Author: NH Business Review Staff

25 Years

NASHUA - Maria Milton broke an almost 10-year-old record among female students of the Independent Karate School on Sunday. She also broke seven concrete slabs with her well-aimed foot, and with a yell that resounded off the walls of the…

Driver sought in hit-and-run

HOLLIS - Police are looking for the driver of a vehicle involved in a hit-and-run accident on Main Street at 7:39 a.m. Saturday. Police said the driver appeared to be coming down the steep hill near the high school when…

Souhegan wins first football title

AMHERST - For the sixth time in his high school coaching career, Mike Beliveau stood in the middle of the field watching a team celebrate a Division III championship. For the first time, though, it was Beliveau’s. The second-seeded Sabers…

Nadeau Farm may see changes

HUDSON - The town’s last commercial dairy farm could one day house residences and light industrial and commercial businesses. Etchstone Properties bought about 50 acres of the Nadeau Farm. The Nashua company has proposed subdividing part of the land into…

Duo to present overview of charter school proposal

MASON - The formation of a charter school in town has been brought up several times during the past year of discussions on Mason’s withdrawal from the Mascenic Regional School District. Resident Chris Balch, an advocate of such a program,…

300 attend celebration of Diwali in Merrimack

MERRIMACK - Shazia Mujeeb slowly inscribed the young hand of Elisha Shah, tracing the intricate geometry of a henna design. Elisha, 7, of Nashua, attentively watched Mujeeb create a temporary ink tattoo that was like India itself: beautiful, intricate and…

Kettle drive loses ground in city

NASHUA - As the chimes of the Salvation Army’s bell-ringers start to sound this year, the annual holiday fund-raising appeal by the Christian charity is facing a setback. The Salvation Army can’t set up its familiar red kettles outside Target…

Out with the cold, in with the new

The weighty and drafty wooden doors at the Nashua Public Library are being dismantled Monday, according to Carol Luers Eyman, the library’s community services coordinator. The replacements will be glass doors that are energy-efficient and easier to open. Also, the…

Moose license plates help revamp bandstand

MILFORD - The Milford bandstand may be big enough to fit a moose, although nobody can recall ever seeing one there. But you can thank a moose for an upcoming restoration of this downtown centerpiece. Using money collected from the…

District 12 Senate recount suspended

CONCORD - Secretary of State Bill Gardner suspended a state Senate recount affecting Nashua and three neighboring towns Friday night after ballot counting in Hollis came up 234 votes shy of what local officials reported on Election Day. Another discrepancy…

Parts of city to lose power for upgrades

NASHUA - The hills will go dark tonight. French Hill and Crown Hill residents will lose their power briefly as Public Service of New Hampshire works on a nearby substation, a company spokesman said. A power outage is planned for…

Blood, marrow drive helps family

NASHUA - Robert Dawe was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma six years ago. After undergoing extensive chemotherapy treatments to cure that cancer, he developed a second kind - leukemia. Now, Dawe needs a bone marrow transplant to survive, but none of…

Towns talking about today’s big game

Unless a blizzard closes the highway, there should be hundreds of drivers jamming Boston Post Road in Amherst this afternoon as the region’s most intriguing football rivalry takes center stage, but former coach Reed Panasiti won’t be one of them.He’s…

Walking tour shows off parcel Milford wants to reserve

MILFORD - In one direction from Badger Hill - the southern summit, not the northern one - you can see Pack Monadnock. In another, Mount Wachusett. In yet another, Federal Hill. What you can’t see are many houses. That isn’t…

Meeting to discuss bridge’s future

Engineers studying the refurbishment of the Cotton Transfer Bridge over the Nashua River found most of its components in fair condition, but missing several pieces of hardware. The study looked at converting the truss bridge to a pedestrian walkway over…

Junior high play on this weekend

The Nashua Catholic Regional Junior High School production of “Bugsy Malone, Jr.” is running this weekend at the school. The show, a tongue-in-cheek tribute to the 1920s gangster flick, opened Friday. The last two performances are tonight at 7:30 p.m.…

