HEBRON — Four sisters and a friend, all with roots in the Weymouth, Mass., area, will be opening the newly-renamed Blue Moon Motel on the Mayhew Turnpike (Rte. 3A) on Memorial Day weekend.
''We used to rent a cabin on Newfound Lake every summer and all have strong ties to this area,'' says Mary Joyce of Thornton, oldest of the four sisters, who has been a resident of New Hampshire ever since 1980 when her husband took a job with the U.S. Forest Service in the White Mountain National Forest.
Joining her in running the motel will be her sisters, Therese Joyce, currently of Seattle, Washington, who is relocating to Boston, Mass. in June, Anne Joyce-Brandt of Weymouth, Mass., Melissa Keough, also of Weymouth, and a friend Jeanine Callahan of Weymouth.
''We knew it was for sale last summer and decided to take a look at it. We talked it over to see if we could run it as a collaborative venture and decided to buy it and continue to run it as a motel and see what happens,'' says Mary Joyce,
She is the person most familiar with the area, having served as the executive director of the Circle Program, which provides summer camping experiences for girls from at-risk families in the greater Plymouth area.
She says the sisters have all remained close over the years, taking ''sister vacations'' together and have a special affinity for the Newfound Lake area, where they have rented cabins for the past 20 summers or so for family gatherings.
''We're all keeping our day jobs but we're looking forward to the experience of running our own business together,'' says Anne, who along with Melissa runs a cleaning business in Weymouth.
The 10-unit motel will be open from Memorial Day to Columbus Day weekend and the sisters have been busy making improvements which will catch the eyes of their customers, including a complete repainting of all the rooms, as well as new carpeting, beds, bedding and mattresses and redecorating the reception area.
Formerly known as the Whip O Will, the motel was built in the 1950s as part of a much larger resort which had extensive frontage on Newfound Lake, where there were 32 full cottages as well as a full-service restaurant. The lakefront property and cottages were sold in the 1990s and that area now is a condominium development but the remaining 19 acres and motel located on the other side of the highway have been continuously operated as a motel.
The sisters says one advantage that the Blue Moon has is that it still has deeded beach rights on Newfound which will allow their guests access to the lake.
They already have strong bookings for Laconia Motorcycle Week and plan to be active in regional tourism groups and the Plymouth Chamber of Commerce.
And they feel a special family connection to the resort, noting that a 91-year-old aunt, when she heard about the purchase, pulled out a postcard from her collection from the Whip-O-Will which had been sent to her in 1963 by the four sisters' mother.
The postcard said that they had had lunch in Bristol and stayed in unit #11, which is now the owner's quarters at the motel.
The sisters chose the Blue Moon name to give the motel a fresh start and said that the name comes from the date on which they signed the purchase agreement last year, which was on August 28, just when the second full moon of the month, known as a blue moon, took place.
''We're looking to continue a Newfound Lake tradition,'' says Mary, who notes the motel will be holding an open house later this month for the local business community.

CAPTION:
Four sisters will be running the newly-renamed Blue Moon Motel, formerly the Whip-O-Will, on the Mayhew Turnpike (Rte. 3A) in Hebron. They are Mary Joyce of Campton, Therese Joyce of Seattle, Washington; Anne Joyce-Brandt of Weymouth, Mass, and Melisa Keough of Weymouth, Mass. (Roger Amsden/for The Laconia Daily Sun)

LACONIA — Firefighters at the Central Station yesterday piled up protective clothing they call "turnout gear" as members of the N.H. National Guard prepared to load the items into a box truck.
The gear is bound for San Salvador, the capital of El Salvador and the "sister country" of New Hampshire.
According to Deputy Chief Shawn Riley, the National Guard — in this case the 12th Civil Support Team — periodically takes things that can no longer be used or is no longer wanted by many New Hampshire communities to the Central American country that was the site of a prolonged civil war in the 1970s and 1980s and has regular earthquakes — the last one recorded on April 20.
Riley, who was in the Central American nation about 10 years ago, said it's not uncommon to see firefighters who are not wearing protective clothing to go into burning buildings or buildings damaged from earthquakes.
He said the equipment being donated by Laconia is about 10-years-old and can no longer be used according to the National Fire Protection Association.
Deputy Chief Deb Pendergast said there are about 15 sets of gear that will be sent to San Salvador's fire department. She said Laconia gets new equipment about every five years, uses the existing equipment as back-up for about five years and then must discard it or give it some place outside the United States.
In the past, Riley said the department has donated SCBA or breathing apparatus to El Salvador. Lt. Col. John Logsdon said a few years ago, the unit brought musical equipment donated by Derry schools to El Salvador.

