm Bureau.

In writing the bill, he said, "they really haven't talked to the farmers on this."

The bill comes on the heels of the federal Food Safety Modernization Act, which President Obama signed into law early last year. That law expanded the power of the Food and Drug Administration to inspect food-processing plants and to order mandatory recalls of tainted foods.

It also required food facilities to identify potential hazards and develop food safety plans to mitigate the risk of contamination.

"The real concern here is that we have all manner of onerous federal regulations coming down the pike that are making it illegal to do certain types of business in this state," said Rep. Andrew Manuse, R-Derry, who co-sponsored and helped write HB 1650.

After much lobbying by smaller food producers, the new federal law included an amendment that exempted small producers that sell the majority of their food locally and make less than $500,000 in revenues a year.

But despite the exemption, small producers in New Hampshire could still feel some of the negative impacts of the federal legislation, including a regulation on seed cleaning that could substantially drive up the costs of seeds for small producers, said Davenport.

Manuse said the "Made in New Hampshire" label is about recognizing the state's sovereignty.

Added Davenport: "The state of New Hampshire is perfectly capable of ensuring the safety of its own small farms and food production businesses."

While the bill is well meaning, whether it could actually be enforced is another question, said Lorraine Merrill, the state's agriculture commissioner.

"I think the intentions are good -- I think the sponsors are trying to promote New Hampshire agriculture and farm products and make a favorable business climate for them, and we appreciate that," said Merrill. "But we have some concerns about how it could actually play out."

Those concerns, she said, "relate to food safety and the reputation of New Hampshire food and products."

Merrill also called into question just how enforceable the bill would be, since it would be difficult to stop farmers along the border from selling their food out of state.

All it would take is for one of these "Made in New Hampshire"-labeled foods to be contaminated and make someone sick to damage the reputation of all food made in the state, said Johnson of the Farm Bureau.

The "Made in New Hampshire" brand is also of concern to Trish Ballantyne, executive director of New Hampshire Made, because of the likelihood that consumers would confuse the two.

"We feel that an unintended consequence of this bill could be a devaluation of the New Hampshire Made brand that has been building for 15 years," said Ballantyne, adding that there are about 800 members of the organization that are reliant on the brand.

"That brand stands for not only authentic local product, but it means quality, and we're concerned that in their desire to deregulate New Hampshire products, by labeling them 'Made in New Hampshire,' it's going to cause a great deal of confusion."

The state Department of Health and Human Services is not taking a firm position on the bill, but does have some questions about it, said Michael Dumond, chief of the state Bureau of Public Health Protection.

Of concern to that department is whether it would be an additional burden on their resources, especially "at this time with the budget situation," he said.

"That's one of the questions we have -- does it mean by default the state would pick up oversight and regulations of items that were previously regulated by federal statutes?" said Dumond. "That's not really clear to us."

"I understand where they're coming from -- I just don't think its even what the producers want," said Ballantyne. "I think that it's very important, especially with food and any consumables, that we don't need to be regulated to death, but I think to have certain things in place makes a lot of sense." -- KATHLEEN CALLAHAN/NEW HAMPSHIRE BUSINESS REVIEW

Two sides battle over proposed health exchange ban

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 00:01:01 EST

On one side are businesses, insurance companies, health care providers and the state Insurance Department. On the other are House leadership, conservative senators and a think tank. All of them mingled in a crowded House Commerce Committee meeting to testify on a bill that would bar the state from having anything to do with creating a health exchange under the federal health care reform law.

Under House Bill 1297, "agencies, departments and subdivisions" as well as "any government in New Hampshire" would not be able to "plan, create, participate in or enable" a state or federal health exchange.

State officials had been doing just that, working on Senate Bill 163, which would put into place a planning process to create an exchange if federal law is not overturned.

The Senate bill's sponsor, Sen. Ray White, R-Bedford, argued that -- like it or not -- the law is the law and the state ought to be prepared if it wants to maintain local control if health reform remains in place.

Without it, he said, regional insurance agencies and local brokers (of which White is one) would be threatened.

The Senate tabled White's bill Wednesday, because it was too hot to handle.

