RYE CRISP

Development planned for 210-year-old Goss Farm...Avary Bell, 14, state chess champ...'Rye Reflections' gets national nod...Sheerin wins N.E. golf playoff...Crackdown on drunk driving

Goss farmhouse hangs on...

A 210-year-old farm diagonally across from Rye Harbor is about to become a five-house development.

That's the plan Maine developer Paul Hollis has in mind for the General Thomas Goss Farm, built in 1797 on the corner of Ocean Boulevard and Harbor Road (address is 251 Harbor Road). Hollis presented his proposal at an August 14 meeting of the Planning Board and emphasized it was his plan to save the farmhouse and possibly the barn, a section of which apparently was constructed before the house was.

Five houses, including the farmhouse, are proposed for the 9.24-acre lot with a 600-foot private road splitting the property.  On each side of the roadway would be "sister" oak trees, two among several "spectacular oak trees," said Hollis. "We want to save several." At least 200 feet would separate the houses.

The sagging barn may be in jeopardy because of the difficulty in moving it, but not the house, Hollis said. "The house needs to be saved."

A Coastal Overlay District is adjacent to the property behind which is located the recently restored Awcomin Marsh.  

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Greenlander on the move...

Avary Bell, 14, of Greenland, won the New Hampshire State Girls Chess Championship in Hooksett on May 19 in just her first year of playing the game. As state girls champion, she represented New Hampshire in the Susan Polgar National Invitational Tournament for Girls in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, from July 29-August 3. She competed against the girls champions under 19 years old of 47 other states in a tournament that ran concurrently with the US Open Chess Championship. She scored a win and a draw against higher-rated players in the six-round tournament.

The daughter of David and Katherine Barron Bell, she is home schooled. Avary is coached by former Greenland librarian Michael Sullivan and plays for Tales Told Tall Chess, a private, seacoast-based club run by Sullivan. She was a member of the 2007 second-place team at the New Hampshire State High School Chess Team Championship, representing Tales Told Tall Chess.


Susan Polgar, born in Hungary and now living in the US, was Women's World Chess Champion from 1996 until 1999. In 1986 she was the first ever female player to qualify to compete in the Men's World Chess Championship.  She is a five-time Olympic champion and four-time world champion. She is a strong proponent of girls' chess and personally oversees the tournament that bears
her name.

Related websites:

Tales Told Tall Chess: www.talestoldtall.com/chess

Polgar Invitational:
www.susanpolgar.com/susan-polgar-foundation-invitational.html

New Hampshire Scholastic Chess: www.geocities.com/nhchess

Caption: Avary Bell with coach Michael Sullivan and Tales Told Tall Chess
teammates Tyler Doherty, Harrison Moran, and Tim Chevalier. 12/6/06

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Duly noted...

Rye Reflections was one of 10 "notable entries" selected in August in the competition for the national 2007 Knight-Batten Awards for Innovations in Journalism in the civic-media category.  Also notable was the Melrose Mirror, now in its 12th year of publishing and a sister publication to Rye Reflections.

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They're cheerin' for Sheerin...

Jim Sheerin, the Pro at Abenaqui Country Club in Rye, won the New England Senior Professional Golf Association championship in a playoff at Woodstock  Country Club in Vermont.

He defeated Mickey Herron of Onset, Mass., and now it's on to the Nationals.

Bill Andrews, Pro at Portsmouth Country Club in Greenland (right), tied for seventh, and he too will be playing in Florida at the Nationals in October.

Winning or placing in the top eight places earns the Pros advancement to the National Senior Championship which this year is to be held at the PGA Course in Port St. Lucie, Florida. The top 70 finishers on October 18 & 19th of the first 36 holes will play 36 more on the 20th and 21st for the Championship.

Sheerin previously won the New England championship in 1999. He also has won the New Hampshire PGA championship this year for the seventh time. Bill Andrews has been New Hampshire PGA Player of the Year many times, and he and Jim as partners won the 2006 Pro-Pro Championship.

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Lost weekends--and weekdays...

Increased efforts to curb drunk driving on the Seacoast have been turned up a notch by state and local police, and the results are tangible. More than 700 arrests were recorded in the first seven monthis of this year.

Lt. Robert Quinn of the N.H. State Police told the Portsmouth Herald that the reasons for the increase in drunk driving are hard to pinpoint, but "drinking and driving is not just limited to weekends anymore."

The formula has included the deployment of more police officers, sobriety checkpoints, education and public-service announcements. A recent meeting on the issue included representatives from Mothers Against Drunk Driving, state police and local police including Chief Michael Magnant of Portsmouth and Chief Kevin Walsh of Rye.  Not only are police departments working together, but they also are getting an assist from the public, who are using cellphones to alert police, according to Quinn.

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CRISPY CRISPS...

Kate Coker of Rye was featured in an ESPN article on the Kenyon College swim team, of which she is a proud member after winning the national women's champtionships.  Check it out at ESPN
• The Odiorne homestead on Ocean Boulevard and the New Castle Congregational Church on Main Street have been added to the New Hampshire Register of Historic Places
  http://www.nh.gov/nhdhr/barnstatereg.html.
• New Hampshire's law banning smoking in bars and restaurants is effective Sept. 17, although many establishments already have done so. The burden is on the owners, not the patrons, to ensure a smoke-free environment.
• New Hampshire foreclosures are on the rise, but not as badly as most other states, according to the Seacoast Board of Realtors. According to Bonnie Guevin, NH is 34th in foreclosures, Mass. is 9th, Maine is 43d and Vermont 50th.
• Portsmouth is testing parking meters now used in some other cities.  You pay and get printed receipt that you place on your dashboard.  You can pay with coins or card, credit or debit.
• Ahoy Matey’s. Sea music festivals are popular in ports and harbors 'round the world, and Portsmouth is no exception.  The 8th Annual Portsmouth Martime Folk Festival is coming up the end of the month, September 29 & 30.  The venue is in and around Market Square. Performers from New England and beyond will tell tall tales about tall ships and sing the songs that raised the sails, the anchors and kept the crews from getting bored.  It’s guaranteed to be an entertaining weekend.  Check out the website: www.newenglandfolknetwork.org/

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Rye's Guy in the Sky...

That's Rye's guy-in-the-sky Peter Moynahan at left, in photo taken by airplane passenger Ellen Hamil. This month, during his time in the air taking lessons, Peter photographed Little Boar's Head in North Hampton. Atlantic Avenue (Route 111) is on left and one-time Studebaker estate on the curve.