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This week's stories: (click on the headline
to jump to story)
 24-7 fire
service urged
Towns
wage war on milfoil
Goffstown
Old
Home Day 2004
WITH A SPRING IN THEIR STEP
Dancers from Dance Visions perform for the crowd at Goffstown's
Old Home Day on Saturday, June 5, on the town common. Old Home
Day organizers reported a record turnout for the day's activities,
with over 1,000 people strolling through the Village to enjoy
performances, play games and eat. (De-J Cejka Photo)
BUDDY SYSTEM The sack race
on the town common was a big hit with Emilee Juveilleux, 5, and
CaraBeth Norklun, 5. (De-J Cejka Photo)
LUNCH BREAK Art Rose serves
up a hotdog to Goffstown Selectman Barbara Griffin.
(Daymond Steer Photo)
Kameron Thompson, 5, gets his
face painted by April Hotchkiss of Weare. (Daymond Steer Photo)
HAVIN' A SPLASH Rayna Sage,
3, reaches out to catch a balloon full of water during the balloon
toss on the common. (De-J Cejka Photo)
EASY, BOY Kayla McNamara
of Weare pets a llama brought to Old Home Day from Scruton Homestead
of Farmington. (Daymond Steer Photo)
BOYS IN BLUE From left,
Lenny LaMarca, Andrew Connelly, 6, and Mike Gorman represented
the Dunbarton Police Association, which brought along a 1968
Chevy for viewing. (Daymond Steer Photo)
Goffstown
24-7 fire service
urged
By DAYMOND STEER
Staff Writer
dsteer@yourneighborhoodnews.com
Selectmen gave Fire Chief Frank Carpentino
30 days to report on the economic feasibility of providing 24-hour
fire and emergency medical service to the town.
They issued the directive during their meeting on Monday, June
7.
In doing so, selectmen urged Carpentino to speak with the local
firefighters' union about the possibility of changing to 24-hour
service.
"The economic factor in this is going to be a big player,"
said Chairman Robert Wheeler.
Several weeks ago, a petition began circulating which was signed
by almost half of the 54 on-call firefighters, asking selectmen
to allow the chief to write and present a 24-hour full-time staffing
plan.
The petition calls for at least one of the three fire stations
to have full-time employees 24 hours per day, seven days a week.
The call staff would be used as needed.
"What was once a few calls a month or week has turned into
several calls every night," said a letter to selectmen from
call firefighters. "Many of us have come to the realization
that we can no longer work our regular jobs, spend time with
our families, enjoy our hobbies, complete routine tasks around
our homes, take a vacation, attend training, respond on calls
and cover the station."
Despite the workload, not all of the on-call firefighters signed
the petition.
Selectman Barbara Griffin noted 24 out of 54 on-call staffers,
who are mostly from the Pinardville station, signed the petition.
"I'm not sure I'm hearing¨ a ringing endorsement from
the call staff," she said.
Deputy Fire Chief Mark Hurley said the Pinardville and the Church
Street fire stations are staffed with full-time firefighters
from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday. On-call staff take
over on the weekends from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.
The East Goffstown station is open 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through
Friday when enough on-call staff members are available. On the
weekends, the station is closed, Hurley said.
The call firefighters cover after 6 p.m. Monday through Friday
and on the weekends after 5 p.m., plus holidays, said Carpentino.
"It consumes quite a bit of time," said Carpentino.
"When they became on-call firefighters, this is not what
they had in mind," noting many call force members thought
they would only supplement the full-time staff.
In their written statement, the members of the call staff also
argued that 24 hour coverage would enhance the department's overall
performance.
Goffstown
Towns wage war
on milfoil
By LARA SKINNER
Staff Writer
lskinner@yourneighborhoodnews.com
Signs reminding boaters to clean any plants
off their boats and motors are at the Glen Lake boat launch in
Goffstown.
Conservation Commission Chairman Collis Adams said the town put
the signs up in 2000.
He hasn't heard any reports of milfoil in the Goffstown lake,
but said boat traffic is pretty heavy in Glen Lake for a body
of water its size.
Signs are the only warning boaters get at the lake.
"It's like anything else," Adams said about setting
up something like an inspection station for boats. "It takes
time and people."
