International Firefighters’ Day is a time where the world’s community honors the sacrifices firefighters make to ensure that their communities are as safe as possible. It is also a day to thank current and past firefighters for their devotion and selflessness.
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National Police Week
Sunday May 10 to Saturday May 16
National Police Week is dedicated to honoring America's law enforcement community for their selflessness and dedication in safeguarding the lives of their fellow Americans.
In 1962, President Kennedy proclaimed May 15 as National Peace Officers Memorial Day and the calendar week in which May 15 falls, as National Police Week. Established by a joint resolution of Congress in 1962, National Police Week pays special recognition to those law enforcement officers who have lost their lives in the line of duty for the safety and protection of others.
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National Public Works Week
May 17 - 23, 2020
National Public Works Week is a time to acknowledge and thank the
men and women who provide and preserve the infrastructure and services in our community.
Instituted as a public education campaign by the American Public Works Association in 1960, National Public Works Week calls attention to the importance of public works in community life.
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FARMERS' MARKET
Henniker Community Market
Opening May 21
Every Thursday 4-7 pm
Community Center Park, 57 Main Street, Henniker
During these challenging times, more and more people are realizing the value and resilience of a local food system. We are committed to providing our community with access to locally grown food.
In order to prioritize public safety and adhere to the state’s business guidelines, we will be implementing significant changes to the market until further notice.
Please review our COVID guidelines below carefully
before attending the market. Help us stay safe and in business!
These vendors will be at the market:
Kearsarge Gore Farm, Warner
Terra Organics, Contoocook
Hop N Hen Farm, Henniker
Mink View Farm, Henniker
Elior Acres, Bradford
Abigail’s Bakery, Weare
Lucky 7 Farm, Washington
Products will include certified organic fruits and vegetables, pasture raised pork, beef, lamb, and chicken, eggs, maple syrup, goat milk & yogurt, and soap.
We encourage you to contact our vendors and arrange for pre-order if possible.
NH Community Seafood has CSF (Community Supported Fishery) shares available for pick up at the market. Support our local fishermen and eat the FRESHEST wild-caught fish and seafood all season! Learn more here:
http://www.nhcommunityseafood.com/what-is-a-csf
Stay safe and see you at the market!
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HENNIKER COMMUNITY MARKET RESPONSE TO COVID-19 GUIDELINES
Throughout New Hampshire’s COVID-‐19 Stay At Home orders, the Governor has classified farmers markets as essential. We could not agree more with this assessment. We are living in unprecedented times. With industrial food supply chains breaking down, packing plants forced to closed their doors due to worker illness, limitations on migrant worker visas, panic buying, limits on essential items imposed in some stores – more and more people are beginning to realize that a local food system is most resilient. We are opening our farmers market with this knowledge. We all need to eat. The food at the farmers market is minimally handled
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direct from farmer to consumer. The supply chain is short and reliable. The food is fresh and nutrient dense, helping us to build strong immune systems and to stay well.
At this time, the market is not a place to gather and socialize. It is a place to shop for food, as essential as any grocery store. We need your help to adhere to our COVID guidelines so that we can ensure the safety of our farmers, and so we can be allowed to remain in business. We are committed to providing access to fresh, locally grown food, perhaps more now than ever before.
In order to prioritize public health and adhere to the State’s guidelines for operation, we will be implementing the following changes at the market until further notice.
MASKS & GLOVES
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Please wear a mask or cloth face covering to attend the market.
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All vendors will be required to wear masks and gloves.
HAND SANITIZER –
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Hand sanitizing stations will be available for patrons at all vendor booths.
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Please sanitize your hands upon entering the market.
PHYSICAL DISTANCING –
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Vendor booths will be spaced at maximum distance apart.
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6 foot spacing will be delineated on the ground for shopping lines.
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Shoppers must maintain 6 foot distancing at all times, please.
PRODUCT AVAILABITY –
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Products will be limited to agricultural food, prepared food, vegetable seedlings, and soap. No arts/crafts, demos, or sampling until further notice.
PRODUCT HANDLING –
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Only vendors will be allowed to touch goods in booths. Vendor booth layout will minimize the ability of the public to come in contact with products for sale. Patrons will tell the vendor what they would like to purchase, and the vendor will bag it for them. Product samples will not be available.
