Also on today’s menu:
Facing Lower School Enrollment
Grant Program For Electric Transmission
Getting Away With Murder
Responding to one of the complaints by critics of Gunstock Mountain Resort in recent years, the county-owned recreation area will offer discounted ski tickets to residents of Belknap County this upcoming winter.
During the November meeting of the Gunstock Area Commission, Resort Services Director Robin Rowe announced that Gunstock will offer day passes to county residents for $45, less than half the regular weekend price of $99. The regular price on weekdays is $87 for adults, $75 for youths, and $63 for seniors.
The discounted passes will not be available on Saturdays or blackout days that include school and Christmas vacation weeks and Martin Luther King Jr. Day weekend. There also is a 1,981 cap on how many discounted day passes the mountain can offer, but Rowe noted that most county residents purchase season tickets, so that number should be sufficient.
Facing Lower School Enrollment
Declines in New Hampshire’s student population will have significant implications for towns, taxpayers, and students, as per-pupil aid from the state also falls with lower school enrollment.
The trend has some public school districts considering the closure or consolidation of school buildings — the Newfound Area School District among them. The district already was facing deferred maintenance at its school facilities, and this year is concentrating on building and space needs at its elementary schools. The Newfound Area School Board plans to work over the next year to come up with a recommendation for the 2024 annual school district meeting on how to address repairs, expansions, or consolidations of those schools.
Operating under a tax cap, as Newfound does, the district has a tight budget without much opportunity for further lowering of operational costs, and lower enrollment does not translate to immediate savings on expenses like building maintenance, buses, and staff. The district has some breathing room, as enrollment this year has not dropped dramatically from last year.
Funding from federal COVID relief packages and measures passed by the New Hampshire Legislature have allowed school districts to pay for additional resources without dramatic tax hikes, but long-term funding remains an issue of concern without any clear solution.
Grant Program For Electric Transmission
With an estimated 70 percent of the nation’s transmission lines being more than 25 years old, American economic interests are vulnerable. The move toward renewable energy that includes offshore wind will require additional transmission capability. An expanded transmission system is critical to cost-effectively achieve President Joe Biden Jr.’s goals of reducing greenhouse gas emissions 50-52 percent below 2005 levels by 2030 and achieving 100 percent clean electricity by 2035.
Today, the Department of Energy announced that first-round applications are open for competitive grants under the Grid Resilience and Innovation Partnership Programs, with $10.5 billion available. The $2.5 billion Transmission Facilitation Program grants also are available. Funded by the President’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the two programs represent the largest single direct federal investment in critical transmission and distribution infrastructure.
To enhance collaboration between all levels of government, industry, unions, local communities, environmental justice organizations, and others, the Biden Administration launched the Building a Better Grid Initiative with a focus on long-distance, high-voltage transmission lines which will be administered by the Department of Energy’s new Grid Deployment Office. The focus is on the development of new transmission lines and a more resilient grid through new and modernized distribution facilities to ensure that “all communities have access to reliable, affordable electricity.”
Getting Away With Murder
Hatice Cengiz, the ex-fiancé of murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi, wrote on Twitter that “Jamal died again today” after the United States’ State Department ruled that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is immune from prosecution for the killing due to his role as Saudi Arabia’s prime minister.
U.S. intelligence believes that Prince Mohammed ordered the killing of Khashoggi, a prominent Saudi critic, at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in October 2018.
Cengiz, along with the human rights group Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN) — founded by Mr Khashoggi — had been seeking unspecified damages in the US from the crown prince for her fiancé's murder.
Giving Tuesday
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