Bridges named for fallen State Police Sgt., state highway designer

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CONCORD — New Hampshire has Daniel Webster Highway, the Frederick E. Everett Turnpike and the Ruth L. Griffin Bridge, but naming public landmarks for people doesn’t happen every day.

Gov. Chris Sununu signed legislation Wednesday naming two bridges in honor of two individuals, a state police staff sergeant tragically killed while on the job and a state highway staffer who designed 400 of the state’s bridges.

“This is a cool day for me because we get to honor two individuals with one bill,” Sununu said.

Jeese E. Sherrill, 44, was working at the site of an overnight paving project when the driver of a tractor-trailer slammed into his cruiser off Interstate 95 in Portsmouth last Oct. 28.

The driver, Jay Paul Medeiros, 43, of Ashford, Conn., faces charges of negligent homicide and reckless conduct with a deadly weapon.

This bill (HB 1038) names in Sherrill’s honor the Shelburne Road Bridge over I-95, also known as bridge No. 17 in the city of Portsmouth.

Lt. Keith Walker is commander of Troop A, where Sherrill worked.

“We talked every day. He was such a big presence in all our lives and this was such a great, fitting tribute to Jesse,” said State Police Lt. Keith Walker, commander of Troop A where Sherrill worked.

Walker was joined by a half dozen state police officers for the signing ceremony.

Sununu said he grew to know Sherrill as a state police officer detailed to his Newfields home to keep watch over the family when anti-vaccine mandate activists held weekly protests there during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

They first met in November 2020.

“He was one of a kind, there is no doubt about it,” Sununu said. “What he stood for, what he was about as an individual, as a dad isn’t forgotten.”

Sherrill supporters got this bridge naming attached to the original bill that names the new Ash Road Bridge over Interstate 93 in Londonderry for Robert J. Prowse, the man who originally designed it.

The bridge is just north of Exit 4 on I-93.

“He is known throughout New Hampshire for the past 60 years and hasn’t gotten the recognition he deserves for having helped to design the economic superhighway as well for New Hampshire,” Sununu said.

Joyce Prowse of Bow, his daughter-in-law, got state Rep. Gary Woods, D-Bow, to sponsor the original bill and Sen. Sharon Carson, R-Londonderry, got aboard and shepherded it through the Senate.

“He designed 400 bridges, which was a pretty amazing accomplishment,” Prowse said of her father-in-law.

Sue Callahan of Contoocook, Prowse’s granddaughter, said state plans are to locate the original bridge Prowse had designed for Londonderry to be placed over another state highway.

“We would always marvel when we went on the highway, ‘Hey, we just went over granddad’s bridge,'” Callahan recalled.

Carson said the bridge as originally designed was a “great introduction to Londonderry.”

New Committee Would Review Police Misconduct In NH

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CONCORD, NH — A plan to create a committee to screen and investigate potential police misconduct had no detractors Tuesday at a public hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Senate Bill 456 grew out of recommendations of the New Hampshire Commission on Law Enforcement Accountability, Community, and Transparency and a legislative study committee appointed last year.

Supporters of the bill said it would bring consistency to handling police conduct complaints, clearly define misconduct and the process used to investigate the complaints and will reassure the public their grievances against law enforcement officers will be taken seriously.

“This a really a good step forward in dealing with complaints against police officers,” said the bill’s prime sponsor, Sen. Sharon Carson, R-Londonderry. “Someone with a complaint will be reassured that the complaint is going to be addressed.”

Several people testifying noted today most police disciplinary actions are handled at the local level and without a great deal of transparency.

“This addresses a much-needed gap in the current system,” said Senior Assistant Attorney General Matthew Broadhead, who helped draft the bill, “when the outcome is never made public.”He said the new police conduct committee is based on the model used by the Attorney Disciplinary Office, and makes some needed updates to the Police Standards and Training Council to give them more tools to work with in respect to officer misconduct.

“We have heard a lot of complaints from law enforcement (about the) lack of uniformity,” Broadhead said. “This is a really great start and a compromise forged over the last year.”

The bill has the backing of the New Hampshire Association Chiefs of Police, the New Hampshire Police Association, the Attorney General’s Office, the Department of Safety, the Police Standard and Training Council, the American Civil Liberties Union — NH, and Americans For Prosperity — NH.

The bill would add two new public members to the Police Standards and Training Council as well as a criminal justice professor or from a similar field and one of two police chiefs could be from a college or university community.

The bill creates a Law Enforcement Conduct Review Committee consisting of three members of law enforcement and two public members.

The five committee members and two new council members would all be appointed by the governor, and judiciary committee member. Sen. Jay Kahn, D-Keene, wondered if there may be another way to ensure there is the diversity on the council and committee everyone seeks.

