LACONIA — The construction portion of the Huot Regional Technical Education Center addition is more than half completed, reported the construction team to the Joint Building Committee yesterday.
The construction phase of the project was budgeted at $13,940,273 and to date $7,338,116 or 46.19 percent of the budgeted amount has been spent.
Of the $550,000 contingency fund, change orders have amounted $90,085 leaving $459,925 to see the project through to completion.
The JBC also asked for an artists rendering for retrofitting the windows in the front of the existing buildings to be more compatible with those in the new building. The window replacement, that could cost between $300,000 and $500,000 depending on what contractors find when they remove the old windows, will be more energy efficient and may result in rebates from the gas company.
The rendering and estimated costs will be made available to the JBC next week and contractor said they would like solicit bids for the windows.
As for the actual construction, Superintendent Bob Champlin said the roof top units have been lowered on to the top of the building and are similar in size to the ones at the Laconia Middle School.
Inside, work continues apace and Champlin reported that construction companies began installing windows yesterday.
Tomorrow, Harvey Construction will have 10 sheet metal workers inside and the staging will come down from the front of the new building next week.
City Councilor Matt Lahey said the capital campaign, which has raised so far between $750,000 to $800,000 will begin in earnest now that the holidays are past.
He said there will be a presentation on January 24 at 3 p.m. at the Taylor Community and one at a later day at the Congregational Church.
An open house of the already renovated spaces in the old Huot Center is scheduled for February 12, in the afternoon.

LACONIA — Flora the retired German Shepard seeing-eye dog is safely back at home after her owner said someone likely dropped her off near the Chapel of St. Helena on Rte. 11-B earlier this week.
According to her owner, Joe Santosuosso, he and Flora went for their morning walk on the morning of January 7. He said the two usually walk down the highway and often turn around at the church.
He said when the returned home, he typically hooks her up to a run he has in his back yard but said he wanted her to get used to hanging around the house. He said he put her treats in the open barn door but when he looked outside she was gone.
He said she walked down the driveway to Route 11-B (he said there was snow and he didn't see her prints in it) and he figured somebody had picked her up.
Santosuosso said he notified all of the area police departments, including Belmont because he bought the dog from someone in that town, and ran notices in the local media.
He also posted pictures of Flora on the telephone poles along the roadway where the two usually take their walks. He also called the man from whom he got her and he posted something on his Facebook page.
Santosuosso said he doesn't know which of his many efforts to find Flora worked but said three days ago, he went outside and saw a fresh dog print in the snow.
He said he bagan calling her and she came up to him from behind his van. He said she still had the 7-foot leash, both of her collars and tags. He also said the paper he wrote his name and address and affixed to her collar was still there.
"I said, "Where have you been for the past several day?'" Santosuosso said.
He said she came into the house ate her supper and went to sleep.
Santosuosso said the two later walked to the church and he was removing the posters he had put up. He said he noticed a big paw print in the mud near the chapel and figured someone dropped her off there and she found her way home.
"She's in fine shape," he said, expressing his gratitude to the many people who helped him try and find her.

Caption (flora the dog) Flora, a retired seeing eye dog from Laconia, was lost for about two weeks when she suddenly returned home to her owner.

GILFORD — Typically, it's easy for the literary-minded of high school students to hide, to walk unnoticed among their peers. At Gilford High, though, the veil of obscurity has been removed from the editorial team behind Obsessive Image, the school's literary magazine. For two consecutive years, the American Scholastic Press Association has declared the publication the "Most Outstanding Literary Art Magazine."
"It feels like a big deal, it feels like validation for the work we're doing," said Sarah Gill, a senior who has served on the magazine's editorial team for three years.
The club — referred to as "Lit Mag" by its members –— is comprised of nine student editors and teacher Scott Hutchison, who serves as advisor. The club's job is to meet and decide, often through passionate debate, which works of literature, poetry, photography and other visual art are deserving of publication in that year's edition of Obsessive Image. For the past 20 years, said Hutchinson, the magazine has been honored by various awards from the Scholastic Press Association, but only for the 2011 and 2012 issues was the magazine given the association's highest honor.
At GHS, the reins of Obsessive Image are carefully passed from one year's editors to the next. As Gill explained, being invited to serve on the editorial team is an honor reserved for students who are strongly interested in literary works and are strong enough to champion a submission they believe in, even in the face of criticism.
In addition to Gill, editors that worked on the 2012 edition were Shannon McQueen, Brian Burns, Emily Watson, Tyler Haddock, Taunya Latuch, Sarah Cook, Roland DuBois, Lindsey Essaff and Emily Hanf.
Submissions to the magazine are provided by the student body, often resulting from class assignments. The team of editors reads each piece and then meets to decide which belong in the school's magazine. There's no quota for numbers of poems or finite space alloted to photography; whatever impresses a majority of the editors will be included.
A submission need not gain majority approval on first reading. If there is only one "yes" vote among the editors when an item is first evaluated, then the work is placed in the "maybe" pile, said Gill. When it comes next before the team, the supporting editor can argue for its inclusion. When necessary, a submission will be returned to its creator with edits that would be required for publication.
For Gill, who plans to attend the University of Chester, England next year and study creative writing and literature, Lit Mag has been an opportunity for her to indulge her passions and hone her skills. "I like the entire literary world," she said. "I really enjoy helping people improve their writing. We have some great writers in this school who don't shout from the rooftops that they're good writers, but they are. Lit Mag gives them that opportunity."
Gill continued, "We have a pretty good underground writing community. Our volleyball team is very good, everybody knows that. I don't think people know how creative we are." Her creative classmates, she said, represent, "the hidden talent of Gilford."
Could Gilford go for three years in a row? Gill thinks there's a good possibility. Submissions have been of high caliber, especially for poetry, she reported.
Hutchison said he was taken aback when he heard of the award. "I'm rather amazed by it. I knew we had a quality publication, but to think that, of all the schools in the country, the American Scholastic Press says this is the best? It's amazing to me, but we do a good job... we have good writers. We don't treat them like kids who are writing, we treat them like young writers.

CAPTION for OBSESSIVE IMAGE in AA:
Obsessive Image, the literary magazine published by Gilford High School students, has been named "Most Outstanding High School Literary Art Magazine" by the American Scholastic Press Association for two years in a row. Shown here is the editorial team working on the 2013 edition. Front row, left to right, Nathan Boudwell, Sarah Gill and Lindsey Essaff. Back row: Stratton Coleman, Casey Warnick, Roland DuBois and Sarah Cook. (Laconia Daily Sun photo/Adam Drapcho)