Waterville Valley: Waterville Valley Holdings, an investment group led by the family of Gov. Chris Sununu, received between $350,000 and $1 million from the Paycheck Protection Program. The group is the principal investor in the Waterville Valley Resort, a ski area where Sununu served as CEO until just before he took office in 2017. He maintains an ownership interest in Sununu Holdings, which owns Waterville Valley Holdings. A spokesman for the governor said he was unaware of the loan.
Concord: Members of U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen’s family were linked to eight Paycheck Protection Program loans totaling under $1.5 million. Her husband, Bill Shaheen, has a variety of business interests ranging from his law firm to hospitality. Shaheen said she was “not involved in any way in applying for those loans nor do I have anything to do with their businesses, and Congress had no role in processing PPP applications.”
Washington, D.C.: The federal government is no longer sending nursing homes disposable isolation gowns described in New Hampshire as useless garbage bags and instead is providing a different style, according to a spokesperson for the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The New Hampshire Health Care Association, which represents nursing homes, had a week that the bulk of the items sent by FEMA to protect workers against the coronavirus were unusable, including child-sized gloves, surgical masks with ear loops that broke when stretched and isolation gowns with no arm openings.
Washington, D.C.: The Invest in American Railroads Act, a bill recently passed by the U.S. House, includes provisions from New Hampshire Rep. Annie Kuster that would help fund commuter rail in the state. The act includes funding to cover credit risk premiums for loans through the Railroad Rehabilitation and Improvement Financing program, which could help New Hampshire pay for the long-discussed Capitol Corridor Project, which would connect Concord, Manchester and Nashua to Boston via commuter rail.
Concord: LDI, a medical manufacturer building a new manufacturing facility in Rochester’s industrial park, has been granted a $3 million loan for the project by the state Business Finance Authority. The expansion is expected to bring 40 new jobs to the city. The BFA also announced it is issuing a $75 million conduit bond to enable Pennichuck Waterworks to consolidate older bonds on its books, taking advantage of lower interest rates.
Concord: The faculty at University of New Hampshire Franklin Pierce School of Law have voted to support removing the 14th president’s name from its title, weeks after students raised concerns about Pierce’s ties to slavery. Pierce, who served from 1853 to 1857, never owned slaves and expressed moral opposition to slavery, but he was concerned with keeping the nation unified and opposed steps to stop slavery.
Portsmouth: Nominations are being accepted for the New Hampshire Preservation Alliance’s Seven to Save program, which focuses attention and resources on significant historic properties in New Hampshire that are threatened by neglect, deterioration, insufficient funds, inappropriate development or insensitive public policy. Nominations are due Friday, Sept. 11. Announcement of the list will be made in October. For more information, contact seventosave@nhpreservation.org or 603-224-2281.
Manchester: The New Hampshire Tech Alliance has announced the appointment of four new members to its board of directors: entrepreneur Steve Baines, founder and CEO of Forcivity; attorney Christina Ferrari, a shareholder in the firm of Bernstein Shur; Nathan Pascarella, director of Hypertherm Ventures, the corporate venture capital arm of Hypertherm in Hanover; and Marlana Trombley, vice president of marketing at Orbit Group and interim CMO at Zoom Telephonics.
