Also on today’s menu:
Winni Board Supports ‘Zero-Impact’ Kindergarten
Quarter-Century Recognition For Dion
Natanyahu’s Coalition Opposes ‘Two-State Solution’
The Executive Council, on a 3-2 vote, approved a purchase-and-sale agreement with Legacy at Laconia, LLC, the company offering the state $21.5 million for the former Laconia State School property in Laconia. The investors expect to pay as much as $500 million to develop the site with housing, hotel, and conference center.
As Catherine McLaughlin writes in the Laconia Daily Sun, “Since questions about the buyer’s financial qualifications and experience were raised two weeks ago, Mayor Andrew Hosmer and City Manager Kirk Beattie met several times with the development team on the project, according to Hosmer. Those meetings acquainted the city with some of the development team, he said, and confirmed that current city uses of the property would be preserved after the sale of the 220-acre property.
“‘I’m hopefully optimistic about the project,’ Hosmer said. ‘In some respects, we’ve cleared up some of those questions, which is a good start. But we’ve got a lot of work to do over the next 90 days with these buyers.’
“Now that the property is passing out of the state’s hands, time, rather than the Department of Administrative Services, becomes the judge of whether or not the Legacy at Laconia team has the wherewithal, financial or otherwise, to execute its proposal.”
Winni Board Supports ‘Zero-Impact’ Kindergarten
As the Winnisquam Regional School Board prepares a budget for the coming year, it is supporting an expansion to full-day kindergarten, counting on a reduction in transportation costs, along with teacher retirements and the ability to obtain some classroom furniture from other local schools, to cover the cost.
Superintendent Shannon Bartlett explained that providing full-day kindergarten classes would eliminate a requirement for the district to provide noontime transportation for those students. Currently, the district is paying for four buses to transport students participating in half-day kindergarten.
The plan is part of a $26,949,336 budget proposal that the school board will be forwarding to the district’s budget committee for review.
Quarter-Century Recognition For Dion
Leslie Dion, who is completing her 25th year as recreation director at the Tapply-Thompson Community Center (originally known as the Bristol Community Center), was feted at a surprise recognition event and Christmas party on December 14. Dion is the center’s longest-serving director.
Former director Beth Dever spoke of Dion’s commitment to the Bristol Recreation Advisory Committee. Since her middle school years, Dion has participated in youth sports and other activities at the community center, and she is a former winter carnival queen. Dion began coaching and leading other activities, and when the open- ing for a new director became available in the late 1990s, she applied.
BRAC Chair Doug Williams and Vice-Chair Rick Alpers also praised Dion for her dedication and commitment to the center, including her role in the annual Santa’s Village, sports programs, summer camps, the Fall Apple Festival, the New Hampshire Marathon, Old Home Day activities, craft fairs, and other fundraisers. Under her lead-ership, the center now oversees the Newfound Every Child is Ours food program and Operation Warm, bringing warm winter coats to local children.
Dion currently also serves on the Bristol Board of Selectmen.
Natanyahu’s Coalition Opposes ‘Two-State Solution’
Benjamin Netanyahu, who was elected in November after an 18-month hiatus from the job, has pulled together a far-right coalition that allows him to serve an historic sixth term as Israeli prime minster. That coalition includes partners who reject the idea of a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict — the internationally backed formula for peace that envisages an independent Palestinian state in the West Bank alongside Israel, with Jerusalem as their shared capital.
The leader of the Religious Zionism party wants to see Israel annex the West Bank, which includes East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, where more than 600,000 Jewish settlers live. Those settlements are considered illegal under international law.
Israeli opposition politicians, as well as its attorney-general, have warned that reforms planned by the incoming government, including giving MPs the right to overrule Supreme Court decisions, threaten to undermine Israeli democracy.
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Thank you for the article on Les' well deserved recognition! Gracious -- lucky Bristol to have 25 years and counting.