UnionLeader.com Thursday, November 3, 2011

“There is nothing so powerful as truth”

DANIEL WEBSTER

New Hampshire Union Leader©2011 Union Leader Corp.,

Manchester, N.H.

THE VIRAL PERRY VIDEO. Within a day of Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s speech to about 450 people at the Cornerstone Action fund-raising dinner in Manchester Friday night, a YouTube h i g h l i g h t video of the 25-minute speech went viral.

Views were approaching 1 million Wednesday and the speech had been the subject of talk show jokes and Internet speculation.

“Best case scenario, that dude’s hammered,” dead-

So what was up with Perry?

IN NEW HAMPSHIRE’S NEWSPAPERREGULAR FEATURES

A Small PrayerWhen we walk with

You, Lord, we can expect great things in our life. Amen

Today’s ChuckleHollywood makes mov-

ies recycled from TV shows that were recycled from movies.

Abby ................................. B7Business ........................B3-4Classified ....................B8-10Comics/TV ................D14-15Crosswords .................... D13Editorials .........................A12Lifestyles ..................B7, B11

Notices A5,B8,B12-13,D7-13 Obituaries .................... A7-9Opinion ...........................A13 Religion............................ B6Sports............................D1-7 Veterans........................... B5Weather ......................... D16

DISASTER AID

Gov. Lynch asks feds to reconsider

Gov. John Lynch has asked FEMA to reconsider its “lim-ited emergency declaration” and instead make a di-saster declaration for the October snowstorm.

Page A10

Today’s Letters:Page A13

The goblins won’t forget Rescheduled Trick-or-Treat times in NHWeekend

MerrimackStill in the dark | Page B1

Vol. 148, No. 187 • 76 Pages

GREATER MANCHESTER EDITION • 50 cents

Charge dismissed: Weare man was exercising his First Amendment rights, ruling says.

By GARRY RAYNONew Hampshire Union Leader

CONCORD — Citing a federal ap-peals court ruling, a Goffstown Dis-trict Court judge dismissed a charge of unlawful wiretapping against a

Weare man who used his cell phone’s voice mail to record a traffic stop by a police officer.

Judge Edward Tenney cited a First Circuit Court of Appeals order in August in the case Glik v. Cunniffe in making his ruling. “The Glik hold-ing makes it perfectly clear that First Amendment protections apply to both audio and video recording.”

William Alleman of 140 Helen Dearborn Road, Weare was charged

in February with violating the state’s felony wiretapping law when he re-corded his traffic stop by a Weare po-lice officer. The traffic stop occurred in July 2010; Alleman was not cited for any violation until last February.

When he was charged, Weare po-lice said Alleman made an audio re-cording of the police officer without his consent.

Alleman was one of three people charged over an 18-month period

by Weare police for either video- or audio-taping arrests by police. The charges against the two other people were dropped.

Alleman’s attorney, Seth Hipple, said from the beginning his position has been that Alleman’s recording was not a violation of state law, but “the Glik opinion came out a week or two after we had our hearing on

Judge says recording police stop OK

They’re going after generators: Two were taken from utility poles.

By JULIE HANSONUnion Leader Correspondent

HUDSON — Cold-hearted thieves are targeting the gen-erators many people are rely-ing on.

Three generator thefts have taken place in Hudson since a nor’easter knocked out power over the weekend, Police Sgt. Donna Briggs said. The bur-glars tend to strike late at night when homeowners are sleep-ing and witnesses are few.

Travis Provencher said he came face-to-face with one persistent generator thief. Provencher and his boss have kept a constant presence at II Nasty Choppers on Melendy Road in Hudson since the power went out. They have to keep the generator running so the pumps will keep the base-ment dry.

Provencher said he dozed off early Sunday morning and woke to realize the generator wasn’t running. He immedi-ately went to check on it. A car was parked near the generator, apparently waiting for it to cool down so it could be loaded in the trunk.

“As soon as I popped my head up from behind the truck, he started the car and took off up the road,” Provencher said.

