The city of Manchester is on the verge of adopting a new aggressive animal or vicious dog ordinance. Aldermen began looking into the issue a year ago after citizens complained of how they or their animals had suffered from unprovoked dog attacks. Some of the attacking dogs left their canine victims dead. The issue got new life after Girard at Large broke the story of a 4 year old East Manchester girl who had been attacked by a pit bull mastiff breed. The dog’s owner paid a one hundred dollar fine over the incident. In the ordinance preliminarily adopted by the Board of Mayor and Aldermen on Tuesday night, dogs determined to be vicious by a court will be required to be muzzled and leashed when in public, behind fencing when on private property, permanently identified as vicious by a micro chip or tattoo (great, we’ll have dogs with scarlet letters), spayed or neutered if not already, assessed by and enrolled into a behavior modification program, and prohibited from entering any public off leash dog park. Bad Doggy! If the dog dies, ownership is transferred, or the owner moves, the City Clerk will have to be notified. The ordinance is available with this news read at Girard at Large dot com if you’d like to read it. We’ll be chatting about it this morning with Shelley Greenglass, Executive Director of the Manchester Animal Shelter in our Pet Sense segment.
To fee or not to fee, that is the question Manchester Aldermen wrestled with when presented with requests by nonprofit groups asking the city to waive permit fees for their planned activities. There has been a dramatic uptick in the number of groups seeking relief from city permitting fees, including if not especially from those already receiving significant city funding. The issue was raised by Ward 7 Alderman Bill Shea during a discussion over whether or not fees should be waived for the Manchester Farmers’ Market, the International Institute, and the Holy Cross Learning Center. During the discussion, City Clerk Matthew Normand informed the board that city non profits that don’t own property are entitled to a fee reduction by ordinance and that the requests that night were for waiver of the already substantially reduced fees. While the aldermen did grant the waivers, they referred the matter to committee for further review.
The news continues after this.
The Coalition of New Hampshire Taxpayers hosts its 15th annual Taxpayer Picnic tomorrow from 11 to 2 at American Legion Post number fifty nine in Hillsborough. The non-partisan not for profit group has been a formidable watchdog holding state and local governments to account for everything from spending to operations to schools to right to know violations and more. Voter fraud, a pet cause of the organization for many years, will be the focus of the event, which typically draws conservative politicians and activists from across the state and beyond. Among the speakers, former NH House Speaker and potential second congressional district candidate Bill O’Brien, U S Senate hopeful Jim Rubens, gubernatorial hopeful George Lambert and others representing gun, education, and constitutional groups. I your humble host am honored to be the Master of Ceremonies and humbly ask you spend part of your Saturday afternoon with us to get up to speed on the critical issues facing our state and nation and meet those would represent you in government or provide you the opportunity to get involved on an issue you care about. Details are posted with this news read at Girard at Large dot com
Our condolences go out to the families of George Smith and Bill Varkas who recently passed away. The Queen City lost two great civic leaders when they passed. Smith will be known to many as an alderman from Ward 10 but by many more as a stalwart advocate for youth sports in the city. He was active in Democratic politics. Varkas was a lifelong educator serving much of his career at Southside in the city. He was also deeply involved with the St. George Greek Orthodox Church in town and was active in Republican politics. He was sort of a god father to the Greek community in town. Manchester is a better place for both men’s efforts. Both will be missed.
That’s news from our own backyard, Girard at Large hour ___ is just 30 seconds away.