Veterans Day celebrated with Nashua parade

NASHUA - Hector Perez went to the Veterans Day parade to watch a familiar cookie march down Main Street. Perez’s granddaughter, 10-year-old Darianne, and her fellow troop members dressed up as Girl Scout cookies and paraded from Holman Stadium to…

Residents dispute leader's world role

The death of Yasser Arafat expectedly echoed across borders. Even in New Hampshire, geographical distance hardly prevented those with an interest in the Middle East from pondering the fate of Palestinian-Israeli relations after the passing of the unifying - and…

Initiative plans to save tax dollars

MERRIMACK - A year ago, the selectmen and school board agreed to form a committee to look at ways the two boards could cooperate to save taxpayers’ money. Nothing came of that, but a year later, there’s a movement afoot…

Lyndeborough Scouts seek to help with redesign

LYNDEBOROUGH - When the J.A. Tarbell Library is enlarged within the next year or two, the Common in South Village will have to be redesigned and landscaped. The two war memorials currently on the library lawn will be moved to…

Brookline’s outlook looms over schools

BROOKLINE - If the local school districts don’t start sharing their long-term needs and construction plans, local schools could soon be filled to the gills with no solution in sight, according to members of the town’s Capitol Improvement Committee. One…

Loyalty doesn't require written agreement

Worker loyalty to an employer stems from the mere existence of the employment relationship. A worker doesn’t have to have a confidentiality agreement to prohibit him from misappropriating or disclosing company trade secrets to third parties. Not only would such…

Girl Scouts contribute to library redesign

LYNDEBOROUGH - When the J.A. Tarbell Library is enlarged within the next year or two, the Common in South Village will have to be re-designed and landscaped. The two war memorials currently on the library lawn will be moved to…

Proposal for coffee shop lukewarm

HUDSON - A proposal for a retail restaurant, possibly a Dunkin’ Donuts, stalled Wednesday night over concerns about the drive-through window. The Planning Board raised several concerns about the proposal’s possible impact on traffic on Central Street with cars entering…

Board eyes land for future growth

A large piece of property abutting the Wilton-Lyndeborough Cooperative School may be available, and members of the School Board are talking with people concerned with the idea of a purchase for future expansion. “I have talked to (real estate agent)…

N.H. builders dodge cement shortage

The thriving Chinese economy is having an effect on cement and concrete projects around the world, although in New Hampshire the industry seems solid. Massive building projects in China have turned the Asian country “from an exporter to an importer…

Benson rings in 2005 Start Up N.H. competition

Winning in one category of the 2004 Start Up New Hampshire business plan competition has given Bill Lankins’ company more visibility with potential investors and a bigger customer and vendor base. “Having written that plan and polished it to a…

Business Notes

Newington: Pan American Airlines, a subsidiary of Guilford Transportation, has gone out of business and fired its 30 union pilots. The carrier has transferred its flight operations to Boston-Maine Airways, another Guilford owned airline and a non-union operation. An attorney…

Insurance probe sparks N.H. investigation

New Hampshire Insurance Commissioner Roger Sevigny said his department will “look under the rocks and under the hoods” to see if the same kind of insurance fraud exists in the Granite State that New York Attorney General Elliot Spitzer has…

SB 110 opponents flex their political muscle

While there are many ways to explain the results of the recent elections, it’s important for supporters of Senate Bill 110 to step back and realize that New Hampshire voters have sent a very clear message: scuttle the law as…

Benson: ‘We must move forward’

Editor’s note: Following is the statement put on Governor Benson’s campaign Web site after his loss to John Lynch in the Nov. 2 election. Friends, Taxpayers, Citizens, Campaign Supporters, I cannot thank you enough for all of your hard work…

Lethargic economy is taking its toll on real estate

By the time you read this column, the presidential election will be over. Not knowing how it will come out, I wonder what impact the election will have on the national economy, and the Northeast in particular. I am not…