As he was checking the gen-erator, a man dressed in black walked by with a casual greet-ing. Provencher followed him

Powerwoespowerthieves

John DiStaso

Secretary of State William Gardner made it official Wednesday: The 2012 New Hampshire primary will be held on Jan. 10. Story, Page A3. THOMAS ROY/UNION LEADER

It’s a date

Guardsman Kristina Nee of Epping makes a stop while checking on the welfare of residents without power Wednesday in Litchfield. More storm coverage, Page B1. DAVID LANE/UNION LEADER

Help from the Guard

On the Web: You’ll find a link to video of Rick Perry’s complete Cornerstone speech at UnionLeader.com

See Videotaping, Page A2

See Status, Page A2 See Generators, Page A10

By NANCY BEAN FOSTERUnion Leader Correspondent

WITH MOST OF Litch-field still without power days after the surprise October snowstorm, Fire Chief Tom Schofield

decided to call in the National Guard.“We’re worried about the people we

haven’t been able to get to,” said Scho-field. “A lot of them don’t know that we have a warming shelter set up with hot meals and showers.”

On Wednesday afternoon, 14 mem-bers of the Army National Guard’s 237th Military Police Company drove to Li-tchfield from Plymouth in six Humvees.

Col. Jim Moody said Litchfield is the first town to make the call to the Guard during this storm, though similar mis-

Door-to-door checks made as utilities get the power back on

Tim Lamper gets a visit from National Guard military police officers Kristina Nee of Epping and Allan Esty of Bridgewater while doing welfare checks in Litchfield on Wednesday. DAVID LANE/UNION LEADERSee Guard, Page A10

SPORTS

Heads up for hockey injuriesWith concerns mounting over concussions, Manches-

ter’s youth hockey league is starting a new monitoring program aimed at limiting the damage from head injuries. Page D1

NEW HAMPSHIRE

Derry motorcyclist chargedA Derry man was charged after police said he lost

control of his motorcycle during a stunt and plowed into another biker and a spectator in Epping. Page B1

NH students get high marksNew Hampshire’s fourth- and eighth-graders are

among the top students in the nation for reading and math proficiency, according to “The Nation’s Report Card.” Page A5

BUSINESS

CMC raises $180,000 for careThe tally is in. The eighth Catholic Medical Center Gala

Event, to benefit the Pregnancy Care Center at CMC, raised close to $180,000 in support of prenatal care for uninsured and underinsured women from the Man-chester area. Page B3

Borrowers to be heardMore than 4 million borrowers who have faced

foreclosure since early 2009 will have the chance to have their cases reviewed for potential wrongdo-ing. Page B3

By BETH LaMONTAGNE HALLNew Hampshire Union Leader

MANCHESTER — Education, city services and spending were the top issues at the May-or’s Youth Advisory Council debate on Wednesday, featur-ing the school board at-large, aldermen at-large and welfare commissioner candidates.

All four aldermen at-large candidates were at the City Hall debate, moderated by Christina Williams, and ad-dressed public safety and even the prevalence of pot holes.

Aldermen Dan O’Neil opened the debate with a question on tackling crime. He commended the community

Debate:How to run city, schools

See Debate, Page A10

policing program, calling for more involvement from the public in preventing crime. Al-derman Mike Lopez said the city needs more officers and that there were four recently hired and a grant secured to hire three more.

Joe Kelly Levasseur called for increased activity in the city’s neighborhood watch groups and said “what we have to do to control crime is we need to make sure more police officers are on the street.”

State Rep. Will Infantine pointed to the connection be-tween drugs and crime as an area the city should focus on and said he is “very happy with Chief (David) Mara and the changes he’s made in the city.”

A question about how the candidates would respond to a crisis was timely, as many at the debate had experienced a power outage during the snow-storm.

Levasseur said his availability to the public is a top asset for constituents during a crisis. In-fantine pointed to his availabili-ty not only in the city, but online as a way voters can contact him in critical moments. But O’Neil said face time is best.

“Electronic forms of com-munications are great, but there’s nothing like being out there, real face time and boots on the ground,” said O’Neil.

The School Board At-Large debate, moderated by Kevin Cassidy, featured two of the four candidates: education ad-vocate Kathy Staub and state Rep. Ross Terrio. Former Alder-man David Whiby and Joshua Harwood did not attend. There was as much agreement as dif-ference of opinion between these two candidates, who both focused on reducing class sizes as a top priority if elected.

Staub said the board she’s observed has been largely disconnected with the work

being done in the schools and she would strive to talk to both school staff and the aldermen.

Terrio said the current board has engaged in “a lot of person-al attacks” on Superintendent of Schools Tom Brennan.

“I feel that is unacceptable and unprofessional. ... One thing I’d like to change is to bring civility to the atmosphere of the school board. I think Dr. Brennan is a very capable per-son but his hands are tied. He needs the ability to do his job.”

“I couldn’t agree with you more,” Staub said on rebuttal.

