Call for art in New Hampshire’s Capital City
The City of Concord, NH and the Greater Concord Chamber of Commerce invite sculptors to submit entries for Art on Main, a public art exhibit in the city’s historic downtown and beyond. Accepted entries will be on display from June 2024 through May 2025, and enhance the capital city’s award-winning Main Street. Concord’s seventh annual outdoor sculpture exhibition is open to sculptors 18 years or older, preferably from New England....
Granite VNA marks 125th anniversary in 2024
In 1899, Concord District Nursing Association was formed to serve the health needs of underserved residents of Concord, New Hampshire. Now known as Granite VNA, the agency has grown to become New Hampshire’s largest not-for-profit home health and hospice provider, and 2024 marks its 125th anniversary. From its humble beginnings with a single nurse, Katherine Hill, and a handful of volunteers who traversed Concord by foot, bicycle and...
Schoolhouse at Shaker Village undergoes restoration
By spring, staff at Canterbury Shaker Village expect to complete restoration of the Schoolhouse (c. 1823/63), a project made possible through key financial contributions, including a $10,000 grant from Daughters of the American Revolution. Begun in 2021, the multi-year project has included a new roof, repair and partial replacement of deteriorated clapboards, gutters, rainwater leaders, and other exterior features, along with...
Bulletin board for the week of Feb. 15, 2024
Auditions for ‘Pride and Prejudice’ The outspoken Lizzy Bennet is determined to never marry, despite mounting pressure from society. But can she resist love, especially when that vaguely handsome, mildly amusing, and impossibly aggravating Mr. Darcy keeps popping up at every turn?! Literature’s greatest tale of latent love has never felt so theatrical than it does in this effervescent new adaptation. Playwright Kate Hamill injects...
History for week of Feb. 15, 2024
Feb. 15, 2002: The Diocese of Manchester releases the names of 14 priests who have been accused of sexual misconduct with children between 1963 and 1987. Feb. 15, 1911: A bill sponsored by U.S. Rep. John Weeks of Massachusetts, a New Hampshire native, calls for federal purchase of forest lands. The Weeks Act will lead to the designation of the White Mountain National Forest. Feb. 15, 1943: As a war...
Book: ‘Kerry and the Knight of the Forest’
‘Kerry and the Knight of the Forest’ By Andi Watson (2020, 268 pages, Genre: Graphic Novel, Fairytales) Kerry and the Knight of the Forest, by Andi Watson, is an adventure with roots in familiar fairytales of yore. It’s an age-old story from the get-go: a young man, while obtaining medicine for his sick parents, becomes lost in an old, creepy forest. Thematically speaking, there’s nothing really new happening here. Watson’s story,...
Young professional of the month: Erin Doonan gives hospitality a new spin
Concord Young Professionals Network (CYPN) introduces you to the “Young Professional of the Month,” Erin Doonan. Each month, the CYPN Steering Committee recommends individual in the community it thinks readers would enjoy getting to know better. Erin Doonan How old are you? 25. Where do you live? Concord, NH. Where do you currently work? I own Pours & Petals, a local boutique catering company and mobile bar service. You might see...
Commmunity Players to present ‘Witness for the Prosecution’
From Feb. 16 to 18, the Community Players of Concord NH will present Agatha Christie’s Witness for the Prosecution at Concord City Auditorium. Part of the Community Players’ 96th Season, the famous Christie thriller is the most-performed courtroom drama and recognized as one of her greatest plays. Based on a short story the famous “Queen of Crime” wrote in 1925, the 1953 play covers a sensational murder trial both in the courtroom of...
Myrtle provides a calm audience for readers
With her sweet disposition, non-judgmental nature, and calming influence, Myrtle has quickly become the most popular girl at the Kearsarge Regional Elementary School. When she struts through the front door, students run over just to say hi. And those lucky enough to spend some one-on-one time with her are ecstatic. “She’s become a celebrity,’ said School Counselor Taylor Fluery. Myrtle is not your average student, and not...
Bulletin board
Congress’s Power of the Purse Why does the federal government “shut down” when members of Congress fail to agree on new spending? Why is it becoming harder for Congress to pass routine spending bills? Why does Congress, rather than the President, hold authority over spending, and why does it matter? Professor Zachary Price will discuss Congress’s “power of the purse,” meaning its authority to control government spending, and provide...
