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The Colebrook Chronicle
COVERING THE TOWNS OF THE UPPER CONNECTICUT RIVER VALLEY
FRIDAY, APRIL 16, 2010
603-246-8998
VOL. 10, NO. 39
State Cuts Threaten Colebrook’s Riverbank Project
By Donna Jordan
It’s been a year of tough financial changes in the North
Country, with state budget cuts
last year affecting the hours of
operation for state liquor store
and the court system. But the
harshest proposed cuts were
announced this week by N.H.
Gov. John Lynch, and it affects
a project that has been 10 years
(Continued on page 2)
At Rudy’s Cabins:
Earliest Ice-Out On Record
Reported At Clarksville Pond
By Donna Jordan
It has been one of the earliest
ice-out seasons on record for the
North Country.
This year, ice-out was de-
clared for both Lake Francis in
Pittsburg and Clarksville Pond
in Clarksville on Wednesday,
April 7.
(Continued on page 2)
SAU 58 Announces Teacher
Nominations For 2010-11
Colebrook student in Grades 3-5 learned about classical music during workshops held in the school
library on Friday, April 9, when three members of Camerata New England performed: from the left,
Elise Kunder on violin, Linda Galvan on cello and Peter Sulski on viola. The 14-member Camerata
New England will be performing for the public on April 24 (see story below). Charles Jordan photo.
By Donna Jordan
Nominations for staff at
Stratford School for the 2010-11
school year reflect the proposed
$300,000 budget cuts voter re-
quested at Town Meeting—and
keep the school serving Grades
K-12. Three positions were
eliminated and one was reduced
(Continued on page 2)
On April 24 In Colebrook:
Camerata New England Concert To
Feature “Spirit Of Russia” In Music
Some of Colebrook’s youngest music connoisseurs received
a sneak peek at the world-class
music headed to Colebrook on
Saturday, April 24, when Camerata New England plays for
the first time ever in town.
The concert will be held at
Trinity United Methodist
Church on Bridge Street in
Colebrook under the joint spon-
sorship of the Great North
Woods Committee for the Arts
and the Arts Alliance of Northern New Hampshire.
The sneak preview happened when three of Camerata
New England’s musicians, Elise
Kunder on violin, Linda Galvan
on cello and Peter Sulski on
viola, performed in the Colebrook elementary school library
for elementary school students
and took their questions during
three morning workshops last
Friday.
Tickets for the acclaimed
Camerata New England string
ensemble are still available and
can be purchased at Fiddleheads at 110 Main St., Colebrook, reserved by phone at 837
(Continued on page 3)
Groveton Elementary School celebrated National Library Week
and the staff dressed in their favorite storybook character. Vicky
Bailey photo.
Local Key Clubs Shine At
New England Regionals
By Donna Jordan
Key Club students from
Pittsburg, Colebrook, Groveton
and Canaan, Vt., returned from
their New England District
Educational Conference on Sunday evening with numerous and
distinguished awards for their
Key Club projects.
Opening ceremonies at the
Springfield, Mass., conference
on Friday evening included a
guest speaker. On Saturday,
students attended a variety of
workshops, including those who
(Continued on page 3)
New Look Debuts For
Video News Of The Week
Mallorie Biron came in first with her performance of “Party in the USA” at last Friday’s Pittsburg Idol
competition. For more photos, see page 14., plus see the Video of the Week. Thomas Jordan photo.
Since launching the Video
News of the Week at the Colebrook Chronicle’s website early
last year, many of the newspaper’s readers have said that
they’ve been enjoying keeping
up with the activities around
the North Country in video
form. Until now, the weekly
video reports have been done in
what some may remember as
the old “newsreel” format, complete with a whirling newspaper
(Continued on page 3)
The Colebrook Chronicle
Friday, April 16, 2010
Page 3
The Canaan Key Club won second place in the regional conference for its non-traditional scrapbook.
