Catholic Religious Education Classes Growing in
the Spirit
The Faith
Formation program at Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Pittsfield seeks to
provide youth and children with the knowledge, experiences, and skills
necessary to become faithful disciples of Jesus Christ. We help to
promote the knowledge of faith, the meaning of the liturgy, and prepare
students to receive the sacraments of Baptism, Reconciliation, First
Communion and Confirmation.
Join us for
Orientation Day, Sunday morning, Sept 8, from 9-10 am at Our Lady of
Lourdes Rectory located at 20 River Road in Pittsfield. For more
information, please contact Jeannie Garcia at 269-4143, 942-8716 or the
rectory at 435-6242.
What is
RCIA?
RCIA stands
for Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults. If you are interested in the
Catholic faith or are Catholic, but have not received a sacrament, adult
classes are offered at Our Lady of Lourdes – Saint Joseph’s Parish.
Please contact the rectory at 435-6242.
Raffle Winners
Barnstead
Community Market would like to thank all of our customers, old and new,
who came out and supported us during the Suncook Valley Art and Artisan
Tour and Barnstead Open Farm Day on Saturday, July 27. We had a great
crowd of people and were pleased to visit with old and new customers.
The winners
of the raffle are:
Baby Cap -
Pat Elliott, donated by Granite State Alpaca. Teddy Bear - Marsha
Ramalhe, donated by Granny Knit. Pitcher - Dan Ward, donated by Barndoor
Gap Pottery. Alpaca Scarf - Mary Marsh, donated by Valmont Alpaca Farm.
Gift Bag and card, - Amy Troy, donated by Buttonwood Crafts. Watermelon
Place Mats - Nathalie Snyder donated by Nana’s Sewing Room. Crotchet
Purse - Audrey, donated by Nanette Desrochers. Goat Soap Gift Set -
Karen O’Shea, donated by Mountain View Farm. Nature Photo - Kathy
Sullivan, donated by Kevin Ellingwood, nature Photographer. Lotion -
Beverly Lussier, donated by Always in Season. Massage for two hours -
Sandy, donated by Lighthouse Massage Therapy.
Anyone who
has not picked up their prize may do so during regular business hours:
Friday, 1 - 7, Saturday, 9 - 4 and Sunday noon to 4. Contact Irene at
[email protected] or 603 568-7318.
Sayon Camara Returns!
On
September 14, Sayon Camara will grace the shores of Lake Winnipesaukee
during an afternoon West African Drumming workshop at the Holland Hill
Yoga and Fitness Studio in Moultonborough, NH.
Sayon, who
resides in Woodstock VT most of the year, is a national treasure in our
midst. He has played the djembe (traditional drum) since he was seven
years old when one was gifted to him by his father who also played. He
spent 30 years in the village of his birth playing as the djembefola. In
his traditional language which is Malinke, spoken by the Mandinka people
of Guinea, djembefola means simply, one who plays the djembe. There are
not many among Sayon’s people these days who undertake the rigor of
being a djembefola. In fact, Sayon’s last teacher, who Sayon is still
close to today, the world renowned master djembefola, Famoudou Konate
has opened the doors to anyone, from any nationality, who wishes to
learn in an effort to keep the traditional music alive.
In a West
African village such as the one Sayon grew up in, being the djembefola
meant playing for the people as they lived their daily lives, whether
harvesting rice, naming a baby, or marrying, a celebration that calls
for four days of drumming. In addition to the djembe, three other drums
typically accompany the djembe, known as dununs, as well as a song, sung
in Malinke.
In this
afternoon workshop, Sayon will share with New Englanders, the music,
song, drumming and story of some of the traditional rhythms of the
Malinke people of Guinea, West Africa.
All levels
are welcome to participate. Everyone from beginner to advanced will be
made to feel welcome through the gentle, joyous teaching that is
accompanied by Sayon’s crystal tones on the djembe. You may have heard
the djembe played before but rarely will you hear the clarity Sayon has
mastered, experience the depth of knowledge he stewards, or find such a
gentle, open teacher.
Please call
(802) 779- 4914 for more information or visit this website:
SayonCamaraDrumming.com/workshops.
Tiede-Beauregard
Alan and
Lynn Tiede of Barnstead are pleased to announcement the engagement of
their daughter Kara Lyn Tiede to Barry Robert Beauregard, son of Robert
Beauregard of Hooksett and Michele Hoyt of Barnstead.
Kara
attended Coe Brown Northwood Academy and graduated from Lynn University.
She is employed as a customer service representative by Elektrisola Inc.
Barry
attended Coe Brown Northwood Academy, and graduated from Johnson and
Wales University. He is employed as a project manager by Hiltz
Excavating Inc.
