Concord

[Smuttynose]

Concord definitely needs more places like this downtown...

Sports bar opens on South Main Street
With 3 floors, Draft can accomodate 300

By LISA ARSENAULT
Monitor staff
June 13. 2006 8:00AM

At the new sports bar on South Main Street, the suicide squeeze is actually a buffalo chicken pizza, the green monster is a veggie burger and sports fans will be able to watch a game on one of 50 plasma televisions.

The former owner of Banagan's Bicycle Shop at 67 S. Main St. has turned the building into a multi-level sports bar and grille called The Draft.

It opened yesterday.

"When people come in here, they won't even know they're in Concord, New Hampshire," said bartender Liu Kang. "They'll think they're in Seattle or Los Angeles or Boston."

Andy Sanborn, who owns The Draft with his wife, Laurie, said his goal was to open a bar where men and women alike can feel comfortable watching a game and having a drink in an upscale, smoke-free environment.

"We're trying to find some sizzle," Sanborn said. "I want to go back to an era where going out was a sexy, sassy, fun time, and at the same time I want to watch the game."

The bar can hold close to 300 patrons on three floors. Customers walk into the main bar area where they can sit at a table or the 21-seat bar. Bar-goers can head downstairs to the game room for pool, darts, pinball or foosball. Or they can head upstairs where there are plush couches, a 15-foot movie-theater-style projection screen television with surround sound, or two 61-inch plasma televisions flanked by eight smaller TVs each.

The menu consists mainly of burgers, subs, pizzas and salads in the $6 to $8 range. A beer is $3 to $4.50. There are 17 choices of beer on tap and 120 different bottles of liquor.
A special glycol-based cooling system will keep beer kegs and lines at 34 degrees, the temperature all beer is meant to be served at, Sanborn said. Glasses will also be chilled, and beers will be served in a glass with the matching logo (Bass beer will be served in a glass with a Bass logo, for example). Burgers will be made from fresh angus sirloin, French fries are hand-cut and all dipping sauces are made on the premises.

Sanborn declined to say how much he invested in turning the empty sports shop into a bar -except to say he spent more than $100,000 on televisions alone.

In 2004, Sanborn sold Banagan's Bicycle Shop, which he built into a three-store chain over 14 years in business. At the time, Sanborn said he was getting out of business because of health concerns and he wanted to spend more time with his wife. After a little more than a year off, he now says he is ready to get back to work. It is his first time in the restaurant business.

"I have no fear," he said.

He declined to elaborate about his illness but said he is feeling better now. He also declined to give his age.

A family- and friends-only opening of The Draft Sunday afternoon drew more than 300 customers. People who walked in off the street were not turned away.

Kitchen Manager Kelly Ross, who describes himself as a "sports nut," said he has invented menus for several restaurants in the past but coming up with The Draft's was the most fun. Every entr?e on the menu has a sports-themed name -like a burger called the Penalty Box and a hot Italian sausage sandwich called the Fenway.

Ross said that sports fans are not the only customers he's expecting, with the upscale atmosphere and the location across from the Capitol Center for the Arts.

Other downtown business leaders said they think The Draft will bring added foot traffic to that end of Main Street.

"People have always talked about the Capitol Center transforming South Main Street but we really haven't seen that happen too much of an extent from our perspective," said Ric Waldman, spokesman for the Capitol Center for the Arts. "This is hopefully the first of many developments to come."

Waldman said he thinks the two business will work well together -Capitol Center patrons will visit the bar after shows and people going to the bar may get the idea to see a show, he said.

Nan Hagen, executive director of the downtown enhancement group Main Street Concord, said the new bar fills a niche in Concord for young people.

"I think this will go far to attract a younger crowd," Hagen said. "It will give them a place to go and have something to do."

 

[Smuttynose]

Concord's chief weakness is its lack of any waterfront - the downtown being cut off from the Merrimack River by I-93. And I think this might fall into the unrealistic "pie in the sky" category, but it's interesting that the city is at least looking into reestablishing some kind of waterfront with a new canal.

