Ray Duckler

Amid all the property tax hikes in the Concord area this town meeting season, Pembroke residents are facing the biggest with a whopping 28.1% increase in one year.The combined town and school tax rate is expected to increase from $27.88 to $35.70 –...

Emily Ricard makes wishes, big wishes, come true.Last spring, for example, a little boy with a rare form of cancer got his wish, a trip to Disney World. He had fun and is now feeling better.“The update is that he is doing well,” said Ricard, who works...

Following years of frustration caused by out-of-staters parking at the Pelissier Boat Launch along the Merrimack River in Allenstown, voters struck back on Election Day, passing a measure by a count of 286-160 that allows resident-only access to one...

Select board chairman Ed Millette did his best to explain why Chichester’s operating budget and tax rate needed to increase, saying that costs were up everywhere and more money was needed to meet the needs of residents.In classic fashion this time of...

New London’s Town Meeting began as it has for the last 14 years, with students from the Kearsarge Regional Elementary School leading the crowd in the Pledge of Allegiance and the National Anthem.Music teacher Nicole Densmore invited all students in...

Maddie Dionne smiled her way through much of a 90-minute conversation when speaking about life’s simplest things.They’ve taken on greater importance over the past 14 years.She has coffee with her son, Ken Dionne, each morning in New Boston, sitting on...

A proclamation read at the Boscawen Town Meeting last week, celebrating a man’s selfless acts dating back four and five decades, could not be announced quickly to voters on Election Day.Roger Sanborn, 76, had simply done too much. So wrote Elaine...

Nancy Warner was one of 625 women who formed the Donut Dollies, a Red Cross-fueled program that mirrored other efforts to entertain soldiers during the Vietnam War.Through the years, however, you’d be hard-pressed to find anyone who knew this. In the...

The visions her father left behind will keep Maia Bradley smiling for the rest of her life.When she thinks of her father, Mike Bradley, she remembers his dedication to her, though he often wouldn’t talk about the great lengths he took. Think rising at...

Each year during the Epsom Old Home Day weekend, master of ceremonies Paul Morency announces the winner of the annual Citizen of the Year award.A strange scenario unfolded last summer when Morency wasn’t allowed to announce the award. Epsom Select...

The jackhammer rattled away for a good 20 minutes Tuesday before a faded copper and lead container was pried from the corner of the Department of Justice building in downtown Concord that had been home to several banks.Dozens of onlookers and state...

Bill Athanas saw the sign outside Laconia High School and flashed back to the hallways of Franklin High.He remembered walking past the plain Franklin High sign – white letters on a black background, flanked by two small brick pillars – and greeting...

A Chipotle is set to be built across the street from the Merchants Way shopping plaza, giving patrons another dining option.Two years after the City of Concord approved the construction of a new Starbucks on Whitney Road – a site located off Exit 17...

Ayn Whytemare doesn’t like the view from the top of her hayfield in Pembroke.From there, rising from pines like a lonely skyscraper, stands the smokestack used by the Bow coal plant, the last facility of its kind in New England. And while the visible...

Norm Yeaton dropped a stack of papers three inches thick, attached by a clip, onto his living room table.The thud said a lot, that an arduous research project by Yeaton – in an attempt to understand the sheer volume of people in Epsom whose last name...

Nancy Peperissa’s secrets to help people involve cotton and rice, two items she uses to craft items with others in mind.She crochets cotton to make soft skull caps for chemotherapy patients. The rice she inserts into a doll’s midsection gives it...

Visiting United Shoe Repair downtown may not only result in improved shoes, but also may serve as an environmentally friendly act.D.J. Annicchiarico is on the ground floor of conservation, an individual whose multi-generational business dates back 115...

Stephen Donahue retired from the United States Postal Service 12 years ago, at the relatively young age of 61.And these days, he’s busier than ever.Whether leading a Scout troop or climbing a ladder to hang a sign for a local business or installing a...

For years, lecturer Mohamed Defaa has sought to demystify the social, cultural and historical complexities surrounding the Middle East for Western audiences.Then, on Oct. 7 of last year, this combustible region, already a difficult subject to...

Before he died last spring from a rare blood cancer at age 76, the community knew the local newspaper editor was a well-rounded author, a prolific writer who loved the written word and its ability to summon clear images without being verbose.For...