Grafton County Commissioner Linda D. Lauer’s decision not to seek reelection this year has given two longtime public servants the chance to win the District 2 commission seat. Democrat Martha Strope McLeod, of Franconia, was first elected to the state legislature in 2006 and re-elected in 2008. Haverhill Republican Glenn Libby, a self-described “county man,” has worked in county government around New Hampshire his whole life.

Two candidates who emphasize environmental concerns but differ on abortion rights will square off in the midterm election for an open New Hampshire Senate seat.
Littleton businesswoman Carrie Gendreau, a Republican, is facing off against Rep. Edith Tucker, D-Randolph, who has served in the NH House since 2016. They’re vying for the District 1 Senate seat, which now stretches from Pittsburg to Piermont and Errol to Ellsworth.

NEWBURY—Efforts by Newbury residents to keep a proposed juvenile detention center out of town were dealt a blow last week.
Superior Court Judge Thomas G. Walsh of Vermont’s Environmental Court overturned the Newbury Development Review Board’s decision to deny a development permit for Vermont Permanency Initiative, a Becket Family of Services subsidiary, to establish the Covered Bridge secure residential treatment center for justice-involved boys at former bed and breakfast on rural Stevens Place.

WOODSVILLE—Woodsville Precinct will take its case for more than $600,000 appropriated at Haverhill Town Meeting in March to court. The precinct has filed suit against the New Hampshire Department of Revenue Administration after the state agency invalidated two petitioned warrant articles.

WOODSVILLE—The fire that destroyed a vacant commercial building on Dartmouth College Highway in Woodsville last month was inadvertently caused by juveniles, according to state investigators.
Firefighters responded to the blaze near the Forest Street intersection during the early morning hours of Sept. 28. The fire completely destroyed the 10,000 square foot building, which once housed the Way We Were Radio Shack/movie rental/furniture store.

After a long, arduous “multi-level process,” Eaton’s ancestral home in West Fairlee  “from valley to ridgeline” will be conserved in perpetuity. The property sits on over 400 hundred acres of fields and forest with meandering streams surrounded by green hills.