New Hampshire
NH lawmakers hope to save the 603: Area code nears its limit
CONCORD — By the end of 2027, New Hampshire’s iconic 603 area code may reach its limit.
There are only so many seven-number combinations that can be put after the number 603, the state’s phone area code. In 2023, the North American Numbering Plan Administrator warned it hit the maximum as soon as 2027. That could mean New Hampshire will have to add a second area code in the near future.
To delay it, state lawmakers have introduced the aptly titled Senate Bill 603, which directs the New Hampshire Department of Energy and the Public Utilities Commission to do all it legally can to adopt telephone conservation measures and maximize the number of available numbers.
“We lost the Old Man of the Mountain nearly 21 years ago. Our first-in-the-nation primary is under attack, even Daniel Webster went to Massachusetts to run for Senate. But we still have three numbers that are unique to the Granite State: 603,” said Grant Bosley, the deputy chief of staff for the New Hampshire Senate, at a public hearing in front of the House Science, Technology, and Energy Committee in April. He introduced the bill on behalf of the prime sponsor, Senate President Jeb Bradley, R-Wolfeboro.
“603 is more than an area code. It’s an identity. We have songs and bumper stickers, and political slogans, and craft beers and T-shirts,” said Bosley. “603 is New Hampshire, and New Hampshire is 603.”
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How could New Hampshire extend life of 603?
Some ways to preserve the code are reclaiming numbers that are no longer in use and requiring providers to return assigned blocks of numbers not being used. The bill comes with a one-time cost of $100,000 to $300,000 to hire a consultant to identify the measures New Hampshire could take.
Bradley introduced the bill in part at the request of New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu, who issued an executive order last year that established the “Don’t Overload the Code” initiative. To extend the life of the code, it directed the Department of Energy and the Bureau of Economic Affairs to reclaim unused telephone numbers.
The state is following the example of Maine, which also acted to preserve its code when told 207 would hit its limit by 2025. By limiting robocalls and changing forecasting and block requesting practices, the state was able to extend the life of the code until 2032, according to reporting by WMTW.
New Hampshire and Maine are two of just 11 states left with a single area code. However, according to Maine’s Public Utilities Commission, the whole country may run out of area codes by 2051.
Therefore, the efforts in New Hampshire won’t prevent the need for a second area code someday, but it would move the date down the line, said Bosley. The New Hampshire Department of Energy testified it’s optimistic it can extend the 603, perhaps even until the federal government determines how to number across the country when they run out.
But that inevitability is part of the reason Rep. Thomas Cormen, D-Lebanon, wrote the bill should be voted inexpedient to legislate in the committee’s minority report.
“Whether or not we attempt to extend the life of the 603 area code, we will run out of phone numbers in the 603 area code sometime in the next few years,” wrote Cormen. “The bottom line is that this bill spends money just to kick the can down the road.”
The bill passed the Senate in March by a voice vote. The House Science, Technology and Energy Committee narrowly recommended it to pass by a vote of 10-9, and it was scheduled to go to the House for a full vote Thursday.
New Hampshire
Concord Man Tussled With Officers While Intoxicated Downtown: Report
CONCORD, NH — A felon from Concord was arrested on Tuesday morning after being accused of public drunkenness and passing out on the ground of a downtown street and sidewalk.
An officer traveling in the area of 61 S. Main St. around 12:45 a.m. saw a man face down on the ground halfway on the sidewalk and the street. The officer turned their cruiser around and checked on the man, who was not moving. The officer immediately recognized the man as Michael Guglielmo, 62, of Rumford Street in Concord, “from prior police contacts,” an affidavit stated. The officer attempted to speak to Guglielmo to confirm it was him and he “slurred that his name was ‘Michael Guglielmo,’” the report stated.
The officer accused Guglielmo of giving off “the strong scent of alcohol” and “attempted to move his head from the ground, but due to being highly intoxicated, he was having issues lifting his body.” The officer said there was a pool of drool and a hat on the sidewalk near where he was on the ground. He believed Guglielmo had lost his balance and had fallen onto the ground, the report stated.
