#LaconiaCityBoxscore – A weekly summary of Laconia civic news

Public assistance

If the current rate holds, 2019 fiscal year requests for welfare assistance in the city will outpace other recent years.

Requests from July 2018 through January of this year totaled $47,384, or an average of $6,769 per month. Requests last year averaged $5,547 per month. In 2017, it averaged $3,875 per month. In 2016, it averaged $4,984 per month.

Requests come in to the city’s Welfare Department for food, housing and other services.

New Hampshire law requires municipalities to provide assistance to those in severe need of the basics of survival, such as food, shelter, medical assistance and utilities.

City Manager Scott Myers said no single reason accounts for the increase. Early freezing temperature may have contributed to some of the upswing, social service agency representatives say. Also, the relatively high cost of housing, an aging demographic and an increase in grandparents caring for minor children have been identified as other possible reasons.

Fire promotions

The Laconia Fire Department announced a series of promotions.

Jason Ellingson is the new assistant fire chief. Rick Hewlett and Brian Keyes have been sworn is as lieutenants.

Also, three firefighters have been promoted from initial employment probation — Travis Clark, Nick Preece and David DiTomaso.

The department has also hired new firefighters Patrick Mcmanus, Louis Loutrel, Matthew Murphy and Christopher Yaeger.

Moving on

Longtime Laconia Parks and Recreation Director Kevin Dunleavy has announced he will soon change jobs and go to work for the survey section of the New Hampshire Department of Transportation. His last day with the city will be March 8, and he will start his state job on March 11.

Facebook comment

“The man paid his dues and worked his a-- off for that pension. He deserves it. You can’t tell me that if you were collecting a pension, you wouldn’t go back to work to make extra money.” — Dee Marie on public employees who are able to retire with a pension and then earn a simultaneous salary from a public sector job.

And an opposing view from Doug Lambert:

“I'm all for decent benefits and all, but, good grief, 70K per year when employment ends. I can't see how such a system can be sustainable when some of these people ‘retire’ at 50 years old."

They said it

Marc Burrell complained to the City Council last week about any efforts to regulate short-term Airbnb-type rentals:

“If you start regulating people and start wanting to charge to come in and inspect my house, I’m just going to stop doing it. If I feel that way, how many other people feel that way? This is a tourist town. It’s always had rentals. Now with the age of the Internet, people from all over the world come here. To start regulating it because of one or two people, you are just going to lose it. It brings a lot of revenue into this town.”

Coming up

The Zoning Board of Adjustment will meet at 6:30 p.m Tuesday in City Hall. The agenda includes a proposal to convert the old Lakes Region Mental Health Center building at 111 Church St. to a 20-unit apartment building.