Members of the chamber, their guests and any business seeking more information about Cummings, Lamont & McNamee, P.A. are welcome to attend. Bring business cards for door prizes and networking. Hors d’oeuvres will be provided by Mountain Caterers of Wells, ME. Cummings, Lamont & McNamee, P.A. is located at 14 Bow Street in Exeter. For more information contact the Exeter Area Chamber of Commerce, 603.772.2411.

Put on by the Exeter Area Chamber of Commerce the Fall Festival takes place in the heart of historic Exeter, with family friendly activities running from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m. inclduing free hayrides, trick-or-treating, live entertainment, crafters, and food.

The chamber is now taking applications for crafters, vendors and food vendors for the Fall Festival. To apply, contact the chamber at (603) 772-2411 or email info@exeterarea.org. 

Amateur bakers are encouraged to submit their best apple pie to be judged against other amateurs for a chance to win the Bakers’ Choice Award. Registration is free; deadline is October 8. Call the chamber at 603.772.2411 or email info@exeterarea.org to register.

In its first appearance at the festival the chamber is seeking participants for the Fall Festival Chili Cook-off. The event will allow the public to judge the day’s best chili. Registation fee: $10. Call the chamber at 603.772.2411 or email info@exeterarea.org to register.

 For more information please contact Gretchen Heilshorn McDonald with the Exeter Area Chamber of Commerce at    (603) 772.2411 or gretchen@exeterarea.org.

Kids, teens and adults can sign up through the Exeter Recreation Department for the fall program to take classes or sign up for one-on-one chef’s tutorials. The program will teach kids, teens and adults the art of rustic, Italian cooking in small groups and offer its new “Foodie’s Folly” where anyone of any cooking experience can come and learn to make excellent meals for themselves. After it is assembled, Lanzo’s will pack it up and send great meals home with them. Call Lanzo’s anytime to schedule

Join Lanzo’s Tuesdays through Sundays for lunch and dinner. They are open 11:30 a.m.-8:30 p.m. week nights and until 10:00 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. Sunday mornings they open at 9:00 a.m. for our bountiful breakfast buffet which includes: coffee, juice, made-to-order omelettes, eggs benedict, eggs, bacon, sausage, ham, corned beef hash, biscuits and gravy, french toast, pancakes and other chef’s whims. Last weekend they proudly offered stuffed french toast, pirogies and empanadas in addition to our regular breakfast buffet options. All these breakfast options cost $9.95 for adults and $4.95 for children?

Check out their full menu and daily specials by calling 772-3000 or www.lanzosbistro.com. 56 Lincoln Street – Exeter, NH

In acknowledgement of the ultimate sacrifice paid by Sgt. Andrew C. Nicol both the town of Exeter and the town’s high school will be lowering their flags to half-staff on Wednesday.

The Kensington native and 2006 Exeter High School graduate was a team leader assigned to Company B, 3rd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment at Fort Benning, Ga. who was killed in action on Aug. 8 in Zhari, Kandahar, Afghanistan.

Nicol was brought home to the Pease Air National Guard Base for a small ceremony on Saturday.

A public wake is scheduled for today, Aug. 17, from 4 to 8 p.m. at Holy Family Parish in Amesbury, Mass.

A public funeral Mass is scheduled the following day, Wednesday, Aug. 18, from 10 a.m. to noon with burial to follow at approximately 3:30 p.m. at the New Hampshire State Veterans Cemetery in Boscawen.

“As a soldier killed in action certainly we all feel that pain as a community,” said Dean. “Where Andrew was a member of our local high school and part of our community within the SAU we’ve felt the loss throughout Exeter and feel very close to it.”

“We feel as though it’s the least we can do in the acknowledgement of his service to the country,” he said.

Principal Victor Sokul said the school’s flag is down at the moment and will remain so throughout the day tomorrow.

The town will present a detailed budget of the project which has recently seen a major increase in terms of the scope of the project and the associated cost.

“There’s no question the scope of that project is consistent with some of the other really poorer quality areas in town that we are dealing with inflow and infiltration issues and line replacement issues,” said Dean. “That may speak to why it hasn’t been done in years and years.”

