LEBANON: Mascoma Community Development, LLC has been awarded $65 million in New Markets Tax Credits to incentivize development in communities in New Hampshire, Vermont, Maine and New York.

The tax credits are awarded from the U.S. Treasury Department’s Community Development Financial Institutions Fund (CDFI) Fund, which promotes development in economically distressed urban and rural areas by investing in mission-driven financial institutions.

MANCHESTER: The Department of Health and Human Services will partner with Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center to speed up Covid-19 test results. Officials said they can get results in 48 hours or less for nursing homes and other facilities with potentially high number of positive cases. The move comes after experiencing a delay of six to seven days, compared to a threeday turnaround, due to the demand on testing labs from other parts of the country.

CONCORD: The Joint Committee on Legislative Facilities voted on July 21 to require masks that cover the nose and mouth be worn in the State House, except for children under 6 and adults who can’t wear a mask if it would impede “their health or safety.” The rule, which will be strictly enforced, according to House Speaker Steve Shurtleff, does not cover the executive council chambers, governor’s office or secretary of state’s office on the second floor. It does cover areas under the control of the legislative branch, building entrances and most hallways.

PORTSMOUTH: Boeing representatives continue to visit the Pease Air National Guard base to update personnel on ongoing fixes to the new KC-46A tankers. Since March 2019, the Air Guard has received seven of its 12 promised aircraft, but it discovered certain weather conditions can obscure the view of the remote vision system, technology necessary to refuel other planes in the air. The issue has not prevented all refueling missions, though it has received the attention of the state’s congressional delegation. The remaining five aircraft are expected to be delivered by December.

CONCORD: Sununu signed a bill into law that expands and permanently ensures that health care providers can bill insurance companies and Medicaid for visits by phone and internet at the same rate they would if the patient came to their office. Groups and advocates that joined the new statewide Health Care Consumers & Providers Covid-19 Coalition praised the bill, saying it will increase patient access to care, especially for behavioral health services.

BERLIN: Burgess BioPower made a payment yesterday of $523,000 to Berlin, the first payment to the city from the facility’s sale of renewable energy certificates as outlined in the payment-in-lieu-of-taxes (PILOT) agreement. City officials will use the funds to reduce one of the state’s highest property tax rates by a full dollar per thousand dollars of valuation and to purchase vital new equipment for the Public Works Department.

MANCHESTER: A Tennessee man broke windows liquor bottles, and ripped out cash registers, causing an estimated $250,000 worth of damage to the Foundry restuarant in the Manchester Millyard, owned by inventor Dean Kamen. The suspect was arrested after Manchester police fired two rounds. He is facing a Class A felony as he was using a glass liquor bottle as a deadly weapon.

GILFORD: Gov. Sununu signed HB 1442, which removes a requirement that no more than two members of the Gunstock Area Commission can be residents of the same municipality. Under the new bill, commissioners will just need to be residents of Belknap County. Gallagher said the change was intended to allow for a broader pool of applicants for commissioner position.

The Belknap County Legislative Delegation appoints the commissioners.

Under the bill, the commission also agrees to provide 1.75% of annual gross income to Belknap County.

CONCORD: A report by New Futures, which surveyed 23 treatment agencies in New Hampshire, predicted providers will have lost about $6 million in revenue by October. Before the pandemic, providers that accepted Medicaid were already operating on extremely thin budgets.

Eighty-three percent of providers reported a decrease in revenue from insurance companies, about a quarter of a million loss between 13 providers alone, due decrease in those seeking services since the Covid-19 pandemic started.