“Would it be potentially beneficial offering those appointments to other leaders of the legislature or other organizations in the state or advisory groups to law enforcement and the courts,” Kahn asked. “I ask in the sense I assume one of the goals is the most diverse representation (possible) to the two bodies.”John Scippa, director of Police Standards and Training Council, said the question had robust discussion in the committee that met last year.

“Should we include any groups representative of a marginalized population? Should we benefit a private organization with a seat that will cause another organization not to be represented,” Scippa characterized the discussion. “In the end, the council members have always been appointed by a sitting governor and the process works very well.”He said the proposal provides the council with an up-to-date process for New Hampshire law enforcement on how to investigate possible misconduct and how it is presented for disposition.

The bill defines what misconduct is, but maintains local control, but with oversight and review, Scippa said, while adding a layer of due process, having open hearings and public participation.

And he said it will create “a repository of sustained findings of police misconduct.”

The bill also allows for an administrative suspension of a police officer’s certification for significant offenses much like the motor vehicle division suspends a driver’s license for a drunk driving arrest, Scippa said.

Gilles Bissonnette, legal director of the ACLU-NH, backed the bill saying on balance it is a real step forward.

“At the end of the day, the bill is a significant improvement over the current process,” he said, “where you have an internal disciplinary investigation without a tremendous amount of transparency and public accountability.”

He noted recently the Salem Police Department failed to take seriously its officer’s misconduct, and the bill addresses the public’s concern.

Carson said the legislature last year determined that following the LEACT commission’s recommendation would be very expensive and there may not be the money to establish an independent commission. The bill appropriates $350,000 for the new review committee.

She said the bill before the committee is the result of a series of compromises that has wide support.

The bill is nearly identical to one that has had initial approval in the House.

The committee will decide its recommendation on SB 456 after senators return from their one-week vacation next week.

Bill To Require School Boards Offer Regular Public Comment

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CONCORD – A bill was heard Tuesday by the Senate Education Committee that would require a thirty-minute public comment period at the beginning of all school board meetings.

Supporters said a structure for such civic discourse would be beneficial and “calm the waters” which have been pretty choppy the past few years with COVID-19 issues, mask mandates, plummeting academic scores, remote learning, and vaccination issues.

But the New Hampshire School Boards Association opposed Senate Bill 410.

Sen. Sharon Carson, R-Londonderry, said she offered Senate Bill 410 after observing what was happening at school board meetings this summer and fall, largely because of concerns of parents related to COVID-19 decisions and restrictions and impacts to education. She said if public comment periods are offered, it is often at the end of the meeting which ends late when parents should be at home with their kids.

What has fueled a lot of the dissent at the meetings, she said, is that parents feel they are not being heard and that has led to arguments, in part because they do not get a chance to speak.

“We just have to do this better and I thought this was a good place to start,” Carson said of her bill.

Barrett M. Christina, executive director of the New Hampshire School Boards Association, opposed the bill on behalf of the association while stressing that they do not oppose public comment. Most boards already do this, he said.

“We feel there should be some policy that carves out time place and scope of the public comment period,” he said.

Some boards do not have a policy and think this is a local issue.

He said the organization sent out a survey to school administrative unit offices and heard back from about half.

“School boards are already doing this across the state,” Barrett stated, noting that some are limiting public testimony to three minutes per speaker.

He said there could be some problems if the bill is made law including emergency meetings, called, say if there is a roof that caves in from an ice storm.

“We have to hold a 30 minute public comment period before that? It doesn’t make sense,” he said.

The state Board of Education has not taken public comment in at least about a year, he noted.

“They’ve been shut down,” he said. “It’s not just local school boards.”

Steve Young of Londonderry spoke in support of the bill.

Young said he served for 18 years on the Londonderry School District and it never offered a public comment period during his tenure but allowed for comments along with announcements at the end of meetings.

As chair, he said he would always call for the public comment before an important vote, “but not everybody feels that way.”

He supported the idea of creating a public comment requirement with a time limit allowed.

He said offering the public a comment allows for less friction and more consensus.

Recessing meetings for people to stop talking or walking out of the room and adjourning because of public comment is unacceptable.

Young said presentations and announcements at the beginning of a meeting could also add a public comment, with or without a time constraint, because meetings should not be held up by some artificial 30-minute time frame but there could be limits to how long people can speak.

“I think it could be nice to have more open communication,” he said

Sen. Jay Kahn, D-Keene, said it sounds like there is a principle here that public comment ought to be allowed. Timing, order, seem secondary to the principle.

Bob Slater of Londonderry, a current school board member but speaking on behalf of himself, supported the bill.

He said it has been a rough year on the board and there has been a lot of inconsistency in public comment access.

“Up until about 60 days ago, we did not have a public comment period,” he said. He proposed it be on the agenda and it was adopted.