Their theme was “Hollywood”. From the left, Chelsea Rancourt, advisor Renee Marchesseault, Casey
Noyes, Katie Masters, Allison Rancourt, Becky Lienau, Becca Marchesseault, Victoria Harris, Jasmine Brosseau, Annick Marquis and Amanda Marquis. Photo courtesy Sarah Cummings.
Colebrook Key Club received a warm welcome from parents and
Kiwanis members upon returning from their weekend DECON
regional convention. Thomas Jordan photo.
SAU 58
“We all went crazy because
Tyler more than deserved that
award,” said Falconer.
She said that Colebrook took
first place and Canaan second
place in the Creative Scrapbook
award. “Canaan’s was so creative—it was like film strips,
and Colebrook’s looked like a
ticket booth.” The Pittsburg
Key Club won a second place
award in the Traditional category for their scrapbook project.
Colebrook’s Katelyn Purrington
placed first in the Oratory contest, and each Key Club received an award for Early Bird
dues (which are paid to the
International organization).
During a talent contest on Saturday, Canaan and Pittsburg
students made it past the initial judging and onto the stage
for the larger contest, performing in front of an audience of
1,100.
The Canaan, Pittsburg and
Colebrook Key Clubs are sponsored by the Colebrook Kiwanis
Club, which paid for the bus
transportation and the registration for the nine advisors
who went on the trip. “And the
Colebrook School district gave
us $1,470 this year, which was
wonderful. So many kids
wouldn’t have been able to go
without that money,” said Falconer.
“It was such a great week-
(Continued from page 2)
fice has received 23 applications for the Principal position.
“After the 14th that number
could be vetted down to a
smaller number and the Stratford school board will decide at
their next meeting how many
they will invite to come in for
an interview,” said Paquette.
He said that he has received
many local applicants as well
as some regional and out of
state applicants. “Some of those
out of state applicants are looking for new positions or they
want to move to a new area and
some are retired administrators
who are looking to continue
their work in education.”
All personnel in Stark
School have also been renominated. One teacher, he
said, requested a year’s leave of
absence, which leaves an opening that the Stark board will
need to fill.
In Groveton, budget cuts
have reduced the Choral Music
position from full time to half
time, a position which serves
both the elementary and high
school students. “This position
had always been half time, it
went to full time for a short
time, and is returning to the
half time,” explained Paquette.
The balance of teaching positions for both schools have remained the same.
Video—New Look
(Continued from page 1)
front page starting each week’s
video.
Beginning this week, however, the Colebrook Chronicle’s
Video News of the Week moves
solidly into the 21st Century
with a complete revamping.
“The end result, we think,
amounts to the North Country’s
first weekly webcast news report,” said Chronicle Editor
Charlie Jordan.
Jordan said, “Because we are
in the news business, moving
into video reporting is a natural
expansion for the Chronicle,”
which marks its 10th anniversary this summer. But what has
made it practical is the promotion this week of Tom Jordan,
son of Chronicle owners Charlie
and Donna Jordan, to the position of Video Editor. Tommy’s
expertise in video production is
playing a key role in the video’s
new look.
Like the newspaper, the
Video News of the Week production work is being done in the
old Clarksville Schoolhouse. As
in the past, the Jordans and
their contributors will continue
getting out to locations where
news happens. “Look to see us
conducting more interviews
with people as we cover the
news,” Jordan said.
Charlie and Tom Jordan provide “in-studio” lead-ins to news
reports. Charlie also expects to
be able to provide a weekly rundown of front-page headlines.
Each “on-demand” webcast will
include a look at the weekend
weather and, as in the past,
high school sports videos will
round out each report.
“We’re very excited to be able
to make this latest advance into
cyberspace,” said Charlie Jordan. “We will continue to produce our weekly newspaper,
which is also seeing considerable growth. But our goal is to
stay up-to-date and be where
readers and viewers are. And
today, for an increasing number
of people, that’s on the web.”
