Neighborhood surprised by news of alleged meth lab

It seems no matter how much information there is out there, it is still a shock to find out that you have someone making meth in your neighborhood. It scares you as a parent knowing that your children are running to and fro and could potentially be in harms way. Kim


By JOHN WHITSON
Union Leader Staff
18 hours, 33 minutes ago

Manchester — Kevin Blanchette and Amanda Manzella may not be pushing their 3-month-old baby boy in a stroller on many more afternoon walks through their neighborhood.

Yesterday, the couple stood at a corner of Union and Harrison streets and watched police officers dressed in protective clothing huddle over black metal barrels rolled onto plastic tarps.

Allegations that some of their neighbors were making methamphetamine had them visibly upset.

“This is too close to home,” said Blanchette, who lives about half a block away on Prospect Street. “Apparently it’s time to move.”

Manzella said they were already considering a move. Yesterday’s drug bust may push them out of a part of the city she said used to be safe and quiet.

“It seems like every summer the ‘zone’ moves a couple blocks north,” she said. “This is supposed to be the nice North End.”

James Guild, who lives on the corner of Union and Harrison diagonally across from 104 Harrison St., where police made seven arrests yesterday morning, said he’s lived there three years and never noticed any strange activity at the address.

“They just finished that deck a week ago,” said Guild, pointing to a second-floor wood walkout and railing. “Actually, they just roofed it last week too.”

The only thing Guild could point to that made the house stand out in the neighborhood was the many “For Sale” signs out front over the years.

Manzella was particularly shaken when told the material seized by police was combustible.

“What if we lived in that building, or next door?” she asked.

“Who wants to have a baby growing up with this stuff around?” said Blanchette. “There’s always kids out riding bikes in the neighborhood. It’s scary living so close to something that could potentially blow up.”

Looking up and down Harrison, where it intersects with Union, houses look well maintained and yards are landscaped. Some large buildings are cut into apartments. Most addresses appear to be one- or two-family structures.

Jason Sowden, who lives nearby on Prospect Street, pulled his car over yesterday around noon and, between bites of a sandwich, asked what the police were doing.

“I come out of that alley every day,” he said, pointing to the path that runs between Prospect and Harrison, “and I’ve never seen anything there.”

Niall O’Brien, who lives nearby on Walnut Street, wandered over to the corner to find out what was going on.

“Wow. I mean, we’ve lived here coming up on two years,” he said. “It’s a real quiet neighborhood. I’ve never noticed a bunch of traffic in and out of there.”

O’Brien said he and his girlfriend frequently grill outdoors during the summer and the street is always quiet. A state trooper, he said, lives a block up the street.

“I don’t know these neighbors,” he said. “That is unbelievable. I’d be even more upset if I had kids.”

Blanchette does. His baby boy, Vincent, is visited every other weekend by his 5-year-old stepbrother. That boy loves to roam up and down the tree-lined street.

Maybe not for much longer.

“A couple of weeks ago there was gunshots in the neighborhood and now this,” he said. “I’ve never seen anything like this. It’s crazy.”