Tag: 230302

Quality of Life 23/03/02

See the student plane!

The first-ever aircraft produced by the student plane-building partnership between the Aviation Museum of NH, Manchester School of Technology and Tango Flight, finished last summer, is on display at the museum (27 Navigator Road in Londonderry; nhahs.org) now through March 26. According to a press release, the working two-seat RV-12iS light sport aircraft was completed in August 2022 after three years of effort by local students, mentor volunteers from the museum and other program supporters, with assistance from Tango Flight, a consulting nonprofit that specializes in student plane-building projects. The plane has already made numerous flights and special appearances locally and around the country.

QOL score: +1

Comment: Students are currently working on a new plane, the release said.

Nominate your nurse

Nominations are open for New Hampshire Healthcare Heroes. According to a press release, the program, sponsored by Harvard Pilgrim Healthcare, the NH Sector Partnerships and Initiative, Southern New Hampshire Area Health Education Center and others, celebrates health care workers in the state. Nominees may include clinical and nonclinical providers, administrators, educators, facilities, custodial and kitchen staff and others who provide direct or indirect care to patients and families receiving health care. A volunteer committee, made up of health care professionals across the state, will review the nominations and select one winner and two runners-up for each of the seven regions in the state. Each Hero will be honored in a pinning ceremony, hosted in partnership with their employer and streamed live on Facebook, and will receive a banner and customized swag bag.

QOL score: +1

Comment: Anyone can nominate a Healthcare Hero by submitting an online nomination form at nhhealthcareheroes.org. Nominations close on April 7.

Almost showtime

The Nashua Center for the Arts and its management partner Spectacle Live will host a series of public information sessions regarding the new arts and entertainment venue set to open this spring. According to a press release, venue staff will be available to provide information and answer questions related to employment opportunities, venue renting and hosting special events, memberships and group sales and corporate sponsorships; and box office representatives will be available to patrons who are interested in purchasing tickets to upcoming shows. Upcoming sessions will take place at Martha’s Exchange Banquet Space (185 Main St. in Nashua) on Tuesday, March 7, from 5 to 8 p.m., and Wednesday, March 8, from 9 a.m. to noon. Visit NashuaCenterfortheArts.com.

QOL score: +1

Comment: The venue, which will be able to accommodate 500 to 1,000 patrons with flexible seating configurations, is expected to open in April and will host nationally touring musicians, live comedy, theater, children’s performances and more.

QOL score: 54

Net change: +3

QOL this week: 57

What’s affecting your Quality of Life here in New Hampshire? Let us know at news@hippopress.com.

Featured photo: Student-built RV-12 plane on display at the Aviation Museum. Courtesy photo.

Mac Jones analysis

The Big Story – Fixing the Patriots: With free agency opening in less than two weeks it’s time to look at what Coach B and company need to do to fix the Patriots for 2023, a crucial year in the “Tom vs. Bill” debate because it’s the fourth season since Tom Brady left the building and that’s enough time to recover from losing their franchise player. So a big year for the coach’s overall legacy.

There are two schools of thought about how big a fix is needed.

One says with a productive defense they can get back into the mix with the right moves on offense.

The other says no matter what they add they can’t close the gap between them and the elites because the offense needs major surgery and that might include a change at QB because they can’t go toe to toe with the likes of Patrick Mahomes or Joe Burrow with Mac Jones under center.

In any event, here’s a look at what needs to be considered, starting with a focus on the QB.

No. 1 Question: If I’m the Patriots’ owner, the first thing I want to know is why did a QB who was very good as a rookie take a dramatic step backward in his second season as Jones did. After that, I need to know if Mac is the guy to go forward with

Mac Jones: One theory is he’s not that good, or he’s limited, and Josh McDaniels helped mask that in 2021.

Thus one solution is to bring in someone else while recouping a couple of draft picks by trading him. One proponent of this is Christopher Gasper, who wrote in the Boston Globe last week they should dump Mac and bring back free agent Jimmy Garoppolo, in a column that was remarkably like him saying last January the Celtics had to trade Marcus Smart for a real point guard or they’d never go anywhere. Boy, he nailed that one.

This is the same. Lamar Jackson is one thing (though that would require major cap surgery). But the last thing they need is an injury-prone/slow-healing QB who’ll cost three times what Mac does on his rookie contract, whose injuries derailed two of the last five SF seasons. And it would have been three this year if a circa-2001-Brady-like miracle hadn’t surfaced when he broke his leg. Especially since it cost them once already when in 2016 all he had to do was last four games during Tom Brady’s suspension and didn’t make it to the second half of Game 2. Sorry, if you can’t stay on the field you can’t play. Don’t want him.

