Exciting news coming ...

A quick note to let all of my blog followers and readers know that I will soon have some exciting news to announce about a new gig I have landed.
I'll give everyone a little hint: I'm going to be covering the New Hampshire primary, some State House news, and local police/fire and municipal government in Concord.
In order to succeed at this new thing, I'm going to need a lot of help from all of you. So stay tuned for more details.

Charter Commission public hearing Thursday

The Concord School Board Charter Commission will hold a public hearing at 7 p.m. on Thursday, May 12, at the central office at 38 Liberty St.
The commission will discuss its preliminary report (linked here: REPORT).
Here is what the community needs to consider:
How school board members are elected: The commission proposed to change the election process from the nine at-large school board member election process from at-large members to three at-large members and six members elected from districts, two from each district [District A: Wards 1, 2, 3, 4; District B: Wards 5, 6, 7; District C: Wards 8, 9, 10].
Authority: There was some discussion about whether the legislation authorizes the commission gives it the authority to recommend ballot questions in addition to the amendment procedure.
Supermajority vote required for approval: The commission intends that the district voting proposal would be adopted as the first question. If the voters approve the first question, the charter would be open for amendment by the second question. The charter commission intends that the second question would only be effective to amend the charter with a vote of at least 60 percent.

Lights on Clinton Street, finally ...

Traffic lights have been installed at the intersection of Langley Parkway and Clinton Street.
The city has finally installed traffic lights at the intersection of Clinton Street and Langley Parkway, easily one of the most dangerous intersection that had not had a traffic light. Before the lights were installed, it was very difficult for people driving south on Langley to entire onto Clinton. We don't travel on Langley that often but when we do, we've often seen close calls as cars try to quickly dart out into the Clinton traffic. Now, that is all resolved, thankfully.

Schoenberg leaves the Concord Monitor for the Boston Globe

A quick local media note here: Concord Monitor reporter Shira Schoenberg is departing the local daily and going to work for the Boston Globe, as a correspondent covering the New Hampshire primary. She officially starts on May 23.
In an email to various sources and friends, she thanked everyone who had helped her during the last five years at the Monitor saying, "It has been a pleasure working with every one of you."
Karen Langley and Matt Spolar will be covering political news for the Monitor, according to Schoenberg's email.