It’s official—Stratham dairy farmer Lorraine Stuart Merrill will be New Hampshire’s next Agriculture Commissioner. Merrill takes over for Steve Taylor, who recently retired after 25 years of service.

Gov. John Lynch nominated Merrill for the role in October, and the N.H. Executive Council confirmed the nomination on Wednesday, Nov. 28. Merrill has been a partner in Stuart Farm, a 270-acre dairy farm with a herd of about 240 cows, since 1975. She has lived on farms for her entire life and currently operates Stuart Farm, located on Route 108 at the intersection with Squamscott Road, along with her husband, daughter and son-in-law.

Merrill served as a member of the University System Board of Trustees from 1997 to 2005 and is a former member of the Stratham School Board. She is also a freelance writer with contributions to a number of local and national agriculture publications.

“Agriculture remains an important part of New Hampshire’s economy and as an accomplished dairy farmer and agricultural writer, Lorraine Merrill knows firsthand the challenges facing New Hampshire farmers and the importance of agriculture here in the state of New Hampshire,” Lynch said in a release.

Children’s Museum receives $100,000 donation

The Children’s Museum of New Hampshire received a welcome boost in finances last week when Michael Kenslea pledged $100,000 toward the new facility. Kenslea, founder fo Olde Port Bank in Portsmouth, contributed the money toward the museum’s capital campaign.

The directors of Olde Port Bank established the Martha Briggs Kenslea Fund, named for Kenslea’s late wife, when he retired from the bank in 1998. The fund, managed by the N.H. Charitable Foundation, has given the Children’s Museum $25,000 for each of the last 10 years.

Kenslea’s latest donation will help the museum relocate to its new site in Dover, which should be completed by July 2008.
“If you get behind something, you try to support it in as many ways as possible,” Kenslea said in a release. “When the museum approached me 23 years ago for a donation to get started, we pledged $200. Now here we are with the most popular cultural attraction in New Hampshire and so many more people involved in the effort of giving back to their community.”
Currently located in Portsmouth, the Children’s Museum has benefited from a number of generous contributions in recent months. Since the capital campaign began at the end of July, the museum has received a $250,000 gift from Sprague Energy and $50,000 each from Measured Progress and the Center for Assessment, D.F. Richard Energy and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Foundation.

Staff at the Children’s Museum have expressed their gratitude for each donation.

“Mike Kenslea is not only a very generous supporter of the Children’s Museum, he is a friend to the museum, has been on the Board and has provided leadership throughout our history,” said Denise Doleac, founder and executive director of the Children’s Museum. “We are very grateful for his gift and for his understanding of the museum’s goals; but most of all we are thankful that he is willing to be an example of how individuals make a difference.”

For more information or to make a donation, visit www.childrens-museum.org.

wind power blows toward Kittery

Kittery recently received word from the Maine Public Utilities Commission that a $50,000 state grant is theirs, provided the town continues to develop wind power capacity. A public hearing is scheduled for Monday, Dec. 10, during which residents and town officials will decide whether to approve matching town money to build a wind turbine near the solid waste facility on Mackenzie Lane.  

Before Kittery accepts the state grant, the town’s Energy Committee will review proposals from contractors to build a 50 to 100 kilowatt wind turbine. The contractor would plan, erect, operate and maintain the turbine, according to Kittery Town Manager Jonathan Carter.

Electricity derived from the turbine would be fed back into the grid and credited toward Shapley Middle School’s electricity costs. The school is within one mile of the potential site and could potentially develop educational programs on wind energy.

“What we’re hoping to do, if this comes to pass, is put in an educational monitoring station so the kids can watch the amount of electricity created by the wind turbine. Secondly, before anything happens, we will attempt to educate the surrounding neighborhood on the energy project,” Carter said. He believes the Energy Committee’s education initiatives will help allay concerns about the turbine’s aesthetic impact.

The project is being spearheaded by the Kittery Energy Advisory Committee, which is composed of town councilors, two UNH professors, the vice president of Clean Air Cool Planet, a nuclear engineer from the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, private consultants, Carter and a representative from Cool Kittery.

“The Committee has grown over time, with the fundamental purpose to be low key and work on town buildings,” Carter said.
The Committee has conducted an energy analysis of Kittery Town Hall and has made improvements to the town’s wastewater treatment plant. It has also successfully urged the town to join the Environmental Protection Agency’s energy challenge to reduce electrical consumption by 10 percent.

Funding for the wind turbine is still under discussion. “We’ve asked in the (Request for Proposals) to be creative in the financing. We will be looking for an amount of financing to fill the gap, whether that is a loan or selling the environmental credits from the wind turbine or asking to borrow from the council and repay by the generation of energy. That is something we will be contemplating in the next week or two,” Carter said. “We think we can make this thing happen, but right now, what we would like to do is a little education and make sure people are on board before we get too far down the road.”

The Dec. 10 hearing is at 7 p.m. inside the Council Chambers at Kittery Town Hall.

UNH professor offers holiday tips

Shifting holiday rituals can take a toll on families who rely on the holidays for a rare opportunity to bring everyone in the family together. Childbirth, marriage, relocation and the death of loved ones can all create barriers to longstanding holiday traditions.

Sheila McNamee, professor of communications at the University of New Hampshire, has some tips for those forced to alter their Christmas plans because of family developments this year.

“Holiday traditions reflect important family rituals, often from our childhoods, which conjure up wonderful memories of a magical holiday feeling,” McNamee said in a release. “In order to have any success in changing family rituals, we need to think about what will make other family members comfortable with the change. What sort of change would be ‘not too different’ but ‘different enough?’ That is the central question to ask.”

According to McNamee, families should invite some changes to tradition as positive developments instead of negative hindrances. Instead of detracting from celebrations, new family members or locations can add deeper meaning to the holidays.

“A new custom might excite family members and simultaneously not threaten them out of their comfort zone. Such an approach introduces just the right amount of difference,” McNamee said.

For example, insisting that Christmas Eve no longer be spent at your in-laws’ house but instead shift to your own parents’ home can create feelings of exclusion. Instead of taking such a selfish approach, McNamee suggests taking the whole family’s perspective into account. She also encourages families to ditch old traditions that cause more pain than they’re worth. 

“Let’s face it, family holiday rituals get old quickly. There are the ‘good parts’ that we know we will miss if we do away with them, and there are the ‘bad parts’ that we long to get rid of,” she said.