Speaking during the July 26 meeting resident Gerry Hamel voiced his concern over the estimated increase of $2.9 million recently identified by town officials in regards to town water and sewer projects.

Two warrant articles, calling for $1.6 million and $1.05 million for design, rehabilitation and replacement of water and sewer lines respectively, were approved in March. The town’s Department of Public Works identified the Jady Hill area (near the Exeter Golf Club) as a top priority for water and sewer line replacement and drainage improvements.

“The price is now 100 percent of what we were told at the deliberative session and what the voters voted for,” Hamel said during the meeting. ”Now as a voter and a taxpayer I feel the project has got to go forward but my concern is I feel at times that we’re given one price to get a foot in the door and then things come back again and we have another price to complete a job. I don’t think that’s the way it should be.

An interim update of a study by the town’s consultants Underwood Engineers — not scheduled for completion until October — has identified an additional 1,000 feet of sewer lines, the re-wiring of 1,800 feet of sewer lines and the repair of 15 leaking sewer manholes in areas that weren’t planned for rehabilitation.

Prior to an update earlier this month the town had been looking to replace 3,050 feet of sewer lines.

These sewer projects were approved this past spring as a result of inflow and infiltration problems. Inflow and infiltration is when storm water enters the sewage system, where it must undergo the same treatment as wastewater. To this point engineers have discovered roots growing into sewer lines, sewer line breaks and sump pumps taking in groundwater in the Jady Hill area.

The consultants also suggested installing a drain-line in areas where no drain line currently exists and having that as an avenue for the residents to pump to the drain line instead of the sewer. They’re recommending 3,100 feet of drains to be installed. To address the problem one of the projects that will be included in the Capital Improvement Program (CIP) for 2011 focuses on additional improvements in the Jady Hill area in the amount of $2.9 million — $2,650,000 for sewer improvements and $250,000 for drainage.

“If we don’t get additional funding through the CIP then we will phase the project to meet the existing money we have,” Town Engineer Paul Vlasich said previously. Currently there is adequate funding in place to complete the necessary water main work.

The Planning Board will hear the presentation of Tuck Realty Corp. for the Linden Commons subdivision plan Thursday night at 7 p.m. in the Nowak Room of the Town Offices and hopefully the long-gestating project can come to a resolution so that all those involved can finally move forward.

Linden Commons was initially brought before the board in 2007 and originally the plan had been to house 27 lots but was reduced to provide a 50-foot open space buffer around the entire property.

Access and trees along the road were tagged by members of the board and the town planner as the biggest stumbling blocks for the long-gestating project during the Planning Board’s meeting on May 13.

Originally the plan called for 10 trees along the road front, however Town Planner Sylvia von Aulock suggested developers plant one tree in front of every house citing recent storm activity which has decimated the number of trees in similar developments such as the Riverwoods at Exeter retirement community and Wright Place.

Tuck Realty Corp. Vice President John Krebs said the number of trees had been decided upon based on what they thought would be reasonable based on site conditions and the existence of a 40-foot no cut or disturb zone from the wetlands and no massive cuts taking place along either side of the right of way.

With the cost associated with such planting he said he would prefer to preserve as many trees as possible on-site without having to adhere to planting two-and-a-half times the number of trees originally planned.

Krebs said it was difficult to “manage a project like this with this kind of discretion and latitude from the board.”

Planning Board Chairwoman Kathy Corson said the condition was being brought up due to changes that had occurred outside of the project over the last three years.

“In the last three years we’ve witnessed a series of incredible storm events and what we’re asking for is a result of those occurring,” she said. “Even since the last meeting in December we have more information available to us.”

As discussions progressed, von Aulock said with the Winslow Drive approach being a wooded area the plantings would not have to apply to all 25 homes but rather 22.

Also discussed during the meeting was the gated, emergency access easement to the Exeter River MHP Cooperative. The gate would help in reducing the amount of trespassing onto the private development as well as provide a secondary emergency access.

Attorney Patrick Arnold, an associate attorney at Bostock Law PLLC, representing the Exeter River MHP Cooperative, said an easement agreement had been reached between the two groups that day.