The couple
is planning an intimate beach wedding in Key West, Florida on April 4,
2014. A traditional reception will follow in New Hampshire.
New
Hampshire’s One-Room
Rural Schools
The Romance
and the Reality
On Friday,
October 11, 7 pm at the Barnstead Town Hall, 208 South Barnstead Road,
Steve Taylor explores the lasting legacies of the one-room school and
how they echo today.
Hundreds of
one-room schools dotted the landscape of New Hampshire a century ago and
were the backbone of primary education for generations of children.
Revered in literature and lore, they actually were beset with problems,
some of which are little changed today. The greatest issue was financing
the local school and the vast differences between taxing districts in
ability to support education. Other concerns included teacher
preparation and quality, curriculum, discipline, student achievement and
community involvement in the educational process.
This
presentation is sponsored by the Barnstead Historical Society and the
Oscar Foss Memorial Library, with funding provided by the New Hampshire
Humanities Council.
For more
information, contact Sharon Archambault, Library Director, at
603-269-3900.
Story Hour
At Barnstead Library
Story Hour
will begin again at the Oscar Foss Memorial Library on Wednesday,
September 11th at 11:00 am. The program includes stories, songs/finger
plays, arts and crafts and light snacks. This is a free program offered
to families through the cooperative efforts of community volunteers and
library staff. Story Hour will be held every Wednesday at 11:00 am and
will follow the 2013-2014 Barnstead Elementary School (BES) calendar.
When BES does not have school, (vacation, cancellation, etc.) there is
no Story Hour.
Please call
us at 269-3900 or stop by the circulation desk if you have any questions
about this or any of our other library programs. Library hours are:
Monday, 2 pm - 8 pm, Tuesday and Wednesday, 10 am - 5 pm, Thursday, 5 pm
- 8 pm and Friday, 2 pm - 5 pm.
Superintendent Of The Belknap County Department
Of Corrections
Update
Submitted
By Daniel P.
Ward Sr., MBA/PA, CJM, Superintendent
As
Superintendent of the Belknap County Department of Corrections, I want
to extend my sincere thanks to those members of the Delegation and to
their invited guests who took the time to attend the 90-minute tour of
this facility on Monday, August 12th. While not likely to be on most
people’s “must see list” for attractions in the Lakes Region, I am
always honored and proud to show individuals and groups around the
facility. Members of the Delegation have joined the ranks of interested
citizens and taxpayers of Belknap County, a number of local select
boards and city councilors, members of the law enforcement and criminal
justice system, and interest-based and leadership groups such as the
League of Women Voters, Leadership Lakes Region, Leadership NH, CASA,
DCYF - Laconia, Belmont Explorers, Children’s Fund of NH, the Tilton
School, and the Laconia Citizen’s Academy, just to name a few.
A walk
through more than 130 years of construction history dating back to the
1890s reveals not simply how well the physical structures have held up
over the years but more importantly how the construction styles have
evolved and drives the way we hold, and provide services to those
citizens who have been placed under our charge. Those very practical
changes from simple brick walls, to cinder block construction, to poured
concrete walls and rolls of razor wire, and from traditional cell blocks
to military-style dorm housing all tell stories about the people held
within each group and the society that held them.
It is
overly simplistic to suggest that we can (or should) as a community
house our inmates all inside a military tent as our soldiers, sailors or
airmen might have to do in times of war in a foreign land, or that
military barrack style housing as is used in boot camp is appropriate
for all levels of inmates from those facing driving offenses together
with those charged with home invasion, burglary, rape or drug sales
resulting in the death of another. Your jail… The jail of today… Houses
every one of those inmates and many more.
The jail on
County Drive is a microcosm of society. We would never think that a
one-size-fits-all approach would work in a school, a hospital, or any
other large-scale public safety complex and after more than 20-years
specializing in criminal justice, justice studies, and corrections, I
can assure you that it doesn’t work in this field either. The purpose of
an effective classification system is to secure dangerous inmates or
those who pose significant risks to society in secure detention
settings, including single or double bunk cells, while at the same time
recognizing that those who pose little risk and who are able to
reasonably return to society better than when they arrived can do so
with a little help from professionally trained staff.