Finding more funding for schools is a major challenge, both admitted. Terrio said he would propose charitable gambling in the city and ad-vertising on the school district website and Staub said tax-payers would be willing to pay more if it was spent wisely.

“Looking for outside re-sources is a good idea, but people in Manchester realize you get what you pay for,” said Staub. “I think they would sup-port paying higher taxes, with-in reason, if they knew what it was going for.”

Welfare Commissioner Paul Martineau and former Deputy

Welfare Commissioner Diane Guimond focused on the mis-sion of the Welfare Commis-sioner and how they would run the office more efficiently. In his 10 years heading the department, Martineau said he saved the city $1.6 million. Guimond, who advocated for streamlining the application process and working more closely with outside agencies, noted that more than 60 per-cent of the Welfare budget is made up of salaries.

Martineau said that was true, but that he has also cut expen-sive positions to hire less costly staff.

“We’re providing assistance to people in need and at the same time saving taxpayer dol-lars,” said Martineau. “We’re not shorting anyone on assis-tance. Everyone who needs it gets it.”

“When I see people out there today losing jobs, I think work-ing-class people are not look-ing for a handout. They need basic things,” said Guimond. “We’re going to give them a step up. There is help out there and there is hope. We can do that if we work with the agen-cies around the city.”

DebateContinued from Page A1

up the road and saw him get into a silver Saab. The same car returned a half-hour later; Provencher called police around 1 a.m.

Police followed the car, but had to call off the pursuit when speeds became a safety issue, Provencher said.

The same man returned the following evening in a black Honda and left when Provencher approached the car with his boss, Provencher said. The Honda returned around 2 a.m., he said.

“It’s like a cat and mouse

chase right now,” Provencher said.

At 5 a.m. on Monday, a homeowner on Roosevelt Avenue reported a stolen generator, Briggs said. The generator was taken between 8 p.m. and 5 a.m.

On Tuesday, a Sousa Boule-vard resident reported a sto-len generator around 1 a.m. A call came in from Spruce Street around 1 p.m. the same day regarding a stolen gen-erator, Briggs said.

“At none of these cases was there any evidence at the

scene or any witnesses that we can work with,” Briggs said.

Comcast was the victim in Bedford Tuesday and Wednes-day, Bedford Sgt. Scott Plumer said. Two generators were re-moved from utility poles in the Route 101 area by Hitching Post Lane, he said.

The cable company has boxes on the utility poles that send data, such as ser-vice problems, back to the company. Comcast workers had chained and locked gen-erators to the poles to keep power flowing to the boxes. Police received a report that chains had been cut and gen-erators taken from two differ-ent poles on two consecutive evenings.

“We haven’t had any re-ports of personal generators stolen from people’s homes,” Plumer said.

Manchester had a genera-tor reported stolen from an Amherst Street garage about 4 a.m. Sunday.

“It doesn’t appear that it was being used at the time, it was being stored in the ga-rage,” Lt. Maureen Tessier said.

Police are recommending that people chain their gen-erators to a tree or other solid structure. They warn that generators should not be run in garages due to the danger of carbon monoxide fumes.

GeneratorsContinued from Page A1

Page A10 • NEW HAMPSHIRE UNION LEADER • Thursday, November 3, 2011

By MARK HAYWARDNew Hampshire Union Leader

A day after President Obama declared that an emergency exists in New Hampshire be-cause of the Halloween 2011 snow storm, Gov. John Lynch said that’s not enough.

The Democratic gover-nor said he wrote the Fed-eral Emergency Management Agency to ask the agency to reconsider its “limited emer-gency declaration” and pro-vide federal dollars.

Under a disaster declaration, the federal government covers 75 percent of the costs to state and local governments associ-ated with the disaster.

That includes everything from the soup doled out at emergency shelters to the grav-el needed to rebuild destroyed roads.

But the emergency declara-tion the Obama issued Tues-day covers only “direct federal assistance.”

It also authorizes FEMA to coordinate disaster relief ef-forts in all 10 New Hampshire counties.

Lynch’s office said that in-cludes the cost of water, food and other materials such as generators that are supplied directly by federal agencies.

“FEMA’s original declaration does not provide the full range of assistance New Hampshire requested to help address the severe and ongoing impact of this unprecedented storm. That is why I am asking FEMA to reconsider and amend its declaration,” Gov. Lynch said in prepared remarks.

