Hodes gets down to business in Keene visit Monday

Anika Clark
Sentinel Staff

As Americans tiptoe through a scary economy, Congressman Paul W. Hodes, D-N.H., had some encouraging words for the Monadnock Region’s small-business owners Monday.

“Small businesses of today are the billionaires of tomorrow,” he said to a business roundtable at Keene State College, part of a day when Hodes was slated to meet with several groups throughout the city. “When you’re billionaires, remember where you started.”

But at the roundtable, moderated by the N.H. Small Business Development Center, many of those would-be billionaires described a range of obstacles standing in their way.

Monadnock has Lynch’s ear in visit

School officials hope to gain governor’s help

Anika Clark
Sentinel Staff

During a stop in the Monadnock Region Friday, Gov. John H. Lynch saw modern, cutting-edge technology — along with technology that has little edge at all.

He visited Smiths Medical in Keene and listened as Director of Operations David Jankowski described how the firm is using an $83,991 state grant to help bring its employees up to speed with contemporary manufacturing technology.

But before that, he stepped into a metals lab at Monadnock Regional Middle/High School in Swanzey Center.

After learning that students are using machines donated in the early 1960s, Lynch said to teacher Michael Wright, “I’m sure the technology has changed a lot since …”

“Not in this room,” Wright interjected.

The machines were already “used” when they were donated more than four decades ago, Wright said, after pointing to the lab’s newest machine, which is 12 years old.

“We can do the basics here with what we have,” Wright said, but added, “We don’t have much.”

Stepanek seeks council seat

Amherst lawmaker aims at Pignatelli’s District 2 spot

Casey Farrar
Sentinel Staff

Promising fiscal responsibility and vowing to look to more local businesses for state contracts, N.H. Rep. Stephen B. Stepanek, R-Amherst, announced his candidacy for the District 5 seat to the N.H. Executive Council Monday.

Speaking to a handful of supporters and interested passersby on the steps of Keene City Hall, Stepanek said many of the state’s contracts go to businesses in other states, which can harm local small businesses.

“When I was in business I would look into the local community first when I needed goods and services, then expand to a state level, then to a national level if I had to,”  Stepanek said. “I plan to make sure we’re doing that at a state level.”

The role of the five-member Executive Council is to make final decisions on state contracts of $5,000 and over, and reject or accept the governor’s nominees for judgeships, boards and department heads.

Stepanek pointed to Gov. John H. Lynch’s announcement of a $47 million state deficit last month as proof the council needs to scrutinize spending more closely.

Republicans hungry for a comeback

Congressional candidates discuss chances

Anika Clark
Sentinel Staff

John Edwards’ perfectly coifed hair and Mitt Romney’s talk of jihadists may have long left the Monadnock Region. But their departures have only paved the way for yet another political battle.

“The interesting thing in New Hampshire is for anyone that’s political at all, it always to some degree seems to be a political season,” said Keene resident William A. Beauregard.

Beauregard, a former Keene mayoral candidate, planning board member and city councilor, joined slightly more than 40 people at the Historical Society of Cheshire County on Saturday to meet with candidates for state and federal offices.

The gathering was a meeting of the Cheshire County Republicans and featured short addresses by Grant D. Bosse and state Senator Robert E. Clegg Jr, R-Hudson — both of whom are vying for the Republican nomination for Rep. Paul W. Hodes’ seat in Congress.

Bosse and Clegg are competing for the 2nd District seat, which covers Cheshire and Sullivan counties. Jennifer Horn of Nashua and Concord lawyer R. James Steiner have also declared their intent to run.