Also, like the newspaper,
access to the Video News of the
Week remains free. “As more
and more high-speed Internet
service moves into our area, we
expect to see greater growth
with our video efforts,” Jordan
said.
The Jordans are seriously
considering offering commercial
spots in their videos, which will
offer local businesses a new and
growing marketplace to gain
exposure at a very low cost.
“Right now we’re getting over
1,000 hits a week on our website,” Jordan said. “The videos
have become more of a part of
our weekly web visitors’ routine,
we can see many folks turning
to www.colebrookchronicle.com
not only to read the news, but to
shop for local services as well.”
“If you’re interested in becoming one of our charter video
advertisers, we suggest you give
our new video format a look and
then give us a call at 246-8998,”
said publisher Donna Jordan,
who oversees the company’s
advertising.
Key Clubs
(Continued from page 1)
are going to become officers in
their clubs. There also was a
workshop for webmasters and
bulletin editors, as well as leadership conferences.
This year, both Pittsburg
and Colebrook Key Clubs received Diamond level honors,
which is the highest honor that
a club can receive, and Canaan
received the Distinguished club
award. “The awards just blew
me away,” said Colebrook Key
Club advisor Lindy Falconer.
“The most amazing thing to me
was, every time one of our kids
got an award, the whole Division 8 stood up and applauded
for them. The division includes
students from Berlin, Groveton,
Colebrook, Canaan and Pittsburg. “And Tyler Foote, the
Pittsburg Key Club President,
got the Outstanding Key Club
Officer award,” said Falconer.
She explained that the award is
given out on Sunday, the last
day of the conference, because
it’s a very prestigious award.
end, it was just overwhelming,
although we didn’t get much
sleep,” she said. “I thought the
kids would sleep on the way
home, but they didn’t, they
sang songs all the way home.”
The Colebrook Kiwanis also
sponsors the Builders Clubs in
Stewartstown, Canaan and
Errol. “They work very hard to
provide all of this for these
kids,” said Falconer.
(Editor’s note: See Colebrook
Key Club Advisor talk about
the local clubs in this week’s
Video News of the Week.)
Camerata
(Continued from page 1)
-2275, or purchased online at
www.aannh.org. Tickets are
$15 each and will also be available at the door.
The concert, titled “The
Spirit of Russia,” features
“Variations on a Theme by
Tschaikovsky” (Anton Arensky), “Chamber Symphony
Opus
110
A”
(Dmitri
Shostakovitch), “Two Pieces for
String Orchestra” (Nikolai
Yakovlevich Myaskovsky) and
“Serenade” (Pyotr Ilyich
Tchaikovsky).
(Continued on page 5)
Police, Fire And EMS Reports
(Editor’s note: It was a quiet
week on police and fire logs.)
45TH PARALLEL EMS
The following is the activity
report for the 45th Parallel
EMS from April 4-10.
On April 6, at 6:39 p.m., the
45th Parallel EMS responded to
Stewartstown for a medical
emergency. The patient was
transported to UCVH.
On April 7, at 11:20 a.m., the
department transferred a patient from Concord Hospital to
UCVH. At 4:49 p.m., the department responded to Colebrook for a medical emergency.
The patient was transported to
UCVH.
On April 8, at 5:45 a.m., the
department transferred a patient from UCVH to DHMC. At
9:45 p.m., the department responded to Colebrook for a
medical emergency. The patient was transported to
UCVH. At 10:43 p.m., the department responded to Stewartstown for a medical emergency. No patient was found.
On April 9, at 2:14 a.m., the
department
responded to
Stewartstown for a medical
emergency. The patient refused
transport. At 2:29 p.m., the
department responded to West
Stewartstown for a medical
emergency. The patient was
transported to UCVH. At 3:31
p.m., the department trans-
ferred a patient from UCVH to
CCNH in West Stewartstown.
At 4:34 p.m., the department
transferred a patient from
UCVH to DHMC. At 4:42 p.m.,
the department responded to
Colebrook for a medical emergency. The patient was transported to UCVH.
