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Five-day forecastFIFTY CENTS16 PAGES

VOL. 90, NO.153

FRIDAY, JULY 1, 2016

TODAYPM Thunderstorms

Hi: 84Lo: 59

SATURDAYMostly Sunny

Hi: 77Lo: 55

SUNDAYMostly Sunny

Hi: 80Lo: 57

MONDAYMostly Sunny

Hi: 83Lo: 59

TUESDAYMostly Cloudy

Hi: 84Lo: 60

Crews rescue trapped driver in BelmontFROM STAFF REPORTS

B E L M O N T — T e a m w o r k made the difference and helped rescue a trapped motorist Thursday morning in Belmont.

According to Laconia/Bel-mont Fire Chief Ken Erickson, firefighters and rescue person-nel were notified of a motor ve-hicle crash at the intersection of Ladd Hill Road and Daniel Webster Highway at 5:56 a.m. Thursday.

Erickson said that Belmont and Laconia crews were dis-patched to the accident scene.

“The value of automatic aid and the recent sharing of fire and rescue services proved its value this morning,” Erickson said.

He said that Laconia Engine 1 arrived first at the scene, and advised dispatchers of a T-bone-type of crash with a victim trapped inside her car.

“Belmont arrived with their ambulance, which also carries a small set of extrication tools,” Erickson said. “Lt. Jason El-lingson and his crew from La-conia and Lt. Thomas Murphy and his crew from Belmont worked seamlessly to treat the patient and extricate her from the car.”

It took the two rescue crews about 30 minutes to safely re-move the woman from her ve-hicle.

According to Erickson, the victim’s injuries were not seri-ous, and she was taken to Lakes Region General Hospital in La-conia for treatment.

He said that the vehicle’s safe-ty features had a major impact in preventing more serious in-juries during the accident.

BOB MARTIN/CITIZEN

MIKE WELCH had his leg amputated after crashing his motorcycle while under the influence of alcohol in 1980. He now raises awareness about the dangers of drinking and driving, and one of the ways is by swimming long distances. On Thursday he swam a two-and-a-half mile stretch of Newfound Lake. From left are Tammy Scott, Lisa Screnci, Welch and Suzanne Riedel.

Amputee swims width of Newfound LakeMike Welch raises awareness about dangers of drinking and drivingBy BOB MARTINbmartin@citizen.com

HEBRON — Mike Welch has an ampu-tated leg, but he hasn’t let that stop him.

On Thursday morning, Welch swam a two-and-a-half mile stretch of Newfound Lake as his colleagues, loved ones and members of the Newfound Lake Region Association cheered him on.

Welch made a mistake about 36 years ago that would change his life forever, when he crashed his motorcycle while under the influence of alcohol. The ac-cident resulted in his left leg being am-putated, but now he spreads awareness

of the dangers of drinking and driving, while also being an inspiration to ampu-tees by swimming the lengths of the larg-est lakes in New Hampshire.

“I was drinking and got on my motor-cycle, ended up in the hospital and three months later, they cut off my leg,” said Welch. “Don’t drink and drive ever.

Area towns plan Fourth of July holiday activitiesBy JIM CLARKjclark@citizen.com

L A C O N I A — A n u m b e r o f Fourth of July holiday activities are planned for Laconia, Belmont and Gilmanton, including two pa-rades.

Laconia’s parade will take place on Monday, July 4. The parade will start from Wyatt Park and will pro-ceed through the center of the city to Opechee Park.

The parade’s formation at Wy-att Park begins at 3:30 p.m., with the parade starting at 4:30 p.m. The parade will proceed up South Main Street through the downtown

area of Main Street, and conclude at Opechee Park on North Main Street. In case of rain, the parade will be rescheduled for Tuesday, July 5 at 4:30 p.m.

Music, entertainment, food and vendors will be featured at Opechee Park starting at 4:30 p.m. on Mon-day.

Fireworks take place at Weirs Beach at midnight on Sunday, July 3. Fireworks at Opechee Park are scheduled for 10 p.m. on Monday, July 4.

The Fourth of July Parade in Gil-manton will take place at 10 a.m. on Monday. The parade’s lineup will

form at the corner of Currier Hill Road and High Street beginning at 9 a.m. The parade will proceed east on High Street to Provence Road, Route 107, head south on Provence Road past the Academy Building, Town Hall and conclude in the vicinity of the Corner Slice Restaurant, located at the junction of Routes 107 and 140.

There will be concession stands set up in front of the Academy Build-ing during the morning hours.

At 9:30 p.m. on Saturday, July 2, fireworks will take place at Crystal

COURTESY

LAKES REGION PERFORMERS AUDREY DRAKE, JACKIE LEE, AND JACK POLIDORO will perform at the Belmont bandstand in back of the town library at 5:30 p.m. on Satur-day, July 2.

