Big Island Pond group is winning battle against milfoil Lake group tackles invasive milfoil

From the Eagle Tribune;

Big Island Pond group is winning battle against milfoil Lake group tackles invasive milfoil
By Eric Parry
eparry@eagletribune.com

Scuba diving for milfoil in Big Island Pond is a dirty job. At the end of a day of hunting the exotic species, Bob Patterson has to clean the mud out of his ears with Q-tips.

But once you can see the natural grass grow back and fish swimming around an area that was once infested, Patterson said it makes the whole job worth the effort.

"Now it hasn't taken over our lake, we're taking over the milfoil," Patterson said while touring the lake by boat yesterday, searching for the invasive weed.

Last month, the Big Island Pond Corp. decided against a chemical treatment this summer and instead is using a weed harvester to see how well it works.

This spring, Patterson, who manages a team of 15 divers, and a group of residents around the lake purchased a 30-foot pontoon boat, named The Milfoiler. They equipped it with a pump, hoses and perforated deck to collect the plant.

The harvester already has helped the group clean 40 infected acres around the pond, far more than they had originally thought they would be able to do this year.

Patterson and the state Department of Environmental Services created a five-year plan earlier this year and is already close to exceeding the goals for the first two years.

"We decided to tackle where it was heaviest first to see if it could be done," Patterson said.

For the last month, scuba divers have been on the lake four days a week. After pulling the weed from the bottom, a long, 4-inch-diameter hose sucks it onto the boat's perforated deck and dumps it into a plastic box. The weed is then bagged and brought ashore. A detailed report of the collection is sent to DES.

A typical dive lasts about an hour. Divers wear a compass to keep track of their location in the murky water, Patterson said. In nice weather, divers will spend as much as six hours collecting weeds.

"A lot of it is like feeling in the blind," Patterson said after cleaning some of the weed from Hemlock Heights Cove yesterday morning.

While the divers are removing the weed underwater, a team of kayakers searches for milfoil using an underwater viewscope and collects pieces of the weed floating on the surface.

Divers tried collecting the weed last summer without the harvester, but the process was much slower, Patterson said.

Within 20 minutes of diving yesterday, Patterson collected half a barrel of the weed and said that amount would have taken him an entire day without the boat.

The Milfoiler isn't working alone.

AB Aquatics, a company Patterson started earlier this year, donated a smaller harvester, The Eco-Dash, to work on Big Island Pond this summer. Unlike the larger boat, the Eco-Dash specializes in shallow areas. That harvester requires only a two-man team and is pulled across the water by the diver.

"In some areas, the Eco-Dash can cover up to an acre an hour," Patterson said.

The group's progress led DES to install two plastic nets in the lake to contain the milfoil from the already cleaned areas around Governor's Island and Hemlock Heights.

Yesterday, Patterson and diver Chris Knoeting were cleaning the weeds from the net.

At the beginning of the season, a day's work would result in the collection of about 200 gallons of milfoil, but that would be more total plants than recent collections.

Last week, a team of divers collected more than 1,000 gallons of milfoil from the northeast side of the lake, but those plants were much longer.

"That's where it had been growing for many years," Patterson said.

Milfoil grows in water as deep as 15 feet and can grow to about 10 feet in length.

After the milfoil is bagged, volunteers like Skip Lanouette dry the weed and use it as a garden fertilizer.

"It's full of phosphates and it's great stuff," Lanouette said.

But even with the success so far this season, Patterson knows the lake will never be completely free of the nuisance plant. Milfoil is present in the majority of lakes and ponds in New Hampshire and he's happy to have some younger volunteers like Matt Roberts, 16, to help.

"We're already passing the stewardship of the lake on to the younger generation," Patterson said.

Atkinson Country Club opens par 3 course

From the Eagle Tribune;

Atkinson Country Club opens par 3 course
By Eric Parry
eparry@eagletribune.com

ATKINSON — Children and new golfers will feel right at home at the new par 3 golf course opening tomorrow at the Atkinson Resort and Country Club.

The 18-hole course can be intimidating for new golfers, so the new course offers four tees to hit from on each of the course's nine holes. There are also very few hazards, like water or sand traps, to get in the way, according to Wayne Swanson, an assistant golf professional.

The shortest two tees on each hole are right on the fairway to make it even easier for younger golfers, Swanson said.

"This was designed for the family in mind," he said.

As a public golf course, Swanson said, they have a lot of beginner golfers on the weekends who may decide to play on the new course instead of the larger 18-hole course.

