In the Spotlight: Portsmouth Soap Company opened its doors in a newly renovated building in Portsmouth that will also house condominiums above and additional retail shops at street level. Owners Lauren Wolf and Tracey Graffam-Dickson turned careers in health and wellness into a retail business. The pair offers more than 1,500 handcrafted soaps made from natural ingredients as well as gift baskets.
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Accounting firm Nathan Wechsler & Company, PA in Concord promoted of Demetrios “James” Mitkonis, CPA to a manager. He has been with the firm since 2012. In his new capacity, he directs all phases of audit engagements, from planning to financial statement preparation.
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The Toronto Blue Jays named Cesar Martin as the new manager of their Double-A affiliate, the New Hampshire Fisher Cats in Manchester. Martin, 40, was named 2019 Florida State League manager of the year for his work at the Advanced-A level, leading the Dunedin Blue Jays (D-Jays) to a record of 80-55 last season. The D-Jays won the first half and second half championships in the Northern Division, and will likely send several players to NH in 2020.
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Mr. Mac’s in Manchester, Portsmouth, and Tyngsboro, Massachusetts raised $2,000 for the NH Breast Cancer Coalition, bringing the four-year total donated to the Coalition to $7,000.
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Merrimack County Savings Bank recently purchased $25,000 in tax credits through the NH Community Development Finance Authority in support of the Regional Economic Development Center of Southern NH. The Bank’s investment goes toward REDC’s NH New Americans Loan Fund, which promotes business development and job creation by helping borrowers secure from $5,000 to $50,000 to start or grow their small businesses.
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St. Mary’s Bank, the nation’s first credit union, hired Howard King as a residential loan originator. King will be joining the credit union’s Manchester and Nashua Mortgage Centers.
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The Exeter Area Chamber of Commerce named the 2019 Women of Excellence honorees: Lisa Keslar of Keslar Insurance in Newmarket; Peggy Small-Porter of Richie McFarland Children's Center in Stratham; Kim Merrill Wood of Tobey & Merrill Insurance in Hampton; Krista Maltais of Relief - Parenting Respite & Resource Center in Hampton; and Donna Buxton of Buxton Water in Exeter.
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The NH Occupational Therapy Association presented Amy Quinney, OTR/L, CHT, with its highest award, as Occupational Therapy Practitioner of the Year. Quinney has become specially trained and skilled at working with patients who have received the LUKE Arm, the highly-advanced prosthetic arm developed in Manchester by Dean Kamen’s Mobius Bionics and Next Step Bionics and Prosthetics.
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Cloudbridge in Hampton received its first patent by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office related to the gathering and structuring of underwriting data, supplementing it with third-party sources and then electronically transmitting it to multiple prospective carriers in a live environment.
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Portsmouth Regional Hospital was awarded an ‘A’ from The Leapfrog Group’s fall 2019 Hospital Safety Grade. The designation recognizes the hospital’s efforts in protecting patients from harm and providing safe healthcare.
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Life Safety Fire Protection in Dublin and Portsmouth, is expanding its services to include fire extinguishers, emergency lighting, and all types of fire suppression systems. Celebrating 30 years in business, the company has been inspecting, designing and installing wet and dry fire sprinkler systems for commercial, industrial, and residential buildings.
Photo of Portsmouth Soap Company by Philip Case Cohen.
Current Issue - April 2024