WOW trail sponsors now able to invest with granite paversEngraved pavers available for $1,000 donation for Phase 2

By RENEE CORRIVEAUrcorriveau@citizen.com

LACONIA — The time has come to leave your mark on the WOW trail.

Local businesses and community members have the chance to purchase a granite paver for the WOW trail, and carve their name into the trail’s suc-cess.

The paver will be placed behind the downtown Laconia train station.

“This is a great opportunity for lo-cal businesses and residents to invest

Congregational Church celebrates projectBy BOB MARTINbmartin@citizen.com

LACONIA — About 30 mem-bers of the community gathered outside of the Laconia Congre-gational Church in celebration of the $850,000 worth of dona-tions and renovations, which included modernizing the kitch-en, improving various common rooms, adding windows and con-necting the church offices and classrooms to the main church building.

T h e e v e n t i n c l u d e d w o r d s from local dignitaries and rep-resentatives of the church, as well as guided tours around the building and complimentary re-freshments.

The church has been in the city for 185 years, and is well known around the state for be-ing the birthplace of the Got Lunch! Campaign. The improve-ments to the building are part of an ongoing effort to spruce up the downtown area.

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BOB MARTIN/CITIZEN

BUILDING TEAM CHAIRMAN DAN TINKHAM presents architect Ann Vivian with a com-memorative paver for her help in the capital campaign project which saw major renova-tions to the Laconia Congregational Church.

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in Phase 2 and leave a lasting impression, lit-erally, on the growing

regional trail ,” said WOW Trail Executive Director Gretchen Gan-dini.

Each paver will be 12 by 36 inches, and will provide room for company names, logos,

names of families or loved ones or a message of your choice.

Pavers are purchased with a $1,000 donation.

Space is limited, and the first 50 donors will receive a paver.

WOWFrom Page A1

COURTESY

MYLES CHASE OF MC CYCLE AND SPORT, and Kevin Halligan of Local Eatery and Local Provisions, hold an example of the granite pavers that will be engraved with their business logos and placed behind the train station as a part of the Phase 2 expansion of the WOW Trail.

Walker thanked the supporters for helping them, as well as thanking the city of Laconia for help along the way.

“We are thrilled and very proud that we joined the effort to modern-ize Laconia to get it back to the city that it was,” said Walker. “I think we’ve done a good job of adding an awful lot of pizazz to the north end of downtown.”

Rev. Warren Bouton explained that five years ago, a small group of church leaders and dreamers met to talk about whether or not the church should conduct a capital campaign by renovating and improving the church’s buildings. He said it was

clear that the kitchen needed work, as it was worn and inefficient. They also knew the area needed to be brightened up at the Pleasant Street entrance, as well as the handicap ac-cessibility to make it safer and more comfortable for those leaving the el-evator.

“We knew we needed to tackle those projects, but none of them re-ally felt exciting,” said Bouton. “We knew we needed to be excited to in-spire others to be excited and to give generously. Then someone said, ‘how about we connect our two buildings?’ Immediately there was a spark.”

Bouton said they decided to build a bridge, which got the community excited to connect the sanctuary and the church school.

He called it a dream that has be-come a reality.

For more on the project , check out citizen.com.

IMPROVEFrom Page A1

Lake Park in Gilmanton Iron Works. The park is located on Crystal Lake Road off Route 140. In case of rain, the fire-works will take place at the park at 9:30 p.m. on Monday, July 4.

A concert at the Belmont bandstand, located near the Bel-mont Mill and in back of the town library on Main Street, will take place at 5:30 p.m. on Saturday, July 2. Fea-tured will be Lakes Region performers Audrey Drake, Jack-ie Lee and Jack Poli-doro, also known as “Good Dr. Jack”.

People are encour-aged to bring a picnic lunch to the band-stand starting at 4:30 p.m., with a number of children’s activi-ties starting at that time. In case of rain, the concert will take place at the Corner

Meeting House at the corner of Fuller and Sargent Streets.

This will be the first concert at the band-stand since the struc-ture was named to the New Hampshire State Register of Historic Places last spring. The renovated bandstand dates back to 1908.

The concert is being

presented by the Bel-mont Heritage Com-mission with sponsor-ship by the John M. Sargent Fund, the Bel-mont Parks and Recre-ation Department and the Belmont Public Li-brary.

T h e r e w i l l b e n o Fourth of July parades in Gilford or Belmont this year.

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Sanbornton seeks new town administratorBy BOB MARTINbmartin@citizen.com

SANBORNTON — Town officials are in the process of finding a new town administrator with hopes to fill the po-sition before the town’s contract with Municipal Resources, Inc. expires at the end of July.

Currently, the town of Sanbornton has an interim town administrator, Charlie Smith, who is employed by MRI and has been with the town for about a year since Bob Veloski departed when the board of selectmen opted not to re-new his contract.

Fire Chief Paul Dexter, Police Chief Stephen Hankard, Treasurer Karen Cobb and Selectman John Olmstead created a vetting committee to find a permanent town administrator, and Dexter said on Wednesday that he hopes to have the position filled as soon as possible.