But more serious golfers will enjoy the course, too.

The smaller greens require the golfer to be more accurate with their shots.

"It's a great tool for working on your short game," Swanson said.

The course is located on the back of the resort property and was constructed over the fall and winter, according to Swanson.

One of the course's highlights is the view from the eighth hole, which overlooks the Merrimack River Valley.

"It's going to be real pretty in the fall," Swanson said.

The new course will also be used in golf clinics for children and adults.

Atkinson's new course joins just two other local par 3 courses in the area. One is located on Brookstone Park on Route 111 in Derry and the other is Murphy's Garrison Golf Center in Haverhill, Mass.

Swanson said another draw to the course for children will be the price. Children ages 3 to 9 only pay their age.

"We've had a lot of kids in our clinics excited about that," Swanson said.

For nine holes, the new course will cost $15 midweek and $25 on weekends. Eighteen holes cost $17 midweek and $27 on weekends.

Local Band in Competition

From Speak Out Danville;


Local Band in Competition

Postby safety frog » Tue Jul 14, 2009 9:14 am
"Something Green" iincludes some musicians from Atkinson. They've entered into a Battle of the Bands competition and were recorded and videotaped at the Haverhill, MA cable station. The competition winner gets a small purse, but more importantly to the guys, they get to make a professional video and get to open for a national, major act. The band carrying the most votes throughout the competition gets to keep the top position on the page of the website, haverhillrocks.com.

The band includes Andrew Hernandez on bass, Chuck Hargreaves on drums, Matt Hevesh on lead, and Charlie Ober on vocals and rhythm guitar. The guys are good friends and all have worked hard. The two songs in their segment are originals, both written (lyrics and music) by them.

Please point your cursor on the below web address and then cast your vote for "Something Green."


http://haverhillrocks.com/poll_competit ... route=view

If you have any trouble hyperlinking via the above web address, type in haverhillrocks.com into your browser, enter, and then on the right of the home screen place your cursor over the words "Click here to vote!" (you might have to scroll down just a bit to find them first).

Timberlane antenna should help police radio contact

From the Eagle Tribune;

Timberlane antenna should help police radio contact
By Margo Sullivan
margosullivan@eagletribune.com

PLAISTOW — Police have a new radio antenna at Timberlane Regional High School.

The antenna, which stands 30 feet high, was erected atop the boiler room at the school about three weeks ago, according to Jim Hughes, school facilities director.

Before the antenna arrived, dead spots made police radios useless inside Timberlane Regional Middle and High School buildings. In an emergency, officers needed to borrow walkie talkies from the principal's office to communicate.

Hughes did not have the final cost for the antenna, but said the job came in under the $9,000 limit the School Board had authorized.

Earlier this year, the Timberlane Regional School Board voted to install the antenna and pay the costs.

Plaistow Town Manager Sean Fitzgerald said the money came entirely from the school district.

There's no word yet whether the radio canopy is working well and has helped boost the range of radio communications.

Atkinson police Lt. William Baldwin, who is also a School Board member, said previously he supported the decision to install the antenna and thought it would boost radio signals for several area police departments.

Thoughts on Independence Day.

Submitted by MAcciard;

Please Accept as an article submission;

This holiday weekend, typically one of backyard bar-b-ques, sparklers, fireworks, gathering with family and friends, stop for a moment and do something you have probably never done before on this holiday, stop and give a moments thought to the meaning of this day.

In these perilous times where we appear to be replaying with modern technology the crusades, when the press and academia, and yes, many of our Senators and Congresspeople seem hell-bent upon telling everything that they believe is wrong with America, and the President and Congress seem to wish to spend the earning of the next three generations, Stop! and consider objectively everything America stands for and has accomplished in our 231 year history.

America stands for;

Freedom! Freedom to express yourself in any way you wish as long as it does not infringe upon the rights of others.

Independence! Independence to pursue your brand of happiness in any manner in which you choose, so long as your pursuit does not infringe on the rights of another.
Opportunity! Opportunity to arrive on our shores as many immigrants do, with nothing to their names, and yet they are able to achieve a degree of wealth, and a comfort of lifestyle here that they could not achieve anywhere else on the globe. This is why people risk life and love to come here year after year. You don't see people sacrificing their lives to immigrate to the people's paradise of Cuba, or China, or Venezuela.

We hear day in and day out of the failures of our country, our country's leaders, our military, our culture, our society, our very existence. I say to those who can do nothing but complain, if you love France or Cuba so much go and live there, you are doing America no good here.

