1

Congress passes fi scal cliff plan

FREE

Buy One Get One FREE Eyeglasses Use your flex medical $ 527-1100 Belknap Mall

WELCOME BOB

SALOME Try it in a taco!

Crispy Crispy Chipotle Chipotle

Pork Day! Pork Day! Laconia 524-1421

Fuel Oil 10 day cash price* subject to change

3.49 9 * 3.49 9 * 3.49 9 * OIL & PROPANE CO., INC.

LACONIA — Two men allegedly stole a blue 2012 Nissan Versa while it was warming it up in front of a house on Dixon Street at 6:45 p.m. Saturday.

The owner reported he saw two men jump into the car and drive it away.

Police found the car within an hour on Isa-belle Street.

Lt. Rich Simmons said yesterday the investigation into the most recent car theft is still ongoing.

This is the second theft of a car left run-

LACONIA — Unlike his grandfather and father, both watchmakers, Robert Sawyer readily admits he cannot fi x a timepiece, but for the past 33 years he has run Saw-yer’s Jewelry like clockwork, sustaining one of the longest running family businesses to operate from its own down-

town property.Sawyers’s father Jack

learned watchmaking appren-ticed to his father Alexander, who ranked among the fi nest craftsmen at the Boston Jewel-ers Building. Sawyer recalled that when his father grew rest-less confi ned to a small work-shop in a big city, his brother, a traveling salesman, told him that Myer Kassner was seeking

a buyer for his jewelry store in Laconia.

“In 1945 my father took the train to Laconia and bought the business at 628 Main Street,” he said. “He was an entrepre-neur,” he continued, describing his father as equally willing to take risks and work hard. Sawyer said that his father kept shop during the day, return-ing the profi ts to the business,

and repaired watches in the evening to support his family while becoming one of the fi rst gemologists in New Hampshire certifi ed by the American Gem Society. By 1952, the business had outgrown its space and moved to new quarters twice the size across the street at 633 Main Street.

Sawyer, who as a school-

BY MICHAEL KITCH

LACONIA — Several years ago, begin-ning with the fi scal year ending in 2007, City Council decided to establish a special account for Motorcycle Week. The reason was to provide a clear accounting of the 9-day annual event, a way to prove whether or not the fees collected from vendors were

enough to match the expenses incurred by the municipality in putting on, and clean-ing up after, Bike Week.

With six years of Bike Week in the books, the event has shown itself to be a profi table venture for the city. Revenues, primarily realized through license fees paid by ven-dors and the rental of city-owned property, have exceeded the costs of police, fi re and

public works services in each year, leaving the city with a windfall of anywhere from $54,618 in 2007 to $6,858 in 2011.

On average, the city has earned about $30,000 each year from Bike Week. The account does not consider the broader eco-nomic benefi ts of the many thousands of motorcycle enthusiasts that make their

BY ADAM DRAPCHO

BREAKTHROUGH

ROBOTIC TECHNOLOGY

Providing ground-breaking orthopaedic treatment and a sports medicine program second to none.

The !rst and only surgeons in New Hampshire o"ering robotic arm assisted partial knee resurfacing, providing our patients with a less invasive treatment option for their knee pain.

Part of the LRGHealthcare Family

Lakes Region General Hospital

All sessions start at 5:30pm. FREE Refreshments Call 527-7120 to register.

TUESDAY, JANUARY 8 (Snowdate Jan. 9)Interlakes Medical Center 238 Daniel Webster Hwy, MeredithJeremy Hogan, MD, Advanced Orthopaedic Specialists

TUESDAY, JANUARY 15 (Snowdate Jan. 16) Lakes Region General Hospital 80 Highland Street, Laconia Arnold Miller, MD, Laconia Clinic Orthopaedics

TUESDAY, JANUARY 22 (Snowdate Jan. 23) Common Man Inn 231 Main Street, PlymouthJeremy Hogan, MD, Advanced Orthopaedic Specialists