Through the agreement the gate would remain on the Linden Commons property and only emergency service providers would have access to the gate utilizing an access key, Krebs said.

Once again citing recent storms that have downed trees and severely restricted access to roads and homes, von Aulock said should the Linden Street access be blocked during a storm it would be imperative for residents to have access to the gate.

“We’ve had situations in the past two years with downed trees causing people to not have access to their home,” she said. “There needs to be an ability to cross private land in a situation that is appropriate.”

Krebs said they’d work to resolve the matter whether that meant the use of a combination lock or the homeowners association having access keys.

The Spotlight on the Arts Awards show was held Thursday, April 15 at The Music Hall in Portsmouth, where Redlon and Boutin received their scholarships.

Redlon, of Stratham, has a long affiliation with the Seacoast Repertory Theatre as an actress, costume designer and teacher.

“One of my favorite things to do over the summer,” Redlon says, “is to volunteer at the Seacoast Repertory Theatre’s day camps and teach the kids to act, memorize lines, sing and learn choreography. It has taught me leadership and about how to be a good role model. The children look up to me and it is rewarding to watch them succeed and overcome fears.”

Redlon has studied acting at the New Hampshire Theater Project and has also appeared in just about every play Exeter High School has performed. Whenever possible, she also turns her academic work into dramatic performances.

“Being in a play is like being on a team,” Redlon said. “We do it for the performance, for the audience. We learn to put our feelings aside and work together. If a line gets dropped, you help each other and improvise through it so the audience hardly notices. Your cast is your family. I have developed the majority of my life skills in theater as well as my friends. Theater gives me purpose.”

Pamela Belanger, Redlon’s Honors British Lit teacher, who also directed her in two plays, said she is “the kind of student who puts her all into anything that she does.”

This year’s scholarships were generously funded by the Exeter Area Automobile Dealers Association and the Little Harbor Charitable Foundation.

“We encourage citizens to come in and ask questions you may have about serving and sign up if you are so moved,” said Chairwoman Julie Gilman.

The fair — which will include information tables on the town boards and committees with representatives available to answer questions — will take place from 10 a.m. to noon at the Town Hall.

The Board of Selectmen have also created a board and committee brochure, that will be displaced in gathering areas around town like the Town Offices, Exeter Public Library and Exeter Area Chamber of Commerce.

Those interested in joining a board or committee can attend the Volunteer Fair or fill out the volunteer application on the town’s Web site and send a brief letter to the Board of Selectmen indicating any qualifications you may have. Mail your application to: Board of Selectmen, 10 Front Street, Exeter. Further information on open positions, and volunteer applications, are available on the town’s Web site at www.town.exeter.nh.us.

The town has applied for federal funds through two programs – the state Department of Transportation 2009-10 Transportation Enhancement Program grant and the Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality program – aimed at parking and a transportation center.

The proposal is to purchase the former baggage building at the train station and create a regional transportationcetner that would offer ticket service and station amenities like indoor shelter and rest rooms.

The station’s current platform on Lincoln Street is eight years old and serves the basic purpose of passenger access to trains. However, it has no restrooms and is open to the weather.

The town can only receive one of the two grants. The project total amounts to $403,200, with 70 percent of that total, approximately $282,000, being covered by the grant and the remaining 30 percent being paid for by the town.

The town’s portion of funding would be offset by $49,000 in in-kind services such as the restoration being done by students from the Seacoast School of Technology.

Go Wireless has obtained permission from the Historic District Commission for signage at 85 Water Street, the former location of Jai Anlyn. The clothing store vacated the downtown space earlier this month when the business moved to Portsmouth Avenue.

The phone retailer has over a dozen locations throughout New Hampshire, including one in the Fox Run Mall in Newington.

Board of Selectmen Chairwoman Julie Gilman, who serves as the board’s representative to the HDC, said the proposal for two signs fit within the allotted square footage and the style of the sign and materials are acceptable for the district. One sign will be located on the front of the building while another will project from the building.

Gilman said this is the first sign for a national business or franchise that the HDC has approved in downtown Exeter.