CONCORD: The New England-Canada Business Council (NECBC) has launched the Steve Leahy Energy & Innovation Collaboration Award to celebrate cross-border partnerships and projects that exemplify the spirit of U.S.-Canada partnership in the energy sector. The Award will honor projects’ positive environmental and economic impact, level of U.S.-Canadian collaboration, sustainability, replicability, public-private sector and Indigenous collaboration, and other factors. Winners will be announced in mid-October. For more information, visit necbc.org/page/2025SteveLeahyAward.
WILDER, VT: Advance Transit is seeking a new executive director. Adams Carroll, who has led the Wilder-based nonprofit organization that runs a free bus service in the Upper Valley since 2022, will be leaving the organization, according to a news release. The Advance Transit board of directors has launched a national search for Carroll’s replacement. Carroll, who replaced longtime executive director Van Chesnut, will stay on until a new leader has been hired.
CONCORD: William Hart will serve as the next commissioner for New Hampshire’s Department of Corrections, leading a prison system that incarcerates roughly 1,700 people and employs 1,000. The Executive Council confirmed Hart, currently the U.S. Marshal for the District of New Hampshire, with a 4-1 vote on Aug. 24. While Hart has no experience in corrections, he has had a long career in law enforcement, having worked as chief of police in Londonderry for more than a decade. He’s also served on the state’s Police Standards and Training Council and the NH Retirement System board of trustees. He’s a U.S. Marine Corps veteran and a former Rockingham County Attorney.
HANCOCK: The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced $3.1 million in grants this week for organizations and local governments to purchase forest land, including $600,000 for the Harris Center for Conservation Education in Hancock. Eric Masterson, land program manager for the nonprofit organization, said the money is planned to be used to buy nearly 600 acres of land, called Sargent Camp.
The Harris Center is working on an agreement to purchase the land from its present owner, Boston University, which has owned it since the 1930s. There are more than 40 buildings on the property, including a lodge with a kitchen, classrooms and a dining area. This 600-acre tract in Hancock and Peterborough is surrounded by a conservation area that is already part of the Harris Center’s 36,000-acre SuperSanctuary, which also extends to Antrim, Dublin, Greenfield, Harrisville, Nelson and Stoddard.
The property the Harris Center is negotiating to buy would be kept open for public use such as hiking, biking, boating and some hunting, according to Masterson. He said it would be protected in perpetuity as a resource for people and wildlife.