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Per the Governor’s order, reusable shopping bags will not be permitted.
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Prepared foods/value added products should be brought home to eat.
PAYMENT –
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CASH – ALL cash payments will be made at the PAYMENT BOOTH. Vendors will give each shopper a paper receipt with the amount owed. When the patron is finished shopping, they will bring all of their paper receipts to the Payment Booth and pay the total amount due. This will drastically reduce exposure/contact for our vendors.
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CHECKS – Checks can be made out directly to vendors at their individual discretion.
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CREDIT CARDS – We encourage you to purchase tokens at the Merrimack County Conservation District booth if you wish to use your credit card at the market. Tokens can be used as payment directly at each vendor booth, by placing them in the provided container on the vendor’s table. Vendors have the option of accepting credit card payments directly at their booths, at their individual discretion.
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EBT/SNAP – EBT/SNAP cards can be used at the market by purchasing tokens at the Merrimack County Conservation District booth. “MARKET MATCH” -‐ EBT/SNAP dollars are matched up to $20 at each market. So, if you spend $20 on your EBT card, you get $40 worth of tokens! Tokens can be used as payment directly at each vendor booth, by placing them in the provided container on the vendor’s table.
NOT A SOCIAL GATHERING –
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We encourage one person per household to shop, if possible.
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Shoppers are encouraged to complete their purchases and exit the market in a timely fashion, without lingering.
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Until further notice, we will not have live music.
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Help us stay safe and in business!
We thank you in advance for your cooperation, patience, and support. See you at the market! Stay well. ~ Monica
Henniker Community Market
PO Box 2039 Henniker, NH 03242
603.568.1562 Contact Monica Rico
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On March 15th, Henniker Community Market started a fundraising campaign to purchase and distribute food to Henniker families facing food insecurity during the COVID-19 crisis.
To date, we have raised nearly $20,000 through individual contributions and grant funding. We are currently delivering weekly boxes of groceries to 60 Henniker households, feeding over 200 people. We have delivered 329 boxes of groceries so far.
We will continue to distribute food as long as we have the funds. The need is ongoing.
You can make a contribution online:
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It continues to be the decision of the trustees to remain closed until state and local officials sound the all-clear. One question we have received is why we aren’t offering curbside service throughout the pandemic. Unlike curbside take-out or pickup from the grocery store, library curbside looks much different in one very important way: our items need to be returned. When you pick up your order at your favorite restaurant, you eat the product and then throw away the packing. Our books go out and then must be returned. While some libraries have been providing curbside service the trustees are not satisfied with the answer to the very important question, how to safely handle these returned items.
The library building may be closed but our virtual library is open for business with new content being added almost daily! Along with links to great resources such as museums, concerts, and learning materials, your favorite staff members are thinking of your needs.
- If you need a few minutes to get work done, our Children’s Department staff are offering virtual story times, book readings, and family oriented activities.
- If you have a sweet tooth, then check out the weekly post entitled “Food in Fiction” where a book is highlighted and a desert is prepared.
- If you have been thinking about your genealogy, then now is the time to do the research! Tucker Free has been granted free access to both the Heritage Quest and Ancestry Library databases.
- If you are looking for a documentary or a fun short movie checkout the InfoBase Master Collection of Videos on Demand, including popular HBO series such as Chernobyl.
- Don’t miss the video of our most recent Moose Plate Project, which was completed on April 22, 2020 with the installation of the restored attic windows.
The library director has been working on a task force with the State Library on guidance for reopening. The goal of this task force is to provide best practices for safe library service. Members are working to open libraries with considerable consideration of the health of staff, patrons and communities.
Additionally, the library director is attending a nine-week program on the science and practices to keep workers safe. This is offered through ECHO at Dartmouth-Hitchcock (Extension for Community Health Outcomes). The COVID 19 epidemic will require different strategies to support workers in staying healthy and safely engaged in work. Needs will change as the pandemic peaks and ebbs in different regions and businesses must adjust accordingly, with continuing care to avoid resurgence in the virus as workers return to more usual work patterns. This ECHO series will examine the evolving science and practice of worker safety in the era of COVID and will provide a forum for employers to share concerns and ideas related to different work contexts and will adapt as COVID and employer needs evolve.
