Category: Q&A

Maintenance Supervisor

Andy Vachon is the Maintenance Supervisor for the Parks division of the Manchester Parks and Recreation Department. Anyone interested in maintaining the landscape of the Queen City with Andy, or other Department of Public Work careers, should check out manchesternh.gov/Departments/Human-Resources/Employment.

Explain your job and what it entails.

I am the Parks Maintenance Supervisor. I oversee the maintenance crews for the Parks. … So the Recreation [Department] has a supervisor that oversees the recreation portion of it. Cemetery has a supervisor that oversees the cemetery portion, and I oversee park maintenance. We have 16 employees. Of those 16 employees, we also have a dedicated tree crew. So the City of Manchester Parks Division is responsible for maintaining a safe right of way for any trees or limbs that were to happen to fall into the road … 13 of them work for us mowing fields, preparing athletic fields for game plays, mowing, trimming parks, passive parks, active parks. We oversee pickleball courts, tennis courts. Playgrounds, we have 55 play structures across 36 parks that we inspect and maintain….

How long have you had this job?

I’ve been in my current position now for six years. I’ve been with the city for 23 years.

What led you to this career field and your current job?

I graduated college in ’97. I have a business administration degree with a concentration on golf management. So I was a golf professional at Derryfield Country Club for three years. Derryfield is owned by the City of Manchester. … I worked at McIntyre Ski Area in the winter. They were looking for a manager for the ski area and that’s where I started in 2001. I was the general manager for McIntyre Ski Area for 10 years. .

What kind of education or training did you need?

Fortunately, with golf, I took agronomy courses in college, learning about how to grow grass, how to mow grass and how to maintain equipment. That definitely helped me, as well as my management skills, being able to manage employees, being customer service oriented as well.

What is your typical at-work uniform or attire?

There is a lot of mowing, so hearing protection, safety glasses, pants when you’re running power equipment, chaps, helmets when you’re running chainsaws. Our staff gets short-sleeved T-shirts with the city logo on it to identify them. Ours are green for parks. I wear a golf shirt with the city logo on it. We try to brand ourselves so people know who we are and what we do.

What is the best piece of work-related advice you’ve ever received

Well, for us, it’s all about the users and the constituents in the park. If we make a safe, clean environment for people to be outside and recreate, that’s what makes us happy. Being outside and getting fresh air for people and doing it in a safe and clean environment is something that we strive for. — Zachary Lewis

Five favorites
Favorite book: One Base at a Time by David R. Mellor. It’s a great, great book.
Favorite movie: Caddyshack
Favorite music: The Grateful Dead and Phish
Favorite food: Backroom chicken tenders, man.
Favorite thing about NH: Every season is different. Winter, spring, summer and fall.

Featured photo: Andy Vachon. Courtesy photo.

S.C.A.R.E. NH wants every kid to have a costume

S.C.A.R.E., Secondhand Costume Annual Redistribution Effort, brings Halloween costumes to those in and around southern New Hampshire who would otherwise go without dressing up for the holiday. They also hold a free haunted house called Spooksville, which opened on Friday, Oct. 18. Jesse Palmer is the “Head Hauntcho” of S.C.A.R.E. and spoke about the charity organization. Visit scarenh.org.

What is SCARE?

SCARE is a 501c3 nonprofit charity that collects Halloween costumes and then we give them to families in need all over New Hampshire for no cost.

How did SCARE get started?

I was out shopping one day and I overheard a little girl ask her mom to get a costume, and mom said, ‘We can’t afford that.’ So when I was checking it out, it was a $20 costume, I was like, wow, that kind of sucks for the family that, unfortunately, this is out of their budget. And so I was talking to my wife about it. My son had started to outgrow his costumes. So we were looking for a place to donate our costumes to so that somebody else could use them. And we couldn’t find one. And after about six months of searching, she told me, well, I do have that option of maybe trying to start one myself, and so I did.

Are there any particular costume items you’re looking for more than others, or is everything just great to have?

Everything is great to have. We give out costumes to everybody, infants all the way up through adults. So even 2X, 3X, if we have them available, they’re welcome to take them if they need them. We do seem to go through a lot more of the large and extra-large kid sizes. …

What is Spooksville?

