News - 2006 Oct 12

Rotary honor Gov. Lynch

By Jennifer Feals
jfeals@seacoastonline.com 

PORTSMOUTH October 12, 2006 -- Gov. John Lynch was in Portsmouth Thursday to receive both the Paul Harris Award from the Portsmouth Rotary Club and the endorsement of the Professional Fire Fighters of New Hampshire.

The Paul Harris Award is given to the person who demonstrates exemplary service to the community and who has contributed, or in whose name is contributed, $1,000 to the Rotary Foundation.

Lynch said he is truly honored to receive such a special award, saying, "I will treasure it always."

During his speech, Lynch spoke of his plans to address the issues facing New Hampshire in regard to education and education funding.

Lynch also said he wants to work to protect children in New Hampshire from being assaulted or harassed by way of the Internet. He said he wants to integrate better laws and longer and stronger penalties to help children and law enforcement.

The Professional Fire Fighters of New Hampshire endorsed Lynch for re-election at the Portsmouth Central Fire Station. President David Lang said, "Gov. Lynch has stood shoulder-to-shoulder with the professional firefighters and paramedics of this state. We are proud to support him in his re-election efforts."

"I am honored to have the support of firefighters and paramedics from New Hampshire," Lynch said. "I am proud to have worked closely with our emergency workers over the past two years, and I will continue to lead efforts to keep our families and our communities safe."

Portsmouth Rotary names Lynch a Harris Fellow

By MICHAEL GOOT
Portsmouth Bureau Chief
mgoot@fosters.com
 

PORTSMOUTH, October 12, 2006 — The local Rotary Club named Gov. John Lynch a Paul Harris Fellow on Thursday in recognition of his achievements during his first term.

Rotarian Mort Schmidt presented Lynch with the award —the club's highest honor — named after a former president of the International Rotary.

"It's a humanitarian gift that we felt he well deserved," said club President Jerry Glynn.

"I am truly honored by this very special award and I will treasure it always," Lynch said.

In about 20 minutes worth of remarks, Lynch said he is pleased to have accomplished his campaign promise of working across party lines to accomplish tasks.

"I was adamant that I was going to put partisan politics to one side and I was going to focus on delivering results and making a difference in the lives of people in New Hampshire," he said.

Lynch cited the state's success in working together to close a $300 million budget deficit without new taxes and still being able to put $50 million in the Rainy Day Fund. Also, the state formed a new ethics commission for the executive branch.

The state's health insurance laws were rewritten to eliminate the ability of insurance companies to set rates based on the medical claims of workers or where the business was located. Lynch said the previous legislation, Senate Bill 110 had hit small businesses hard. Some experienced between 50 and 100 percent increases in premiums.

Another achievement Lynch cited was working together to strengthen the child protection law to protect children from sexual predators, as well as the fight to save the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard from closure.

Lynch then turned his attention to priorities including education funding.

"We need to get a consensus on what the goal is. I think the goal should be that every child in New Hampshire deserves an equal opportunity for a quality education," he said.

Lynch said he does not want to focus on merely an "adequate" education and "what's the least we can offer, what can we get away with."

"Let's talk about what's best for our kids," he said.

Lynch promised to revisit the idea of raising the dropout age to 18. He said the current dropout age of 16 was established in 1903 when New Hampshire was primarily an agrarian community.

Those that drop out at 16 do not have an opportunity to get a good job, said Lynch. He noted that 80 percent of the prisoners in this country are high school dropouts and dropouts have higher rates of teen pregnancy and alcoholism.

Lynch also told Rotarians he believes it is up to individual school districts to decide whether they want to provide drug testing kits to parents, as have the Exeter and Winnisquam districts.

"It's a school issue and a School Board issue and a community issue. They have to decide for themselves if it's something they want to do," Lynch said.

Lynch was responding a question from an audience member about recent news that the Exeter Police Department has begun offering free, in-home drug test kits for parents of schoolchildren free of charge.

The kits test for substances such as nicotine, alcohol, marijuana, ecstasy, cocaine, meth amphetamines, morphine and barbiturates.