Plus, while I’m under no illusion Jones did not have his own 2022 issues, I know what I saw in 2021, so I’m not willing to give up on him yet.

I think it was an amalgam of the following.

Play Calling and Game Planning: It’s no secret Matt Patricia in these roles was a total disaster. It was simplistic, predictable and overly cautious to the point where it seemed the goal was to not get a turnover rather than to make plays. It was also often done too slowly, which led to an unacceptable number of timeouts called to avoid penalties. All of which played into some publicized immature, frustration-driven sideline antics by Jones.

Offensive Line: In a word, it was awful. More specifically, penalty-prone, often porous and inconsistent from week to week. That likely contributed to the knock Mac locks on receivers. That leads to bad habits, as when you don’t have a lot of time you look to get rid of it quickly, over going through progressions to find the open guy. And of course sacks lead to down and distance issues, which make sustaining drives more challenging.

The Weapons: They’re below average. It’s the same problem Brady had as he sulked his way through 2019 and Cam Newton had in 2020. They get little separation, don’t do much after the catch (besides Kendrick Bourne) and no one puts the fear of God into defensive game planners. That was exacerbated by the play calling, because throws to Hunter Henry up the seam worked when tried but were rarely called until the end of the year.

Can They Fix It For 2023? It’s a little of both schools of thought. I do like the defense, but, given their swing-and-miss ratio on recent personnel decisions, especially during the 2021 spending spree, I don’t have much faith in the personnel department to have a good enough batting average to hit on enough FAs and draft choices to fill all the holes. However, it doesn’t mean they can’t do it. Plus with Bill O’Brien named to replace Patricia the play calling issue has been addressed.

The 2023 Fix: After one up and one down year it’s too early to give up on Mac. You won’t know what he really is until the other issues are fixed. If you don’t believe me, compare Brady’s 2019 numbers and when they no longer were an issue in Tampa Bay the next year. Help is needed now, so they should focus on the next three years and put whatever draft capital is needed for trades and aim all free agent spending to get ready on Day 1 solutions to do these things:

(1) Fix the offense line, which starts with getting two, new younger tackles.

(2) Bring in a consistent A+ home run-hitting deep threat/wide receiver that teams must game plan for. Exhibit A is what adding A.J. Brown to DeVonta Smith in Philly did for Jalen Hurts. Ditto for Tua after adding Tyreek Hill to Jaylen Waddle. Mac was better than both guys at Bama when he was teamed with Waddle and Smith.

(3) Apply whatever is left to plug other holes as needed.

Email Dave Long at dlong@hippopress.com.

Citizen of the year

Manchester Chamber awards SNHU president

The Greater Manchester Chamber has named Dr. Paul LeBlanc, president and CEO of Southern New Hampshire University, its Citizen of the Year.

Tell us about you and your background.

I was born in Canada in New Brunswick in a small farming village. I actually spoke French before I spoke English. There was really no work there for anyone, so my parents and my four older siblings and I immigrated to the Boston area when I was 3, and I grew up in Waltham, Mass. I went on to be the first member of my extended family to go to college. I think being a first-generation college graduate and an immigrant informs my sense of work and my sense of Manchester so much, because Manchester itself is a city of immigrants and of people who had to work hard and didn’t have anything handed to them. I came to Manchester almost 20 years ago as president of SNHU. Before that, I had spent seven years as the president of Marlboro College in Vermont, and before that, I was heading up a technology startup for Houghton Mifflin Publishing Company in Boston.

What do you consider some of your biggest accomplishments?

I always think of universities as playing an important role as an economic engine. When I came in, we had 2,500 students and were just a small, somewhat dated campus in the north end of Manchester. Today, we’re a national and international university with 185,000 active students, making us the largest university in the country. But we’ve still always been very focused on Manchester as our hometown. … I had this idea for a Center for New Americans, which we’ve created in conjunction with the YWCA, recognizing that Manchester’s history is built on New Americans. It has programs for youth, language programs — a wide array of programming. … During the pandemic, we, with partners, stepped up and took the lead with a number of things, like providing more than 210,000 meals during the first two years to kids who were on school lunch programs who might not have enough food at home; and working with the National Guard, converting the whole of our athletic complex into a spillover health facility for local hospitals. I think these are the things that I’m probably being recognized for as Citizen of the Year, but in reality, I’m accepting this [award] in the spirit of everything that SNHU and all of our people do.

What is your vision for the future of education?