Spooksville is our haunted house. So we have a group of home haunters who all love Halloween but don’t necessarily have enough stuff to do something on their own or they don’t have a place to do it or they’re just a bit older and they don’t want the hassle of doing everything. So we’ve gotten together and we do a home haunt that we offer freely to the public. … And we change our theme every year. This year it is ‘nightmares.’ So once they make it through the haunted corn maze, they’ll finally get into the haunted house itself, where everything that goes bump in the night is waiting for them.

Where is it located and when can people visit?

At 1 Cheshire St. in Nashua. It’s about five minutes off of Exit 6 to head toward Hollis. There’ll be signs and everything, once we put them out you really can’t miss it at that point. On Fridays, we run 7 to 9. On Saturdays we run 6 to 9. Halloween will also be 6 to 9. And then we do kid-friendly Sundays, …and that goes 10 to 2. We’ll have costumes available here at the house for anybody that’s still looking to get costumes for Halloween.

If people are interested in donating costumes, where can they give them to you?

We recommend that they come and check out the Haunt…. So they get a two-for-one deal, they can drop off their costumes and they can check out the haunted house. If not, they can just message us at [email protected], which is the email that we use for the charity, and we make arrangements for a pickup or a meet-up or something of the sort. They can donate all year round. They can volunteer all year round. We do Halloween all year round.

What are some of the more interesting costumes at SCARE that have been donated?

The more interesting stuff comes when it tends to be homemade versus store-bought So we’ve had one that came in that looked like Thomas the Tank Engine. That was a homemade costume. We have some various adult costumes that are like Medusa or a crazy doctor … They tend to be a lot more gory when they’re homemade. — Zachary Lewis

Get SCAREd
Spookville Haunt 2024
1 Cheshire St., Nashua
Fridays: 7 to 9 p.m.
Saturdays: 6 to 9 p.m.
Sundays: 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Halloween night 6 to 9 p.m.
Free

Costume Distribution
Manchester Police Athletic League
409 Beech St, Manchester
Monday, Oct. 28, from 3 to 6 p.m.

Featured image: Courtesy photo.

Morphs and Milestones reaches kids with animals

Morphs and Milestones is a nonprofit that utilizes “rescued and rehabilitated reptiles in education and therapies for persons with special needs,” such as DiGeorge Syndrome, autism, and all kinds of delayed development. It also works with standard education as well as individuals with emotional PTSD. Nate Monty runs the organization with his wife, Brenda Casillas. Nate has more than a decade of veterinary technician and zoo experience. They will present an educational program at Manchester City Library on Wednesday, Oct. 23, from 4 to 6 p.m. and expect to be opening a facility in Francestown in a matter of weeks, although no date has been made official yet. Visit morphsandmilestones.com.

What is Morphs and Milestones?

Morphs and Milestones is a nonprofit that me and Brenda started. We started it because of the work we did with our daughter, Autumn Rose. My daughter, Autumn, has DiGeorge Syndrome, and she is nonverbal, and they were having an exceptionally hard time teaching her how to communicate effectively so that they could go ahead and figure out exactly what she was learning and what she wasn’t learning. We found that through the exposure to reptiles, which were her favorite animals, that she would get in a mode of almost being very investigative. And we utilized that to help teach her ASL … we were urged by her special education team to make it available for others. So at the core, Morphs and Milestones is a nonprofit organization that uses rescued and rehabbed animals and we use them as therapy and educational aids.

What made you think to try using reptiles to help with your daughter, Autumn?

[W]e were building with some sticks, some just fun stuff to build and knock down. And on one of the displays I had mounted on the wall, I had turned on YouTube … and a YouTuber came up that was handling snakes and she got really excited. And then immediately after being excited, she sat down and just watched the screen. And I said, ‘Hey, wait a second, there’s something here.’ And that’s how we got into reptiles.

What will the educational program be like at Manchester City Library?

At Manchester it’s going to be an auditorium-style program. That’s what we did last time. And it’s not like a standard auditorium program. There will be a time where I am up front and I am speaking and showing the animals, but I also utilize our volunteer team. And while I’m talking about the animals, the individuals watching the program and attending the program actually get to physically touch and see the animals up close so that they can see and almost feel the experience in real time. So we’ll do that over several ambassadors that we bring. And at the end we invite everybody to come up to the front or on the stage. And they can interact with the animals at a higher level and really have one-on-one conversations with things that interest them about the animals.

