Week of May 7-13, 2005

Saturday, May 7 Watch out for detour signs as town contractors begin rebuilding Mechanic and Seavey streets in North Conway Village. N.H. Senate committee reviews a proposed $1 increase in the state's minimum wage, while local employers say the change likely wouldn't affect their businesses. The grassroots group that fueled Howard Dean's failed presidential run two years ago may launch an ethics probe into donations made to conservative state senators by Club Motorsports Inc. Eric Harlow of Intervale is hired as a coach for the U.S. Ski Team. Mark Hounsell is selected by NH Inside to be one of its five bloggers sharing insights on the political scene in and around New Hampshire. We print the next installment of N.H. Attorney General's Report Concerning Its Investigation of Gary Chandler and North Conway Water Precinct. Part 10: Criminal Threatening and Witness Tampering.Monday, May 9 Bartlett School Board approves a four-year contact with Josiah Bartlett School Principal Joe Voci. A 3 percent cost of living increase and a 1 percent performance increase bumps his salary to $76,945. A new traffic light on North-South Road and restricted access to Mountain Valley Mall from a driveway in front of Wal-Mart are two of the proposals being kicked around as Lowe's home improvement store plans its arrival in North Conway. The debate over stabbing Barnes Road through the woods and letting it tie into North-South Road is back.Tuesday, May 10 Selectmen vote to stick with the original plan and decline to accept the deed to an old Sunoco gas station at the corner of Route 16 and Pine Street in North Conway prior to completion of privately-funded improvements. A citizen's group is within $50,000 of raising $250,000 toward purchase and restoration of the old Sunoco gas station property at the corner of Route 16 and Pine Street in North Conway. Kennett High School students plan an organized walkout to protest a new policy barring backpacks. Peter Garrett, a consultant studying the capacity of Fryeburg's aquifer, will report his findings.Wednesday, May 11 Dozens of Kennett High School students march onto the front lawn of the high school to protest a new policy barring backpacks. The students could face suspension from school for truancy. Francis Lappa, 39, the North Conway man charged with leaving a pipe bomb in a secluded wooded area behind McDonald's restaurant, was found guilty in 1999 of imprisoning a woman in a mobile home in Franconia. Trial begins for an Ossipee man prosecutors say was woozy from prescription pain killers when his pickup truck crossed center lines on Route 16 in Tamworth in 2002 and slammed head-on into an oncoming truck, seriously injuring himself and the occupants of the other vehicle. Peter Benson, of Jackson, is appointed to serve as North Country staffer for Gov. John Lynch.Thursday, May 12 The new owner of Mountain Valley Mall will present plans for a $26 million redevelopment of the mall site, including construction of a 116,000-square-foot Lowe's. Construction crews excavating along Route 16 in North Conway break a water main, spilling 135,000 gallons of water, and sever a telephone line, a couple of setbacks to an otherwise quick-moving road project. A Wakefield woman who veered into oncoming traffic on a twisting stretch of Route 16 in Madison, causing a head-on crash that killed a Madison teen, is indicted for negligent homicide. A Massachusetts motorist testifies that he threw a bottle of pills into the woods at a bloody crash scene to help an Ossipee man, on trial for eating painkillers before slamming head-on into a pick-up truck on Route 16. An ex-convict from Massachusetts is facing jail time in Carroll County, after prosecutors say he bit a guard while locked up in the county jail last winter. A pre-dawn fire destroys half a trailer part way up rugged Green Mountain in Effingham. The town will charge the school district $28 an hour for a sum not to exceed $10,000 to inspect the new high school and vocational center at Pine Hill. Mark Hounsell, school board member, asks the state to show him the money before he'll sign off on the renovation of the school administrative offices on Pine Street in North Conway. Friday, May 13 As values of homes continue to surge, Conway's assessing department is falling behind again, even after recently completing a full revaluation. N.H. Supreme Court will hear the appeal of a Wolfeboro man jailed for months in connection with a civil suit over his failure to clean up junk outside his home on Governor Wentworth Highway. A Tamworth woman is suing Wal-Mart over a parking lot run-in with a self-propelled line of shopping carts. Conway selectmen want Mount Washington Valley Preservation Association to agree to front the cost for the first phase of burying utilities in North Conway Village, and also to have funding in place for engineering of phase two.