Catholic Charities NH Mardi Gras set for Feb. 10
The 18th Annual Mardi Gras will be making its return to Concord on Feb. 10 at the Grappone Conference Center, bringing together the community to support NH neighbors facing poverty, homelessness, mental health challenges, and other timely issues impacting communities statewide. The evening will include a variety of authentic Cajun cuisine, games, live and silent auction items, dancing and more. The live auction will feature vacations...
This week in Concord history
Feb. 8, 2002: Lindsay and Allyson Lemire, 21-year-old Bow natives, appear on Sally Jessy Raphael’s talk show. The show is a dating game-like episode titled “Love Search. . . For Someone Like Me,” and pairs the women with aspiring actors and Doublemint twins Jermyn and Joseph Daube. Feb. 8, 2001: More than 30 Concord police and state Drug Task Force officers raid an apartment complex in Concord to arrest three men and a woman who the...
Book review of ‘Agatha Christie: An Elusive Woman’
‘Agatha Christie: An Elusive Woman’ by Lucy Worsley (2022, 415 pages, Genre: Biography) “Once I’ve been dead ten years, I’m sure no one will ever have heard of me.” This statement wouldn’t be nearly so ironic, had it not been uttered by one of the 20th century’s best-known authors: Agatha Christie. Even today, nearly half a century after her death, Christie is a household name. She has been identified by UNESCO as the world’s...
Bulletin board for the week of Feb. 1, 2024
Civics lecture Join New Hampshire Civics on Tuesday, Feb. 6 from 11 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. for a virtual William W. Treat Lecture with Dr. Richard Haass. Dr. Haass and a panel of New Hampshire high schoolers will have a virtual discussion about what the American people can do – both individually and collectively – to ensure that American democracy not only survives, but thrives. NH Civics would like to thank New Hampshire Humanities and...
History for the week of Feb. 1, 2024
Feb. 1, 2003: News spreads through Concord that the space shuttle Columbia has exploded, reminding many of the space shuttle Challenger. “It’s amazing how it brings those feelings right back,” says state Rep. Jim MacKay, who was the city’s mayor when the Challenger exploded 17 years ago with Concord teacher Christa McAuliffe on board. Feb. 1, 1971: The New York Times reports rising concern among some New Hampshire officials that...
Super Stellar Friday at McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center
The McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center looks forward to welcoming Jacob Garside as our February 2024 Super Stellar Friday speaker. Jacob is currently a second-year student at Plymouth State University here in New Hampshire, pursuing a B.S. in Meteorology. He has been a part of the Nationwide Eclipse Ballooning Project since 2022. He was also a NASA Space Grant intern at the Discovery Center during the summer of 2023, and his campers...
Gibson’s photographer, author Margo Cooper
Margo Cooper visits Gibson’s Bookstore, 45 S. Main St., on Feb. 20 to share her stunning new book of photographs and interviews, Deep Inside the Blues. Cooper will be joined in conversation by Holly Harris, host and producer of Spinning the Blues, a radio show airing Saturday nights on WUMB. Margo and Holly’s conversation will cover the musicians in the book, the music they made, the clubs in the Boston area, (including Harper’s...
‘A great neighborhood activity’: Outdoor hockey and nearly two decades of memories
Tom Philbrick’s basement has become something of a hockey sporting goods warehouse. Goalie equipment, sticks, skates, pucks – you name it, it’s probably down there. Oh, and don’t forget about all the hockey pucks not in the basement. “Hundreds of pucks around the neighborhood,” Philbrick said. “You find pucks from 10, 15 years ago stuck. I found them on my roof, found them on my neighbor’s roof. It’s unbelievable.” It’s a little more...
Book review: ‘Annihilation’ by Jeff VanderMeer
‘Annihilation,’ by Jeff VanderMeer (2014, 195 pages, Genre: Science Fiction / Horror) “’The map had been the first form of misdirection, for what is a map but a way of emphasizing some things and making other things invisible?’” This is an excerpt from the journal of the biologist, the otherwise unnamed main character in Jeff VanderMeer’s first installment of his Southern Reach trilogy. For over thirty years, a government agency...
History for the week of Jan. 25, 2024
Jan. 25, 2002: Area lawmakers approve $24.2 million worth of renovations and additions to the Merrimack County jail, wrapping up years of discussion on whether and how much county taxpayers should pay to reduce the facility’s crowding. Jan. 25, 2000: Concord receives nearly 9 inches of snow, hardly an extraordinary occurrence for late January; however, it is the first significant snowstorm of the season, and for that to come in...
