Seacoast

Volunteers with the New Hampshire Beach Monitoring program are taking measurements of the state's beaches ahead of Hurricane Jose.

As volunteer Sherri Townsend explains, scientists want to know how the storm will impact the topography of the beach.

"We're just measuring if there's any changes in where the berm is, and how high the berm is, and the slope of the berm -- which is the high point, when the storm surge comes up."

The town of Hampton is taking the state to court. Officials there want the town reimbursed for services it provides at the state owned beach.

Local and state officials have long disagreed about exactly who is responsible for what at Hampton Beach, which is in the town of Hampton but owned and operated by the state.

A new report says the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard is in poor condition and unable to keep up with the demands of the Navy.

The report comes from the legislative watchdog agency, the Government Accountability Office. It paints a bleak picture of the nation’s four public naval shipyards, including the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard.

It says the aging facilities together have racked up deferred maintenance costs of almost 5 billion dollars.

After years of debate about what to do about the city's parking problems, the city of Portsmouth will break ground on a new parking garage this week.

Portsmouth City Councilor Brad Lown says the city has been struggling with a parking shortage for more than 10 years.

“We’ve been told by a number of people that the parking shortage is acute that people aren’t going downtown -- people that might otherwise go downtown, not only residents but visitors, too.”

The Exeter UFO Festival is again drawing in experts in extraterrestrial sightings, abductions, as well those just curious about what may be out there.

This weekend marks the 8th edition of the Festival, which features two days of speakers, along with vendors and UFO tours.

In 1965, two Exeter policemen, along with others, had a famous encounter with a red orb just across the town’s border in Kensington. After that sighting drew national attention, Exeter became known as the ‘Roswell of the East,’ at least in certain circles.

The state liquor store near the Portsmouth traffic circle is set to receive a major upgrade.

The new building will be double the size of the existing liquor store and will offer some 6,000 different sizes and varieties of wines and spirits.

Joseph Mollica is Chairman of the New Hampshire Liquor Commission. He says replacing the old building is expected to generate a 10 percent increase in sales.

“The selection just isn’t there and we’re missing the boat. It’s time to step it up and get that store done.”

Officials in the New Hampshire city of Portsmouth are praising a new bike sharing program after two months of operating.

According to a report by Planning Director Juliet Walker, there were 548 bike rentals in a two-month period following the Zagster bike sharing program's launch on May 3. The Portsmouth Herald reports Zagster allows people to rent bikes from kiosks throughout the city.

Walker says Portsmouth pays $54,000 a year to lease 30 bikes and six stations. Zagster returns money from membership fees to the city after deducting a 7 percent processing fee.

Emergency personnel from around the Seacoast responded to Exeter Hospital Friday, where employee complaints of nausea and dizziness resulted in a partial evacuation. At this time, the cause is unknown.

A large federal building occupying prime real estate in Portsmouth is getting one step closer to being turned over to the city.

After almost 15 years of talks with the city about the fate of the Thomas J. McIntyre building in downtown Portsmouth, the federal General Services Administration says it is planning to move out by next fall.

Deep sea fishing companies say they are feeling the squeeze from new regulations on recreational fishing.

The new rules for recreational fishing come from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. They reduce the number of haddock anglers can catch from fifteen to twelve each day and they eliminate cod fishing altogether.

Federal regulators are tightening catch limits for recreational fishing of cod and haddock in the Gulf of Maine.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is reducing the number of haddock that anglers can take each day and it’s limiting the number of days they can be fished.

The agency is also continuing its ban on recreational cod fishing.

Officials with the town of Durham say they remain concerned about a proposal to bury a long-distance power cable across a one-mile stretch of Great Bay.

Efforts to clean up PFCs at the former Pease Air Force Base will be the topic of a meeting tonight in Portsmouth. Air Force officials plan to give an update on where those efforts stand, 3 years after the contamination was first discovered.

On Wednesday morning, Durham’s three-person human rights commission will discuss establishing an Indigenous Peoples Day. Town administrator Todd Selig says the idea came about as the town grappled with pushback over a mural at the local post office.

An investigation by the state Attorney General’s office has concluded that state troopers were justified in their use of deadly force in the shooting of a Portsmouth man last month.

At a press conference Thursday afternoon, investigators released audio and video evidence of the encounter between police and Barry Jones outside the Hampton state liquor store in June.

Over a million dollars is headed to New Hampshire to help protect coastal communities.

Officials in Rochester are investigating what they say is illegal oil dumping into the city’s sewer system.

City officials say they first detected oil in the sewer system last November, then again every month since February.

Director of City Services John Storer says it seems to be dumped on semi-regular basis and is most likely waste oil – something the city offers to properly dispose of for free.

People concerned about a proposed utility project on the Seacoast gathered for a demonstration Wednesday afternoon.

Outside the offices of the Department of Environmental Services in Portsmouth, roughly 20 people held signs showing their support for the environmental health of the Great Bay estuary.

The state's largest utility, Eversource, is hoping to bury a portion of a proposed transmission line beneath Great Bay.

Demonstrators here say that could do permanent damage to the tidal estuary. Eversource maintains it won’t.