BERLIN, N.H. (AP) – The City Council wants to see more timber harvested and more snowmobile and ATV use in the White Mountain National Forest.

The council is responding to a call for comments on the Forest Service’s forest management proposal.

The Forest Service prefers a plan that calls for harvesting up to $24 million board-feet of timber annually. It also allows for up to 20 miles of new snowmobile trails and maintains the ban on all terrain vehicle use.

City Planner Pamela Laflamme says the current plan allows for cutting up to 35 million board-feet, although levels have not gone that high in recent years.

City officials worry that reducing logging and continuing to ban ATVs would hurt the region’s economy.

Gravestones destroyed in N.H.

BERLIN, N.H. (AP) – Some of the oldest gravestones in the city have been destroyed.

Police are searching for vandals who broke about 20 gravestones in the Grange Cemetery, with gravestones dating to the 1800s.

Watercraft rider pleads innocent

PORTLAND (AP) – A Portland man has pleaded innocent to manslaughter and other charges in the death of a New Hampshire passenger on his personal watercraft.

Craig Fowler, 34, entered the plea in Superior Court. He is charged in the July 31 accident that killed Cheryl Potochniak, 34, of North Conway, N.H.

Prosecutors say Fowler was driving the watercraft recklessly under the influence of drugs and alcohol when it struck a boat on Little Sebago Lake in Gray with four fishermen on board.

Fowler’s lawyer said Potochniak’s death was an accident and the boat hit Fowler, not the other way around.

—

Bank Robbery Charges

avbho

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) – A Barrington man on Thursday pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to robbing several banks in three New England states.

Joseph Thibault, 32, pleaded guilty to robbing Citizens Bank branches in Stratham; Smithfield, R.I.; and Worcester, Mass.; Millbury Credit Union and Southbridge Savings Bank in Worcester; and Ocean National Bank in Plaistow.

Thibault, who also has a West Boylston, Mass., address will be sentenced on Jan. 27, when he faces up to 160 years in federal prison.

—

Liquor Enforcement

dewavbho

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) – Police and New Hampshire liquor agents will be going to bars during the weekend looking for underage drinkers getting in with false identification cards.

Liquor Enforcement Chief Aidan Moore says officers from his agency and federal agents will join Manchester, Nashua and Portsmouth police for Operation Side Door.

They will try to find minors getting into bars with fake IDs and trace their source.

Shipyard Fight

dewavbpor

PORTSMOUTH, N.H. (AP) – Lawmakers and candidates from New Hampshire’s Seacoast area will ask the Legislature for $100,000 to help keep the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard open.

Yard supporters are worried it will be on the Pentagon’s next list of bases to close.

The Legislature returns to Concord in December, and yard supporters hope lawmakers will be able to vote on the request as early as January. They would use the money to help lobby for the yard.

The group says the yard is important for the area, homeland security and national defense.

R

ROCHESTER, N.H. (AP) – The police chief is not too pleased with what an investigation turned up about an officer who crashed a police motorcycle in neighboring Somersworth.

Officer Michael Mundy was hospitalized for scrapes and bruises after hitting a deer about a half-mile over the Somersworth line.

Chief David Dubois says most of the report on why Mundy was in Somersworth will not be made public because it was an internal investigation. He did say he was not pleased with the revelations, and has dealt with the problem internally.

The chief said the department also will tighten its policies on when an on-duty officer is authorized to leave city limits with a city-owned vehicle. He said he would not divulge the officer’s destination or reason for being outside city limits last month.