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When asked where he was coming from and if anyone could get him, Guglielmo could not respond, the report stated. After several minutes, he was able to push himself up, onto his hands and knees, and staggered up onto the sidewalk, the affidavit said. The officer told him to sit down so he would not hurt himself, but instead, Guglielmo used a rock wall for support and was heavily swaying, the report stated. The officer noted he had blood on his forehead, and fire and rescue teams were requested to assist him.
After repeatedly being asked if someone could get him, “Michael was so inebriated that he would just grunt or not respond” and had “a one-thousand-yard stare” as he waited for firefighters, the officer wrote.
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EMTs cleaned up his forehead wound while the reporting officer attempted to find assistance for him but was unable to.
Due to his highly intoxicated condition, Guglielmo was taken into protective custody, the officer said. The reporting officer asked him to stand up, but he was unable to, they wrote. He was then cuffed and assisted to a police cruiser.
During a search, though, the reporting officer accused Guglielmo of getting “extremely irritated” and “began to yell,” the officer said.
“As I was attempting to finish the search,” the officer wrote, “Michael began to lunge his body at officers.”
Officers, they wrote, had to be pushed against while they attempted to force him into a cruiser. The affidavit said he was warned to stop lunging at them or he would be charged, but instead, Guglielmo lurched at them and attempted to use his feet to prevent a door from being closed after he was placed in the cruiser.
Guglielmo was taken to Concord Hospital and security was requested to meet the officer with a wheelchair, the report said. But he was accused of locking his legs and pushing against the ground when they tried to put him into the wheelchair.
“F— you,” Guglielmo was accused of yelling at officers and hospital security.
The reporting officer said they decided to place Guglielmo back into the police cruiser, but he was accused of fighting officers — although three were able to get him back inside. The reporting officer accused him of smacking his head off the cruiser as he was pushed back in but had no reaction to it.
The reporting officer interviewed one of the security guards to confirm whether Guglielmo kicked them. The security guard said No and believed him to be “too intoxicated to know what was really going on around him.”
Guglielmo was placed later into a bed in restraints and wheeled into the hospital, the report said. After being medically cleared, he was taken to the county jail. Guglielmo was charged with two counts of resisting arrest or detention and pleaded not guilty in Concord District Court. He is due back in court for a trial in March.
Last year, Guglielmo placed third in the Zone A (Wards 1, 2, 3, and 4) Concord board of education seat with 119 votes, after pulling his children out of the SAU 8 school district due to complaints by him and others about a crossdressing elementary school art teacher.
In April, he was arrested on a driving under the influence-second offense charge and an unsafe lane change violation after a crash on South State Street.
Guglielmo is a felon due to attempting to kill his drug dealer and being involved in a shootout with police in Manchester in the 1980s. He served nearly two decades in prison.
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New Hampshire
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New Hampshire
Driver killed in crash with NH school bus; bus driver, 2 children also injured
The driver of a car that crashed into school bus in Walpole, New Hampshire, on Wednesday has died, and the bus driver and two children who were on the bus were hospitalized, according to police.
Walpole police said they responded to a report of a 2-vehicle crash on Route 12 in the area of Connector Road around 3:13 p.m. Wednesday.
Their investigation showed that a Saab 9-3 driven by 22-year-old Dietrich Kern Praska, of Marlborough, was headed south on Route 12 when it crossed the yellow center line and collided with a school bus in the northbound lane.
The bus, owned by the Fall Mountain School District, was driven by 65-year-old Marie Robbins, of Alstead.
Dietrich was pronounced dead at the scene, according to police. Robbins was taken by medical helicopter to UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester, Massachusetts. The two students who were on the bus were both taken by ambulance to Cheshire Medical Center in Keene and to Springfield Hospital in Vermont for what police said were minor injuries.
No update on the conditions of the bus driver or the two children was immediately available.
Walpole police said they were assisted at the scene by state police, Walpole and Westmoreland fire, Cheshire EMS and Warren-Wentworth Ambulance Service.
Route 12 was closed to traffic between Halls Crossing and Blackjack Crossing roads until about 7:30 p.m. Wednesday.
The cause of the crash remains under investigation, and anyone who witnessed it is asked to call Walpole police at 603-445-2058 or 603-355-2000.
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