Lynch spokesman Colin Manning said it is too early to put a price tag on snowstorm-

related costs.Lynch’s request is the third

this year to FEMA. Earlier requests were for the North Country storm and Hurricane Irene. Manning said FEMA re-mains in the state working on Hurricane Irene relief.

He did not have informa-tion Wednesday night about how much FEMA has made available to New Hampshire in those two efforts.

Asked if Lynch is concerned about federal spending when he makes disaster declaration requests, Manning said: “the governor is focused on doing all we can to assist the com-munities, and that includes acquiring federal assistance, as other states are doing.”

Lynch directed his request to FEMA, rather than Obama, be-cause “that is the way it works,” Manning said.

Lynch repeats call for disaster aid

sions were carried out during the December 2008 ice storm. Moody said the National Guard serves both the federal and state government, and it’s good for soldiers to be able to help people in the Granite State.

“For them, helping people in their own state is a golden moment,” said Lt. Col. Ralph Huber. “They can’t help but feel good about it.”

Throughout the afternoon and early evening, the soldiers drove through neighborhoods stopping to talk with residents and knock on doors.

“We have an idea of some of the people who live in town who might need our help,” Schofield said.

Restoration continues Meanwhile, hundreds of

utility workers from across the country and Canada are continuing to work around the state to get the power back on, said Martin Murray, spokes-man for Public Service of New Hampshire.

Murray said two satellite

stations have been set up for the crews — in Hudson and Amherst, where significant damage took place — so that work can be performed more quickly and efficiently.

As of 10:30 p.m. Wednesday, PSNH reported that about 47,000 customers were still without electricity, with almost 14,000 out in Nashua, 3,800 in Manchester, and thousands more scattered across the south central portion of the state.

“The entire area from Hook-sett to Nashua was extremely hard-hit,” said Murray.

School’s (mostly) inIn Manchester, students will return to class today, as will kids who attend Mountain View Middle School in Goffstown. In Hudson and Londonderry, there’s a 90-minute delay. Litchfield students have a two-hour delay.

But in Nashua, officials have canceled school again while power restoration efforts continue.

Though the schools them-selves have electricity, the con-cern according to Supt. Mark Conrad is the high number of downed lines throughout the city.

Amherst and Mont Vernon parents got the good news on Wednesday evening that schools are open today.

“We wanted to get the schools open sooner,” said Amherst Police Chief Peter Lyon, “but we had to make sure the roads were safe first.”

Like many towns, Amherst had a significant number of downed trees and downed wires.

Most of that has been cleared with the help of the Department of Public Works, the state Department of Trans-portation, and the Forestry Service.

But there are still many downed wires that have been marked, and in some cases this morning, students will have to walk through the rubble to meet their buses because the roads are still not passable for vehicles.

GuardContinued from Page A1

Manchester Mayor Ted Gatsas, left, and Chris Herbert, right, debate at City Hall in Manchester Wednesday night. See story, Page B1. DAVID LANE/UNION LEADER

Moving: Her resignation is effective Dec. 1.

By CORY FRANCERUnion Leader Correspondent

HOOKSETT — Nancy Van-Scoy is resigning from the town council and relocating to Salem, but she said she has loved being a councilor and would continue to serve if she could.

She said when she first joined the council more than three years ago, the rules of de-bate were not always followed.

“I think there is a lot more politeness and professionalism being shown,” she said.

Over the last few years, the council has seen a lot of turn-

over. That has brought challeng-es and benefits, Van-Scoy said.

“When you rely too much on the way Hooksett has always done it and rely too heavily on those that have been in control in the past, you start to second-guess yourself,” she said.

Town Administrator Dean Shankle said VanScoy’s resig-nation is effective Dec. 1. He said the town charter states that a vacancy on the council must be filled within 30 days by a majority vote of the council. A special election will be held should the vote remain tied after three calls.

Council Chairman William Sirak said VanScoy’s outspo-ken nature and community in-volvement have made positive

contributions to Hooksett. He said her most visible contribu-tion to the town has been as the chairman of Old Home Day.

“She does a tremendous job pulling that together,” he said, “and with a tremendous amount of success.”

Van-Scoy said her involve-ment as the town council rep-resentative to the planning board has been especially re-warding.

“It’s a lot of meetings,” she said. “But it really put me on the pulse of what is going on in town with economic growth.”

As Hooksett continues to grow and develop, Van-Scoy said her hope is residents and council members continue to foster positive relationships.

Van-Scoy to leave Hooksett council

Over 25 years experience