Author: The Hippo Press

Covid-19 news

State health officials announced 19 new positive cases of Covid-19 in New Hampshire on June 28. The state averaged 21 new cases per day over the most recent seven-day period (June 22 to June 28), a 10-percent decrease compared to the previous week.

As of June 28, just over 730,000 Granite Staters — roughly 53.9 percent of the state’s population — were fully vaccinated. State-run vaccination sites were set to close on June 30, but vaccine doses are still available at hundreds of locations statewide, including at many hospitals, pharmacies, outpatient offices and community health centers.

The United States Supreme Court rejected a lawsuit filed by the State of New Hampshire against the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, according to a June 28 report from WMUR, over income taxes collected from roughly 80,000 Granite Staters working from home for Massachusetts companies during the pandemic.

“This decision will have lasting ramifications for thousands of Granite State residents,” Gov. Chris Sununu said in a statement on June 28 following the ruling.

State budget passed

On June 25, Gov. Chris Sununu signed HB 1 and HB 2 into law and issued the following statement: “Historic tax cuts, property tax relief, and Paid Family Medical Leave delivered all in one sweeping action is a win for every citizen and family in this state.” House Speaker Sherman Packard (R-Londonderry) applauded the actions, saying in a statement that the House passed a “historic budget that is balanced and fiscally responsible,” and that “Republicans delivered on tax cuts, reduced spending, education freedom, much needed mental health services and more without raising taxes or increasing spending.” NH House Majority Leader Jason Osborne (R-Auburn) said in a statement that the budget includes more than $170 million in tax cuts and is “a major win for every single taxpayer in this state.” Democrats in the House disagreed. Rep. Mary Jane Wallner (D-Concord), ranking Democrat on the House Finance Committee, said in a statement that the budget does not meet the needs of constituents and that cuts to vital programs and services will hurt the state’s most vulnerable residents. House Democratic Leader Renny Cushing (D-Hampton) said in a statement that the budget “harms our state by cutting education funding, raising property taxes, and forcing right-wing ideology on the people of New Hampshire.”

New Hampshire’s kids

Several state departments have recently announced programs and services designed to promote the quality of life of children and families throughout the state.

Mental health at camp: Community mental health centers in New Hampshire will be offering services at camps throughout the state this summer. According to a press release, the Department of Education and the Community Behavioral Health Association are using Covid-19 response funds to provide mental health training to camp counselors and will be on site offering mental health services at many camps in the state as well. These services are part of the Department of Education’s Rekindling Curiosity: Every Kid Goes to Camp program, which offers camp tuition support in an effort to get more kids outside and participating in normal activities to counteract some of the negative effects of the pandemic, the release said. The 10 community mental health centers in the state will each designate staff members to be on site at camps on a weekly basis, and camp counselors ages 14 and older will receive training to address basic mental health issues as well as any mental health crises that may arise.

Stabilizing child care: The New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services will use federal funding through the American Rescue Plan Act to launch several new initiatives in the next few weeks, according to a press release, including stabilization grants to child care programs, workforce recruitment and retention efforts, and market rate increases for the NH Child Care Scholarship Program. All of the initiatives are designed to help residents who need access to child care return to work. According to the release, they include child care stabilization grants open to all licensed and enrolled license-exempt child care providers beginning July 12; child care scholarship increases for families enrolled in the NH Child Care Scholarship Program beginning July 12; child care workforce recruitment and retention efforts; a child care virtual job board; a pre-apprenticeship program to provide experience for people interested in a career in child care; and Open Your Home to Child Care, which will help people who are interested in becoming family child care providers and license-exempt home providers navigate the start-up process.

Charter school grants: The 2020-2021 federal charter school grant competition is now underway, with applications being accepted until 4 p.m. on July 22, according to a press release from the New Hampshire Department of Education. The grant funds will be used to start new public charter schools or to replicate and expand existing high-quality public charter schools and are being made available as part of the five-year, $46 million grant award the state received from the U.S. Department of Education in 2019. Over the next four years, the funds will aid in the creation of 20 new public charter schools and strengthen the existing charter school oversight infrastructure. According to the release, many of the state’s chartered public schools currently have long wait lists for student enrollment. Priority funds will be given to schools that target disadvantaged and at-risk student populations or that offer highly innovative models for advancing student achievement in a given field.

On Saturday, July 3, 13 New Hampshire communities will host readings of Frederick Douglass’ famous speech in which he asked, “What to the slave is your Fourth of July?” Hosted by the Black Heritage Trail of New Hampshire, the readings will be held most locally in Concord, Hopkinton, Nashua, Manchester and Warner. For exact times and locations, visit blackheritagetrailnh.org or call 570-8469.

There’s a new splash pad and playground in Manchester. According to a press release, on June 25 the water features were turned on for the first time during an opening ceremony at Sheehan-Basquil Park Splash Pad and Playground, located at 297 Maple St.

A mosquito batch collected in Bow last week tested positive for Jamestown Canyon virus, according to a press release from the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services. It’s the first time JCV has been found in mosquitoes in New Hampshire, though there have been a few cases in humans, including in Bow in 2020. Testing mosquitoes for JCV has not been part of routine surveillance until this year, the release said.

The Nashua Board of Education announced on June 28 that Dr. Garth McKinney will continue to serve as Superintendent of Schools on an extended interim basis. The board sent a message to all district families and staff informing them that McKinney, who has served as interim superintendent since late January while former Superintendent Jahmal Mosley transitioned to a new job in Massachusetts, will continue in his role until June 30, 2022.

Covid-19 news

Gov. Chris Sununu began the state’s Covid-19 briefing on June 17 by announcing it would be the final weekly scheduled press conference. Future briefings will be held on an “as-needed basis.”