CAPTION: (Fire Department 001) Members of the Laconia Fire Department and members of the N.H National Guard 12th Civil Support Team surround used turnout gear that will be taken to El Savador's capital San Salvador for use by thier fire departments. (Laconia Daily Sun photo/Gail Ober)

GILFORD — From the former gravel pit off Kimball Road through Clinker-Bell on Route 11-B to today's setup at the Laconia Transfer Station, the town's trash collection service has been linked with Laconia since the 1970s.
Department of Public Works Department Director Sheldon Morgan has been with DPW since 1972 and said he remembers Gilford in those days as a very sparsely populated community with mostly farmers. According to N.H. state records, there were 1,271 residents in 1950, 2,043 residents in 1960 and 3,219 residents in 1970.
"People just took care of their own garbage," he said noting that there was very little that was thrown away and almost all of it was natural — like paper, wood and cotton — and most people burned what they had. Now, he said, there is much more waste and much of it is not natural materials.
"We didn't throw away anything back then," he said laughing.
As the community began to grow, he said in 1972, the town began excavating the gravel pit for road building and would fill the newly excavated portion with stumps, dirt and other things.
He said what little household trash there was went to the Laconia incinerator next to the airport. The product of the incinerator were taken to "Clinker-Bell" — a facility off Route 11-B that processed the incombustible residue from the incinerators — known as clinkers.
"I think they had a lot of problems with the clinkers," he said.
He said the garbage world changed in the late 1970s and the early 1980s as all states, including New Hampshire, began complying with the Federal Clear Air Act of 1970 and the Clear Water Act passed in 1972.
As part of the state's response to the new federal regulations, Morgan said Laconia, Gilford and Belmont were grouped together as one "administrative unit." He said he doesn't know why the state did that but said it was shortly after that when the idea of the Concord Regional Solid Waste Resource Recovery Center or Co-op was formulated.
He said regulations came rapidly after that and Gilford began implementing more "environmentally pleasing" methods.
"We struck a deal and got into the co-op," he said.
He said at some point Belmont went its own way — he doesn't know why — and Laconia and Gilford jointly purchased some land on what is now the Lakes Industrial Park on Hounsell Avenue.
When the co-op opened, he said Hounsell Avenue was converted to industrial and commercial use and the Laconia Transfer Station opened on Meredith Center Road. He said Laconia owns the land and Gilford has a partnership whereby about 30 percent of the capital costs are born by the town as well as 28 percent of the operating expenses.
"We have been very lucky," Morgan said noting Gilford has never really had to deal with household waste in town with the exception of its recycling center, which is on the same spot as the old gravel pit.
What is somewhat unique to Gilford, said Morgan, is the town never created a curbside pickup system. "It's always been the responsibility of the residents to take it away," he said.
As it stands now, he explained, there are three components to getting rid of household waste in Gilford — getting it to Laconia, taking it from Laconia to Penacook, and disposing of it at the coop.
He said the approximate cost of the last two are now the responsibility of the town. Morgan said it costs $66.80 per ton to process it in Penacook and the town pays Wheelabrator, which is the company that manages the co-op.
It cost $16.72 per ton to haul the solid waste from Laconia to Penacook and the money is paid to Waste Management, the company that manages the Laconia Transfer Station.
These two are the portions of the process that Gilford taxpayers pay for through the town, said Morgan.
He said Gilford residents have two choices to get the solid waster from their home to Laconia — pay someone to do it, like a trash hauler, or bring it themselves. If they use a hauler, the transport fees from the house to Laconia are privately billed to the resident.
If they take it themselves, he said the preferred method of payment is through $5 coupons that are purchased from Gilford Town Hall. The price is $5 for the first ton (per month) $10 for the second ton and $30 for every ton after that per visit.
Morgan said every vehicle pays at least $5 for every visit and haulers are weighed full and then empty to determine how much household waste there is per load. In his opinion, the transfer station is well-managed and is "harder to get into than Fort Knox."
He said the town of Gilford pays the upfront costs or the second two components and any revenue collected on the part of Gilford's residents through the sale of coupons returns to the town.
Should the Selectboard raise the so-called tipping fees for haulers at the transfer station, as Laconia has, and as it proposed to do at its last meeting, Morgan said the revenue from the hike would return to Gilford, which would lower the amount of taxes that need to be raised for solid waste. He said it's money that won't be assessed to the taxpayers.
It's part of our deal with Laconia," he said. "They'll send us a check for what the get from the Gilford taxpayers."
Right now he said the town subsidizes the disposal of every ton of trash that comes from Gilford, including commercial waste, a feature of Gilford's system that is pretty unique. Morgan said when the system was designed, the town had almost no commercial enterprise.
If the selectmen change the fees structure, he said it would become a user fee as opposed to a tax.
"Either way, someone will pay the bill," he said.
Some taxpayers spoke against the proposal to go to a user-fee based system at a public hearing on May 8. The matter was tabled for further review by the town administrator said Morgan and is likely to be decided Wednesday at the regular selectman's meeting.