BRADFORD—The Bradford Selectboard shot down a request from the planning board to study improved bike and pedestrian travel on the Lower Plain.
Board members voted 3-2 last week in rejecting the request for a $60,000 scoping study of bike and pedestrian access along Route 5 between the Waits River and the Route 25 intersection.
RYEGATE—Blue Mountain Grange #263 in Ryegate recently honored Nancy Murray with the Grange Community Service Award as a non-member for her outstanding work in organizing the Little Puzzle Library.
The puzzle library has been used since the pandemic began and helped relieve stress built and anxiety for all ages. The concept has since expanded to McIndoe Falls as well. It is as a great intergenerational engagement and promotes family interactions.
BRADFORD—Several area residents, including one facing federal weapons charges, were arrested last week after a series of break-ins and burglaries in Bradford over the last month.
According to a news release from the Bradford Police Department, several search warrants were obtained as part of the investigation, including at least three carried out at the Bradford Motel. As a result of the searches, stolen property from the burglaries was recovered and several people are also now facing drug charges, including possession of heroin, fentanyl and methamphetamine.
COOKEVILLE—For the second year, moderator Gary Apfel welcomed attendees to an outdoor town meeting on May 17, held under a tent adjacent to the Town Hall in Cookeville. At 10, the morning was blustery and cool, prompting several people to move their chairs from the tent’s shade into the sun around the perimeter.
VERSHIRE—Town meeting was held in person on May 22 this year with David Hooke presiding as town moderator as he has for 25 years.
An informational meeting on Saturday enjoyed a strong breeze while Sunday’s town meeting was hot for May, even under a striped tent behind the Town Center. The typical hot soup lunch, appreciated in March, was absent. Sunday’s meeting instead cooled by Justin Will’s iced coffee.
WELLS RIVER—The Little Rivers Health Care dental clinic plan was approved last Thursday by the Newbury Development Review Board.
At the March 19 meeting, two members of the community voiced support for the plan.
According to Andrew Barter, Little Rivers Chief Operating Officer, the former Jiffy Mart property purchased last year has undergone environmental assessments and soil samplings by Stone Environmental of Montpelier.
WOODSVILLE—Authorities say a 19-year-old man found dead inside a Woodsville business earlier this year killed himself with a knife.
The state’s chief medical examiner has found that Victor Maldonado of Barre died from self-inflicted stab wounds.
“Based on the investigation conducted into Mr. Maldonado’s death, he entered the business after-hours, and while inside alone in the business he acquired a knife and killed himself,” the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office stated in a news release on May 17. “His dead body was found by employees of the business when it reopened on the morning of Jan. 31.”
BRADFORD—At the meeting on May 10, the Bradford Selectboard unanimously approved several changes to the town’s traffic ordinance, including new prohibitions on parking for a stretch of North Main Street.
The bans are effective November through April when parking on the southbound portion of North Main Street between the Bradford Congregational Church and the Wells River Savings Bank will be prohibited. Similarly, a ban will be in place on the northbound section of the roadway from 70 North Main Street to 130 North Main Street.
WELLS RIVER—Little Rivers Health Care’s plan to redevelop a long-deserted gas station into a dental clinic will go before the Newbury Development Review Board this week.
The DRB will hold a hearing on May 19 at 5 p.m. in the congregational church vestry in Newbury Village.
BRADFORD—Bradford and Newbury voters gathered outside in perfect weather on May 12 and approved the $17,494,601 budget at the Oxbow Unified Union School District’s Annual Meeting.
The approval came with a vote of 60 to 10. Education spending next year will be $18,781 per equalized student, a 4.1% increase over the current year.
There was not much discussion on this big-ticket item since many questions had been addressed in an informational meeting the previous night.