From the Master Plan: "Finally, Storrs Street, which currently functions as a rear service road and collector in the downtown core has the potential to become a vibrant riverfront boulevard filled with pedestrian activity, shops, and restaurants."

 

[Smuttynose]

New Commons office building reaches high point
Framework done, workers turn to floors

PIC
http://cmimg.us.publicus.com/apps/p...ITORY&ArtNo=607270325&Ref=AR&MaxW=580&title=1

By SARAH LIEBOWITZ
Monitor staff

The 250-foot crane lifted the steel beam, painted white and decorated with an American flag, into place atop the Capital Commons building. And just like that, the framework for the 102,000-square-foot office and retail building was completed yesterday morning.

Workers didn't rest on their laurels for long. Even as onlookers applauded the final beam's placement, machines were humming, trucks were moving about the site, and workers began scaling the building's steel skeleton.

With the frame complete, workers can turn their attention to pouring concrete floors and walling in the structure. In September, a city-funded 510-space garage will begin to take shape. Tenants will likely move into the building in the first few months of 2007, project leaders said.

"It's all part of the process,"said Thomas Avallone, president and CEO of Cobb Hill Construction, which is managing the project with Manchester-based Pro Con Inc. The beam placement was part of a "topping off" ceremony, a tradition with Scandinavian roots, marking the moment when a new building has reached its full height. "I don't think anybody in my position feels satisfaction until we open the doors and people start moving in," Avallone said.

 

[SHAZBAT73]

I drove through Concord on the 24th and was quite impressed by how high (for Concord) the new office building was. It looked like it was about 6-7 stories from the highway.

 

[TimmyG]

This only took about fifty years to get going. It's good that it includes bike lanes.

From the Concord Monitor

Concord
Parkway work weeks away
Project has been planners' dream since '54

By SARAH LIEBOWITZ
Monitor staff
August 17. 2006 8:00AM

After years of legal appeals, a lengthy permitting process and countless public meetings, plans for a road linking Clinton and Pleasant streets are finally moving forward - and there's a construction schedule to prove it.

Work on Langley Parkway, the planned bypass, will begin within two weeks.

Simultaneously, work will commence on Clinton Street, which is due for a complete makeover, project leaders said at last night's neighborhood meeting on the construction timeline.

The bypass is scheduled to open in spring 2008; Clinton Street will be striped and paved before school opens next fall, said Martha Drukker, an associate engineer for the city.

When the bypass opens, it will allow traffic coming from Interstate 89 to reach Concord Hospital and other western destinations without driving east on Clinton Street to South Fruit Street. A dream of city planners since 1954, the parkway will ease congestion at the intersection of Pleasant and South Fruit streets, city staff say. It will also serve a public safety role, providing emergency vehicles with an alternate route to the hospital.

But opponents of the project -concerned about the loss of open space and wary of the potential traffic benefits the road will yield - have managed to stall construction for years. Even as the city plows ahead with construction, the appeals are ongoing; last month, opponents of the bypass asked the U.S. District Court to stop the project by revoking a permit from the Army Corps of Engineers. A court hearing is scheduled for next week.

Work on the bypass and Clinton Street goes into fall and spring construction seasons, project leaders said. Pembroke-based FL Merrill Construction, the company charged with building the road, will receive nearly $5 million for construction of Langley; Concord Hospital, St. Paul's School and the city will equally divide all construction costs.

This fall, Merrill is scheduled relocate the driveway for the Carmelite Monastery, a religious community on Pleasant Street, and landscape the site. By January, workers will have cleared trees in the road's path. They will also fill in wetlands and other irregularities, forming level ground from Clinton Street to the area parallel with Dartmouth-Hitchcock's lower parking lot. The fill needs about six months to settle.

In early spring, workers will move the Pleasant Street house of Carolyn and Morton Tuttle, the only structure standing in the road's path. Retaining walls, nearly 20 feet tall in some areas near Pleasant Street, will begin to sprout.

