Notes

Manchester: Ted Herbert’s Music Mart, a Manchester landmark, is merging with the Frederick, Md.-based Music and Arts Centers chain. Terms of the deal, which includes the music store business but not the music school or the store property, were undisclosed. Founder Ted Herbert will step aside, but his three children, Thad, Mark and Marlene, will remain in management with the store, said Ken O’Brien, president of Music and Arts Centers.

Claremont: A sawmill formerly operated by Monadnock Forest Products will be reopened, and laid-off workers might be rehired in the coming months following acquisition of the property by Bradford Forest of Pennsylvania. Mark Connolly, president of the firm, said there was “certainly a distinct possibility” his company would rehire the approximately 30 workers who were laid off when the plant closed in February.

Concord: Methods to finance and speed the widening of Interstate 93 will be the main topics of study for a newly formed commission chaired by state Rep. James Rausch, R-Derry. During its organizational meeting last month, the commission decided to focus on finance and timing. Although the $420 million project is beset with criticism from environmental organizations and faces possible delaying legal actions, getting it completed will be the focus of the commission, Rausch said.

Alton: Profile Bank is building a new branch in downtown Alton, with plans to open it by the end of the year. It will be the Rochester bank’s third location.

Concord: Karol LaCroix has been named the new president of the College of Lifelong Learning, succeeding Thomas Rocco, who resigned in June. LaCroix, who holds a doctorate in biomedical science, is the dean of the Manchester campus of the University of New Hampshire.

Kittery, Maine: The U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee has approved a $7.86 million project for the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard. If the funds are approved by the full Senate, the shipyard could acquire an acoustic testing and calibration facility certified to test, calibrate and certify submarine and all other ship borne hydrophone/transducer equipment. The funds were requested by Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and were authorized as a part of the fiscal year 2005 Defense Authorization legislation.

Kittery, Maine: The federal government is considering privatizing the management of military housing at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard and seven other military installations in the Northeast. GMH Associates is in exclusive negotiations with the Navy to lease 202 military housing units in Kittery for the next 50 years, according to company spokesman Kathleen Grim. Most of the units are located in Admiralty Village, and another 20 are inside the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, said Town Planner Jim Noel.

Concord: A ski area is not protected from a lawsuit brought by an injured snow tuber, the state Supreme Court has ruled. State law helps shield ski areas from lawsuits by saying a skier assumes the risk of injury by participating in the sport. The Ragged Mountain Ski Area in Danbury cited the law, saying it applied to a snow tuber who sued after colliding with another snow tuber.

Newington: George Bald, director of the Pease Development Authority, says there won’t be any additional commercial service anytime soon at Pease International Tradeport. The number of passengers using Pease airport fell from 78,000 in 2000 to less than 60,000 last year, and plans to expand the airport terminal are now on hold, Bald said.

Bedford: Joseph Reilly, president and CEO of Centrix Bank, has been elected chairman of the New Hampshire Bankers Association. Reilly has served three years on the organization’s board of directors.