Indeed, Rep. Kevin Avard, R-Nashua, asked to have his name taken off White's bill, and was there Thursday to testify for HB 1297, its antithesis.

"I signed on [to SB 163] because I thought it would create local control," he said. "but upon review, it does just the opposite."

Under the federal law, the state has to either set up an exchange to offer subsidized health insurance to those who cannot get private insurance, or the federal government will do it for the state -- thus the concern about local control.

The state has thus far rejected any federal funding for planning the exchange, voting down $666,000 of federal funds last year, and the Executive Council has nixed another $333,000.

On the other hand, the Legislature has set up the Joint Health Care Reform Oversight Committee to oversee implementation of the federal law, jokingly referred to in testimony by Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Hampshire lobbyist Paula Rogers, as the "Mother may I?" committee.

But Rep. Andrew Manuse, R-Derry, testified that "rejecting the funds to study the establishment of an exchange also means that we do not want one - for sure."

Manuse was followed by a string of elected officials, including House Speaker William O'Brien, who argued that the state would wind up paying for the exchange, and that by implementing a state exchange, "we accept the terms of the federal government that any exchange may not establish rules that conflict" with federal regulations.

Other lawmakers were equally defiant.

"Let the federal government take the blame," said Sen. James Forsythe, R-Stafford, who said he was trying to convince other senators that the state could reject the exchange without any consequence

"States have equal ability to judge what is constitutional as the [U.S.] Supreme Court does," he added.

The lawmakers were backed by Charlie Arlinghaus, president of the Josiah Bartlett Center for Public Policy think tank. "At the end of the day, do you want a puppet government or not?" asked Arlinghaus.

But that's all the backing the measure got, aside from other legislators.

In written testimony, New Hampshire Insurance Commissioner Roger Sevigny said that by preventing any kind of interface, even with a federal exchange, "many areas of regulatory authority will be handed over to the federal government ... and consumers and insurers will be forced to look to Washington, D.C., for guidance on health insurance."

The result would be "dual regulation," added Jennifer Patterson, the Insurance Department's legal counsel, at the hearing, which could "potentially cause great confusion."

If the intention was to keep the federal government out, she said, "ironically, should this bill pass, it will be the opposite of that." Under the bill, she said, "we will have no control whatsoever."

Manuse said he found the department's position "offensive," since it has a "financial and self-preservation interest" in the matter.

An exchange, he said, would "kill New Hampshire businesses with additional cost-spiking mandates and other regulations."

But the Business and industry Association of New Hampshire also opposed the House ban.

Whether you are for or against ACA, testified BIA spokesperson Adrienne Rupp, "businesses support being prepared."

Concord-based dental insurer Northeast Delta Dental, worried that by refusing to cooperate with the federal government, the state could lose Medicaid money as well as "endanger New Hampshire and local and regional insurance carriers, and the jobs, quality products and community commitment that we embrace," said Tom Raffio, CEO of the company.

The bill, said Rogers, "pretty much ties our hands. An exchange will change the marketplace. The question is how you want to control the marketplace. We need some level of certainty, something you can plan."

The New Hampshire Hospital Association also opposed the bill, as did the Heart Association and the American Cancer Society.

"The state wants to put its collective head in the sand and say, 'Hey, federal government you do it all,'" said Mike Rollo, lobbyist for the cancer society. -- BOB SANDERS/NEW HAMPSHIRE BUSINESS REVIEW

Senate deadlocks over workers' comp change

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 00:01:01 EST

A deadlocked New Hampshire Senate did not approve a bill Tuesday that would eliminate a workers' compensation fund for the disabled, despite the recommendation of its commerce committee to do so.

The fund involved is known as the "second injury" fund, created back in the 1970s to encourage companies to hire veterans. The idea was to motivate employers that might be reluctant to hire a worker with a pre-existing condition, worried that its workers' compensation rates might increase because of the hiring. The fund essentially took insurance companies off the hook.

But, argued Sen. Andy Sanborn, R-Henniker, the fund has become obsolete. Insurance carriers say they don't need the fund to cover workers who have been injured before, either while serving on military duty or on another job. The fund has become a "regulatory burden," he said. Besides, the Americans with Disability Act protects employers from discriminating against the previously injured, Sanborn assured them.

