Info or insight on Franklin NH

[Bruehound]

During our whirlwind tour of the Free State we took a look at Franklin. It is a noticibly economically depressed town I've heard due in part to a Mill closing. It was obviously once a thriving community and some of the neighborhoods looked charming. Would locals be open to a libertarian recipe for a renaissance?

scott

[aries]

Like many towns in New Hampshire.. destroyed by a mill closure.

It is near tilton, a decent sized shopping area (Tanger outlets, BJ's)

That's about all I know about Franklin

[Money Dollars]

A guy got shot there a couple months ago. He owned a store I go to in Cannan...nice guy....

Franklin Shooting slideshow


Store owner killed by several shotgun blasts, police say

http://www.concordmonitor.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060727/REPOSITORY/607270354

Franklin shooting

Victim noted for kindness

By ERIC MOSKOWITZ
Monitor staff
July 27. 2006 8:00AM

Syed A. Hussain, the Franklin convenience-store owner killed Tuesday night, was a sweet-natured man who worked 100 hours a week managing his three businesses, friends said.

Hussain, 36, who went by Ali, came from Pakistan to New Hampshire in the 1990s. He was extremely generous, friends said, and his charitable spirit showed itself in large and small ways - donating food to community groups, helping needy families, giving free sodas to new customers at his convenience stores.

"He was a very loving and caring person, and he helped people whenever they needed his help. But he would not advertise those things," said state Rep. Saghir "Saggy" Tahir of Manchester, who knew Hussain. "He believed that when God gave you some resources you must help your fellow human being."

For Hussain, that included helping a business acquaintance, Susan Disharoon, by offering cheap rent in the apartment above his Franklin store, after she needed an affordable place to live, Tahir said. Disharoon, 48, was arrested yesterday morning on a charge of second-degree murder. Officials said she shot Hussain several times with a shotgun in the vicinity of the store, then held police at bay for more than nine hours from inside the apartment.

Hussain's family is well known among the state's several hundred Pakistani-American families as well as New Hampshire's Muslim community, Tahir said. Word of his death spread quickly. "By 10 o'clock, everybody knew it," he said.
   
Tahir learned of the shooting at 3:30 a.m., when he received a call from a close friend of Hussain, Mohammad Mobeen. Mobeen told Tahir about the crime and asked if he could find out why law-enforcement officials had not collected and identified Hussain's body, which remained on the scene until the standoff ended. That detail worsened the pain for Hussain's stunned friends and family members.

"It will probably bother me for my life," said Mobeen, who waited near the scene in Franklin through the night. "His body from 9 p.m. in the evening to 11 a.m. the following morning was lying on the road, and no one took the body."

Mobeen owns a real estate business with Hussain's older brother, Syed Z. Hussain, who has lived in New Hampshire for two decades. Mobeen met Ali Hussain when he arrived in the United States more than 10 years ago.

"I remember the first time when I met him, when he came from the airport. He came from Pakistan with a big smile and a big hug. We all welcomed him,"Mobeen said. "From the very first moment, even though at that time I didn't know him, he made a space in my heart as a friend."

Hussain was easy to like, Mobeen said. "He's the most wonderful person I have known. The most sweetest person," he said. "I still can't believe he is gone. I can't believe someone (would) shoot him."

Hussain's mentality was "work, work, work," his older brother said early yesterday, while waiting on the street in Franklin for definitive news about his brother. Syed Z. Hussain used to joke with customers by saying, "If you give me one complaint about him, I'll give you a dollar." Nobody ever collected, because Hussain was the "nicest person in the world," his brother said.

Mobeen spoke for the family after officials confirmed Hussain's death. He said Hussain was a loving husband, father and friend. He and his wife had adopted two elementary-school-age daughters and also had a 2-year-old son, Mobeen said.

Hussain came from a close-knit family, and he and his brother shared a home on Sterling Avenue near downtown Manchester, Mobeen said.

Hussain opened the Franklin convenience store a few weeks ago. He also owned a small used-car lot in Auburn, Ali Motors, and a convenience store in Canaan, a town of about 3,500 near Hanover. He opened Canaan Food Mart about two years ago in a previously vacant downtown storefront, said Dana Hadley, Canaan's town administrator.

"He was a very nice gentleman, and I have to say, he really fit into this community wonderfully,"Hadley said. "Any organization that wanted help with donations, such as Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, the town, anyone - he was extremely generous to them. We are extremely sad to hear this news. . . . Even though he was here a short time, he seemed one of our own."

Tahir, who visited with Hussain's family yesterday, received more than 50 phone calls about Hussain. Most people were shocked, he said. "Anger does not come into play," Tahir said. "They are shocked. They could not believe what they heard."

Tahir told people that the Franklin Police Department and the attorney general's office handled the situation professionally and tactfully, and that circumstances prevented the authorities from attending to Hussain's body sooner.

Hussain earned a business degree from the former New Hampshire College and became a U.S. citizen in 2003, friends said.

A funeral service will be held tomorrow at Faggas Funeral Home in Watertown, Mass.; full details were unavailable at press time. Saturday, Hussain's body will be transported to New York and flown to Pakistan for burial, Tahir said.

Franklin suspect fought with landlords

If you are gunna shoot someone....shoot an evil person....

[Dreepa]

Yah that lady was a twist sick person.

[Russell Kanning]

I would think you would be happy living in Franklin.

[Fluff and Stuff]

It seemed like an OK town to me.  It has a beach, an interesting looking main drag, low crime compared to most of the nation (but not NH), low housing costs, low taxes, and is near Tilton and Concord.  These towns are loaded with shopping, eating, and jobs.  Tilton is also a low tax, low cost town. 

I think there is also another thread about it.

[cathleeninnh]

Slays me to see the word beach inland. Lake swimming is just lake swimming.

Cathleen

[Kat Kanning]

I thought that was weird, too, when I first moved here.

[Fluff and Stuff]

I thought that was weird, too, when I first moved here.

There are beaches on lakes all over the place.  There is a popular one in WY and one right next to my hometown in TN for example.  Burlington, VT has several large inland beaches that are quite nice.  You can even spot naked folks...

[Dreepa]

Kezar Lake is a great lake to swim in and hang around.
About 20 minutes west of Concord.

[firecracker joe]

franklin is a fairly depressed town but land is cheap and neighbors are cool look on the outdkirts and theres lots of good places .