Also on today’s menu:
Overcoming Hurdles For Pemi Path
Slow On The Uptake
Russia Downs U.S. Surveillance Drone
With a statewide median gross rental cost that is slightly higher than $1,500 — and it’s much higher in certain markets — and a median cost of a home in New Hampshire at $400,000, businesses are having a hard time attracting employees able to make those payments.
Sarah Wrightsman of the New Hampshire Housing and Finance Authority, speaking at the Lakes Region Chamber of Commerce’s annual meeting at Church Landing in Meredith on March 17, addressed the problem: “How did we get here? It really comes down to zoning, and the resistance to changing zoning at the local level.”
She told attendees that solving the problem means advocating for changes in their local zoning regulations, such as allowing for accessory dwelling units or higher density in residential developments. Businesspeople need to talk about how the lack of affordable housing affects them, she said.
Overcoming Hurdles For Pemi Path
Decades of discussion about creating a multi-use path along the Pemigewasset River culminated in the creation Bristol Falls Park and completion of the Bristol portion of the trail known as the Pemi Pathway in 2017. The larger goal of extending the trail to the town line at Profile Falls stalled, but now the town has approved a memorandum of understanding with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers that will allow work to resume.
Much of the land between Profile Falls and Bristol Falls Park, located around an abandoned downtown railroad depot, lies within the Franklin Flood Control area which is under the jurisdiction of the Army Corps. In order to extend the trail, the town needs to obtain a lease for that section, which mostly runs along the old railroad bed.
The town has been working to satisfy the federal agency’s concerns about steep slopes and stream crossings, and having an agreement in hand will allow the town to seek grants to help cover the estimated $2 million cost of the project.
Slow On The Uptake
The New Hampshire Legislature passed a law in 2021 to allow the creation of “innovation schools” through exemptions to education rules for public schools. However, the bill’s prime sponsor, Representative Glenn Cordelli (R-Tuftonboro), said, “I do not know of any district that has submitted for a waiver. Unfortunately.”
The law allows a school or a collection of schools to submit proposals for reorganization to their local school boards. The school board must then either approve or reject those plans within 60 days. Drew Cline, chair of the New Hampshire Board of Education, said, “The way I look at it, the state is saying to school districts: ‘Get entrepreneurial. Innovate. Come up with new ideas that you think will improve outcomes for students.’”
Schools may propose a broad range of changes, from the length of the school day or school year to new graduation policies, staffing plans, or assessment procedures. The proposal could allow anything from learning pods to a single-room schoolhouse. “Right now, before innovation schools, charter schools were the way to create an innovative public school that operated with flexibility and wasn’t constrained by the really thick layer of regulations that govern most public schools,” Cline said. “So the Legislature wanted to create another option for innovation.”
The National Education Association of New Hampshire spoke against the bill amidst worries that it would allow school boards to make sweeping changes without consulting with teachers and others the law would affect. Opponents argue that schools and teachers have innovation opportunities within the education rules.
Russia Downs U.S. Surveillance Drone
A camera under the fuselage of a United States surveillance drone recorded the encounter with a Russian Su-27 airplane that made two close passes while releasing what appears to be fuel as it approaches. The second pass disrupted the video feed from the remotely piloted aircraft, after which the video shows a blade of the drone’s propeller bent out of shape. The damage forced the large drone to plunge into the water near Crimea on March 14.
The U.S. insists the drone was being operated in international air space, but Anatoly Antonov, Russia’s ambassador to the U.S., said the drone had encroached on “boundaries of the temporary airspace regime established for the special military operation” in Ukraine.
The U.S. said the confrontation lasted 30-40 minutes, but the declassified footage lasts less than a minute. U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said the Pentagon was looking at what video could be released. It is not unusual for militaries to take some time to declassify video footage before making it public.
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