However Sen. Matthew Houde, D-Plainfield, said it would be "premature" to conclude the program is obsolete. Employees might be covered, but that doesn't mean that some employers might not shy away from hiring them without the protection of the fund. As for the ADA, it only applies to workplaces with more than 15 employees.

The Senate committee had voted to pass the bill by a 3-2 vote. The full Senate vote was even closer -- a 12-12 tie. The Senate wound up sending the bill to interim study, effectively killing it for this year. -- BOB SANDERS/NEW HAMPSHIRE BUSINESS REVIEW

Ruger on target for million-gun goal

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 00:01:01 EST

Sturm, Ruger & Co. Inc. issued a quarterly report of sorts last week on how the company is doing in reaching its goal of selling a million guns during its fiscal year - and in giving $1 from each sale to the National Rifle Association.

So far, so good, as far as Ruger and the NRA are concerned. The Connecticut-based company -- which employs more than 800 people at three New Hampshire factories -- said it sold 315,100 guns in the third quarter that ended Dec. 31, bringing total sales to 871,000 -- and $871,000 to the NRA.

"Consumer support for the Million Gun Challenge to Benefit the NRA has been overwhelming, and has helped Ruger enjoy a robust 2011," said Ruger's president and CEO, Mike Fifer. "With one quarter left to go, we are hoping everyone will jump in and help us exceed the $1 million goal."

The third-quarter check presentation will take place at the 2012 SHOT Show in Las Vegas, Nev. The final donation will be presented during the 2012 NRA Annual Meeting and Exhibits to be held April 13-15 in St. Louis, Mo. -- BOB SANDERS/NEW HAMPSHIRE BUSINESS REVIEW

New Balsams owners tap NCIC for help with finance planning

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 00:01:01 EST

The new owners of the Balsams Grand Resort Hotel have hired a North Country economic development organization to find ways to finance its long-overdue renovation.

The nonprofit Northern Community Investment Corp., which serves northern New Hampshire and Vermont, will develop a finance plan to fund renovation of the historic Dixville Notch hotel.

The renovation is essential to getting the resort open for guests and once again becoming a major North Country employer, said Jon Freeman, president of NCIC.

Depending on the season, the Balsams employs about 300 full- and part-time workers in a region with the state's highest unemployment rate.

Balsams View LLC -- a partnership of businessmen Daniel Dagesse and Daniel Hebert Jr., both of Colebrook -- purchased the resort in December and have vowed to restore it to its former glory.

The landmark resort, where the first votes in the New Hampshire primary have been cast since 1960, has been in operation for more than 150 years but hasn't been renovated in more than four decades.

"It needs a lot of work, it's just old and it's tired," said Balsams spokesman Scott Tranchemontagne.

As for how it will fund the renovations, NCIC is considering all its options at this point.

"We're looking at a number of different financing options as well as the traditional sort of bank financing and equity financing," said Ethan Swain, business resource manager for NCIC.

That includes pursuing federal New Market Tax Credits, which Swain said have become a popular form of financing for large projects.

The tax credits attract investment capital to low-income communities by allowing those who make equity investments in specialized financial institutions -- called Community Development Entities -- to receive a tax credit against their federal income tax return in exchange.

NCIC will also consider applying for federal energy-efficiency grants, since much of the renovations will aim to make the resort more energy efficient, said Swain.

Renovations are expected to take about 18 months, but exactly what will be done at the 7,700-acre property is still being determined, said Tranchemontagne.

A full assessment of what is planned for the resort should be announced in March, he said.

In March 2011, when an investor group he was part of was bidding against Ocean Properties for the property, Dagesse told NHBR that plans for the resort included installing a biomass heating system, which he said would cut operating costs by up to $1.3 million. Without the system, he said the hotel would be "doomed." -- KATHLEEN CALLAHAN/NEW HAMPSHIRE BUSINESS REVIEW

N.H. House weighs credit card fee cap

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 10:31:36 EST

A bill that would limit credit and debit card fees has New Hampshire retailers and banks going head to head.

