PETERBOROUGH: The Peterboro Basket company, which for 168 years has been making handwoven hardwood baskets, is closing its factory and stopping production in Peterborough, partly because of an insect pest that has been destroying ash trees, the principal material for its products. The company said in a recent announcement that tens of millions of White Ash trees across the U.S. and Canada have been decimated by the invasion of the Emerald Ash Borer beetle, drastically reducing the availability of the wood used to make its baskets. The factory plans to produce its last basket this summer or fall.
CONCORD: With the border to Canada open for the first time in two years, state officials expect summer tourism to surpass last summer’s record numbers. Officials of the Division of Travel and Tourism expect the summer season to bring in 4.6 million visitors who will spend a total of over $2.2 billion. That would come on top of the summer of 2021, when, the state reported, the state saw a 21 percent increase in tourism visitation and spending over 2019, before the pandemic.
KEENE: C&S Wholesale Grocers Inc. — one of the country’s largest wholesale grocery suppliers and one of its biggest private companies — plans to lay off about 25 workers, according to the state Department of Labor. The Keene Sentinel reported that the agency said that the employees involved have been notified and that their jobs would end “in the next few weeks.” The company, which employs over 1,000 people in Keene, was founded in 1918 as a supplier to independent grocery stores and independent supermarkets, chain stores, military bases and institutions, it says on its website.
MANCHESTER: Medical device company NuLife Med disclosed a data security incident that it said impacted 81,244 individuals. According to Health IT Security, NuLife discovered the incident on March 11 and later determined that an unauthorized actor had potentially viewed or acquired information between March 9 and March 11. As of May 9, according to the report, NuLife had found no evidence of identity theft or fraud resulting from the event, and it could not “say with certainty the exact files that were potentially accessed or acquired by the unauthorized third party, other than a limited number.”
CONCORD: Joseph A. Foistner, 68, a Mont Vernon resident and disbarred attorney, has been sentenced to 48 months in federal prison for his involvement in a fraud and money laundering scheme. Foistner has been awaiting sentencing since December, when U.S. District Judge Paul Barbadoro found him guilty of four counts of bank fraud and one count each of wire fraud, money laundering, and making misrepresentations during bankruptcy proceedings, Young said in a statement.
DURHAM: A $1 million gift from Harry Patten, a 1958 graduate of the University of New Hampshire, and the Patten Family Foundation will launch the Patten Family Sales and Funding Accelerator program at the University of New Hampshire’s Peter T. Paul Entrepreneurship Center this fall. The program will provide sales coaching to startup founders and co-founders who studied at the so-called ECenter as students and after graduation as young alumni. The professional training will focus on the sale of products and services as a new startup. After three months of training, founders will be certified and eligible to apply for up to $50,000 in non-equity/non recourse loans.
CLAREMONT: James Roy, longtime operator of Roy Funeral Home in Claremont — who was facing multiple allegations of illegal operating practices — was found dead May 16 by police officers after he failed to appear for a scheduled court hearing. The Valley News reported that Roy was to be arraigned the same day in District Court, where he faced one count of operating an unlicensed funeral home, two counts of making funeral arrangements without a license, one count of failure to transmit a death record, four counts of transporting a dead body without a burial permit and three counts of unsworn falsification.
WASHINGTON, D.C.: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has announced that $4 million in federal funds earmarked for assessing and cleaning up abandoned industrial and commercial properties is headed for New Hampshire, to support cleaning up abandoned properties in underserved communities. The funds, available through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, are aimed at revitalizing communities across the country by cleaning up contaminated and blighted sites and redeveloping them for future use. Projects are located in Bethlehem, Nashua, Milford, Berlin, Derry, Winchester, Manchester, Hinsdale, Winchester, Swanzey and Keene.