On April 10, at 11:21 a.m.,
the department responded to
CCNH in West Stewartstown
NH for a medical emergency.
The patient was transported to
UCVH. At 8:15 p.m., the department responded to Pittsburg for a medical alarm. The
ambulance was cancelled while
en route.
Friday, April 16, 2010
The Colebrook Chronicle
Camerata
(Continued from page 3)
“This plans to be an extraordinary evening of classical music,” said GNWCA President
Charlie Jordan. “The focus on
Russian-themed selections will
add an exotic air to the night.”
For more information, contact Arts Alliance Assistant
Director Eileen Alexander at
837-2275 or [email protected],
or GNWCA President Charlie
Jordan at 246-8998.
The Arts Alliance of Northern New Hampshire is a network which works to promote,
support and sustain culture,
heritage and the arts in northern New Hampshire through
programming and partnerships. Learn more at
www.aannh.org.
The Great North Woods
Committee for the Arts brings a
variety of cultural activities—
music, theater and art—to the
northernmost region of New
Hampshire and the surrounding area for the enjoyment and
enlightenment of its audiences.
Learn more at www.gnwca.org.
“The Spirit Of Russia”
In Classical Music
Featuring Camerata New England
String Chamber Orchestra
Saturday, April 24, 7 p.m.
Trinity United Methodist Church
Bridge Street, Colebrook.
Sponsored by the Great North Woods Committee for
the Arts and Arts Alliance of Northern NH.
Tickets: $15 now available at
Fiddleheads, 110 Main St., Colebrook, N.H.
Page 5
Page 12
The Colebrook Chronicle
Friday, April 16, 2010
Community News
The annual Great North Woods Committee for the Arts Winter Warmers Concert Series concluded on Wednesday with “An Evening With George Jacques.” Jacques of Colebrook has built up a substantial following with his extraordinary compositions that look at life from all angles and tackle such topics as aging, health care, mud season,
taxes and even organ donation. This week’s Video News of the Week at www.colebrookchronicle.com features portions of George’s concert. Charles Jordan photos.
(Continued from page 11)
puzzles, enjoyed an ocean sensory program and played a
memory game and unit Bingo.
Resident Council met this
week. They discussed the upcoming Nursing Home Week
and the activities which will
take place during that week as
well as the rest of the
month. They discussed old business and were pleased with the
results of their bake sale.
In Where To Go, residents
discussed several sites of interest in this country. They looked
at photos and talked about the
places they had visited.
In Crafty Hands, residents
crafted pretty flowers by tracing their hands on colored paper. They rolled the hands onto
pipe cleaners, curled the fingers
and, Voila!, pretty spring flowers!
CANAAN SENIORS NEWS
The Canaan Seniors were
pleased to have Toni Roy join
them for dinner on Wednesday.
Congratulations were given to
Louise Bissonette on receiving
the Outstanding Community
Service Award on Saturday,
presented to her by Vermont
Governor Jim Douglas in Montpelier.
Bingo winners were Roger
Roy, Celine Chaloux, Germaine
Turgeon, Louisette Thibeault,
Pauline Jalbert, Imelda
Gosselin and Althea Gray.
Blackout winners were Pauline
Jalbert and Francoise Bohan.
Next week (April 21) the
menu will be baked beans, hot
dogs, pan fries, rolls and dessert.
“HAUNTING OF CHIP
LAKE LODGE” COMING
The Colebrook Academy
Players directed by Patricia
Purrington will present “The
Haunting of Chip Lake Lodge”
by J. Robert Wilkins in the
Colebrook gymnasium on April
29 and April 30 at 7 p.m., and
May 1, at 2 and 7 p.m. A comedy/mystery of four high school
seniors, Amy, (Aimee Berry)
Jennifer, (Kelsey Berry/Skyla
Hall) Stephanie (Katelyn Purrington) and Justin (Cormick
Frizzell), arrive at a country
lodge for their prom.