Book review: ‘Manner of Death’ by Robin Cook
‘Manner of Death,’ by Robin Cook (2023, 337pages, genre: medical thriller) Dr. Jack Stapleton and NYC Chief Medical Examiner Laurie Montgomery are back with another chapter in the medical examiner’s office in NYC. What starts out as a simple way to interest a senior pathology resident in his required month of rotation at the office turns as the resident, looking to avoid actually attending autopsies, proposes a research project...
Bulletin board for week of Jan. 18, 2024
Food bank receives $10K donation Merrimack County Savings Bank (The Merrimack) is helping to fight hunger, and its root causes, with a $10,000 donation to New Hampshire Food Bank. The contribution will not only feed families and individuals across the Granite State, it will also support programming and education to those in need. According to the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA), an estimated 6.2% of New Hampshire...
Bulletin board for the week of Jan. 18, 2024
Dr. Lloyd Sederer visits Gibson’s Dr. Lloyd Sederer, a Concord author, visits Gibson’s Bookstore to share the inspiring true story of how a small group of dedicated leaders achieved radical and relentless change to save McLean, Harvard’s historic psychiatric hospital from for-profit changes. Caught in the Crosshairs of American Healthcare shows readers that, with grit, brains, and support, we can still change our world. Sederer...
This week in history for Jan. 18, 2024
Jan. 18, 2002: A frustrated House majority declared that landmark court rulings requiring the state to pay for schools were wrong, the Monitor reports. While the resolution has no legal effect, supporters see it as a first step to taking back control over school funding from the state Supreme Court. Jan. 18, 1782: Daniel Webster is born. His parents are Abigail (Nabby) Webster and Captain Ebenezer Webster. The future U.S. senator and...
Book review: ‘The Chinese Shawl’
‘The Chinese Shawl’ By Patricia Wentworth (1943, 270 pages, genre: mystery) Laura Fane comes of age in England and inherits a property called the Priory. Her older cousin Agnes lives there, and Agnes wants to buy it from Laura. Agnes is a formidable woman and was once engaged to Laura’s father. Laura’s father broke the engagement in order to marry Laura’s mother. Agnes never married and has hung onto her heartbreak and anger....
Week in history for Jan. 11, 2024
Jan. 11, 2002: Dozens of residents from small towns between Concord and the Seacoast are expected to meet in Barrington with state officials to review options for stopping, or scaling back, what could be the state’s largest water-bottling operation, the Monitor reports. USA Springs, the Pelham based company that hopes to construct a water-bottling plant on 100 acres it owns on the Barrington/Nottingham town line, wants state...
Bulletin board for week of Jan. 11, 2024
NHTI introduces Workforce Education NHTI is introducing Workforce Education, a new collaborative educational department to expand the college’s efforts in providing essential skillsets and continuing education. The goals include increased opportunities and empowerment for community members looking to expand their career knowledge and learn a new skill. Previously known as the Business Training Center, the new Workforce Education...
A year in review: Merrimack County 2023
County of Merrimack Many people wonder what the role of county government is. For some, the answer is apparent; for others the answer may not be so clear. A look back at the major achievements and celebrations of Merrimack County during 2023 will shed some light on our role – to support a healthy, vibrant, safe, and resilient life for all Merrimack County residents. Health: County nursing homes and assisted living facilities offer...
This week in history for Jan. 4, 2023
Jan. 4, 2003: A federal judge has denied Gary Sampson’s plea to escape the death penalty, the Monitor reports. Sampson is accused of killing Robert “Eli” Whitney of Penacook along with two Massachusetts’s men. He will be found guilty in Massachusetts and sentenced to death, the first time the state has issued such a sentence since 1973. Jan. 4, 1859: The Coos Republican of Lancaster prints a list of all town residents who had died the...
Bulletin board for the week of Jan. 4, 2024
Curbside Christmas tree collection begins Concord residents with curbside trash and recycling collection can place their Christmas trees curbside for disposal on their trash collection day starting on Jan. 2. Christmas trees will be collected for two weeks through Jan. 12. Due to the New Year’s Day holiday on Monday, trash and tree collection will be delayed by one day throughout the first week. Trees must be placed at the curb with...