Improving Performance

“I’ve sent hundreds of resumés electronically, and I’m still out of a job! Every time I hit the send button, I feel like I’m sending into a black hole that will never respond. Sometimes, I get an automatic response from…

Utilities Watch

Two state legislative telecommunications study committees recently issued reports on a couple of thorny telecom tax issues. In one, the committee recommended extending the exemption from property taxes on telephone poles and conduits for an additional four years to 2010…

Cook on Concord

The Red Sox win the World Series. The voters of New Hampshire defeat a governor after one term. Both recent events occurred for the first time since 1918 and 1926, respectively. On Nov. 2, New Hampshire was one of only…

New England desperately needs LIHEAP funding

Experts predict it’s going to cost more for homeowners to heat their homes this year. The Energy Information Administration (EIA) is predicting a 28 percent increase in heating costs for homeowners this winter. Therefore it is critical for New England…

Housing crisis looms if ‘smart growth’ is ignored

The housing sector’s strong contribution to economic recovery and growth in New Hampshire over the last several years is merely a fulfillment of strong market demand. The market forces driving housing demand are the basis for the state’s continued economic…

The Pfundstein Report

Last month New York Attorney General Elliot Spitzer reached deep into the insurance brokerage community’s wallet. His office reportedly uncovered substantial bid-rigging and other illegal activity among certain name brand members of the industry. It seems as though initially Spitzer’s…

Flotsam & Jetsam

See Jayne run Jayne Millerick, chair of the state Republican Party, turned in an impressive deadpan post-election performance in trying to explain away her party’s loss of the governor’s office, an Executive Council seat, a couple of Senate seats and…

A healthy conversation with Lisa Guertin

In January 2004, 43-year-old Lisa Guertin became the head of Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Hampshire. Since taking over as vice president and general manager, New Hampshire’s controversial Senate Bill 110, which eliminated community rating for small business…

‘Agenda for Growth’ location moved to Bedford

In response to requests for a more central location, the “Agenda for Growth,” a collaborative conference on small business planning, growth and financing, has been rescheduled. It will be held from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 7, at…

Summit looks at N.H.’s transportation future

Speaking at an Oct. 28 infrastructure summit in Manchester, state Transportation Commissioner Carol Murray challenged opponents of the Interstate 93 expansion to take their objections to court. “It’s not that I want full employment for lawyers or want to spend…

Nashua weighs ‘transit-oriented development’ to pay for rail

Nashua aldermen are considering so-called “transit-oriented development” as a means of generating the $14 million needed to match the $56 million in federal funds earmarked for the restoration of rail service between Nashua and Lowell, Mass. The plan developed by…

Steps to take in protecting your firm’s goodwill

Imagine you are the owner of a small business in New Hampshire that occasionally attracts customers from Massachusetts. You attend a sporting event in New Hampshire where a Massachusetts radio station broadcast can be heard on the loudspeakers. Suddenly you…

Inevitable disclosure doctrine rears its head in New Hampshire

Employers may place severe limits on the mobility of their most senior executives without negotiating employment contracts that contain non-compete covenants, according to a case decided last year by the Rockingham County Superior Court. Ordinarily, an employee may freely choose…

Working Families Tax Relief Act: something for everyone

Don’t let the name fool you. The Working Families Tax Relief Act of 2004 provides tax benefits beyond the family unit to include single individuals and businesses. Here are some of the highlights: • The child credit, which was scheduled…

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Nongfu Spring From Alibabacom
Energy and Environment, Government, Real Estate & Construction

Unbottling the Nongfu Spring deal

New Hampshire’s attorney general says no improprieties by state officials preceded the sale of a large Nashua commercial building to China’s largest water bottler. But Attorney General John Formella’s report to Gov. Kelly Ayotte dated Oct. 3 says the provisions of federal law should have taken place prior to the sale of the 337,391-square-foot building at 80 Northwest Blvd. in Nashua by a subsidiary of Nongfu Spring.