The fee in question -- the interchange fee -- is the amount that a credit card user's bank charges the retailer's bank. The fee is usually passed on to the retailer as a deduction from the sale. House Bill 1319 would limit that fee to 1 percent for state-charted banks.

The problem with such fees, according to the bill's sponsor, Rep. John Hikel, R-Goffstown, is that "as a merchant you don't know what that card is going to cost you."

The fee charged depends on the kind of card used and what the person purchases.

For Hikel, who owns an auto repair shop, fees vary from 0.65 percent to 4.76 percent. Hikel alleges that the fee subsidizes various benefits to the cardholder, so "I end up paying for the customers' free gifts and miles."

Hikel only finds out the amount, he said, when he gets his credit card statement.

For John Dumais, president of the New Hampshire Retail Grocers Association, the problem is simply the amount the retailer has to pay.

Grocers run on a tight margin -- about a 1 percent profit on food for larger chains and a half-percent for independent grocers. Gas is a loss leader, he said.

"It's a hardship when the cost is 3 percent and the profit is under 1 percent," Dumais testified in support of the bill.

The average cost is closer to 1.75 percent, said a spokesperson for MasterCard. That's the "blended rate" that merchants usually pay, though each deal with the merchant and his or her bank is different.

It wasn't just credit card companies that spoke against the cap.

The bill would "undermine the free market" and "create an un-level playing field," said New Hampshire Bankers Association President Christiana Thornton.

Federal law already limits such fees -- 21 cents plus 4 basis points -- but that's only for banks with $10 billion in assets. Thus the limit doesn't apply to smaller banks based in New Hampshire -- which, federally chartered or not, all have assets of less than $2 billion.

If the bill passes, there would be three sets of rules: a federal cap for large national banks, a state cap for small state-chartered banks, and no cap at all for smaller federally chartered banks.

In New Hampshire, the federal cap applies to Bank of America, TD Bank, Citizens Bank and Sovereign Bank.

There are 18 state-charted banks in New Hampshire that would be affected by the state cap and six in the state that wouldn't have any cap.

It isn't that banks don't have costs associated with credit cards, or that the merchant doesn't get any benefits, contend opponents of the bill.

The merchants get secured guaranteed payment processed much more quickly than checks, and without the hassle. Card companies added that customers are more likely to buy, and buy more, with a credit or debit card than with cash. And it's the bank and card company that are on the hook for fraud or nonpayment, not the merchant.

The fee, said Thornton, provides "only partial reimbursement to card issuers for the services they provide and the risks associated with these transactions." A price cap wouldn't cover costs and "make it entirely likely that some smaller institutions will need to discontinue issuing debit and credit cards, just to avoid losses in this area."

Consumers will then move to banks that can offer those services, hurting the state's community banks, she said. -- BOB SANDERS/NEW HAMPSHIRE BUSINESS REVIEW

Mandatory refund bill likely to be watered down in House

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 20:37:37 EST

A bill that would have required New Hampshire retailers to give a refund for returned items looks like it will morph into a return policy disclosure bill, if Tuesday's House Commerce Committee hearing is any indication.

Sponsor Michele Peckham, R-North Hampton, even offered the compromise before she finished her testimony.

The bill, she said, was inspired by her losing $150 on a dress purchased for a funeral. Peckham said she purchased two dresses, thinking she could return the one she didn't want, but when she tried to return it, the Seacoast boutique where she bought it was out of business.

Thus House Bill 1445 was born. The original bill, already toned down after discussions with New Hampshire Retail Merchants Association lobbyist Curtis Barry, would have required merchants to issue a cash refund or a credit on the credit card used for the purchase, provided that the merchandise was returned in the same condition as purchased.

But Barry still testified against the modified bill, saying that it still leaves too many questions.

First, "return fraud is the fastest-growing retail crime," he said, including counterfeit receipts. Indeed, the association is working on another about receipt fraud. Second, HB 1445 doesn't address returns of computer merchandise that could easily be copied or merchandise whose packaging is in a shambles.

Finally, some stores have a more liberal policy and might narrow it in response to this legislation, he said.

But Peckham was ready with an "alternative" amendment that would only require store owners "conspicuously display in writing" their policy for cash refunds. Without the display, the store would have to issue a refund.