He said it stops the confusion and questions and is offered after announcements as a separate segment at the end of each meeting.

Slater supported the bill noting 30 minutes has worked out for them with limits of three minutes per speaker.

“We’ve gotten close to 30 minutes in the past. But it is so important to hear from the parents,” he stressed.

The consistency would help “try to keep some peace in the community.”

“The more you listen,” he said, the more you “calm the waters.”

Diana Fenton, attorney for the office of governance for the state Department of Education, was asked by the chair to talk about the code of ethics provisions within the bill.

She said the state Board of Education does not have direct oversight over school board members across the state.

“They are elected officials and are governed by the ballot box,” Fenton said.

She noted that the department created documents of a code of ethics directed at teachers not elected officials.

“We have nothing to impose if anything would be violated,” she said.

But with teachers, a credential is attached to the code.

The committee meets Wednesday and plans to vote out of committee a number of bills including this one.

On Tuesday the Senate Education Committee did vote to recommend to the Senate that SB 394 pass, relative to changing the age of majority to 21 for those with disabilities and SB 384, a technical change to the definition of tuitions as requested by the Department of Education.

Bill would update interstate compact dealing with child custody issues

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Updated legislation filed in response to disappearance of Harmony Montgomery

CONCORD, N.H. — Legislation is being proposed in the New Hampshire Senate in response to the disappearance of 7-year-old Harmony Montgomery.

The bill is intended to help keep children safe by updating the Interstate Compact for the Placement of Children, a mechanism for states to communicate with each other when children are crossing state lines for custody issues.

The intent of the compact is to provide a process and ongoing supervision to ensure that children are placed in safe and suitable homes when more than one state is involved.

State Sen. Sharon Carson, R-Londonderry, is the sponsor of the bill, which is an amendment to older legislation that was filed two years ago.

“So, this is one step to get us to the table so we can start having a conversation with other states nationally about children and out-of-state placements,” Carson said.

The bill was voted on by a committee Wednesday and will go to the Senate floor next week and then on to the House.

Carson: Veterans, We’re Ready To Help. Please Let Us

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By Sen. Sharon Carson, NH Journal

This past week, I read an important article in New Hampshire Journal penned by a fellow state legislator and fellow military veteran. He described in detail all of the feelings of anxiety and anger that have been awoken inside him by the infuriating events we’ve seen unfolding in Kabul. He spoke about his experiences fighting in Afghanistan on the ground near the international airport, how difficult it was when he returned stateside, and how the past few weeks have led him to relive those horrors.

It was a brave piece of writing.

The author concluded by imploring us all to check on any veterans we know who may be suffering similar feelings of anger, abandonment, or despair. This struck me as a most important, and far too often glossed over, point that in this hyper-politicized world, we seem to have forgotten.

Much of the news coverage about the mishandling of Afghanistan has focused on the political fallout the Biden administration will face, and not nearly enough time has been spent talking about the impact that this has had on those who gave so much for their country over the past two decades.

Most of us can clearly see that President Biden made huge mistakes during our hasty withdrawal from the region, but we’ve also unfortunately seen many supporters of the president circle the wagons and try to make that argument that the withdrawal was somehow a success, or at the very least, really the failure of his predecessors. This kind of dig-your-heels-in partisanship is a regrettable byproduct of the times and one that is completely counterproductive to ensuring the safety of our troops, current and former, and our safety as a nation.

New Hampshire is home to tens of thousands of veterans of the wars in Afghanistan and the Middle East since 9/11. In fact, over 10 percent of our population serves, or served, in a branch of the Armed Forces.

The Granite State has always prided itself on standing behind our veterans and now is no different. As both an Army veteran and a state senator, I am very proud of the attention that our legislature put on mental health care, especially veteran-focused mental health care, during this past legislative session.

The new Republican-led budget, which passed this spring and was signed into law by Gov. Chris Sununu, includes $1.5 million in increased funding for the mental health needs of our state’s veterans. The Support for Veterans Mental Health and Social Isolation program works in partnership with the U.S. Department of Veteran’s Affairs (VA), to provide mental health care for veterans that were feeling the effects of social isolation brought on by the pandemic. This is only one such program being offered to those in need of help, and the state and the VA offer many more.

I encourage all of my fellow veterans in New Hampshire to be open and honest about your mental health needs, especially during times like these. If you are a veteran, or if you know any veterans who are feeling anxious, angry, or just need someone to talk to, please contact the Veterans Suicide Hotline at 1-800-273-8255.

Remember that you are not alone. Please don’t suffer in silence.

State Sen. Sharon Carson is a U.S. Army veteran and the Senate President Pro Tem. Carson represents District 14 which includes the communities of Hudson, Auburn, and Londonderry.