Can you expand on the Autumn’s Adoption Corner portion of Morphs and Milestones?

Morphs and Milestones started off just doing the therapy work and then as it grew we did therapy and education. As that grew, people started finding out that we’re here, and sometimes it was people who needed to find a place to actually put an animal … they started reaching out to us and said, ‘Hey, can you help us?’ … So we built Autumn’s Adoption Corner. When the animals come in to see us, they’re all evaluated and taken care of and then the adoption process is very similar to what you see with other companion animals like dogs and cats and horses. We modeled a lot of it off like what we saw with the SPCAs and the rescue leagues so that the next home could be a forever home.

What does the future look like for you all?

[W]e’re actually opening a facility in Francestown, New Hampshire. It’s at 74B Main St. And the facility is .. an old firehouse. And on the bottom floor is going to be an adaptive classroom … The second floor of it …is going to be the area where we have a teacher resource center.

Morphs and Milestones
Educational Program
When: Wednesday, Oct. 23, 4 to 6 p.m.
Where: Manchester City Library, 405 Pine St., Manchester
Free, open to the public
morphsandmilestones.com

Featured image: Courtesy photo.

It’s Milford Pumpkin Festival weekend

The Milford Pumpkin Festival has been going strong for 35 years thanks to the region’s hearty pumpkins and even heartier volunteers. The Granite Town Festivities Committee in partnership with the Milford Lions Club and Milford Rotary put on the event, which includes a giant pumpkin contest, a mural to be created by local artist Eric Escobar, face painting, tons of food, beer, music and much more. Wendy Mace, who is in charge of marketing for the Granite Town Festivities Committee after being a longtime volunteer, spoke to the Hippo about the upcoming festival, which runs from Friday, Oct. 11, through Sunday, Oct. 13.

How did the festival get started?

I think it started with Marilyn Kenison back 35 years ago. I think this woman just had an idea and that was the one that got it started. Her husband was a dentist in town. I know way back then the Milford Cooperative Bank was involved with volunteers, because my mom was working there at the time and she was in the very first group for a few years when it got started. It’s changed over the years until this last group of volunteers in 2018 decided to form the Granite Town Festivities Committee, which is a nonprofit. They’re the ones that are keeping it going now. Some of the players have changed over the years … but it’s all volunteers and sponsorships that keep it going. The festival is a huge undertaking. It’s a bazillion volunteers that make this happen. Organizing it, setting it up, working at it, breaking it down.

What is the opening ceremony like and what is the Citizen of the Year?

Well, they do that on Friday night. The Rotary has spearheaded having townspeople vote on Citizen of the Year and they make the announcement Friday night at the ceremony. There’s also a pumpkin runner who comes in and there’s a ceremonial lighting of the pumpkin, which is a huge jack-o’-lantern up in the town hall window, and the pumpkin runner brings it to the fireman, and the fireman goes up the ladder. Basically, they’re turning on a giant jack-o’-lantern. People get a big kick out of that. That’s part of the opening ceremonies…. And I think the president of the Granite Town Festivities Committee will be speaking this year.

What is the pumpkin catapult?

That’s put on by the Dollars for Scholars. They have actually built this catapult they put down at Railroad Pond behind TD Bank. People purchase a pumpkin and they catapult it into the pond. It’s pretty fun to watch. And they have like, I think they had, when I went down there to look at it, scarecrows as markers out in the pond that they shoot for, but it’s just kind of a fun thing to watch.

What is the Haunted Trail?

The big draw is the Haunted Trail at Emerson Park that’s open Friday and Saturday night.

It’s been built by Witches Spring. … and people buy a little ticket and they get to walk through the trail that runs at the back of Emerson Park along the river in the area between the park and the Boys & Girls Club. So they’ve made this cool little haunted trail back there that’s changed over the years too. The first haunted trail we did was in plastic, a plastic maze on the tennis courts at Keyes Field … and it was basically a maze of fog, but then it’s changed over the years. We actually had a haunted house in a creepy old apartment that somebody let us use, which was really creepy. We put it on at different places. And then they started doing the trail behind Emerson Park a while back. And now we have this great company, he’s a local guy that comes in and he builds all that stuff and builds the trail. We get a lot of volunteers from the Masons, they get to be some of the haunts. They’re involved, Oddfellows are involved, because the Masonic Temple is also back there. They’re also the ones that keep an eye on everything overnight, our gourd guards. They keep an eye on everything to make sure nothing gets vandalized overnight on Friday and Saturday nights.

