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Mr Bannister (Lisa Humphreys) and Matthew Harrison Brady (Taylor Gagne) participate in the jury selection scene from Laconia High School Theatre Arts production of “Inherit the Wind” . A fi ctionalized telling of the events surrounding the famous “Scopes Monkey Trial” in Tennessee in 1925, the play deals with the teaching of James Darwin’s theory of evolution in a rural culture that was very much Bible centered. Performances in the school’s auditorium will be Thursday and Friday nights at 7 and a matinee on Saturday afternoon at 2. Tickets, priced at $7 for adults and $5 for seniors and students, will be available at the door. The play is directed by Bernie Campbell. (Karen Bobotas/for The Laconia Daily Sun)

‘Inherit the Wind’: Theory of Evolution on trial in LHS auditorium

CONCORD — Representa-tive Jane Cormier (R-Alton) has introduced legislation that would do away with the state’s nine regional planning commis-sions by 2015. The intent of the bill, she said, is not only to repeal

Cormier authors bill to eliminate regional planning commissionsbut also to replace the commis-sions by authorizing cities and towns to enter cooperative and collaborative arrangements at their discretion.

The regional planning commis-sions have been a frequent target of Cormier’s weekly column in “The Weirs Times” since the advent of

the Granite State Future initia-tive, a three-year project aimed at developing regional master plans that would be melded into a state-wide plan. The project is funded by a $3.37-million grant from the United States Department of Housing and Urban Develop-ment.

Cormier is among those who believe that the regional plan-ning commissions are the stalk-ing horses of a federal effort, pursued under the aegis of Granite State Future, to pro-mote “Smart Growth” and “sus-tainable living” at the expense

BY MICHAEL KITCHTHE LACONIA DAILY SUN

see CORMIER page 10

LACONIA — Although LRGHealthcare is participating in all three medical plans now being offered to New Hampshire resi-

Medicaid patients will still not have access to LRGHealthcare’s primary care doctorsdents who use Medicaid to pay for health care, adults in the area will still have to use a non-LRGHealthcare physician for their primary care. Medicaid users must enroll in one the plans before November 1 as part

of a switch to a managed care program.According to Andrew Patterson, execu-

tive director of the hospital company-owned Laconia Clinic, “wrap-around health care

BY GAIL OBERTHE LACONIA DAILY SUN

see MEDICIAD page 11

Covered pedestrian bridge delivered to new home in Belmont

BELMONT — A 50-foot-long section of a wooden pedes-trian bridge that will eventually span the Tioga River arrived in town yesterday and was lifted by crane to its temporary resting place near the town’s Public Works Garage, where it joined three roof sections of the bridge which have already arrived.

Two more sections of see BRIDGE page 10

Page 10 — THE LACONIA DAILY SUN, Thursday, October 24, 2013

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the bridge will be moved from Dover this week and they will also be used for a separate span over the Tioga River.

Conservation Com-mission Chairman Ken Knowlton said that what once was a 154-foot long covered pedestrian bridge, which originally spanned the Cocheco River, was bought by the commis-sion for $1 from the city of Dover after efforts by Dover residents to keep in that community and use it as a centerpiece for a park fell short.

Built in 1996 at a cost of $162,845, the eight-foot wide bridge was removed with a crane in 2010 and the city of Dover was looking to sell it in order to make way for a water-front development.

Knowlton said that contractor Mark Rob-erts has been in charge

Ken Knowlton, Mark Roberts and Woody Fogg maneuver a section of a covered bridge which will eventually span the Tioga River onto supports. The bridge, which was bought by the Belmont Conser-vation Commission from Dover for $1, is being brought to Belmont in sections. (Roger Amsden/ for The Laconia Daily Sun)

BRIDGE from page one

of bringing the bridge, which had to be disassem-bled, to town and developed a scope of work to move everything to Belmont with a price of $12,600 for moving and about $10,000 for using two cranes to place two sections of the bridge over the river.

Knowlton said that one 50 foot span will cross the river just north of the Belmont Mill parallel to the Rte. 140 bridge over the Tioga River and that the other two spans, which will total 100 feet, will be put over the river about a half mile to the west.

He said that the first bridge will be located at what was once the terminus of the Belmont Spur Line, which brought trains to the Belmont Village area, and that the longer bridge which cross the river at a point where there was once was a bridge for the spur line.

The commission is currently looking for ways to raise funds for the cost of putting the bridges in place, as well as for a trail system which will be built along the right of way of the former Belmont Spur rail corridor, which is widely used by snowmobilers.

The commission earlier this month voted to spend

$5,500 to have Hoyle, Tanner and Associates evalu-ate the bridge for use at those two river crossings.

Knowlton said the commission is looking for grants and donations in order to complete the proj-ect and is hoping to be able to start work on the first part of the project next summer.

— Roger Amsden

of local control of land use decisions and private property rights. “I’m all for good stewardship,” she declared, “but this is about private property rights guaranteed by our Constitution.”

Cormier points to the budget of the Lakes Region Planning Commission, which includes $123,521 in revenue from the 30 member communities in a $572,500 budget. Noting that salaries repre-sent $369,548, excluding an estimated $100,000 for benefits, she asks “what money is actually left to ‘improve’ our communities?” More importantly, since the employees of the planning commissions are paid with federal funds, she asks “where does their loyalty lie, with the federal government or the taxpayers of our communities” and concludes “the answer is, of course, “with the federal government. The facts are the facts.”

“NH Regional Planning Commissions,” Cormier recently wrote, “are a scam, fueled by the feds, to reach the goals of sustainable ‘smart growth’ in our Live Free or Die state.”

Cormier said that her bill would provide that once the regional planning commissions are shuttered, any remaining fund balances would distributed among the member municipalities according to an equitable formula.

CORMIER from page one

see next page