Anxiously awaiting the day we can SEE and SERVE our patrons again.
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OUTDOOR GUIDE TO HENNIKER AND HILLSBOROUGH
Every three years, the Henniker Rotary Club updates and prints a new edition of its popular Outdoor Guide to inform visitors, new residents and businesses of all the wonderful outdoor activities available in Henniker and Hillsborough. The 10
th
edition of the Outdoor Guide is in the process of being edited for either fall 2020 or early 2021 publication.
The committee working on this would like to hear from residents who have walked the trails and noticed any changes to current descriptions of the trails or activities included in the guide. The free distribution of the 10,000 copies of the guide are made possible, thanks to advertisers from local businesses and professionals in Henniker and Hillsborough. Many local businesses have already submitted artwork for new ads that help support the publication of the guide. If you have not been contacted yet by a Rotary Club member and would like to either renew your ad or submit an ad or listing for the guide, please contact Ruth Zax,
rbzax@comcast.net.
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Chili Fest 2020 a Casualty of COVID-19
Current events with the COVID 19 virus have stunned all of us. Our plans for celebrations like school and college graduations, weddings, holidays, and, yes the Henniker Rotary Annual
Fire on the Mountain Chili Fest, originally scheduled for August 16 have all been put on hold waiting for decisions on public gatherings.
The Rotary Board of Directors has been carefully considering what new norms would need to be in place regarding social distancing and food service restrictions for both servers and attendees. In addition to managing social distancing and large group gatherings, we have been particularly concerned about our ability to recruit restaurants to participate due to the impact the pandemic has had on them and the publics’ concerns about having open food service at the event.
Given these uncertainties, we have come to the sad and difficult decision that we should cancel Chili Fest.
The Henniker Rotary Club is strong and will come through these hard times because we are “People of Action” and continue our commitment to both fund raising and the use of those funds for the communities we serve.
We are not going away. We have to change course and pivot to cope with these new norms but Rotary, and all of us, have been through hard times before.
The Henniker Rotary Club would like to say a special thank you to our long time partners and sponsors including: Pats Peak Ski Area, Granite Quill Publishers - The Messenger, 102.3 – The River, Ayer & Goss Fuels, Dunkin’ Donuts of Henniker, Davis & Towle Insurance Group, Edmunds ACE Hardware, Henniker Veterinary Hospital, New England College, Henniker Crushed Stone, Henniker Family Dentistry, Henniker Farm & Country Store, Henniker Pharmacy, Merrimack County Savings Bank and Morse Sporting Goods. Without this local business support, the Rotary Club “Fire on the Mountain Chili Fest would not have been the success it has been for the past 18 years.
To all of you who attended the event over the years, thank you for helping the Rotary Club of Henniker make our service areas of Henniker and Hillsborough such great communities of caring.
We hope you will share in our optimism and that you find it in your hearts and minds to see the bright future ahead. Please take time now to consider how you can continue your support for all that our Rotary Members do in the community. For instance, check out our new “Flags over Henniker and Hillsboro” initiative (see attached and our facebook link) and stay tuned for information about future Rotary activities. Better still, consider joining our club and being part of this important service organization. Contact George Mobley
mblgcm@aol.com to learn more. With you as part of our team, we will celebrate the great spirit that binds our community together.
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AZALEA PARK RIVERWALK
The industrious beavers are at work once again in Azalea Park!
As you walk along the park path, you cannot miss the work of these incredible engineers. It is evident that they do not discriminate in either size or species in choosing their trees.
The Azalea Park Committee has contacted New Hampshire Fish and Game in the hopes of finding a responsible way to save our trees along the riverbank. We recognize that beavers are a part of the natural order of the river and we will find the best way to co-exist.
Let us know if you have any tried and true answers.
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The Henniker Food Pantry is still open and ready to serve those in need. Because of Covid-19 we have modified our operations. For our clients, we have a pre-order system set up at the pantry entrance, or you can email your shopping list to
HennikerFoodPantry@outlook.com
(in order of priority) or you can hand your order during distribution to a volunteer for us to shop for you while you wait.