But things go askew from
the start. They show up at the
wrong lodge, their car won't
start, the phone goes dead and
disco music plays inexplicably.
The lodge is haunted! The teens
are unwillingly drawn into a
slightly deranged plot to free
the spirit of Patricia (Kelsey
Berry/Skyla Hall) from the
curse of Chip Lake belonging to
Leroy (Dean Neary). If only
Justin can overcome his fear of
giant rats, they may be able to
save the day. It all leads to a
bizarre prom night no one will
forget.
Admission is $5 for adults
and $2 for students. With each
adult paid admission you will
be entered into a drawing to
win a free two-night stay at the
Pratt Family Lodge in Pittsburg. Pratt Family Lodge is
situated on top of a majestic
mountain looking Lake Francis,
with views of Mt. Magalloway
and Canada in the distance. It
is known as one of the best
views in Pittsburg.
SPAGHETTI SUPPER
IN CANAAN APRIL 24
Another Workcamp Youth
Mission trip is planned by local
youths. To help pay for this
trip, they are having a spaghetti supper on Saturday,
April 24, at 5 p.m. at Grace
United Methodist Church in
Canaan, Vt. The price for the
supper is $7 for adults and $5
for children under 10 and seniors.
IT’S TIME TO ENTER
THE SCIENCE FAIR
Here’s your chance if you’ve
ever wanted to do a Science
Project, or tell others about
your own interest in what
you’ve been working on at
home.
The Colebrook Regional Science Fair is looking for local
scientists-at-heart, who want to
delve into a cool project and tell
others about it. Organizers are
seeking students and adults
from Pittsburg, Errol, Stewartstown, Colebrook, Columbia,
Stratford, Groveton, Stark and
Canaan to Bloomfield. Students
will compete for great prizes,
including $100 and $50 cash
prizes.
An adult competition can be
organized if there is enough
interest, and adults are encouraged to enter their inventions,
displays on their home solar,
wind, hydro and other projects,
or their home design. Project
ideas abound on the internet by
searching for “Science Project”
and “Home Energy Project.”
The event will be held at the
Colebrook Elementary School
gym on Sunday, May 2, 2010,
from 3-6 p.m. Contestant winners will be announced around
5 p.m., and prizes will be
awarded then. The Colebrook
Academy Key Club and The
Green Group have raised over
$1,200 towards prizes, and are
planning on giving out about 30
prizes.
Registration forms and informational pages are available
online at local school websites,
in person at Lin-Jo Creations
and Hicks Hardware in Colebrook, or can be emailed by request
if
you
email
[email protected] or [email protected]. For more
information, call Key Club advisor, Lindy at 237-9939 or The
Green Group organizer Julie at
237-8685.
AARP DRIVER SAFETY
PROGRAM SCHEDULE
Northway Bank is sponsoring
the AARP Driver Safety Program on Tuesday and Thursday,
May 11 and 13, from 8:30 a.m.
to 12 noon at Northway Bank, 9
Main St., Berlin.
AARP developed this classroom refresher to ensure that
drivers 50 years and older stay
safe behind the wheel. The
course’s curriculum has been
updated to reflect the most current driving information and
safety tips available. The driver
safety course is designed to educate participants about how best
to reduce traffic violations,
crashes, and chances for injuries; update drivers’ knowledge
about relevant laws; and provide
safe driving strategies to compensate for age-related changes
that affect one’s driving ability.
Upon successful completion of
(Continued on page 13)
The Arts Alliance of Northern New Hampshire helped bring three members of Camerata New England to Colebrook on Friday of last week. Musicians Elise Kunder on violin, Linda Galvan on cello and Peter Sulski on viola, performed in the Colebrook elementary school library for elementary school students and took their questions. The
youngsters were engrossed in the classical music and asked some very good questions. Camerata New England’s full ensemble will return to Colebrook on April 24, at 7
p.m., for a concert at Trinity United Methodist Church, co-sponsored by the Great North Woods Committee for the Arts. Charles Jordan photos.