Another long day ahead for members of the Keene Board of Education. Members of the School Board spend their second straight Saturday crunching numbers on a proposed 62-million-dollar budget for next fiscal year. In the end, the Board's Finance Committee -- then the full board -- will drink the hemlock and advance the budget. It's a no-win situation for the Board. As shown, the budget would spend about a quarter-million dollars less than the current one, but it would raise school taxes over four percent. That's because one-time revenue sources which held down this year's taxes -- a big revenue surplus, and the sale of the former middle school -- are come and gone.
TROY CHIEF CLIPPED
The Troy police chief is recovering today from what could have been a bad accident during yesterday's snowstorm. Chief Howard Sheats was out on High Street checking on a single-car crash, standing beside his cruiser when another driver lost control and skidded towards him. As a car went out of control and skidded towards him, a driver behind the cruiser saw what was about to happen and honked the horn. The chief moved back but was still pinned between his cruiser and the out-of-control car. He was taken to Cheshire Medical Center with minor injuries.
CAMPAIGN CLOSE TO GOAL
Some very good news from the Monadnock United Way General Campaign chairman this morning. The latest update on pledges to date is $2,081,054, a sum which virtually matches last year's total. With several weeks in which to contine the campaign, chairman John Hoffman says he's confident the United Way can break two years of goal shortfalls ... especially since he knows of more than one business employee campaign still in progress.
NEW PUBLIC PARK
The City is on the verge of having a new public park. The Carpenter Street ballfields are already a public recreation area ... but they just don't belong to the City. The Keene School District's need for the fields ended when the Middle School, which had used them for sports contests, moved to West Keene. A covenant dictates that the land be maintained for public recreational use, and the district is handing them over to rhe city for token considerations.
POLLING PLACE PREDICAMENT
The issue of using Keene schools as polling places was quick to redevelop in the wake of Tuesday's Presidential primary. At least one Keene School Board member is among those complaining. In this particular case, the issue is the lack of parking at Fuller School on Elm Street; board member and Fuller School parent Ann Szot summed up the issue in one word -- awful -- to the Keene Sentinel. Fuller is one of only two schools which still serve as polling places. There is talk of moving the Ward 3 polls to the new Middle School, where parking would not be an issue -- never mind that the new school is not in Ward 3.
MARINES RETURN
They arrived hours later than planned, but 200 Marines are back home in New Hampshire after a seven-month deployment. Buses carrying members of Bravo Company First Battalion pulled into the Londonderry Reserve Center shortly after 1:30 this morning, three hours later than planned. There were still hundreds of friends and family waiting for them, however, waving flags and signs. The Marines are from not only New Hampshire, but also Massachusetts and Maine.
TILTON ROBBERY
A woman is in jail and will be in court this morning, accused of playing a role in a brazen robbery of a Tilton jewelry store. Police say Katie Falls of Meredith has admitted to driving the three robbers to and from Kay Jewelers at the Tanger Outlets. The men burst into the store in November, ordered customers to the floor, smashed display cases and managed to run off with more than 200-thousand dollars' worth of jewelry. Police say the entire heist took only two minutes. So far, the three robbers remain on the loose.
MOTHER TO BE SENTENCED
A mom from will be sentenced this morning in a Brentwood court room for the death last spring of her six-year-old son. Julianne McCrery of Irving, Texas, has admitted to killing Camden Hughes in a Hampton motel, and then leaving his body in southern Maine. She pleaded guilty in November and prosecutors say they're recommending a sentence of 45 years to life in prison. McCrery's family will be in the courtroom for the hearing.
VERMONT BUDGET
If Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin has his way, this will be the last year Vermont has to resolve a budget gap. He says his 2013 budget will end that problem which has now been going on for five years. In a speech to the state Legislature yesterday, the governor called his five-point-one-billion-dollar budget a balanced one protecting the most vulnerable while at the same time builds on a strong jobs future, helped with an eight-million-dollar jobs initiative. It does not include broad-based tax hikes, but it does include fee increases for state services.
DRUG ALERT
Vermont State Police say a prisoner is facing charges after getting drugs slipped to him by a child who was visiting. Bruce Lamell will be arraigned in March on charges of possession of narcotics. State Police say alert guards saw Lamell take something from a child during visiting hours, put it in his mouth and swallow. He denied it, but was put in a special cell and eventually passed a yellow balloon containing a pain killer. More charges are likely.
SOME FISH
An ice-fishing adventure turned into the catch of a lifetime for one man. Craig Smith hauled in a Northern Pike on Mallets Bay which turned out to weigh just over 22-and-a-half pounds. That's the third-largest Northern Pike ever hauled out of Lake Champlain. Smith says for the first time in his life he was left speechless. He's now having the fish prepared at a taxidermist and will eventually end up on his living room wall.