Although my
staff and I highlighted all of the positive accomplishments of our
programming and classification efforts to reduce recidivism and to be
the best stewards of the taxpayer’s funding, it is clear that much
emphasis was placed on the visual inspection of the facility by members
of this tour group. Their depiction in the August 20th Laconia Daily Sun
was “spot on” and I appreciate the recognition of our efforts to address
those areas of the building that had been painted and cleaned where they
could be as well as noting those areas of deficiency that needed
attention. I have heard suggestions that paint and polish can simply be
the “lipstick on a pig” and while those things are clearly desirable,
they fail to address fundamental safety, security or operational
concerns that are of primary importance. Certainly I would be the last
person to suggest that years of neglect or a lack of maintenance or
replacement of broken locks, poor electrical systems, rusting pipes,
shortage of staffing to properly supervise the inmates or maintenance
projects, or broken HVAC systems don’t contribute to the accelerated
decay of any building or system but paint and polish alone won’t fix
that issue. I don’t believe anyone is suggesting we should have a
“pretty jail” but rather one that meets the changing needs of Belknap
County, that addresses the growing substance abuse and mental health
epidemic, and provides legislatively mandated services to those
“sentenced to hard labor” and also those who are “presumed innocent,”
detained without criminal commitment and awaiting trial.
We are
often asked by members of the tour groups how we are able to manage our
population. In the early 1990s the inmate population in total was as low
as 34. In 2013, your jail holds as many as 120 inmates within its walls;
this in a building that was designed to hold 87 bodies. Operationally
that means the jail’s “support services” were designed for 87 people.
Services such as toilets, showers, seating areas to eat meals,
telephones to talk to attorneys and family members, visiting booths and
recreation areas and physical floor space --- all of which are governed
by national standards used by the courts for the treatment and detention
of prisoners. We exceed that cap every single day by having some inmates
sleep on the floor on a “stack-a-bunk” plastic sled bed. We have
converted the gym space for housing, have taken away two program areas
to make additional housing units and double-bunked cells not intended
for or designed to hold the numbers assigned.
My answer
to the question is always, “we make it work because we have no right of
refusal in a jail.” We accept whomever the police department arrests and
detains and whomever the court sentences without regard to pre-existing
medical issues, gang affiliation, mental health status, drug abuse
history, predatory nature or potential to be preyed upon. We hold
inmates as young as 17 years old and have individuals well into their
80s today. I would ask those who suggest a single cinder block 4-walled
dorm whether careful consideration was given with regards to the
protection of these various groups and the unique needs that may be
required to hold them as they each come and go “through the system”
between one day and up to several years?
Today, we
are supervising 143 inmates. We have 111 inmates inside the jail. The
remainder are benefiting from services and programming that we have
designed to help reduce our population and to safely reintegrate inmates
back into the community in a manner that helps them to become the
law-abiding contributing members of society that we all expect. Although
I spend a significant amount of time discussing programming during that
tour and how our one classroom space is used to offer some 37 programs
to all classification levels, ages and to both males and females, the
article discussing the “needs of the jail” failed to even mention it as
a consideration.
Could we
stack inmates like cord-wood by simply going higher with bunk beds?
Since we have exhausted floor square footage, the only option left is
cubic-foot space (go up!). I can simply remind those who consider this
as a solution that the building was not designed to support that theory.
A home’s kitchen table or a septic system in one’s own yard was only
designed to accommodate a fixed number. You can temporarily exceed that
design but at what cost and for how long is uncertain; eventually,
creative manipulation of time and services provided will no longer
handle the approaching tides. The need to address the functional and
operational plan for the entire criminal justice system in Belknap
County goes significantly beyond the overcrowding that has existed here
since 2006 when the average daily population first exceeded design
capacity.
The County
has steadfastly supported alternative sentencing programs, electronic
monitoring, work release, drug and alcohol counseling, pre-trial and
diversion services, and creative sentencing options with the local
courts as means to address the numbers and the specific needs of
incarcerated and potentially incarcerated individuals. We have
partnerships with UNH Cooperative Extension, Belknap-Merrimack Community
Action Program, DCYF, Lakes Region Community College, NH Employment
Security, Horizons Counseling and the Nathan Brody Program, Genesis
Behavioral Health, and countless individual service providers within our
communities to create a network of collaboration. Without the efforts of
these men, women, and organizations, I can assure you that you could not
build a jail large enough to address the needs that would be presented
to this county. It is not about simply building a building but rather
building a system that addresses the needs that are unique to our
community.
The
citizens and taxpayers of Belknap County should be proud of the work
that is being done at this facility. The professional and dedicated
employees commit themselves to managing a population that we read about
every day on the front page of every single newspaper. We make it
possible to sleep soundly at night and to know that your neighbor, loved
one, or stranger who gets out of jail and returns back to your community
was treated fairly and was given the tools to live as a law-abiding
citizen. Thanks again to this group and those who join me on an almost
daily basis to explore and understand the jail, how it operates, and the
role it plays in the criminal justice system of the 21st century.