MRI is not involved in any of the hiring process for the new town ad-ministrator. Dexter said it is unclear whether Smith will be applying for the position, but it was their wish to have him separated from the hiring process as well.

“We are kind of taking the process out of the hands of the town office,” said Dexter.

There have been 11 applicants for the job, and this was whittled down to six to be interviewed by Dexter, Han-kard and Cobb, as well as two guest town administrators from surround-ing communities. The mandate of the board of selectmen is for the committee

to select three names out of this group of six for the board to interview and choose from.

Dexter said the right candidate for the town administrator job will have municipal background, human rela-tions experience, financial experience and budget experience.

Just as important, Dexter said, is that they bring in someone who under-stands what it takes to work in small town New Hampshire.

“Sometimes that is harder to find than finding a good administrator when it comes to the technical parts of the job,” said Dexter.

Dexter explained that MRI supplies a temporary administrator to them who has a qualified degree, but may not have ample experience in municipal government.

He said the town decided to go this route after the former Town Adminis-trator Bob Veloski left as a temporary fix instead of jumping right in and hir-ing someone.

The contract with MRI was supposed to end on July 1, but it has been extend-ed to the end of July, as the town had not yet found a replacement.

Dexter said he is going to be in con-tact with the candidates today to set up interview times, which will take place during the week of July 11.

The board of selectmen will deter-mine their interviewing process in the following week. Dexter or Hankard will be assisting in the interview pro-cess, as well.

“The process is moving forward,” said Dexter.

You’ve got to drink with caution.”Welch stressed that his motorcycle ac-

cident is something that he regrets and will pay for the rest of his life. He is now an advocate against drinking and driving, as well as being against bringing back “happy hour” in the Bay State.

“It doesn’t make sense,” said Welch. “I’m very much against that. There’s noth-ing happy when a kid drinks too many Budweisers and hits a telephone pole. And it happens constantly. We’re sup-posed to be doing things to prevent stuff like that, not add to it. It’s devastating out there for alcohol and drug abuse. We’re losing kids all the time, and it’s so sad. If I can just give the message that if you are doing it and can’t stop, go get help.”

By doing things like swimming long distances, Welch hopes that he can spread awareness about the dangers of drinking and driving. He also swims to show people with disabilities that they can push on and achieve success.

“You can do whatever you want if you put your mind to it,” said Welch.

Welch is a resident of Shirley, Mass., and is a custodian at Francis Wyman El-ementary School. He was a United States Marine, and he credits his mental tough-ness to when he served. He was with the Wounded Warriors three years ago when he swam and ran, and said he was hon-ored to participate.

Thursday’s swim was a warmup for Welch, who plans to come back to New-found Lake and swim the entire seven-mile length of it sometime between Aug. 17 and 18. The swim started at about 9 a.m. at Grey Rocks Conservation Area, and ended at the shore of Whip-o-will Road.

He was monitored by a boat full of NLRA officials, as well as two teachers he works with at Francis Wyman Elemen-tary School named Tammy Scott and Lisa Screnci, and his girlfriend Suzanne

Riedel. They all expressed how excited they are for Welch’s enthusiasm and de-termination, but Welch was humble and thanked his friends.

“I really couldn’t do this without all of them,” said Welch.

Welch swam the distance in about two and a half hours, and said he is very much looking forward to coming back to swim the full length.

“It’s really an honor to swim here,” Welch said. “They say Newfound is one of the cleanest lakes, and I’d have to agree with that. It’s the cleanest lake I have ever swam in.”

Welch explained that he has always been a swimmer. He grew up in Dorches-ter, Mass., and his father brought him to the ocean when he was young. He said he was always amazed by the water. He got into triathlons and ran into some mara-thon swimmers and was intrigued by them.

“I said, ‘wow, these guys are a different breed,’” said Welch.

Welch has swam around Manhattan, which is about 28 miles, and has also par-ticipated in 11 Boston Marathons with a prosthetic leg. He admits that it is difficult every time, but the idea is to keep on push-ing. While not officially swimming for the Pan-Mass Challenge, Welch said he is an avid supporter. He has participated in 18 of the events, and raised more than $36,000 to help benefit Dana-Farber Cancer Cen-ter.

In New Hampshire, Welch has swam the length of Squam Lake, Sunapee and swam from Alton Bay to Meredith in Lake Winnipesaukee. He said Newfound Lake is so enjoyable to swim in, as there is much less traffic than Lake Winnipe-saukee.

He said there were some tough parts, as there was a current and a bit of choppi-ness due to wind on Newfound on Thurs-day. However, he said that the water was nice and warm, and he felt great when he reached the shore.

“I’ve got no complaints here,” said Welch. “It was awesome.”

SWIMFrom Page A1

BOB MARTIN/CITIZEN

MIKE WELCH finishes a two-and-a-half mile section of Newfound Lake on Thursday morning.