In Weare, however, the battle against milfoil is more aggressive.
Last September, the Lake Horace Landowners' Corp-oration asked
the selectmen to put up a gate at the Chase Park boat launch.
Variable milfoil hadn't made an appearance in the lake yet, but
the corporation wanted to have an inspection station at the launch
before milfoil became a problem.
One season of unchecked growth can lead to a milfoil infestation.
Clear water along the shores of lakes and ponds can get choked
with the red-stemmed, leggy, aquatic weeds before a boater can
say "gone fishing."
Communities across Sou-thern New Hampshire are dealing with infestations
and trying to prevent the growth of variable strains of milfoil
before it starts.
South of Weare in Francestown, for example, a patch of milfoil
was spotted in Scobie Pond last summer.
Scobie Pond empties into Middle Branch, and both water bodies
are part of the Piscataquoq River watershed.
People who are concerned about the health of ponds, lakes and
rivers are the first line of defense in keeping milfoil under
control.
"It really kind of depends on people like myself,"
Jill Rolph of Francestown said. "Or other people on the
pond that can watch it carefully."
Rolph was taking an evening trip in her kayak on Scobie Pond
last summer when she saw some suspicious-looking plants in a
popular fishing spot on the west side of the pond.
She is a member of the Scobie Pond Preservation Association,
a group of summer and year round residents who are stewards of
the pond.
Variable milfoil is a generic looking weed that is often mistaken
for a local species of plant. The aquatic weed has a long red
stem, and groups of leaves form concentric circles of three all
of the way up the stem.
Like most weeds, milfoil can take root and grow very quickly.
All it takes is one little piece of a grown plant to break off
of the stem and float to a clear spot. Once there, the cast away
takes root, and will eventually flower and spread even more.
Pieces of milfoil that have hitched a ride on the side of a boat
or an outboard motor are just as much of a threat. This is why
Weare voters approved a $3,000 expense to set up a boat inspection
point for Horace Lake.
Once milfoil gets a good grasp in a lake bed, the most a community
can hope for is to keep the plant's growth under control, Amy
Smagula said.
Smagula is the project coordinator for the Invasive Aquatic Plant
division of the state Department of Environmental Services.
"If (milfoil) goes unseen or unnoticed for a season or more
it certainly can get out of control," she said.
The state started a volunteer program called Weed Watchers. Last
summer, Smagula published the first annual newsletter for the
program, "Weed Watchin.'" It is a source of information
and identification tips for people who are trying to stop aquatic
weed infestations before they start.
The first report of variable milfoil in a state lake was in 1965
for Lake Winnipesaukee, Smagula said. Sunapee and Squam lakes
were the next to show up with an problem, and then the weed was
seen in Rindge.
Residents near Gorham Pond in Dunbarton reported milfoil in the
pond bed four years ago. However, Smagula said, the town missed
this year's application deadline for an herbicide treatment to
control the weed.
An herbicide treatment was scheduled for Scobie Pond on Tuesday,
June 8.
Rolph said she was told that residents should not swim in the
water for at least a day after the treatment.
She said she hopes that the herbicide, plus controlled weed pulling
done by trained weed watchers on Scobie Pond, will keep the milfoil
under control.
A few kayak trips out to the same spot to look for the weed haven't
turned up any signs of it so far, Rolph said.
Milfoil is most likely to take root in lakes and ponds because
the water is slow moving, Smagula said. Rivers and streams flow
a bit too fast, though sometimes milfoil ca take over a spot
where there isn't as much water movement.
New Boston and Goffstown don't have the same risk of a milfoil
infestation as towns with ponds and lakes.
Smagula said she is supposed to conduct a pond survey of the
area this summer to see if milfoil has spread beyond Gorham and
Scobie ponds.
Mostly, she will respond to reported sightings of the weed. False
alarms do come in to her office all through the season, she said.
But a false alarm is better than catching an infestation too
late.
"If the infestations are small, then it's absolutely possible
to eradicate it," she said.
Winnipesaukee was caught too late. Smagula said the lake gets
five herbicide treatments a year, and she hasn't seen any drop
in the milfoil population.
Details about the volunteer weed watcher program are at: www.des.state.nh.us/wmb/exoticspecies\.
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