April 3, 2008

News in brief
By Alec O'Meara aomeara@hippopress.com

Queen City belt- tightening
On Monday, March 31, Manchester Mayor Frank Guinta unveiled his joint budget proposal for the city and school governments, with significant cuts made to the proposed school budget due in part to a projected $13 million revenue shortfall.

The budget is a 180-degree change from the proposal earlier in the week from the school board (see page 4 for more on that budget), which called for a 4-percent increase over the previous year. Guinta’s proposed budget calls for a five-percent decrease. The two proposed budgets are approximately $15 million apart. Guinta called his proposal “the kitchen table budget,” making a comparison to the tough decision families make to make ends meet in a recession. He also said that he felt the school budget was unrealistic in light of the current economic situation, and recommended cutting into the administrative overhead in order to make the budget function.

“Our families have to stretch their household budgets to make do and few, if any, are not cutting out the extras from their lifestyles,” Guinta said during his proposal. “None of these options is particularly enjoyable, and each will hurt. These are tough decisions and like the kitchen table budgets of our families, government must choose the best course for its citizens.”

On the municipal side, Guinta’s proposal is down approximately $900,000 from the 2008 budget. Increases to the police and fire departments are offset in large part by consolidating the public works department and parks and recreation into one agency.

Strike averted
It took all-day negotiations between the Nashua School Board and Teachers Union, but enough of an agreement was reached between Nashua’s school board, board of aldermen, and teachers’ union for teachers to be in the classrooms on Monday instead of on strike. A March 31 strike date had been set a week earlier by the teachers’ union after they announced an impasse with the school board. The superintendent’s office then filed a court order to block the strike and the union filed an unfair labor practice suit against the city. On Friday, Superintendent Christopher Hottel sent out an announcement advising parents that if no agreement was reached over the weekend, school could be canceled on Monday.

Late Sunday night, with input from the board of aldermen, an agreement was reached between the negotiating parties that satisfied the union enough to call off the strike even though none of the groups involved had taken a formal vote to approve the deal. The talks on Sunday included a non-public session between members of the school board and the board of aldermen.

Ward 7 Alderman Richard Flynn said that it was his understanding that the board of aldermen would hold off scheduling an emergency meeting until there had been formal approval from both the union and the school board. Flynn had voted against the most recent agreement, and said that when the contract came before him, its cost would be a key factor for consideration.

Barring significant changes in the financial make-up of the contract, the new collective bargaining agreement would eventually need a super-majority of 10 votes. With eight aldermen in favor of the previous agreement, two of the six that had been opposed would likely need to be swayed. That group includes Flynn, at-large aldermen David Deane and Fred Teeboom, Ward 1 alderman Dave Cookson, Ward 6 alderman Paul Chasse Jr. and Ward 8 alderman Dave McLaughlin. —A.O.

Meet DeBlasi
Less than 10 days after calling for applicants for the Ward 3 Board of Education seat vacated by Jennifer Peabody, ward alderman Peter Sullivan announced that he was appointing Hillcrest Management Communications Director Mike DeBlasi to the board.

Prior to his work at Hillcrest, DeBlasi served as Sports Director at WNDS TV-50.

“Mike DiBlasi is the kind of energetic and civic-minded leader that we need in Manchester, and he is going to be a real asset on the school board,” Sullivan said. “Mike’s record of service to the community shows that he will be able to bring people together to tackle the challenges facing our public schools in a cooperative and responsible way.”

“I think there is a real void for young leadership and I think that I can help to fill that void by doing this,” said DeBlasi, who admitted that the last time he held an elected office was during his days at Manchester Central on the student council. “It would be me and it would be Brandon Walsh,” he said.

DeBlasi’s appointment to the school board is pending approval from the mayor and board of aldermen, who were expected to address the issue at their meeting Tuesday. —A.O.

Hospital hospitality
Last week saw the state’s first Global Marketing Consortium for its growing medical supply manufacturing industry. There are approximately 130 small and large businesses in the state that supply everything from x-ray machine chemicals to specialty tubing to original machinery designed for testing purposes, said Paula Newton, spokesperson for the state’s International Trade Resource Center. The center hosted the March 25 consortium, which saw approximately 25 to 30 of the state businesses come out to network and, as Newton put it, learn that they are not the only businesses in the state doing that kind of work.

The majority of those businesses can be found along the I-93 and I-95 corridors, Newton said, with what she called a “micro-boom” of new medical supply businesses from 2005 to 2007 turning what had been a gradual interest in the region into a bona fide trend.

“There’s all the reasons to start a business in New Hampshire, plus the advantage of being so close to so many major universities and research centers,” Newton said. “Let’s face it, we benefit greatly from being next to the research incubator that is Cambridge, Mass.”

Dartmouth, Keene State, and the University of New Hampshire’s research work are also a major factors, she added.

Newton said that the consortium was expected to be the first of many events that will allow the state’s supply industry to raise its profile not just locally but on the global market as well. The ecomony may be trending downward, but what attracted these businesses to the region remains in place.

“New Hampshire is just an attractive place for this kind of work for a lot of reasons,” Newton said. —A.O.

MADE in Hollis
Approximately 40 students at Hollis-Brookline High School spent their lunch hours last week explaining why they’d like MTV to put their life’s dreams on the air. The not-so-musical Music Television Network was at the school for two days looking for candidates for the ninth season of MADE, one of its many youth-oriented reality shows, which offers high school students the chance to remake their lives through professional coaching. Televised programs have featured students being “made” into athletes, pageant queens and pro wrestlers.

Student anticipation was high for the event, said Hollis-Brookline Assistant Principal Cindy Matte, even though there was no guarantee that any students at the school would be selected to appear on the show.

“There’s a lot of excitement in the school right now,” Matte said, adding that she’s had positive experiences with the program at other schools.

As a condition of participation, MTV requires that no additional media can be on school grounds at the time of the interviews. —A.O.