No Country in the history of the world has accomplished so much as has America. No country has been as generous, as noble, as honest, as forthright, or possessed as much integrity as America. America, as Ronald Reagan said, is the "shining city upon the hill". but much more than that we have consistently backed up our ideals with our blood, treasure, and deeds.

America was primarily responsible for the fall of Nazi Germany, after our victory, we spent hundreds of millions of dollars to rebuild Europe, and now they show their gratitude by condemning America. America was responsible for the fall of the most oppressive regime in history, the Soviet Union, without firing a shot, and now those satellite countries that were crushed under the soviet boot for so long are now beacons of democracy on a continent bereft of that. They have become our strongest allies, replacing the lily-livered socialist countries of France and Belgium. And in the last 6 years we have liberated Afghanistan and Iraq, giving 50 million people their first chance to govern themselves. We have not stolen their oil, as John Kerry intimated was our reason for going, we have not plundered their country, as Micheal Moore stated we would do. We have not tortured them as Teddy Kennedy stated we have.

We hear from the media that it is our support of Israel that has caused the Muslims to hate us, but they fail to mention the $120 million a year we give to the Palestinian Authority for those very people.

America has made mistakes, but far fewer than any other country. We do not conquer, we do not enslave, or subjugate, We liberate, help our enemies get back on their feet, and then leave. We do far more for the world than all of the other countries combined. We have given time effort and money to 183 nations across the globe, most of those owe their very existence to the benevolence of the United States of America.

So when you are wolfing down your hamburgers this weekend, think for a moment about the history of our nation and reflect that you are a part of the Greatest Nation in Earth's History! Also reflect that our sons and daughters are in harm's way, fighting to defend the very freedoms that we are celebrating this weekend.

Thank you and God Bless.

Town administrator interviews to start soon

From the Eagle Tribune;

Town administrator interviews to start soon
By Eric Parry
eparry@eagletribune.com

ATKINSON — Selectmen could begin interviewing for the next town administrator next week.

Selectmen Chairman Fred Childs said yesterday the three-member board is sorting through about 30 applications for the six or seven people it will interview.

"I would hope, in a couple of weeks, we'll have the interviews finished," Childs said.

The board began sorting through the applications almost three weeks ago. The deadline to apply for the job was May 29.

Applicants are from all over New England and quite a few people have little to no experience running the day-to-day operations of a town, Childs said.

This search yielded a lot more candidates than previous searches in recent years. But it's also the first time the selectmen have done the search entirely on their own, without someone to screen applications for them.

When the most recent town administrator, Steven Angelo, was hired in September, the selectmen hired the Local Government Center to advertise the position and screen applications. That service cost $5,000.

Selectmen have said they expect to hire someone as soon as possible.

An unnamed candidate was offered the job in April, but when that person gave notice to their employer, Atkinson's offer was matched. That candidate was left over from the search from which Angelo was hired. No salary range was specifically stated in the advertisement.

The new hire will be the town's fourth administrator in about a year.

Angelo left in January after only a couple of months on the job. Before Angelo, Craig Kleman served as interim town administrator. Kleman was hired in April 2008, but left last summer to take a similar job in Plaistow. He has since left Plaistow.

Atkinson Crime Statistics!

There has long been a debate about exactly how much crime exists in Atkinson. When it is convenient for there to be little crime, it is often said that we are a sleepy little town where nothing ever happens. When pushing for budget increases we get yelled at during deliberative session by the Lt. telling us that if we knew what he knows about what goes on in Atkinson, we would never control the budget.

So which is the truth?

Well, for the first time in at least a year, the Atkinson Police Web, is posting crime stats for 2009.

Atkinson Police Dept. Crime Stats

So for 1/1/2009- 5/30/09:

There were 634 dispatches; including;

Alarm: 95
Suspicious Person: 40
LITTERING??? 15
Welfare Check: 25
Assist other Agency: 84
Civil Standby: 12
Police Information: 16
VIN Inspection: 16
Paper Service: 21

This represents 22 weeks of police coverage, there are 21 shifts per week.

That makes 462 shifts covered in this report.

634/462 = 1.47 dispatches per shift on average.

Now lets see how this works out in $$$?

$771,000 police budget for the year

divide by: 12 months= $64,250 per month X 5 months of this report= $321,250.

$321,250 divide by 634 dispatches = $506.70 per call.

1.47 calls per shift.

Does anyone know what other towns spend per call, or how many calls per shift they use?