We are open for distribution on Monday's from 11am-12pm and Wednesday's from 5:30-6:30pm. We are also open for donations on Wednesday's from 11am-12pm. Please follow us on Facebook to keep up with our current needs. Monetary donations can be sent to P.O. Box 55.
Thank you for your support! It is a pleasure to serve the Henniker community. If you have any other questions please call Amanda at 428-7474
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SAU 24
May 1 School Lunch
Hero Day
As of May 1, over 20,000 meals have been prepared and distributed in SAU 24 schools for those at home since remote learning began in March. Between preparing healthy meals for America’s students, adhering to strict nutrition standards, navigating student food allergies, and offering service with a smile, school nutrition professionals are true heroes. And this year, they've added the important job of providing meals to students at home during this time of COVID-19.
In SAU 24 schools, the lunch program has been preparing and delivering meals to students from the beginning of remote learning in mid-March. Additionally, on April 6, all children up to the age of 18 can get free meals due to a waiver from the state and the USDA. Just recently, SAU 24 schools began preparing and delivering reheatable meals for weekend consumption each Friday.
If you have not been receiving meals during this crisis and want breakfast and lunch to be delivered, contact:
If your household income has been affected due to this current crisis, you may wish to fill out a free or reduced application to see if you are eligible for free or reduced pricing when school resumes. An approved application now would be in effect until October 2020. Applications are available on the school websites.
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Natasha Kolehmainen Named Assistant Superintendent of SAU 24
May 11, 2020— Henniker, NH—
SAU 24 Superintendent of Schools Jacqueline Coe announced today that Natasha Kolehmainen has been named Assistant Superintendent for SAU 24 effective
July 1, 2020.
Mrs. Kolehmainen comes to SAU 24 with an extensive career in public education in New Hampshire. She is currently the Curriculum Administrator with SAU 39 in Amherst which includes three school districts and more than 2,000 students and 200 staff members. She is also the Chief Innovation Officer of Paradigm Consulting, which provides professional development and project management services to school districts across New Hampshire and the Department of Education.
Earlier in her career, Mrs. Kolehmainen was the Director of Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment in Pelham. She was also a Reading Specialist in Bedford and began her work in public education as a classroom teacher at Greenville Elementary.
“Natasha’s wealth of experience in public education in New Hampshire including in a multi-district SAU means she will be able to hit the ground running on her first day,” said Jacqueline Coe. “To say this current school year has had some challenges is an understatement. Having someone with so much knowledge in areas of curriculum, instruction, and professional development step into the role which guides all of these areas gives us an edge for the coming school year and beyond,” continued Superintendent Coe.
Mrs. Kolehmainen holds a CAGS (Certificate of Advanced Graduate Study) in Educational Leadership from Plymouth State University and a Master of Education in Reading from Rivier College. Her undergraduate degree is from Smith College where she earned a BA in Education and Psychology.
Natasha Kolehmainen brings some personal knowledge of the schools in SAU 24 as well. Her step-children attended and graduated from schools within SAU 24 and her husband, Denis Kolehmainen, is the current hockey coach at John Stark Regional High School. She and her family reside in Bow.
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Christopher Roy Named Business Administrator for SAU 24
May 11, 2020—Henniker, NH—
Jacqueline Coe Superintendent of SAU 24 announced that Christopher Roy has been named Business Manager for SAU 24 beginning July 1, 2020.
Christopher Roy comes to SAU 24 from the New Hampshire Department of Education where he has held several positions in school finance including responsibility for the fiscal management of federal grant funds including Special Education, Food and Nutrition, and Student Wellness. Before his work at the NH Department of Education, he worked in the finance department of the Shaker Regional School District in Belmont and as a student loan analyst at Granite State Management and Resources.
“Chris brings great enthusiasm for the important work of a business administrator which includes the oversight of the finances and budgets of each district as well as human resources, transportation, food service, and building and grounds,” said Superintendent Coe. “His financial analytic skills combined with his focus on process and procedures will be a tremendous asset for the SAU,” she continued.
Christopher Roy is a graduate of Southern New Hampshire University with a BA in accounting. He lives in Concord with his wife and young daughter.
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Picture submitted by Kay Reynolds
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