Also on today’s menu:
Moultonborough Resident Drowns In Submerged Vehicle
Pilot Killed In September 30 Crash Identified
Granite State Establishes Its Own Border Patrol
Executive Councilor Cinde Warmington, serving her second term as the lone Democrat on that body, attended a small house party in Gilford on October 18. She is running against Manchester Mayor Joyce Craig for governor in the Democratic primary. Governor Chris Sununu, a Republican who is serving in his fourth term, is not running for re-election.
Warmington’s first job was at Lakes Region General Hospital in Laconia, and she raised her family in Gilford. Attendees Wednesday night included former colleagues and Warmington’s longtime pastor.
In touting her qualifications for the corner office, Warmington said her time on the Executive Council makes her the best-prepared candidate for the job. “We see everything that happens in the executive branch,” she said. “I know where every single dollar goes; I know every single program.” She also has close relationships with governmental departments and said that department heads “can work against you or they can work with you — and I’m telling you, I am working with them now and I believe I will work with them as governor. I have built relationships with every single one of them.”
Laconia Mayor Andrew Hosmer, who introduced Warmington and described her as a longtime political ally, praised her advocacy for the Lakes Region, even though it is outside her Executive Council district. “Her level of commitment and interest is significant; her knowledge of what’s going on around this county, around the city, is extraordinary; and she has been incredibly helpful to me and the city of Laconia,” Hosmer said.
Moultonborough Resident Drowns In Submerged Vehicle
Barry Haight, 77, died in a submerged vehicle after apparently driving off a community boat ramp into Lake Winnipesaukee on October 18. Moultonborough Fire-Rescue Chief David Bengtson, responding to a report of a vehicle in the water, arrived to find that Thomas Bishop, a call firefighter with the Carlisle Fire Department in Massachusetts, had pulled Haight from the vehicle and had gotten him onto dry land. Although Bengtson and Bishop tried to resuscitate Haight while awaiting the ambulance’s arrival, Haight was pronounced dead when he arrived at Concord Hospital-Laconia.
Haight had left his home in the Windward Way community to bring a bag of trash to a waste container, but when did not return, his wife, joined by Bishop, searched in vain initially. It was when Bishop made a second attempt to find him that he spotted Haight’s Acura RDX SUV in the water and called for help before jumping into the lake.
Bengtson could not explain why Haight had driven by the boat ramp because the community’s waste container is not near the waterfront. A Moultonborough police press release stated that Haight likely was submerged for an hour and a half before he was pulled from his vehicle.
Pilot Killed In September 30 Crash Identified
The National Transportation Safety Board has issued a preliminary report of its investigation into the September 30 crash of a Cessna 150K in which the pilot died. Identified as 70-year-old Robert W. Ashe Jr., the pilot had recently relocated from Connecticut to West Ossipee, and, according to his logbook, he lacked experience flying after dark.
Michael Eastman, a captain with the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department, said Ashe intended to fly from Providence, Rhode Island, to West Ossipee, but reported that he was experiencing engine problems and was attempting to turn around and land at the Laconia Municipal Airport. According to the preliminary NTSB report, “The airplane continued on the downwind and made a slight left turn when while [sic] over Lake Winnipesaukee. The airplane then entered a descending right turn before it then began to climb. The airplane then entered another descending right turn before radar contact was lost.”
The plane hit the water and was not found until the next morning, about three miles northeast of Laconia Airport, in 57 feet of water. There were no other passengers on the flight. The report called the damage to the plane “extensive” but said all of the craft’s components were still attached to the frame via cables, and there was no indication of fire.
Granite State Establishes Its Own Border Patrol
Claiming that “The federal government refuses to take action on our Northern Border,” Governor Christopher Sununu, Attorney-General John Formella, and Safety Commissioner Robert Quinn announced the establishment of the Northern Border Alliance Task Force, which will be funded with $1,435,384 in grant money through the Department of Safety. State, county, and local law enforcement officers on the Task Force will conduct patrols within 25 air miles from the Canadian border to “reduce the instance of crimes and illicit activity; respond to all threats, all crimes, all hazards; and collect, share, and act upon criminal intelligence.”
They added that the task force will cooperate “as needed” with federal law enforcement officers in criminal immigration cases.
Sununu said that “encounters with individuals on the terrorist watch list at the Land Border Ports of Entry along the northern border have doubled since 2017 [and] just this year, 85 percent of all land border encounters with individuals on the terrorist watchlist occurred on the northern border while only 15 percent occurred on the southern border. In meeting with local law enforcement up north, it is clear we need more targeted resources.”
By The Way…
Do you have a story to tell?
The News Café is a virtual meeting place where, each weekday, we discuss the news of the day: local, statewide, national, and international. Subscribers can share their knowledge, thoughts, and questions about any topic, and we may select some of those subjects for more in-depth analysis.
The News Cafe is a reader-supported publication. Although the posts are available to all subscribers at no charge, I appreciate the financial support for the time and resources it takes to do this work. Please consider “upsubscribing” to a paid subscription. Either way, thank you for being here.
Join in the conversation through chat or notes by downloading the Substack app or going to the online site.