North Country

A Berlin steel company that is in bankruptcy is negotiating with several buyers and a sale is possible early next year.

Earlier this year Isaacson Structural Steel filed for Chapter 11 voluntary bankruptcy protection.

In a court filing it said it owed about $3 million to its top 20 creditors.

William Gannon is a Manchester bankruptcy lawyer working with Isaacson.

“Isaacson is currently negotiating with several interested parties," he said. "The negotiations have reached the point where draft asset purchase agreements have been exchanged."

The Northern Pass project isn’t ready to give up on running its power lines near the Balsams Resort in the Dixville Notch.

Earlier this month the Tillotson Corp. announced it was selling a conservation easement for about 5,800 acres of land around the Balsams to the Forest Society.

That would block the attempts by Northern Pass to run its electric towers through the area.

Northern Pass also wanted to buy part of the land.

The Public Utilities Commission has approved a deal that should keep five, small biomass plants around the state operating. But PSNH customers are paying for it. NHPR’s Chris Jensen reports.

Despite the objections of the state’s consumer advocate the Public Utilities Commission okayed a deal that has Public Service of New Hampshire buying electricity from five small biomass plants for about two years.

The deal is expected to at least temporarily keep the small, struggling plants in business.

Half of 16 North Country representatives say they will vote against repealing same-sex marriage in New Hampshire.

A bill to do that is expected to come before the legislature next month.

In October the House Judiciary Committee voted to undo the state’s gay marriage law and replace it with civil union (http://news.nhpr.org/post/house-panel-backs-gay-marriage-repeal).

The driver of a tractor trailer that crashed in Whitefield early Tuesday morning was killed when the load of steel being transported shifted and crushed the cab, according to a news release from the state police.

Here’s what police said happened:

“At approximately 5:50 a.m. a 2006 Peterbilt tractor truck was traveling north on Route 116 in Whitefield.  The tractor was pulling a flatbed trailer with a load of steel when the driver lost control on a downhill grade as it approached the junction of Route 3.

Black ice is causing a series of accidents and tricky travel in the North Country Tuesday morning.

The accidents include a tractor-trailer crash in Whitefield at the intersection of Route 3 and 116 where the vehicle was reported in the river.

The first rescue units to arrive reported the driver was “unresponsive.”

There were also two accidents in Bethlehem on Route 116.

Two hikers from Maine were rescued from Mount Chocorua in the White Mountains Monday night, according to a news release from New Hampshire Fish and Game.

Joshua Hayes, 26, and Emily Smith, 27, both from Shapleigh, Maine, underestimated the time it would take to climb the mountain and get back down before dark and then missed a turn, the release said.

The pair had neither lights nor a map but did get a cell signal so they could call for help. Fish and Game got their latitude and longitude from their cell phone and then called and told them to build a fire and wait.

A large tract of some of the North Country’s most beautiful terrain has been protected from development. 

A new conservation easement is going to protect land around Pittsburg and the Connecticut River.

“We just today finalized a conservation easement on 2,300 acres up in Pittsburg up around First and Second Connecticut Lakes.”

That’s Jack Savage. He’s a spokesman for The Society for The Protection of New Hampshire Forests.