NH State Representative Steven Smith

Fathers Day Update

Posted on June 21, 2020 by Rep. Steven Smith

Father’s Day is a day of honoring fatherhood and paternal bonds, as well as the influence of fathers in society. In Catholic countries of Europe, it has been celebrated on March 19 as Saint Joseph’s Day since the Middle Ages. In America, Father’s Day was founded by Sonora Smart Dodd,^[1]^[2]^[3] and celebrated on the third Sunday of June for the first time in 1910. It is held on various days in many parts of the world all throughout the year, often in the months of March, May and June.

Then, in 1908, by Grace Golden Clayton proposed the day to honour those men who lost their lives in a mining accident in the US. Though, it was not accepted then. But in 1909, Sonora Smart Dodd, who along with her five brothers were raised by her father alone, being inspired after attending Mother’s day in a church, tried to convince the Spokane Ministerial Association to celebrate father’s day worldwide and succeeded.^[9]^[10]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Father’s_Day

With community displays canceled, people look to launch fireworks on own

Following the decision to cancel Fourth of July fireworks in most communities this year, many residents may be taking their colorful pyrotechnic displays into their own hands.

More residential fireworks shows means a potential increase in injury, fire danger and noise complains, but safety officials say they are not any more concerned than usual.

https://www.concordmonitor.com/consumer-fireworks-sales-34688093

New Hampshire urges conservation amid dry conditions

The state is advising well owners in New Hampshire to conserve water amid abnormally dry conditions.

According to the weekly U.S. Drought Monitor, all of New Hampshire has been categorized as abnormally dry and over the past two months has received less than normal amounts of rain. Some parts of the state, including Sullivan, Merrimack, Strafford, Rockingham, Hillsborough, and Cheshire counties, have received 50% to 75% less precipitation than normal, the state said.

https://apnews.com/a5176120047c21f1ee47e5b3e711d215

NH DHHS COVID-19 Update – June 20, 2020

Concord, NH – The New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) has issued the following update on the new coronavirus, COVID-19.

On Saturday, June 20, 2020, DHHS announced 37 new positive test results for COVID-19. There have now been 5,518 cases of COVID-19 diagnosed in New Hampshire. Several cases are still under investigation. Additional information from ongoing investigations will be incorporated into future COVID-19 updates. Of those with complete information, there is one individual under the age of 18 and the rest are adults with 54% being female and 46% being male. The new cases reside in Hillsborough County other than Manchester and Nashua (23), Merrimack (3), Rockingham (3), Strafford (2), Belknap (1), and Cheshire (1) counties, and in the cities of Manchester (3) and Nashua (1).

Two new hospitalized cases were identified for a total of 551 (10%) of 5,518 cases. One of the new cases had no identified risk factors. Community-based transmission continues to occur in the State and has been identified in all counties. Most of the remaining cases have had close contact with a person with a confirmed COVID-19 diagnosis or are associated with an outbreak setting.

DHHS has also announced 2 additional deaths related to COVID-19. We offer our sympathies to the family and friends.

• 1 male resident of Hillsborough County, 60 years of age and older
• 1 female resident of Hillsborough County, 60 years of age and older

Click to access covid-19-update-06202020.pdf

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Saturday June 20

Posted on June 20, 2020 by Rep. Steven Smith

Because not everything needs to be about COVID ~ Steve

Guor Marial discusses his life in Concord and South Sudan in new documentary

The story of Guor Marial – 2005 Concord High grad, Olympic marathoner, South Sudanese hero – has become the story of a nation, of 60 million refugees worldwide, of hope. Without Concord, it may have been told differently.“I didn’t envision Concord playing such a huge role, but it actually is the cat… read more at Concord Monitor

1 more death, 17 new cases linked to COVID-19 reported

State health officials announced Thursday that 17 more cases of COVID-19 were confirmed in New Hampshire, and one more Granite Stater has died.

The 17 new cases were the lowest daily total in the state since March 24.