This, Barry said, he could support "conceptually" but would have to examine the details. Other states have imposed a similar requirement, with different penalties, said Barry. That's one reason many national chains have such displays.

But House Commerce Committee Chair John Hunt worried that such a requirement would place an unfair burden on small businesses that don't currently have such policies displayed.

But, said Peckham, it's the smaller businesses that are more of a problem.

"This is a consumer protection bill," she said. "Not a merchant protection bill."

In the end, her bill wouldn't have helped Peckham. If a store goes bankrupt, she acknowledged, customers would have to wait in line along with all the other unsecured creditors. -- BOB SANDERS/NEW HAMPSHIRE BUSINESS REVIEW

Corporate law changes touted at Concord press conference

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 09:42:45 EST

Few people care that the New Hampshire Legislature is rewriting laws governing corporations and limited liability companies, but they should, said supporters Tuesday at a sparsely attended press conference in Concord.

The current law in New Hampshire, one of the few states that hasn't updated its statutes in almost two decades, are both complicated and vague on everything from ethics to split-ups.

"Without these bills, New Hampshire will lag behind most of the nation," said state Sen. Jim Luther, R-Hollis, prime sponsor of Senate Bill 205. Only Rhode Island is in the same situation, he said.

This might not be such a big deal for larger companies, who have lawyers who draw up their corporate agreements, but many LLCs don't, or try to come up with agreements themselves, thus falling back on state law as the company's default rules of operation.

SB 205 and SB 203 are a complete rewrite of corporate and LLC law, respectively, based on model legislation proposed by American Bar Association but tailored to New Hampshire, which is among the reasons the bills are so lengthy, said proponents.

Backed by the Business and Industry Association of New Hampshire, a cadre of corporate lawyers and legislative leadership, the bill would create jobs by putting an "open for business" sign up in the state, said House Majority Leader D.J. Bettencourt, R-Salem, who also criticized the press for not paying more attention to the issue.

Supporters say the bills would simplify things for business, prevent litigation and hopefully reduce costs.

SB 505, which would govern corporations, proposes numerous changes in corporate law that bring things into the modern world, such as legitimizing communication by email. But it also spells out some crucial details, such as what constitutes the sale of a "substantial amount of assets" to trigger the need for stockholder approval.

One of the big changes included in SB 203 -- the LLC rewrite -- is that the default setup (without a partnership agreement) would be changed from one member, one vote to proportional voting based on the capital contributed.

The press conference and the committee meeting are the launch of a long process, with numerous work sessions expected. Sen. Ray White, R-Bedford, said he is worried about the potential costs in converting an organization and wants a fiscal note attached to the bill.

"We don't to want to have unintended consequences," said White. -- BOB SANDERS/NEW HAMPSHIRE BUSINESS REVIEW

NHBR About Town: TD Charitable Foundation

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 11:02:19 EST

TD Charitable Foundation, the charitable arm of TD Bank, has awarded $100,000 to the Laconia Area Community Land Trust for its Lochmere Meadows Renewable Energy Project, which will be used to install renewable energy systems at the 28-unit affordable housing development in Tilton. Pictured from left are Eric Patel, TD Bank vice president; Michael Rayder Jr., manager of the foundation; land trust executive director Linda Harvey; Carol Ford, the bank's Central New Hampshire regional market manager; and the bank's community development manager, Glen Ohlund.

NHBR About Town: Republic Café

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 11:02:14 EST

Shelley Bruin, left, manager of Friends of the Manchester Animal Shelter, accepts a $2,529 donation from Claudia Rippee and Ed Aloise, owners of Republic Café, who also donated more than $2,400 to the Greater Manchester YMCA. Each year, the restaurant chooses two local charities to which they donate 3 percent of the restaurant's gross Tuesday sales.

NHBR About Town: 2011 Granite State Baseball Dinner

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 11:02:04 EST

Representatives from the Ted Williams Foundation, Children's Hospital at Dartmouth, and the Fisher Cats Foundation accept a check representing the $155,680 raised for the three organizations at the 2011 Granite State Baseball Dinner, which was presented by Northeast Delta Dental.