We are often cited as being one of the most innovative universities in the country. That includes not only using online education to extend the reach of SNHU and to reach people who really need a degree to unlock an economic opportunity, but also being pioneers in competency-based education, which untethers people from time and allows them to move much faster. Innovating around delivery models that work better in people’s lives is a really important part of what we do. … We have a national network of community partners that are deeply embedded in underserved communities, and we have something called the GEM program, which stands for “global education movement,” and that brings degree programs to refugees. We’ve worked in refugee camps in Kenya, Malawi and Rwanda, and with refugee communities in South Africa and Lebanon, so we really do have a global reach. Our vision is to continue to try to make higher education more affordable and to put it in the financial reach of learners who are often left out and feel unable to access a system that’s increasingly too expensive for them.

What do you like about Manchester?

Manchester is a working city; it’s got some grit, and, like every city, it’s got real issues, like homelessness. But I love that it has such a strong sense of community and rootedness. … It has an amazing diversity of people in a state that can often feel pretty homogenous, and there’s energy and vibrancy that comes from that heterogeneous population. … Its food scene is burgeoning. … The Millyard is a hotbed of technology and innovation. … People are doing things in the arts community. … Yet it stays very modest. There’s a great self-deprecating humor about New Hampshire and Manchester. No one gets too full of themselves.

What do you like to do in your free time?

I’m lucky enough to be able to do some really interesting travel. I just came back from Antarctica, which was the most amazing travel experience ever. I’ve been to all seven continents and 60-something countries. That’s my passion. Closer to home, it’s things like cooking, reading, writing. I’ve been going back to my writing more lately, which I very much enjoy. I’ve written two books in the last two years.

Featured photo: Paul LeBlanc. Courtesy photo.

News & Notes 23/03/02

Scholarship

New Hampshire Federal Credit Union has announced a call for applicants for its Credit Union College Scholarship Program. According to a press release, three scholarships in the amount of $1,500, funded by New Hampshire Federal Credit Union and the Cooperative Credit Union Association’s statewide campaign “Better Values – Better Banking,” will be awarded to three New Hampshire high school seniors who are enrolled in an undergraduate college or university degree program for the 2023-2024 academic year. Applicants must be a member or have a parent or guardian who is a member of New Hampshire Federal Credit Union or another New Hampshire Credit Union to qualify. There is no fee to apply. The application deadline is Wednesday, April 5. Visit nhfcu.org, call 224-7731 or email marketing@nhfcu.org to learn more.

Route 101 projects

The New Hampshire Department of Transportation will hold two public meetings to share information with citizens and public officials regarding two proposed projects for New Hampshire Route 101 within the towns of Wilton, Milford, Amherst and Bedford. The meetings will be held on Monday, March 6, at 6:30 p.m. at the Barbara Landry Meeting Room in the Amherst Town Hall (2 Main St., Amherst), and Tuesday, March 7, at 6:30 p.m. at the Milford Town Hall Auditorium (1 Union Square, Milford). According to a press release, the mission of the projects is to improve safety and address the high-crash segments along a 15-mile Route 101 corridor. Call 271-3921 or visit nh.gov/dot/projects to learn more about the projects.

New accreditation

Catholic Medical Center has received a new quality-based accreditation from DNV Healthcare. According to a press release, the accreditation certifies that the Manchester hospital consistently meets or exceeds patient safety standards set forth by the U.S. The DNV accreditation program, also known as NIAHO(Integrated Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations), involves annual hospital surveys and encourages information-sharing across departments to identify ways in which clinical workflows and safety protocols can be improved. It is the only hospital accreditation program to require compliance with the ISO 9001 Quality Management System, a trusted quality management system used by performance-driven organizations around the world to advance quality and sustainability objectives. “The DNV program is consistent with our long-term commitment to quality and patient safety,” Natalie Gosselin, CMC’s Executive Director of Quality and Safety, said in the release.

Music in schools

The New Hampshire Music Educators Association joins schools and music educators across the country in celebrating March as Music in our Schools Month. According to a press release, the national campaign seeks to bring attention to music education in schools, raise awareness of the importance of music education for all children and remind citizens that all children should have access to music in school. Music teachers are encouraged to showcase their music programs to school administrators and the community and to highlight the benefits that music education can have for students of all ages. At the New Hampshire Executive Council Meeting on Wednesday, March 8, Gov. Chris Sununu is slated to sign a proclamation declaring March as Music in Our Schools Month in the state of New Hampshire. That same day, local schools, including Manchester Central High School, Auburn Village School, Keene High School, Windham Middle and High Schools, West Running Brook Middle School in Derry, Moultonborough Academy and John Stark Regional High School in Weare will present live musical performances on the Statehouse Lawn in Concord between 8 a.m. and 2 p.m., free and open to the public. Visit facebook.com/nhmea.

