Category: Berlin NH

So Unique, In So Many Ways

The roof of a building at the corner of Pleasant Street and Mason Street collapsed yesterday. The public works director, fire chief and code enforcement officer assessed the structure and declared it unsafe. They called the company demolishing the southern burnt out building on Main Street and asked if they could use the excavator for a few minutes. The excavator drove up Main Street, demolished the building with the faulty roof, and then drove back down Main Street to finish its job there.

By lunchtime it was over.

Around that time the news director for NHPR sent me an email asking if I wanted to do a 45 second piece on the building collapse for the night’s newscast. He closed the email with, “Not a good sign for that tourist destination,” a reference to the story I did last week. In most circumstances it would be true, but he didn’t understand Berlin. I don’t understand Berlin either, but I am familiar enough with the city that my gut reaction to the situation was it was positive.

I first learned of the roof collapse on Twitter, from pictures posted by Katie Paine and others. The first thing I did was shoot off an email to city staff to ask if I’d missed a property scheduled for demolition. I even posted a note on Twitter congratulating Housing Coordinator Andre Caron for taking down another one. It wasn’t until I got an email back that I found out it wasn’t planned.

I told NHPR I would happily do the story, but I wasn’t going to take the angle it was a bad thing for the city. He was reacting as anyone would—it’s hard to imagine a building collapsing is a good thing—but I explained that things are different in Berlin.
That the city doesn’t have to pay to tear down the building is a good thing. That the city didn’t have to go through the RSA 155-B process is a good thing. That the city was able to reduce it’s excess properties by one is a good thing. From the point of view of the city, if all the vacant buildings could spontaneously give way without hurting anyone it would be a huge relief.
But think about that if you aren’t from Berlin. Think about that if you live in a city with too few properties. I have heard numerous complaints about how the southern part of the state ignores and denigrates the North Country. I don’t think that’s true; I think they simply don’t understand it.

When StoryCorps came to Berlin NHPR announced the dates it would be there and told people to sign up online. I did a story on the StoryCorps coming to the city for the Reporter, so I called NHPR to see how things were going. The woman I talked to said they weren’t getting a lot of people signing up and they didn’t understand why not. I told her they need a phone number in addition to the website because a lot of the people they were trying to reach aren’t on the Internet. When I saw her at the opening she thanked me for helping them connect with residents, something they hadn’t been effective at before.

Last night at city hall, as the election results were coming in, people were speaking in French. That is a wonderful piece of heritage I hope Berlin never loses, though it is doubtlessly difficult to preserve today. It is a facet of the community I notice all the time, and it’s something that makes me smile, simply because its a mystery to me.

To the rest of the state, all of Berlin speaks French, and it isn’t something they understand. In a lot of ways non-industrial economic development stopped south of the notches. A city so rooted in its traditions and its heritage is not something a society of transients is familiar with. What might make perfect sense anywhere else in the state is turned on its head in Berlin. It is a city unlike any other.

The news director asked me if I really thought it was worth the time to report the story of the building, seeing as people in Berlin didn’t see it as a disaster. Yes, I said, it is worth reporting, but not because a building collapsed. It’s news because it isn’t a disaster. It’s news because as the city fights its way out of the economic malaise it has been in for the last several decades it creates situations that defy rationality. It’s news because people are happy to see one more building go down, because it signals the rebirth of the city. It’s news because the rest of the state doesn’t understand this, and because they don’t understand they don’t know what to think of the city.

But it isn’t news that can fit into a 45 second spot. It isn’t a story easily told in a few short sentences. It is a story that goes back a century, and it is a story that happened just yesterday. I watch it unfold, and most of it I can’t put into the newspaper. It is more broad, more emotive and more powerful than I can capture in print. It is truly a spectacular transformation, one residents have been yearning for for generations. Berlin is shedding its skin, growing into a new self even it doesn’t understand. I will never be able to finish telling that story.

But I will continue to try.