Come July, work will turn to drainage. A concrete passenger underpass will go in, allowing residents access to the cross-country ski trails snaking through the property. If workers lay the road's first coat of pavement in October 2007, the road could open to traffic that fall, with workers returning to add another layer of pavement at a later date.

The finished road - 4,900 feet in length - will sport bike lanes in both directions, and a sidewalk on the eastern side.

This time next year, Clinton Street should also have a brand new look. Workers will be removing the top two feet of the decaying road, from the Salvation Army to White Farm, before rebuilding with fresh materials. An extensive drainage system will also be installed, in an attempt to quash water woes on the road. The project was budgeted at nearly $1.3 million.

"That's the main reason Clinton Street is as dilapidated as it is," said Christopher Mulleavey, vice president of Hoyle, Tanner & Associates, the company designing the improvements.

Beginning next month, workers from Merrill will focus on the stretch of road between the Salvation Army and South Concord Meadow Apartments. Reconstructing the southern portion of that stretch will take about one month, during which time traffic will use the northern lane. In October, workers will begin on the northern portion.

Workers will continue their westward path, reconstructing the southern portion of the road before switching to the north. New sidewalks will grace the southern portion of the street; there will be bike lanes in each direction.

Both projects could snarl traffic. When workers fill in Langley's path, there will be "several hundred truck loads a day," said Frank Merrill, owner of the construction company. All trucks will come down Clinton Street from the west, past White Farm, before left turning toward the bypass route.

One lane of traffic on Clinton Street will always remain open, and sometimes traffic will be able to flow in both directions. But the portion of Clinton Street between the Salvation Army and South Concord Meadow has drainage running down the center of the road, posing a construction challenge. "During peak times, we'll get out of the roads," Merrill said.

Last night's meeting generated little turnout. But to John Blackadar - who, as a resident of Norwich Street, has endured weeks of road construction - the Clinton Street timeline seemed blessedly speedy. "I'm just naturally skeptical after what I've endured," he said. "I'll be delighted to see it (the portion from Salvation Army to South Concord Meadow) done in two months."

Hurdles remain. The city needs property from six landowners; the total appraised value of the land is $342,670. Negotiations with the property owners are ongoing, Drukker said. In June, city councilors gave staff the final go-ahead to use eminent domain to build the parkway. Property acquisitions need to be complete before construction begins, Drukker said.

If the U.S. District Court agrees with the project's opponents, and revokes the Army Corps of Engineers permit, the bypass would also face delays. The Tuttles, whose 1933 Cape stands in the project's path, are plaintiffs in the case. Past appeals - which have reached the state Supreme Court - have failed.

------ End of article

By SARAH LIEBOWITZ

Monitor staff

 

[Smuttynose]

Damn! Whatever happened to the Governor's House? Not big enough?
(p.s.- hopkinton is a wealthy Concord suburb)

Governor building new $3.5m house in Hopkinton
By REBECCA T. DICKSON
Union Leader Correspondent

Hopkinton ? Gov. John Lynch is building a $3.5 million home on land that interlaces with the 100-acre Gould Hill Orchard.

Plans on file with the town show a two-story, 11,000-square-foot home on 8.3 acres of rolling hills, fields and meadows. An in-ground swimming pool, cabana, 28-by-36-foot garage and tennis court are also in ink.

All of that will sit among a three-centuries-old orchard.

Last August, Erick Leadbeater and his wife, Sue, announced plans to sell the land and retire. At the time, Leadbeater said he had refused offers in the millions from those who wanted to build hilltop homes, in favor of working with town officials to keep Gould Hill a working farm.

That preservation effort is under way. Yesterday, Leadbeater said the land Lynch bought in June is unrelated.

"It's an older lot. It would have to be replanted soon and I'm not going to be doing that because I'm hoping to retire," Leadbeater said. "Basically, the piece wasn't interesting to me or to the farm and I'm not trying to preserve it."

