North Country

In some good news for the North Country an old family business is coming back to life.  NHPR’s Chris Jensen reports.

Starting in 1931 Neil Tillotson made his fortune manufacturing natural latex products including balloons and later gloves.

That allowed him to purchase the Balsams Grand Resort.

Tillotson died in 2001 and a  latex plant located near the resort closed in 2010.

But Tillotson’s son, Rick, purchased the equipment and recently bought a 103,000 square foot building in Colebrook.

He plans to use part of it to make latex products there and hopes to open later this year.

For NHPR News this is Chris Jensen

The body of a Massachusetts man who fell into a crevasse in the Tuckerman Ravine in April was recovered early Monday, according to a news release from the White Mountain National Forest.

Norman Priebatsch, 67, tripped while hiking and slid into a deep crevasse on April 1st.

While a searcher was partially lowered into the crevasse shortly after he fell the body couldn’t be seen and experts concluded he couldn’t have survived such a fall.

Additional efforts were suspended out of fear that a rescuer could be hurt or killed, officials said.

However, Sunday officials decided a different tunnel that connected with the crevasse had melted enough for a recovery attempt.

It took about two hours to recover the body.

It is going to take a little longer than expected for the state of New Hampshire to decide whether it can save money by having its prisons run by a private firm.

NHPR’s Chris Jensen reports.

By July the state’s department of administrative services had hoped to finish its report evaluating proposals from four companies interested in running a private prison.

But Linda Hodgdon, the commissioner for administrative services, says there is so much information the department is looking for a consultant to help sort through it.

One bidder has said its proposal is 200 pages long and includes everything from construction to operation.

Hodgdon expects it will take until at least September to finish the report.

Sen. John Gallus, a Republican from Berlin, has joined only four North Country members of the House in supporting a bill that would give a business a tax credit when it donates to a parochial or private school.

As NHPR’s Dan Gorenstein reported the Senate Wednesday passed House Bill 1607.

Advocates of the bill say it gives less wealthy families more choices in where they wish to send their children.

Opponents, including Gov. Lynch, say it will take money away from public schools.

But the bill has veto-proof majorities in the House and Senate.

The Senate passed it 17 – 7.

North Country representatives split along party lines in voting Tuesday on a bill that would allow towns and cities to have a one-year moratorium on having refugees settle in their jurisdictions.

Seven were in favor. Seven against. Two were excused from voting.

As NHPR has reported the bill previously passed the House but had trouble when it reached the Senate.

The Associated Press is reporting the bill was revived:

The majority of North Country representatives voted in favor of resurrecting a bill that would require women wanting an abortion to wait 24 hours.

Such a bill passed the House  in March.

But then the Senate killed it last month.

Tuesday the House revived it as an amendment to SB 295 which involves business tax credits.

The overall vote was 198 – 100.

New Hampshire Fish and Game officials say they had to rescue three hikers and a dog over the weekend.  The hikers ran into trouble on Little Haystack Mountain in Grafton County.  NHPR’s Chris Jensen has more.

(Jensen) A 29-year-old Manchester man used his cell phone late Saturday to call for help after it got dark before he could finish hiking down from Little Haystack Mountain.

And he lacked a flashlight.

Fish and Game lieutenant James Kneeland says says hikers who don’t bring the right supplies continuously pose a dilemma for the department.

Senator John Gallus, a Republican from Berlin, was one of nine Senators who voted to kill a resolution voicing support of Arizona’s controversial immigration law.

The motion to kill the resolution failed 15 – 9.

Then, the motion of support was approved on a voice vote for which there is no record of how senators voted.

HCR 2 stated support of the Arizona immigration law noting “the people of the State of Arizona have the right of security in their persons, freedoms, employment, financial future, and practice of religion” that New Hampshire “fully supports the State of Arizona’s right to protect its borders and citizens.”

The Colebrook Planning Board has called a special meeting May 22 to try and resolve an issue the new owners of the Balsams Grand Resort say is delaying its renovation.

The owners,  Dan Dagesse and Dan Hebert, are asking the Planning Board to approve a subdivision that would separate a 28-acre parcel from the roughly 1,000 acres that currently includes the hotel, grounds and golf course.

The parcel is not near the hotel and includes what is sometimes described as a “liquid waste dump” because it is thought to contain waste from the latex factory that once operated elsewhere on the property.