Annual Fall Craft Fair Today
E E R F Saturday, OctOber 13, 2012
saturday
Laconia neighbors nervous after learning sex offender has been ordered to live among them while facing new charges
LRGH Auxiliary’s 11th • LHS • 9 to 3 • Bake Sale • Raffle • Free Admission
VOL. 13 NO. 93
LacONIa, N.H.
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Chickens may soon be welcome in all of Laconia By Michael Kitch
In May, Charles Drake of 27 Bay Street applied to the Zoning Board of Adjustment for a variance to keep between four and six laying hens, with no rooster, in an existing shed on his 0.29-acre fenced lot. “I pushed this for other people,” Drake said yesterday, explain-
THE LACONIA DAILY SUN
LACONIA — Barred from most parts of the city, chickens are finding champions who favor changes to the zoning ordinance that would permit residents to keep small flocks of laying hens.
ing that he knows others who want to keep chickens, but are reluctant to pay the fees and costs to apply for a variance, which in his case ran to $150. Drake said that only one abutter spoke to his request, the owner of an apartment building with seven units, who
asked if tenants complained of noise or smells, could the city remove the chickens. Another, Drake’s closest abutter, wrote to the board that he had no objections. The property is zoned “residential single family” (RS) where agriculture, which see CHICKENs page 11
By Michael Kitch THE LACONIA DAILY SUN
LACONIA — Word spread quickly among residents of Hillcrest Drive this week when they learned that a convicted sex offender charged with an additional offense was released on bail and ordered to live with his brother in their neighborhood. Roger Toutaint, 54, of Gilmanton, who pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor sexual assault committed against a young girl in 2006 or 2007, was arrested after allegedly admitting to a second assault on a different victim, a disabled adult male, around the same time. Suspicions were raised during a routine polygraph test
see HILLCrEst page 12
Shown here, standing on the newly-poured foundation for the addition to the Huot Technical Center, Laconia Superintendent Bob Champlin discusses the project with School Board Member Joe Cormier and City Councilors Matt Lahey and Bob Hamel. (Laconia Daily Sun photo/Adam Drapcho)
LHS Capital Campaign is 3/4 of the way home By adaM drapcho THE LACONIA DAILY SUN
LACONIA — The Laconia School District’s campaign to raise $1-million toward improvements on the High School campus has reached the three-quarters mark, school and city officials announced
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yesterday. The fund raising effort, which has welcomed large corporate gifts as well as individual contributions, will enable the construction of an athletic facility to accompany an already-begun expansion and renovation of the Huot Regional Technical Education Center and
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the building of new science labs. In total, the new construction, improvements and upgrades will cost $16.8-million. “We would like to raise another $250,000,” said City Councilor Matt Lahey. “At this point, we have cash comsee LHs page 13
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