Dec. 17, 2001: Concord mayor Bill Veroneau ends his 16-year council career on a high note, as the council approves the money for the completion of the southern leg of the Northwest Bypass. “My six years as a ward councilor and 10 years as mayor have always been exciting, never boring and continuously filled with action,” he says. “Tonight is an example.”
Dec. 17, 1951: The temperature in Concord falls to 22 below zero, making this the coldest December day of the 20th century.
Dec. 17, 1808: Three years after a state prison is proposed in Concord, the Legislature authorizes a committee of three to accept bids for building one. It will be nearly four years before the prison opens on North State Street at Tremont Street. It will be a three-story, 36-cell structure surrounded by granite walls three feet thick and 14 feet high. The cost: $37,000.
Dec. 17, 1992: Gov. Judd Gregg orders a pagan symbol removed from the State House lawn. The young man who erected it goes to court, where Steven McAuliffe, in his first major decision as a federal judge, overrules Gregg’s order.
Dec. 18, 2000: For the first time in anyone’s memory, a crowd gathers at the State House to watch the casting of votes for president by New Hampshire’s four members of the Electoral College. The electors all choose George W. Bush, doing their part to ensure his narrow victory over Al Gore.
Dec. 20, 2000: Commissioner Leon Kenison announces his retirement from the state Department of Transportation. Kenison, 58, has worked in the department since he was a 23-year-old civil engineer fresh out of the University of New Hampshire.
Dec. 21, 1998: The Concord City Council orders City Manager Duncan Ballantyne to review the process used to rename 31 city streets after a prolonged furor over the issue. Ultimately, they say, some streets may revert to their old names.
Dec. 22, 2001: In a state where primary campaigns rarely heat up until just before the election, Craig Benson has thrown more extravaganzas than any of his four competitors – probably more than any candidate in the state’s history so far out from the election – and he never lets anyone leave hungry, the Monitor reports. Food, folks and fun is not his only tactic, but Benson knows that in a good activist’s heart, eating is next to voting. And so far, his strategy is attracting diners – and attention.
Dec. 23, 2001: Bud Luckern, head hockey coach at Bishop Brady High School from 1974 to 1981 and 1985 to 1991, dies at the age of 66.
Dec. 23, 2000: Bradlees department store on Fort Eddy Road is about to go out of business, the Monitor reports. The 105-store chain, which struggled through the 1990s, will close all of its locations.
Dec. 23, 1999: The Monitor reports that Gov. Jeanne Shaheen is joining the fight against a nationwide order by President Bill Clinton that could limit logging in the White Mountain National Forest. “I believe the proposal sets a terrible precedent for the governance of our national forests,” Shaheen says.
Dec. 23, 1865: Home at last eight months after the last shots of the Civil War were fired, the Second New Hampshire Volunteer Infantry Regiment parades through the streets of Concord. Gov. Frederick Smyth and other dignitaries toast the regiment. Three days later, the Second will be paid off and discharged, having served longer than any other New Hampshire regiment.