The Next Administration

At the mayoral debate there was one question I thought was better than the others, and I didn’t asked it. Barbara Tetreault asked the candidates how they were going to unify the city, which has been polarized for years over the Laidlaw issue. Now Paul Grenier is going to be taking the reins of an administration as divided as the city. Even the alliances he formed to win this election are ones that may not play out well once they are in council chambers: Mike Rozak said at the debate he doesn’t agree with Mr. Grenier on much, but he agrees with him on the Laidlaw issue.
The council will have to get over the rough campaign. As I’ve said several times, I didn’t expect it to get this contentious, but from what people have told me this is mild by Berlin standards. But Councilor Ryan Landry had harsh word for Mr. Grenier at the council meeting several weeks ago. Soon the two men will sit together every Monday night. Councilor David Poulin was outspoken in his support of the incumbent council at the debate; now he will be joined by three of the people he criticized. Mr. Grenier, Mr. Rozak and Mr. Danderson blasted the current council pretty hard over the campaign. The three will soon join the six incumbents—somehow they’ll have to move forward.
Someone said as the election results came in that the old was going to have to learn to work with the new, and the city would get the best of both. Let’s hope that’s the case. What is so interesting is the traditional alliances have been shattered by one issue, and people who would normally support one another are on opposite sides.
I’m interested to see how Mr. Rozak and Councilor Mark Evans work together. Both are fiscal conservatives, but Mr. Evans backed Mr. Goudreau in the election. I’m also interested to see how Mr. Grenier and Mr. Rozak interact. I don’t know much of either man’s history, but as I understand it they don’t really come from the same side of most issues.
And then there is this new group of Mr. Poulin, Mr. Landry and Mr. Cayer. These councilors are trying to make the city think and act in new ways, ways the newly elected mayor and councilors do not agree with. They will have to work with the old guard to get anything done.
It will definitely be an interesting time in Berlin. It isn’t clear what the council can do to aid the Laidlaw project’s progress, or how the new councilors will fulfill their Vote Jobs promise before the next election, seeing as no biomass plant is likely to be operational before 2011.
In all, there was definitely a shift in the leadership, but not enough of a shift to make a 180 degree turn. It may be a contentious two years at city hall.
Or, as Ms. Tetreault suggested, the mayor might find a way to unite the city in order to move forward. Berlin can only hope.

Results

Right now, wards one and two are in.

Ryan Landry won ward one.

Bob Danderson won ward two.

Paul Grenier won both wards. Still waiting on wards three and four.

Update: Ward four goes to David Poulin and Tim Cayer. Paul Grenier won this ward as well.

Update: Ward three goes to Mike Rozak. Paul Grenier won this ward as well. Berlin has a new mayor.

PUC Madness

OK, it’s election night, a building collapsed and was demolished today, and the PUC held a pre-hearing concerning the Clean Power/PSNH dispute.
Crazy news day, making for a crazy news week. I didn’t make it to the PUC hearing in Concord, but what I’m hearing is that PSNH told the PUC they have no deal with Laidlaw. None. Zero.
I wasn’t there, but that’s the report I got. I’m going to look into it more, but the city has been operating for more than a year on the assumption they did, as per a press release sent out late September 2008. If they don’t I don’t know what that means. I have to look into it further, but that’s my understanding of what PSNH said at the hearing. At this point I don’t have anymore information.

Election Night

The election results should be announced by 8:30 p.m. tonight. LPJ will post the numbers immediately, and the Berlin Reporter will have a wrap-up tomorrow on their website. Again, because of the day of the week it won’t be in the print edition, but we’ll have the story the same time as the daily. In fact, if all you want are the numbers, LPJ will have them up by 9 p.m.

Sometimes makes you wonder how paper papers can last, with instant reporting capabilities.

In that vein, I’ll also put the results out on Twitter. Twitter is a great source for realtime news. Like right now, there is yet another old building coming down in the city. You can check out photos here. Right on Mason Street, one I wasn’t aware was coming down. I’m looking to find out some info, but without a doubt it adds one more positive sign to all those stirring around Berlin lately.

Update: The roof collapsed in the night and had to be torn down.

Berlin in the News

And no, it has nothing to do with fires. Or the election, Laidlaw, CPD or anything else particularly controversial.

