Illegal Land Purchase Costs His Job
Webster Town Treasurer Bought Land Outside Of Competitive Bid Process
Webster Town Treasurer Bruce Johnson, 64, has resigned after pleading nolo contendere to a charge of illegally purchasing town property.
He was accused of purchasing two lots adjacent to his own property on Walker Pond without going through the competitive bid process required by state law and town policy. He was fined $1,200.
“He said he knew the town owned the land and he wanted to buy the land to ensure that it was not developed,” investigator Michael Russell of the Merrimack County Attorney’s Office wrote in court documents.
Altercation At Hip-hop Concert Leaves Woman Paralyzed
Keene resident Madysen Audet, 22, is paralyzed from the waist down after being knocked out during an altercation at a hip-hop concert in Gilford on Aug. 29.
It began when people attending a Pitbull concert accused her friends of stealing a drink. Audet offered to pay for the drink, but she does not remember what happened after that. Friends told her that a 250-pound adult jumped over three rows of chairs and struck her, sending her flying backward, then a woman hit her in the head several times. “The next thing I know, I woke up in an ambulance,” Audet told the Union Leader.
She is recovering at Concord Hospital.
Laconia Residents Charged In Bow Crash
State police have charged Nathan Rabbitt, 35, of Laconia with aggravated driving while intoxicated, endangering the welfare of a child, operating after suspension, and disobeying an officer after the car he was driving ricocheted off barriers and guardrails on Interstate 93 in Bow on Aug. 31. His passenger, Cassandra Thomas, 32, also of Laconia, was charged with endangering the welfare of a child.
Police say Rabbitt was driving erratically and they received several reports from callers that the vehicle had crashed at least twice into the concrete barriers and into a guard rail in the area of the Hooksett Toll Plaza. When troopers attempted to get behind the vehicle, it crashed again into a concrete barrier and then spun out 360 degrees in the roadway. The troopers finally pulled it over in the parking lot of the Irving gas station on Route 3A near the Concord-Bow town line.
When the troopers took the man and woman into custody, they discovered an 8-month-old infant in the back seat. The female passenger and the child were initially transported to Concord Hospital, and the infant was later released into the care of a family member.
A Word About Letters
The News Café aims to foster discussion about the news of the day, and we love to receive letters and opinion pieces that we can share.
We heard from a reader who was upset — perhaps rightfully so — about the commentary that ran yesterday under the headline “Gluttonor Sununu's 603 Tour.” The letter took issue with Governor Chris Sununu’s tour through the state that he claimed was to hear constituents’ concerns, but he still refused to meet with opponents of a proposed landfill near Forest Lake State Park in Dalton. Letter-writer Jon Swan pointed out that the governor’s tweets were all about stopping to eat at various locations around the state, and Swan gave him the satiric title Gluttonor Sununu.
The reader chastised us, saying, “I also feel that ‘name calling’, if you will, degrades the speaker more that the target of the slur.”
It probably would have been better if we had simply run the commentary as a letter, without the large title splashed across the top of the newsletter. It might not have appeared as offensive then, and would not have caused confusion about authorship.
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