Lecture series

The New Hampshire Division of Forests and Lands, in partnership with the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests, has announced the lineup for this year’s Cottrell-Baldwin Environmental Lecture series. According to a press release, the series honors the environmental and scholarly legacies of Hillsborough residents Annette and William Cottrell and of New Hampshire’s first research forester Henry Ives Baldwin while providing public education on topics related to historic preservation, wildlife and land conservation. “Every year, folks tell us how much they look forward to learning more about different natural aspects of our state,” Inge Seaboyer, program forester at the Caroline A. Fox Research and Demonstration Forest, said in the release. The lectures will be held every Tuesday, March 21 through April 11, from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at the Fox Forest’s Henry I. Baldwin Environmental Center (309 Center Road, Hillsborough) and will include “Covered Bridges of New Hampshire,” “Black Bears: Understanding and Controlling Human-Bear Conflicts,” “Ten Years and a Dozen Porcupines – an Informal Study,” and “This Land was Saved for You and Me.” All events are free to attend, but space is limited and registration in advance is appreciated. Visit forestsociety.org/events.

New Hampshire Education Commissioner Frank Edelblut will join officials, students and educators at the New Hampshire State Library in Concord (20 E. Park St.) on Wednesday, March 1, at 9 a.m. to launch a statewide literacy campaign meant to encourage a love of reading among early learners and their caregivers and to increase young students’ reading proficiency, according to a press release. Visit nhlovesreading.org.

The traveling art exhibition “I Am More” is on view now through April 1 at the Mall of New Hampshire in Manchester (1500 S. Willow St.). According to a press release, the exhibit features portraits by artist Amy Kerr accompanied by essays written by the subjects about how they are more than their life challenges, such as surviving Covid, growing up with alopecia, experiencing PTSD from combat and more.

This year’s Portsmouth Athenaeum Lecture Series, “Portsmouth, NH: Evolution 1623-2023,” will focus on Portsmouth’s commerce and the impact of climate change at Strawbery Banke. Lectures will be held on the third Wednesday of the month, March through June and September through November, at 5:30 p.m. at the Athenaeum (9 Market Sq.). Seating is limited, registration is required, and admission is $10 for each lecture. Call 431-2538 or visit portsmouthathenaeum.org.

Not all reasons are equal

By Jeff Rapsis

Every time New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation presidential primary is in jeopardy, boosters cite many reasons for keeping the tradition intact.

Among them: the New Hampshire primary forces candidates to meet actual people instead of just spending money on advertising; the state is small enough for lesser-known candidates to be heard; Granite State citizens take the responsibility seriously, and so on.

All of these reasons are now being used to argue against the Democratic party’s recent decision to put South Carolina in the lead spot in 2024 instead of New Hampshire. (Republicans are so far sticking with the traditional schedule.)

But there’s one reason that often comes up, and it makes no logical sense.

It’s the one about how in New Hampshire, we have a state law requiring us to hold the nation’s first primary.

Gee, good for us! Yes, we actually passed a state law in the 1970s, when the state’s first-in-the-nation status was being challenged by the idea of a New England-wide “regional” primary.

Am I the only person embarrassed by this law being cited as an actual, legitimate reason to justify the New Hampshire primary going first? I mean, we passed a self-serving, self-referencing law, and we expect voters in 49 other states to take this seriously?

More often than not, it’s a cop-out used by those unable to justify New Hampshire’s role on its own merits.

“Hey, I hear what you say about our state’s lack of diversity and preponderance of elderly people and absence of big urban areas and all the many other reasons it would make sense for other states to go first. But hey, we have a law. We can’t do anything about being first. It’s our law.”

Really? Well, what if Idaho passed the same exact law as New Hampshire? What would happen? If Alabama passed a law requiring the state to hold its presidential primary no later than seven days prior to a similar state, where would that put us?

This makes as much sense as minting a $1 trillion coin to help reduce the U.S. national debt, an idea that’s been seriously floated in some circles. But that’s another topic.

If anything, citing our silly state law actually unmakes the argument that New Hampshire should hold the nation’s first presidential primary. After all, any state capable of passing such a self-serving law really can’t be trusted to make sensible decisions in elections.

Jeff Rapsis is Associate Publisher of HippoPress and Executive Director of the Aviation Museum of New Hampshire.

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