CONCORD: New Hampshire and three other states have become the first to receive federal funding to boost expansion of broadband internet service to un-served and underserved areas. Along with Louisiana, Virginia and West Virginia, the Granite State will be getting $50 million through the $10 billion Coronavirus Capital Projects Fund. The funding — along with $150 million heading to the Granite State through the American Rescue Plan Act and the bipartisan infrastructure law — is expected to connect thousands of New Hampshire homes and businesses to more reliable high-speed internet service and connectivity with download and upload speeds of at least 100 megabytes per second.
AMHERST: Kansas-based Flint Development, which proposed a massive warehouse at a former sandpit in Amherst, is scrapping the plan. The Union Leader reported that, in a letter to the town, the company said it would withdraw its request for three variances before the town’s zoning board. A continued hearing was scheduled for June 21. The company had planned to build two warehouses off Northern Boulevard and Bon Ter rain Drive — one would have been 1 million square feet and the other 224,640 square feet, with 700 tractor-trailer parking spaces.
CONCORD: Former state senator Erin Hennessey of Littleton has been sworn in as New Hampshire’s deputy secretary of state, taking a key role in helping to oversee the state’s elections, registration of corporations, vital records management, financial securities regulation and state archives. Her appointment comes five months after then-Deputy Secretary of State David Scanlan moved into the secretary of state role after the retirement of Bill Gardner.
PORTSMOUTH: Single-family real estate sales on the Seacoast surged in May, with the Seacoast Board of Realtors reporting the most closed sales since October 2021. The median price of $650,000 is up $25,000 from last year, although well off the year’s high of $682,500 set in March. For the year, single-family sales are off 19.6 percent, while the median for the first five months of 2022 is $638,000, up 7.2 percent from 2021.
SALEM: Landscaping contractor Belko Landscaping of Salem has been ordered to pay 19 workers thousands of dollars in overtime pay that a court has ruled they were improperly denied. The company was ordered to pay $283,020, including $141,150 in back wages and an equal amount in liquidated damages, to 19 workers to resolve violations of the overtime requirements of the Fair Labor Standards Act. In addition, Belko was ordered to pay a $14,231 civil penalty for “the “willful nature of the violations.”
CONCORD: Business and hospitality taxes continue to drive the state’s overheated revenue stream with one month remaining in the 2022 fiscal year. In May, a $24.3 million revenue surplus brought the total state budget surplus to $406.3 million over what budget writers predicted a year ago. Total revenue for the first 11 months of the fiscal year was $2.7 billion, which is $250.4 million more than a year ago. Business taxes continued strong with collections producing $39.9 million, or $10.9 million more than planned and $1 million more than a year ago. The rooms and meals tax continues to rebound from its significant decline in the early days of the pandemic, generating $27.7 million, which is $6.1 million more than estimates.
PORTSMOUTH: The General Services Administration, which owns the Thomas J. McIntyre federal building property, has given the city a six-month extension to continue working on a plan to redevelop the property. The go-ahead from GSA also paves the way for Portsmouth’s development partners, Redgate/Kane, to drop a potentially costly lawsuit they had filed against the city, the Portsmouth Herald reported. City Attorney Robert Sullivan said the GSA decision means “the pathway is now clear for the city and Redgate/Kane to work together” on the mixed-use project.