Here’s the ATV story I did for NHPR. I put it to some photos I had, though only one of them is actually from reporting the story. Blogger doesn’t just let me upload MP3s to the site, so I had to make it a movie. Enjoy!

Update: Here’s a link to the story on NHPR. The transcript mixes up east and west, but I caught it while recording it and got it right for the story.

Update: Here’s the video organizers shot of taking the trail through town. It’s about four and a half miles, and it takes about 15 minutes. It will open Saturday.

A New Set of Positives

This week, though the election is hot news, is not about the election for me. Since my paper comes out Wednesday I’ve got to search around for stories other than the biggest one in the city. I fell like I’m breathing fresh air for the first time in a while, not mired in the combative discussions that have engulfed the city for the last few weeks. And when I look around I remember why I have hope for Berlin.
The election has been rough on Berlin. People are choosing sides and lashing out along ideological and issue-based lines. I talked to several people today who said this election has been relatively mild by Berlin standards, which continues to amaze me, but apparently Berlin had some rough races in its past.
So while I talked to people today about the election, most of the time was spent looking for unrelated stories. What I found were more of the positive stories I’d been telling before. I strayed from those stories to report on the election, PUC hearings and Laidlaw investors, but when I returned to Main Street they were easy to find.
Like what? Like the burned out buildings are being torn down. It is like a breath of fresh air sweeping through the whole downtown. They are coming down one at a time, but they are certainly coming down. The retail establishments are letting out a sigh, finally free of a yoke. The Berlin Wall will soon be down.
The ATV trail opens next weekend. That is another reason to be happy. Years of efforts by multiple councils have gone into this project, and it’s finally coming to fruition.
SaVoir Flare will open next week, giving me one more place to shop for my wife. I already love Hall of Greetings, Rumorz and Maureen’s, and this gives me one more place to go. I’ll likely buy all of her holiday gifts in Berlin this year.
I noticed another store opening soon: Kate’s Place. Anyone know anything about it?
I ran into Dana Willis, one of the men developing the Notre Dame school, emptying out one of the buildings on Main Street. He’s got a project he wants to put in there, though he said he isn’t ready to release the details. But any development on Main Street by someone like Mr. Willis is welcome. It’s one more building without posters in the windows.
Speaking of Mr. Willis, how about Notre Dame? The site is cleaned up, and the air quality tests were just the other day. The city invested $300,000, and Mr. Willis and his partner are going to invest another $4 million. He expects somewhere near 100 jobs at the assisted living facility that goes there. Those are jobs Berlin could use, and that WMCC can prepare people for.
I also heard there is an art gallery/coffee shop opening on Main Street. Hallelujah. I hope they put in wireless. The proprietor was talking about it briefly today, and I didn’t get the specifics, but again, it’s one more business on Main Street.
And the city got another $500,000 for the Neighborhood Revitalization Program. It will allow them to assist at least 35 homeowners with renovation, though Housing Coordinator Andre Caron said last time they did 34 homes with $350,000. The majority of that money goes to local tradespeople; more jobs for Berlin.
That money, combined with other funds, means Mr. Caron has something like $5 million to spend in the next 24 months to revive the city’s housing stock.
Honestly, the sun was shining today and the future looks bright for Berlin. There has been a lot of negative talk due to the municipal election, but I got out today to see what the people were saying, and the one’s I’m talking to are optimistic. I got caught up in the pace of the moment too, viewing the election as a life or death battle. But it’s not. The city has life, and no one can stamp it out. It has people working to make it better. It has passionate people right where it needs it. It has the tools to move forward. I’m glad I got to see that again today, and I hope everyone else notices it too.

Debate Video

Last night’s debate, in six clips. I left out the audience questions; if anyone misses them let me know and I’ll post them too. It was a great discussion, and I hope people will use this as a resource to further educate themselves about the candidates. If you want a full quality version give me a shout and I’d be happy to provide you with it. (Not that I expect anyone to take me up on that, but if you want it…)

Opening Statements

Questions One and Two

Questions Three and Four

Questions Five, Six and Seven

Questions Eight, Nine and Ten

Closing Statements

Debate Night

Tonight’s debate was great. Awesome. Perfect.

