LACONIA — In January the Fire Department resumed its life safety inspection program of multi-family buildings with three or more rental units.
Deputy Chief Charles Roffo said that the program includes inspection of hard-wired smoke detection and carbon monoxide detection systems as well as fire alarm, sprinkler, heating and electrical systems. Buildings will also be inspected for infestations of rodents and insects and the presence of lead paint.
Roffo said that the Fire Department will contact property owners prior to scheduled inspections to enable them to notify their tenants. On receiving notice of an inspection, property owners must contact the department to confirm they will have a representative at the building to assist the inspector. Tenants may be present during the inspection and may ask questions of the inspector..
An inspection guidebook, with a checklist, is posted on the Fire Department website at www.LaconiaFire.com. Once inspections are completed, a report identifying any issues requiring to be addressed will be presented to property owners. If no violations are found, property owners will be provided with clearance letters.
Anyone with questions about the inspection program may contact the Fire Prevention Office at (603) 524-6881.

HILL — Sled dog clubs in the area are playing musical chairs with race dates and, as a result, a New England Sled Dog Club race which was originally scheduled for Hill on Feb. 23-24, will instead be held this weekend.
The change came after the Laconia World Championship Sled Dog Derby, originally scheduled for Feb. 8-10 in Laconia, was postponed to Feb. 22-24.
The New England club decided to move its race up by one weekend in order to avoid a conflict with the Laconia race, in which many of its members compete.
The NESDC website says ''this solution will provide everyone with the option to race this weekend and no longer poses a conflict with the new Laconia date (and will offer the added bonus of getting in another race to prepare teams for Laconia).''
The Hill Village race will be International Sled Dog Racing Association sanctioned and will get underway both Saturday and Sunday at 9 a.m. with skijoring (mushers pulled on skis by two dogs), followed by the three dog junior class, 4-dog class and open class (10 or more dogs). The one-dog junior class will follow and then the 8-dog and 6-dog classes.
The races will start from the Profile Falls Recreation area parking lot which was created several years ago by the New Hampshire Mushers Association.
Another sled dog race, scheduled earlier this month for Tamworth, where the New England Sled Dog Club has held races ever since 1924, when the club was first formed, was cancelled by the Tamworth Outing Club due to poor snow conditions.
In Sandwich, a Mid-Distance Sled Dog Race hosted by the Sandwich Sidehillers and the Yankee Siberian Husky Club, has been postponed from this Saturday to next Saturday due to poor trail conditions.
The race will see 25 teams of 6-8 dogs competing in a 45-mile race and 25 teams competing in a 20-mile race.
There will also be sled dog rides offered at the annual Ice Harvest and Winter Carnival at the Remick Country Doctor Museum and Farm in Tamworth this Saturday.
The event, which was postponed due to last Saturday's snowstorm, will see members of the Chinook Owners Association of America, offering short dog sled rides. The Chinook, New Hampshire's state dog, is a breed developed in Tamworth by Arthur Walden and which gained fame in Antarctic exploration.

MEREDITH — The Winnipesaukee Playhouse regularly draws on American literary classics for its winter community theater productions. This year the production comes from one of the greatest American novels that has been adapted for the musical stage.
"Big River: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn," which opens a three-day run tonight at the Inter-Lakes High School Community Auditorium, is based on the Mark Twain classic, and features bluegrass and country music styles characteristic of places along the Mississippi River.
The Winni Playhouse's production of "Big River" is family entertainment, and not just in the sense that a musical setting of Twain's message of diversity, acceptance, respect and freedom appeals to youngsters and adults alike, but also in that its cast features a number of family groups — parents and their children performing on the same stage.
"It's a bonding experience," said Elizabeth Rohdenberg of Meredith who is in the production along with her son, Rudy Beer. For Rudy, a fifth-grader at Inter-Lakes Elementary School, this is his fourth time performing in a Winni Playhouse program. However, it marks his mother's first time on stage. "I said (to Rudy), 'Let's try to get a bit part together."
Ben Kace has the lead role of Huck and Bruce Smith plays the runaway slave, Jim, in the two-act play.
With a 40-member cast, "Big River" is the largest-scale show Winni Playhouse has done since it was founded nine years ago, according to Lesley Pankhurst, the theater's marketing director who is also in the production manager. Pankhurst's husband, Neil, is the show's director. Tara Little is in charge of choreography and Christine Chiasson is the music director for the Walter Hauptman-Roger Miller play, which opened on Broadway in 1985 and ran for 1,005 performances and won seven Tony Awards.
But it's the involvement of various family groups in the ensemble which make this show extra special, Lesley Pankhurst says. "We wanted an activity that people can do with their kids."
Like Sharona Bates and her 9-year-old daughter Kaira from Gilmanton. It was Kaira was the one who coaxed her mother to try out for the show. "I'll audition, but I want you to do it with me," Sharona recalls her daughter saying last fall when the casting call went out. Kaira has been performing most of her life. She began taking dance lessons when she was 3, and she is also takes violin lessons, her mother says.
Another family group is the Mitchell-Morris family of New Hampton. Jeremiah Morris, the father plays five different parts in the play including the very opening scene in which he plays the role of a father reading from "The Adventures of Huckleberry" to his daughter, portrayed by his real-life daughter Jubilee Mitchell-Morris. His son, Shiloh, and daughter, Calista are also in the show.
Tonight's show begins at 7 p.m. On Saturday there will be a matinee at 2 p.m. as well an evening performance at 7. The final show will be Sunday at 2 p.m. For ticket information visit www.winniplayhouse.org.