Health officials said the person who died was a resident of a long-term care facility. There have now been 331 deaths associated with COVID-19 in New Hampshire over the course of the pandemic.

Two more people have been hospitalized for COVID-19, officials said. There have been 533 hospitalizations since the pandemic began.

https://www.wmur.com/article/1-more-death-17-new-cases-linked-to-covid-19-reported/32909542

Click to access covid-19-update-06192020.pdf

Canobie Lake Park prepares to reopen July 16, social distancing, crowd limits expected

Amusement parks have the green light to reopen June 29, but Canobie Lake Park will wait until mid-July as they make changes to follow the governor’s guidelines.

Guests will be welcomed back to Canobie Lake Park on July 16 under new restrictions. There will be health screening questions. Hand-washing stations will be installed, and changes will be made to the way people order food.

https://www.wmur.com/article/canobie-lake-park-prepares-to-reopen-july-16-social-distancing-crowd-limits-expected/32911996

Sununu urges caution for seniors going to amusement parks, movies

The rest of New Hampshire’s still-closed businesses can reopen June 29, but Gov. Chris Sununu cautioned that people over 60 should avoid those sectors, which include amusement parks, movie theaters, performing arts venues, arts and music education programs and adult day care centers.

“Not advised, at this time,” Sununu said Thursday. “We aren’t going to prevent it, but if you are over 60 or have an underlying health condition, I would not advise it. People can make their own personal decisions, but there is a lot of risk, to be sure.”

https://www.unionleader.com/news/health/coronavirus/sununu-urges-caution-for-seniors-going-to-amusement-parks-movies/article_6346d100-54ce-57a6-bbff-3771a65a9a8d.html?block_id=897573

New Hampshire restaurant owners assail indoor seating limits

“Only days after New Hampshire restaurants were allowed to begin offering indoor dining they’re clamoring to remove virtually all restrictions, including requiring tables be separated.

On June 15, restaurants, previously restricted to outdoor dining and takeout, began seating customers inside, at 50% capacity in four southern counties and 100% in the rest of the state. But they still must limit tables to six customers and maintain six feet of separation between tables. The idea is that, with the combination of indoor/outdoor seating, they could serve about the same number of customers, at least when the weather is nice.”

https://www.nhbr.com/nh-restaurant-owners-assail-indoor-seating-limits/

New Hampshire car registrations begin to rev up after pandemic lull

Things have been busier than ever at Dave’s Automotive in Marlborough, the family-run car repair shop and salvage yard.

“We are so buried with work it’s ridiculous,” Michelle Ferranti said. “Cars still gotta run, they’ve got to get us someplace even if they don’t have to get us to work everyday.”

https://www.nhbr.com/new-hampshire-car-registrations-begin-to-rev-up-after-pandemic-lull/

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A charade at the Whittemore Center House session

Posted on June 19, 2020 by Rep. Steven Smith

I have known Rep. Abrami for ten years. He is trusted and respected by many on both sides of the aisle, and with good reason. He nails the current situation in this article. You should be extremely concerned about the House leadership because the process matters. It is there to keep us, amateur Legislators, from making horrible mistakes. Thankfully, in a government of 425 people (400 Reps, 24 Senators, 1 Governor), the process keeps enough eyes on the bills to catch things. The failure of this Session is that the majority leadership has been making decisions among a handful people and ignoring the process. Even if they mean well, they are going to be wrong on many things. I have served in the minority and majority. In all cases except for my first term, the parties worked together on many issues. It is a real shame that this prudent method has been abandoned by this Speaker and his team. ~ Steve

Rep. Pat Abrami: A charade at the Whittemore Center House session

There has been a lot of social media chatter that somehow Republicans were blocking progress on House bills by not voting for Rule 65A, which changed our House calendar deadlines because of COVID-19. The reality is that whether we voted up or down on these remaining 32 bills made no difference since the deal was stuck between Democrat Senate and House leaders as to which House bills would live or die in the Senate without hearings.

