Hello Manchester! Last week, I put up a Facebook post of a few places that I went to, but didn’t get to write about. So, after talking with Carol, I’ve decided to begin a new weekly-ish reporter’s notebook column looking back at my travels over the past week as well as what I might have missed and what’s coming next starting…..now.
Starting the week off with the BOSC
Like most weeks in Manchester, this one had a municipal government meeting at city hall early on….well, sort of.
The Manchester Board of School Committee (BOSC) met remotely after a group of anti-mask protesters created a situation at a recent Aldermanic meeting that forced several city employees to get COVID testing. While the BOSC has tried to enforce a mask mandate at their meetings in the past, they learned that only the Aldermen can set those rules on city-owned property, the BOSC can only set rules for school district-owned property. Additionally, the Aldermen cannot set penalties for behavior without consent by the State Legislature, so a recent mask mandate the Aldermen instituted at city hall is ultimately toothless.
Thus, the BOSC voted to have all meetings until the end of the year be remote, barring a solution that would allow meetings on school property. The main thing stopping the BOSC from holding meetings on school property now is the lack of a set up that isn’t cost-prohibitive allowing public access television to record the meetings, something that most other towns nearby Manchester have already in some form.
The BOSC also decided that it would allow an “extra” football game after the conclusion of the NHIAA post-season, most likely on Thanksgiving. The game was originally intended for Central, which waived its play-in game against Concord when one of its players was diagnosed with COVID-19 and the entire team decided to enter quarantine out of an abundance of caution and solidarity.
The vote for the game was unanimous, but the date was left ambiguous since Arthur Beaudry (Ward 9) wanted the Thanksgiving game to follow the tradition of the teams with the two best records in the city facing off. Currently, that would be Trinity and Memorial, who both lost their playoff games on Friday, and both finished the year 3-3 including those two losses. However, Trinity was scheduled to face St. Thomas Aquinas on Thanksgiving, and now it’s uncertain if that will happen. West finished 1-3, but waived their playoff berth against Souhegan, a game that was almost certain to be a rout given a bevy of injuries West has suffered. Central finished 0-4.
Next week won’t hold an early-week municipal meeting, and that’s because….
… Election Day is Tuesday
Candidates were busy trying to get in last-minute campaign events. President Trump returned to Londonderry, Chris Pappas and Dan Feltes talked with Hispanic voters, Jeanne Shaheen joined Amy Klobuchar in Salem, the Manchester Chamber of Commerce held a candidate Q&A, veterans held an impromptu press conference for Joe Biden and a swarm of Democrats reached out to union carpenters.
There were also some events I missed unfortunately, Senator Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Corky Messner were at Stark Brewery on Friday, just a few hours apart from each other, Corky also went to the Common Man earlier on Friday, and the New Hampshire Democratic Party had a haunted house up in Concord.
Of course, bottom of the ticket has also been out and about. Perhaps the most notable campaign happening there came in Ward 9, where Republican State Rep candidate Mark Kliskey spent multiple Saturday mornings cleaning up litter instead of going door-to-door, a noble sentiment for certain.
There are also two more election-related stories I wanted to get to, but just couldn’t. First, believe it or not, there were actually organizers for Party of Socialism and Liberation Presidential Candidate Gloria LaRiva sitting at a table in Veterans’ Park several times in October.
They’re actually one of two socialist parties with presidential candidates on the ballot in at least one state, with the other being the Socialist Workers’ Party.
While LaRiva didn’t make it to New Hampshire, Libertarian Presidential Candidate Jo Jorgensen did make it to New Hampshire briefly in October. I tried to head to her event, but it conflicted with another event and ultimately her campaign did not return my request for information on it until several days after the event occurred.
I had a roughly 20-minute phone call with Jorgensen a week or so later, cut into two parts due to a scheduling issue. In the call, Jorgensen told me that she believes there has been too much regulation when it comes to COVID-19 testing and poor tests would winnowed by poor consumer reaction. She also believes that mask and anti-mask populations should segregate each other, but it wasn’t clear how that would be enforced.
She also agreed with the Black Lives Matter movement on several topics such as ending qualified immunity for police and ending jail time for people in possession of drugs. She also felt that policing should be a local issue and wants to end federal assistance for local law enforcement.
New Hampshire Presidential Primary icon Vermin Supreme actually won the Libertarian Presidential Primary in New Hampshire this year, but Jorgensen saw him as an entertainer and nothing more.
Sports
As earlier mentioned, Memorial saw the end of their football season, dropping their regular season finale to title contender Goffstown and falling in the playoffs to Bedford.
Due to the election, I unfortunately could not get to any other games this week, but here is the current post-season status each fall varsity team at all five Manchester high schools.
Central
- Field Hockey: Lost 3-0 to Concord in the Division I Region Two Quarterfinals
- Boys’ Soccer: Lost 2-1 to Windham in the Division I Region Two Quarterfinals
- Girls’ Soccer: Lost 2-1 to Windham in the Division I Region Two Preliminary Round
- Girls’ Volleyball: Lost 3-0 to Goffstown in Division I Region Two Play-in game
- Football: n/a
Memorial
- Field Hockey: Lost 5-0 to Central in the Division I Region Two Preliminary Round
- Boys’ Soccer: Lost 3-0 to Windham in the Division I Region Two Preliminary Round
- Girls’ Soccer: Lost 3-2 to Salem in the Division I Region Two Preliminary Round
- Girls’ Volleyball: Lost 3-0 to Goffstown in Division I Region Two Preliminary Round
- Football: Lost 31-8 to Goffstown in Division I North/East Quarterfinal
West
- Field Hockey: n/a
- Boys’ Soccer: Lost 5-0 to Hollis-Brookline in the Division II Region II Preliminary Round
- Girls’ Soccer: Lost 5-0 to Souhegan in the Division II Play-in Game
- Girls’ Volleyball: Lost 3-0 to Campbell in the Division II Region Three Preliminary Round
- Football: n/a
Trinity
- Field Hockey: n/a
- Boys’ Soccer: Division III Semifinal on Wednesday, Nov. 4 at 3 p.m. away at Raymond
- Girls’ Soccer: Lost 2-1 to Campbell in the Division III Play-in Game
- Girls’ Volleyball: Lost 3-1 to Mascenic in the Division III Region Four Preliminary Round
- Football: Lost 26-13 to Monadnock in Division III Quarterfinal
Derryfield
- Field Hockey: Lost 4-0 to Goffstown in the Division III Region Four Preliminary Round
- Boys’ Soccer: Lost 3-2 to Bishop Brady in Division II Region One Play-in Game
- Girls’ Soccer: Lost 4-1 to Raymond in the Division III Region One Preliminary Round
- Girls’ Volleyball: n/a
- Football: n/a
Coming Up
I am travelling to Dixville Notch to report the first-in-the-nation voting results on Tuesday morning, returning to Manchester for more from the polls on Election Day. After the election is over, things are going to slow down a bit for sure, but there will still be plenty likely happening in and around Manchester, so stay tuned.