I’d like to thank all the councilors and candidates who made the debate happen, and everyone who came out to watch and to learn. I hope it helped make up some voters’ minds. (I also admit, I’m not event organizer, so that it didn’t have more hiccups than it did was surprising.)

I recorded the entire mayoral portion and will post it on here as soon as I can. I didn’t record the council comments because I ran out of space on my card, and unfortunately I missed one of the most interesting speakers of the evening, Councilor David Poulin.
Councilor Poulin made rapid-fire comments on almost every issue the city faces, supporting the current council and dismissing the challengers. It was funny, pointed and well-delivered. Because I won’t be writing about it for next week’s paper (which won’t come out until after the election) I wasn’t taking notes and therefore don’t feel I can adequately report it. But suffice to say, it was quite a speech. Someone commented city meetings might be too boring for people to attend. Moments like that, however, are why they’re worth attending. His speech, as much as the mayoral debate, made the event worth attending. I just feel bad for those people who left before they could watch it. And I feel bad I didn’t bring a second memory card.

Update: I didn’t comment on this much last night, because I was tired and had a long day planned for today. But I just wanted to say both Mr. Grenier and Mr. Bertrand did an excellent job answering the questions. I think they both came off very well and made persuasive arguments for their positions.
I know many people I’ve talked to are frustrated with Mr. Grenier, usually for two reasons: the ad in the paper featuring the burned Main Street building, and his aligning himself with Mr. Rozak and Mr. Danderson. I spoke to several people today who decided not to vote for him specifically because of one or the other of these issues. Last night, however, he made strong arguments why voters should consider him, even if they aren’t willing to vote straight ticket.
I asked Mr. Bertrand a week ago if he had the fight in him to run in a hotly contested election. Last night he proved he does. Councilor Mark Evans said he didn’t think his performance played well. He said he thought Mr. Bertrand came off as frustrated. Someone else told me today they were pleased to see him show some passion and emotion. I lean to the latter, but I can understand the former.
After the debate, I’m impressed with the caliber of both candidates. Honestly, I don’t agree with Mr. Grenier’s strong support of the Laidlaw project, but I also don’t agree with Mr. Bertrand’s outright rejection of it. I agree with the forward image this council has pursued, but I understand Mr. Grenier’s steadfast defense of the city’s roots. I don’t think people can be argued into trying to change the city’s image—they have to be persuaded to come along. This council has been moving forward with great strides, and they may have lost touch with some of the people not so ready to run towards the future. The council has noble goals, and they have to make sure to include those people without such progressive views in order to maintain their support.
Mr. Grenier’s experience of being laid off from the mill at 41 is not one to be taken lightly. He is right, the Fraser mill is employing people who do not fit in the 21st century economy. It is important the city preserve those jobs. The council has been doing that, but without the emphasis Mr. Grenier deems appropriate. That is a very important point.
There are the jobs for people in Berlin now, and the jobs for people in Berlin in the future. I don’t know how to supply either or both, but that’s the task for whichever man should become mayor.

I didn’t know Mr. Grenier before this election, and our first interactions included some friction. I have spent a lot of time with this council, covering every Monday night meeting, and I am friendly with all of them. That has affected my opinion, but it has not affected my reporting. It is a good lesson, though, that people shouldn’t criticize people at meetings they weren’t at. I sit in all the council meetings, so I know how hard this council worked. I don’t consider people who say the council hasn’t been doing anything to be very well informed because I watch them work diligently every week.
The flip-side is also true, however. The reporter from the daily covered council when Mr. Grenier and Mr. Danderson were their, and she likely dismisses the current council’s claims that nothing happened under that administration.
These are all good people, doing a job to the best of their abilities. Either Mr. Grenier or Mr. Bertrand would represent the city of Berlin well.
I’m interested to see how democracy plays out for the city, and how that in turn plays out in the future. I’ll be prepared in the future to dismiss criticism of the current council’s term in office, because I sat in every meeting. Hopefully this will teach me to look at all such criticism with skepticism, and I’ll continue to keep of my opinions to myself. The people of Berlin should decide this election; my job is to let them know where the candidates stand. It will be interesting to see what they decide on Tuesday, and which of these men is left standing.