TUESDAY, JANUARY 29 (Snowdate Jan. 30) Franklin Regional Hospital 15 Aiken Avenue, Franklin Christopher FitzMorris, DO, Advanced Orthopaedic Specialists

www.lrgh.org

Free Information Sessions

To the editor,I am writing to say what should

have been said when I was awarded the 2012 Debra Bieniarz Memorial Award from the City of Laconia. I am 43 years old and have lived all but about a year of it in Laconia. During that time I have been involved with many organizations, none closer to my heart then the Rich Velasquez Youth Sports Equipment Foundation. I was lucky enough to have been a friend of Rich Velasquez. I saw firsthand how he enjoyed seeing youth involved in sports. For that reason and for my own love of doing for others, and for youth is why I do what I do. This award was a total surprise to me. The night was kept from me and planned mostly be my wife, Shelly. I want to thank Randy and Sue Bullerwell for submitting my name for this award. Randy and Sue have always been there support-ing me and RVYSEF from the start. There support and support from my family make it possible to be involved and help others.

When receiving the award and being tricked to attend the City Coun-cil meeting, many thoughts were run-ning through my mind. Then Mayor Seymour asked me if I wanted to say a few words. As with most anything asked from me I said sure. Then I said to myself, what, NO! Too late, there I

was in front of the microphone. I had to make it quick so no one would see my soft side. I do need to thank every-one that has ever been in my life. They are what set the roots and foundation for me as an individual. From coaches in Little League and Lou Athanas Basketball to my school teachers, they all had an influence on me. I was given the chance to play youth leagues despite having epilepsy. I was given the chance and for that reason I want to make sure every child has the same kind of chance regardless of any circumstances. Thank you to the Dun-leavys, the Arrudas, the Achbers, the Joyals, and every other family that has been involved with youth sports in Laconia. A few others not to forget for me are Mr. Colby (RIP), Charlie Stafford, Coach Red Charland, and Tom O’Shea. This certainly does not include everyone. Laconia has always been lucky when it comes to youth sport support. Like some things in this great area we live in, we kind of take for granted and not realize what we have. I hope future generations allow the youth to play sports for the fun and not the stress that sometimes brought on by winning. Thank you Laconia for allowing me to be involved.

Jack BatchelderLaconia

To the editor,In Tony Boutin’s letter of December

20, 2012, he mentioned that solar is not very effective on cloudy days. He is an update on solar power: they are

called batteries. They seem to work very well at storing power.

That’s my short letter for the month.Charlie St. ClairLaconia

boy worked in the store, remembered walking downtown after school with others his age, whose families also owned and operated businesses down-town. “Everyone knew everyone,” he said. “Business was local and all about people to people.”

After graduating from Laconia High School in 1964, Sawyer spent six years at the University of New Hampshire, first earning a degree in business administration and then a master’s degree in education counseling, and two in the United States Army as a community service officer at Fort Lee in Petersburg, Virginia. In 1972, he returned to Laconia to find that his father, who was diagnosed as diabetic when he sought to enlist within days of the attack on Pearl Harbor, was losing his eyesight.

“It was a difficult time for him,” Sawyer said, explaining that his life was so closely entwined with the busi-ness that he was naturally frustrated by the prospect of having to leave it. Sawyer, then a young man of 33, acquired the business from his father in 1979 in a transaction he called “bit-tersweet.”

At the time, the company operated stores in Wolfeboro and Plymouth as well as Laconia. At once, Sawyer moved the store in Laconia, purchas-ing the property at the foot of Main Street where the firm has been head-quartered ever since. A year later he opened a store at the Mountain Valley

Mall in North Conway and in 1984 closed the store in Wolfeboro to accept the offer to become “the” jeweler at the newly developed Mill Falls Market-place in Meredith.