Due to a continued downward trend in positive cases and deaths from Covid-19 in New Hampshire, state epidemiologist Dr. Benjamin Chan announced during the press conference that the state will be updating its guidance for face mask use. “We are now recommending that asymptomatic persons, that’s people who do not have symptoms or are not showing symptoms of Covid-19, can choose to go without face masks in most indoor and outdoor locations, particularly lower-risk settings,” he said. Businesses and organizations can still require face masks for people to enter their facilities, and, under federal regulations, health care facilities still require them as well. “As the numbers continue to decrease, the goal is to be able to pull back on use of some of these mitigation measures, particularly over the summer, when use of some things like face masks may be more difficult,” Chan said.

Dr. Beth Daly, Chief of the Bureau of Infectious Disease Control of the New Hampshire Department of Health & Human Services, also announced that the state will no longer conduct contact tracing for Covid-19 exposures in community settings outside of people’s homes. “We will still continue to require quarantine for people who live in the same household as a person with Covid-19,” she said, “and we’re going to continue to respond to any suspected outbreaks.”

Plummeting unemployment

Last week the May 2021 jobs report was released by New Hampshire Employment Security, showing that the state’s unemployment rate has dropped below the pre-pandemic unemployment rate of 2.7 percent in March 2020 to 2.5 percent now. According to a press release, it is one of the lowest unemployment rates in the country and one of the lowest in the history of the Granite State. As part of its effort to help rebound from the highest levels of unemployment during the height of the pandemic, New Hampshire Employment Security has already held 21 virtual job fairs that have connected 8,702 job-seekers with 862 employers. “Such low unemployment rates are no accident, but are the result of a continued effort to provide businesses with the flexibility needed to grow, while providing individuals with the incentives and resources needed to return to work,” Gov. Chris Sununu said in a statement after the May report was released.

DMV update

Last week an update of a comprehensive review of the state Division of Motor Vehicles was released, showing some of the steps that the DMV has taken since the review was issued in 2019.

The review was ordered after the crash in Randolph that killed seven members of the Jarheads Motorcycle Club and the revelation that a backlog within the Massachusetts DMV system had led to a failure to suspend the license of the truck driver at fault, according to a press release. To ensure that New Hampshire would never be in a similar situation, the review provided short-term and long-term recommendations to improve its processes. One of the recommendations that was fulfilled earlier this month was implementing the State to State Verification Service, making New Hampshire the 34th state to use that service, which helps facilitate the exchange of convictions with other states, the release said. Other improvements include ensuring that processing times have remained current and without backlog; creating an Electronic Exchange of Records with Massachusetts, for notifications related to convictions and withdrawals; implementing the Commercial Driver Disqualification system, which allows the DMV to initiate immediate disqualification of commercial drivers and/or commercial motor carriers; online ticket payment and online not guilty pleas. According to the release, the DMV is also in the process of rolling out Online Motor Vehicle Record Requests and E-Crash and E-Ticketsystems to local police departments so that more of the tickets and accident reports received by the DMV will be electronic.

Help for students

Students whose learning was negatively impacted by the pandemic will find help in the YES! Program, according to the New Hampshire Department of Education. Last week the department announced that it will use $2 million of the Governor’s Emergency Relief Fund from the CARES Act to support the program, which will provide direct relief to families in need in the form of scholarships. “Student academic performance data coming out of the pandemic will be different than normal,” Commissioner of Education Frank Edelblut said in the release. “Some students thrived in pandemic learning, especially through strong home supports and the exercise of greater individual agency in their own education. Other students had difficulty accessing their education, often because of a lack of appropriate resources or an instructional model that was not conducive to their learning needs.” He said the YES! Program will engage students based on where they are and help them flourish without being stigmatized. There are three categories for scholarships, according to the release. In Category 1, eligible students are public school students who are at or below 400 percent of the federal poverty level or with a disability. The scholarship amount is $1,000 and can be used for tutoring provided by department-certified educators or special education therapies and services provided by department-certified special education teachers or licensed therapists. In Category 2, eligible students are private/non-public school students (new or current) who are at or below 250 percent of the federal poverty level or with a disability. The scholarship amount is $5,000 and can be used for tuition and fees at department-approved private schools. In Category 3, eligible students are private/non-public school students at or below 400 percent of the federal poverty level, and they will receive $2,500 for tuition and fees at department-approved private schools.

The New Hampshire Telephone Museum in Warner will open its 2021 program series on Friday, June 25, with a virtual discussion that will explore whether privacy is dead. According to a press release, there will be online discussions each month, and the museum is also featuring a special exhibit on railroad communications. Visit NHTelephoneMuseum.org for details on virtual programming and in-person visits.

The Brentwood portion of Route 125 will be dedicated as the Officer Stephen Arkell Memorial Highway at a July 1 ceremony. According to a press release, U.S. Sen. Maggie Hassan, Congressman Chris Pappas and Gov. Chris Sununu will be at the ceremony, which will be held at Swasey Central School at 6 p.m. and is open to the public. Arkell was shot and killed in 2014 after responding to a domestic dispute; he was a member of the Brentwood Police Department for 17 years, the release said.

Club Richelieu of Nashua will host a ceremony on Thursday, June 24, at 11 a.m. in Renaissance Park (Le Parc de la Renaissance Francaise) near the Nashua River on Water Street to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the statue that depicts a French-Canadian textile mill worker, and her son. According to club president Eric Drouart, the event will also highlight a new mural in the park with the portraits of eight Franco-American personalities, several of whom were active in fundraising for the statue.