Yes, that is correct. The fate of hundreds of House bills backed up in the Senate, not just the 32 effected immediately impacted by Rule 65A, would be made by the Senate without House bill sponsors being given an opportunity to defend the House position in a Senate committee hearing. Whether or not the Rule 65A was adopted, it was decided that June 30 would be the last day to act on Senate bills and the last day to concur on amended House bills. While we were at the Whittemore Center session on June 11, the Senate was sealing the fate of all these 32 bills that same day. They weren’t waiting for a House vote on these bills. This House session was all a charade, which was very upsetting to me and many other hard-working State Reps who were elected to do the peoples’ work.

Let me explain further. At our House session of March 12, seeing the COVID-19 wave about to hit, the House voted Rule 65b. This rule said that the House calendar could be modified with the concurrence of Democrat and Republican leadership. Republicans interpreted “concurrence” per the dictionary to mean “agreement.” In the three months that had passed there was only one short call between House Democrat and Republican leaders to discuss a path forward. There was no agreement, instead the House and Senate Democrat leaders negotiated without House Republican leadership input even being requested. Most Republicans like myself thought after June 11 we would add two months to the calendar to get our work done, albeit, via Zoom. My House Ways and Means Committee just spent the last month having work sessions with stakeholders on bills, voting bills out of committee, and doing revenue estimates all via Zoom. We became quite proficient with Zoom.

It turns out the Senate leaders wanted to be done with all of their work by June 16, a date they picked as their last Senate session day. So, this is how the Democrats on their own, without Republican say, worked this with the Senate. The Speaker asked the Democrat House chairs to rank all hundreds of House bills passed during this session based upon importance. This should be insulting to every State Rep since all bills are important to someone and in all cases were already deemed important by the whole House since they passed on the House floor, even the 32 second committee bills in question. The list of so-called important bills was given to the Senate for consideration. The fate of my four bills that passed on the House floor on voice votes is unknown to me as the prime sponsor.

Yes, you are right. How can that be?

The last several weeks before June 11 saw the production of “Christmas Tree Bills” in the Senate, a technique of hanging many bills on one House bill. At the Whittemore Center session much ado was made by Democrats about an office of child advocacy bill and a bill that set forth the 10-year transportation improvement plan that were two of the 32 bills not voted on because the Rule 65A vote failed. House Republicans knew that both these bills, among many others, were already hanging as Christmas ornaments on other House bills in the Senate, placed there by the senators. Remember the deal was already stuck between the House and Senate Democrat leadership as to which bills lived or died. Understand Senate bills were hung on House bills as well. A vast majority of Senate bills never passed the rigors of House hearings. That is correct: No House hearings on Senate bills either.

Adding insult to injury, it gets worse. This deal says that when the House reconvenes session on June 30, we will be voting to concur or not concur on 26 bills, many of which are the “Christmas Tree Bills.” That is hundreds of bills reduced to 26, with many bills killed off without public hearings. I heard about one bill with 64 bills hanging off it. What is missing is non-concur with a request for a conference committee between the House and Senate if we do not agree with the Senate. This is unprecedented and unfair to all involved. The Senate is saying to the House: Take it or leave it, we are going home after our June 16 session.

As can be seen, the fix was in before our June 11 House session. The fate of the 32 bills in question was already sealed. The whole session was a charade not worthy of each and every member of the NH House or the people of NH. Please go to gencourt.state.nh.us and navigate to the June 12 Senate calendar and you will see 340 pages of amendments which is the language of the bills that have survived this charade. The irony is it was the Democrats blocking progress on the scheduled bills and Republicans trying to promote a fair process for all bills.

Link: https://www.seacoastonline.com/opinion/20200615/another-view-charade-at-whittemore-center-house-session?fbclid=IwAR1ZnpZv7YvjWydo0ozhnFFu0dX1yGAHateO6S9-o79YrGXVZu1M_oUqnvo