The property never belonged to the Goulds and is completely separate from the farm, he said.

Apples have been grown at the orchard since 1760. The farm includes the youngest, most productive fruit trees and the best views of the mountains.

"It's a beautiful place," said Ed Wojnowski, town administrator. "There's a great view of the western valley in town. On an extremely clear day, you can see Mount Washington."

On June 26, selectmen issued a building permit for Lynch's home to Gould Hill B Trust, a revocable trust. The permit expires in 2008.

Architectural designs for Lynch's five-bedroom, 6.5-bath home are dated October 2003. Leadbeater said he had been talking to the Lynches about the land for about six years, "long before he even thought of running for governor."

The new home, a combination of stone facade and traditional clapboards, will be about twice the size of Lynch's current home a few miles away. It also includes seven fireplaces, a circular driveway, and fieldstone walls at the perimeter.

Pamela Walsh, Lynch's spokesman, said yesterday that the plans, which include a library and music, fitness and sitting rooms, fit Lynch's environmentally-friendly political stance.

"The governor's commitment to the environment remains personal and professional," she said. "He has purchased in an area where there already are multiple homes and he is also going to allow continued farming there."

Leadbeater said there is an agreement in place to allow for farming there for at least another year. But he doesn't understand the attention being paid to Lynch's new home.

"I am amazed at how much interest is (being paid) to this," he said. "It's really strange."

 

[M. Brown]

how much does the govenor make?

 

[Smuttynose]

lol, not that much, this is NH. I think around $100,000. But he was some kind of business executive before he was governor, plus his wife is a doctor.

 

[Smuttynose]

Thief tries to drive off with old State House
Remnants stored in ramshackle trailer

By SARAH LIEBOWITZ
Monitor staff

Flat tires likely thwarted the theft.

The remnants of New Hampshire's old State House sit in a ramshackle trailer - complete with rust holes and a makeshift foundation - next to the Division of Historical Resources' Pillsbury Street building. But early yesterday morning, someone driving a truck pulled the trailer off its grass base and toward the street, said James McConaha, the division's director.

"We have worried that someone would break into the trailer or some pranksters would throw a match inside," McConaha said. "But the whole idea of trying to take the trailer away is mind-boggling. The trailer is absolutely not road-worthy. There's no license plate on it, nothing."

About 7:20 a.m. yesterday, a division employee arrived at work to find a blue truck - with "Buckman Trucking, Windham" emblazoned on its side - sitting next to the trailer. Upon the employee's arrival, the truck's driver sped off. The witness thought the truck bore a New Hampshire license plate, but the number couldn't be recorded, McConaha said.

The trailer was moved several feet from its original location, as though headed out the parking lot, McConaha said. But the driver may have given up on his plan before the division employee's arrival; the truck fled quickly.

The secretary of state's office has no record of a company named Buckman Trucking. A directory search yields no leads. Division employees called the Concord police, who agreed to keep an eye on the trailer, McConaha said.

---ADVERTISEMENT---

The trailer's contents were detailed in a Monitor article last week. The division recently received a $250,000 federal grant, secured by Sen. Judd Gregg, to determine the old State House's future. Workers could likely reconstruct a portion of the building, which housed the first state Legislature and once stood in Portsmouth. If the wood has deteriorated, the building's remnants could also be exhibited as fragments.
The old State House dates to the mid-1700s. But in 1819, when the Legislature moved to the current State House, the building began its decline toward neglect. In 1836, Portsmouth sold the structure, and subsequent owners lopped off two-thirds of the building, converting the remainder into a boarding house for sailors.

In the mid-20th century, preservationists began working toward restoring the old State House. In 1987, lawmakers spent $125,000 to assess the building. But a proposal to spend $1.75 million to renovate the structure failed, and lawmakers decided to dismantle and store it instead. In 1990, workers loaded the fragments into the trailer, where they've sat ever since.

"This is an incredibly valuable piece of real estate that belongs to the people of New Hampshire," McConaha said. "It would be an audacious theft. It would be like a work of art. I have no idea what someone would do with it."