What are some of your favorite kids’ activities that are at the event?

We have carving pumpkins on the Oval. You can paint a pumpkin…. You can make scarecrows. And that always cracks me up because then you see little families walking down the street with a scarecrow over their shoulder. It’s really fun. … And the town hall, there’s a whole craft show going on, artisan and craft fair going on inside the town hall. So there’s stuff there for all ages. The kids love the Haunted Trail as well. And there’s all kinds of vendors and food trucks and there’s always vendors that have special things that kids enjoy but it’s nice to have the town hall where we have more grown-up crafts and things. If you’re going to make a scarecrow or paint a pumpkin or carve a pumpkin or go to the haunted trail, there are fees for that, but they’re very nominal. And then people who are selling things. The Milford Ambulance has a little ducky race where you purchase those little rubber ducks.

How many people do you think will show up this year and where will they put their cars?

I think in the years past that they have guessed that there’s been like 70,000 people over the course of the three days. The Milford Union Square is completely shut down for this festival this year so people can park at the middle school and the high school, and we have shuttle buses that keep going back and forth. They go from the schools, they drop them off downtown, they go back and forth … so people don’t have to worry about parking because there’s plenty of parking at the schools and we’ll shuttle them right down to the festival. It goes right till the end of each night except Sunday where the festival ends, it’ll go for like a half an hour or so after. All that information is on our website; what roads are closed, where the parking is, and everything. —Zachary Lewis

35th Milford Pumpkin Festival

When: Friday, Oct. 11, from 5 to 9 p.m.; Saturday, Oct. 12, from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Sunday, Oct. 13, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Rain or shine.
Info: milfordpumpkinfestival.org

Schedule of events

Opening Ceremony & Citizen of The Year Presentation
Friday, Oct. 11, 6:30 to 7 p.m. on the Oval Stage
Includes Pumpkin Runner & lighting of the Town Hall Pumpkin

The Great Pumpkin Weigh Off/Giant Pumpkins On Display: All entries for the Weigh Off must be delivered to the Milford Oval by 9 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 12. Winners are announced at noon on Saturday. Pumpkins must stay for the duration of the Festival.

Milford Historical Walking Tour: Saturday and Sunday, one-hour guided tour begins at the Carey House, 6 Union St.

Pumpkin Painting, Scarecrow Making, Face Painting: Saturday 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. and Sunday 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Community House lawn. Pumpkin painting $5 per pumpkin. Scarecrow making $15 per scarecrow. Face painting $5 full face, $1 one cheek

Beer, Wine & Spirits Tasting: Friday and Saturday 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. Community House Lawn, tickets required

Boys & Girls Club of Souhegan Valley Pumpkinfest 5K & Kids Fun Run: Saturday 7:30 to 11:30 a.m., 56 Mont Vernon St. Registration opens 7 a.m. Kids Fun Run 8 a.m., $10. 5K Run/Walk 9 a.m., $35 ($40 day of)

Pumpkin Carving & Lighting Display On The Oval: Saturday 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., $12 per pumpkin

Rubber Duck Race: Sunday at 1 p.m., Stone Bridge; purchase rubber ducks at the Milford Ambulance booth on Middle Street

Pumpkin Catapult: Saturday 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., Sunday 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., at Railroad Pond, TD Bank Lower Lot. Purchase pumpkins and catapult them toward fun targets in Railroad Pond. One pumpkin $3, two pumpkins $5. Proceeds benefit Dollars For Scholars.

Star Gazing/Solar Observing: Saturday evening, weather permitting, in Keyes Memorial Park, join Rich DeMidio and other amateur astronomers for stargazing and solar observing. Several telescopes available for astronomical viewing including some planet and deep sky objects.

Pumpkin Festival Mural: Watch Eric Escobar’s creation unfold over the 3 days of the festival

Featured image: Stuffing a scarecrow. Courtesy photo.