At its peak, the company operated four stores and employed nearly 50 people. The Meredith store was the last to close in 2009 when, Sawyer said, “we right-sized.” Much of the suc-cess of the business he credits to his “team,” all with at least 15 years in the industry and most of those with the firm. “My job is to manager the assets of Sawyer’s Jewelry — the people and the money.” he said, remarking that he long thought of himself as the chief financial officer.

Not long after taking ownership of the business Sawyer began acquir-ing property downtown. In 1983, he purchased four storefronts at 50-62 Canal Street and later in partnership with Kevin Sullivan, then the owner of Melnick’s Shoe and Athletic Center, took an interest in the block housing the Empire Beauty School, Funky Monkey and Family Dollar. Sawyer is also among a group of investors who own the properties between the jew-elry store and beauty school.

“I believe it is the best interests of downtown to have people who are in business here own the real estate,” Swayer said. “They are invested in the community.”

Sawyer chaired the Planning Board when the South Down Shores project

WHAT?? You don’t have a will? See our latest blog entry on www.mlolaw.com

for information helpful to you and your family.

Wills & Estate Planning — Business Advice Real Estate — Divorce & Custody

Mediation — Litigation

www.mlolaw.com

M ARTIN , L ORD & O SMAN , P . A . Attorneys a t Law 603.524.4121 For current information, like us on Facebook

was being designed and developed and served a term on the City Council in 1990-1992. “I had unrealis-tic expectations,” he confessed, adding that he has not hankered after public offi ce since. A longtime member of the Laconia Rotary Club, he played a major role in the capital campaign to fund construc-tion of the addition to the Laconia Public Library and was among those instrumental in establishing the Main Street Program.

While others wring their hands at the adverse effects of urban renewal on downtown, Sawyer

said that “complaining about urban renewal is like regretting the mistakes you made when you were 16. We have to accept what we have and do the best we can with it.” He would like to reopen Main Street to two-way traffi c, from one end to the other, as well as the Colonial Theatre, stressing that “arts, enter-tainment and food are three important things for downtown.”

Despite a wavy shock of grey that betrays the challenges of operating a business and manag-ing properties through two severe recessions in a business district that’s a shadow of what it once was, Sawyer’s broad smile, fl ashing eyes refl ect the energy, resilience and intensity he has applied to his enterprises, with which he said he has begun to “add some balance to my life.”

TILTON — Two days after a truck caught fi re in one of the service bays at the Tilton AutoServ, Gen-eral Manger Andrew Hosmer said everything is back to normal.

Hosmer said a pickup that was inside the bay apparently caught fi re around 2:23 a.m. on Decem-ber 29. He also said one of his long-time parts department employees was in building checking in an early morning parts delivery and was there to call emergency responders immediately.

“He heard a loud bang,” Homser said, noting the fi re triggered the sprinkler system in the shop and the damage was largely contained to the lone pickup.

Hosmer said Fire Clean Up Services of Belmont were there the next morning and did an “extraordi-nary job” cleaning up the smoke smell that perme-ated the building.

He also wanted to thank the Tilton-Northfi eld Fire Department and the Tilton Police Department for their quick response.

“I want people to know how important it is we have the Tilton-Northfi eld Fire Department led by Chief Brad Ober,” Hosmer said.

“The fi re was contained almost immediately and could have been catastrophic had it not been for their quick response,” he continued.

In his media statement about the event, Ober said there were no injuries and although the fire remains under inves-tigation, he said it doesn’t appear to be suspicious.

Firefi ghters from Franklin and Bemont assisted at the scene and Sanbornton provided station cover-age for Tilton-Northfi eld.

— Gail Ober

BY GAIL OBER

ning in a week. The fi rst time a man took a car that was warming up on High Street and crashed into two vehicles on Parade Road just over the Meredith line.

In that case, the man who stole the car was taken to Lakes Region General Hospital and later taken to Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon.

The two people who he struck suffered minor injuries.Simmons said police want people to remember to

lock their cars, even when they are in the driveway, and to use a second key to lock them while they are warming them.