 

[TimmyG]

from the Concord Monitor
Main Street could get a face-lift

By Chelsea Conaboy
Monitor staff
December 12. 2006 8:00AM

If the city council adopts a plan presented at last night's meeting, Main Street could eventually look and feel quite different, with just one lane of traffic in each direction and a central turning lane between Park and Perley streets.

The new traffic pattern would include wider travel lanes to make it easier for cars to back out of angled parking spaces. Updated crosswalks would make the street safer for walkers.

"Basically, our goal is to improve pedestrian safety (and) reduce conflicts between cars and pedestrians and parked cars," said Randall Collins, vice president of Rhode Island landscape architectural firm Gates, Leighton and Associates.

The study was organized by Main Street Concord and paid for with $40,000 in grants from the city and Concord 2020, a nonprofit planning group. Traffic and design studies were conducted over the last year with input from three public meetings held in downtown businesses.

Nan Hagen, Main Street Concord's executive director, said the three-lane plan is the biggest proposed change. According to the report, with fewer lanes, cars on Main Street would move slower and waiting times at the intersection of Main Street and Pleasant Street would double. As a result, drivers not destined for downtown would avoid Main Street and head to Storrs Street or State Street instead.

Several Main Street business owners interviewed yesterday said they didn't know enough about the plan to comment on it. But one, Cathy Koppang, owner of Viking House, said she'd be glad to see fewer travel lanes if it will mean a safer downtown.

Big pickup trucks and SUVs parked downtown block other drivers' view and have made backing out of a "down-traffic" spot dangerous, she said. She cited a speed problem, too.

"There are Saturday mornings and Friday nights when it looks like the Loudon International Speedway out here," Koppang said. "I heard a squeal this morning, and a woman almost got taken out across the street."

Collins said the layout would preserve space for bus stops and delivery trucks and would give drivers room to pull over as they wait for a parking space instead of sitting in traffic.

New crosswalks made of brick "paver," or a thin surface layer of brick, and granite edging would give "a sense of priority" to people crossing the street, Collins said.

The report also suggested updates to Phenix, Low and Dubois avenues to improve the walkways between Storrs Street and Main Street. It called for a comprehensive design of street "amenities," including ornamental streetlights, benches, trash bins and newspaper boxes.

Hagen said new lampposts mean the Main Street could have lighted holiday decorations. Now the city can't put lights in the trees because there's no way to draw electricity from the streetlights.

Hagen said Main Street Concord put the study together because downtown's look needed updating.

"The downtown streetscape has gotten kind of shabby and kind of old and needed some help," she said.

The consultants didn't offer an overall cost but budgeted each piece of the project. Repainting the road for the three-lane plan would cost $78,000. Each new crosswalk would cost about $32,676. Improvements to Phenix and Low avenues would cost $369,323.

Councilor Leonard Brochu said he thought those estimates were "quite low," particularly for the crosswalks. Collins said the crosswalk design would increase the cost of paving around them and could present some complications in working on underground utilities.

Mayor Mike Donovan and City Manager Tom Aspell both said they were concerned that the traffic pattern couldn't be changed on Main Street without putting a stop light at the north end of Storrs Street to account for more traffic at that intersection. The city already has plans for a light there because Storrs Street is expected to be busier once the Capital Commons parking garage opens next year. But Donovan said the light, which would cost about $250,000, is in a six-year capital improvement plan "along with a lot of other stuff."

Aspell said he thinks Main Street could be repainted on a temporary basis to see how the three-lane layout works.

Donovan said the council would consider how to move forward with the proposal and could schedule a public meeting in the future.

The council last night also accepted donations from the Friends of White Park to open the skate house on White Park's pond, which the city had planned not to open due to a lack of money. The skate house will be open Friday evenings, most of the day on Saturday and Sunday afternoons, when the weather cooperates.

------ End of article

By CHELSEA CONABOY

Monitor staff