Also on today’s menu:
Raising The Threshold To Higher Office
Hospitals Fight ‘ER Boarding’
Alexandria Aims To Be ‘Recovery Friendly Workplace’
The cost of the $4.9 million public safety building that Bristol voters approved last March has risen to $5.5 million after nearly a year of delay and inflationary pressure. The Bristol Board of Selectmen is hoping that a review of the bids will provide the information they need to reduce those costs.
Fire Chief Ben LaRoche and Police Chief Jim McIntire told selectmen they were able to find $207,000 in savings by eliminating items they can postpone, but the other $400,000 will be harder to find.
LaRoche said that, while they might not be able to bridge the $400,000 gap, “at least maybe [we] can salvage either the whole project as we anticipated or salvage some of those other things like radiant floor heating that you can’t go back in and do afterward.”
Raising The Threshold To Higher Office
It is not only libertarians who oppose House Bill 116, which would raise the filing fees and the number of signatures required to appear on a primary ballot for governor, U.S. senator, or U.S. representative. House Democratic Leader Matt Wilhelm said the bill “runs counter to the way we do democracy in New Hampshire,” which provides lesser-known candidates a chance to break through.
The bill, co-sponsored by Republican representatives Joe Sweeney of Salem, Ross Berry of Manchester, and Joe Alexander of Goffstown, would raise the current threshold to run as a candidate for governor or U.S. senator from $100 or 200 signatures to $10,000 or 25,000 signatures. A candidate for U.S. representative, who must now pay $50 or present 100 signatures, would have to pay $5,000 or obtain12,500 signatures. Sweeney said, “We can still have 10 people running in a primary; we can still have 20 people running in a primary. They would just have to put the effort in to get the privilege of being on the ballot.”
Libertarian Jeremy Kauffman said on Twitter, “The Sununu faction of the GOP hates how many libertarians are now winning in the GOP, so they strike out where they can. It’s just typical petty politics.”
Republican Representative Alvin See of Loudon also opposed the bill, saying, “This is not an increase that matches inflation, and appears designed to favor rich candidates. That may not be the intent, but it is an appearance.”
Hospitals Fight ‘ER Boarding’
A group of New Hampshire hospitals is suing the state over its practice of boarding people who are held involuntarily due to mental health crises in emergency rooms for days or weeks until psychiatric beds are available. As of Wednesday, there were 30 adults and 15 children in emergency departments waiting for psychiatric beds, according to state data, while 31 of the 185 beds at the state-run psychiatric facility, New Hampshire Hospital, were not being used due to “patient acuity and staffing challenges,” according to Jake Leon, speaking for the state health department.
The 15 hospitals bringing suit say ER boarding takes resources away from treating other patients and burdens them with responsibilities such as facilitating remote access to probable cause hearings. They are seeking an order to force the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services to immediately start transferring such patients to designated mental health facilities.
Susan Stearns, executive director of the National Alliance on Mental Illness’ New Hampshire chapter, said staffing challenges would likely make it difficult for the state to immediately expand capacity at New Hampshire Hospital. She said there is a need to increase the mental health workforce, add inpatient capacity at state and private hospitals, expand community-based services that help people avoid hospitalization, and create more supportive housing for people with mental illness.
Alexandria Aims To Be ‘Recovery Friendly Workplace’
Alexandria Police Chief David Suckling is working with Michele Barbrie of the Plymouth Area Recovery Connection (PARC), Kandyce Tucker of Communities for Alcohol- and Drug-Free Youth (CADY), and Scott Leighton of Midstate Health Center’s RISE Recovery Services to make Alexandria a “Recovery Friendly Workplace” — a place where employers, employees, and the town can collaborate to eliminate the barriers face by those burdened by addiction.
Suckling said the town can continue making Narcan available and provide training and referrals to outreach programs for people with substance use disorder and their families without diminishing Alexandria’s law enforcement actions against drug dealers.
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