The Boston Globe from Boston, Massachusetts • 241

uribau 05lobe NOTABLE i i First Congressional District I candidate Maureen Barrows is battling to preserve the prom- iseofa campaign launched with "pride and enthusiasm" INSIDE Russell Keith 4 Letter 5 Arts People 9 Calendar 10 Bulletin Board 13 Business 14 Sports 16 Classified 17 JULY 26, 1992 Marriage threatens cancer patient's insurance 1 do' means 'goodbye' to health coverage, woman says By Ralph Jimenez GLOBE STAFF ri rj EENE-Robin Bloksberg will lose I 1 her health insurance if she gets Massachusetts, Bloksberg said. Under federal law, former employees must be permitted to remain members of their employer's group health insurance plan at their own expense for 18 months. When that term expires, all health maintenance organizations doing business in New Hampshire permit a member to continue coverage by buying a conversion policy from a commercial insurance company, said Robert Warren, director of the life and health division of the New Hampshire Insurance De-INSURANCE, Page NH 6 "If I say 'I they say 'good- met in college, could afford the out-of-pocket costs of a normal pregnancy but not one with expensive complications, Bloksberg said. Nor can Bloksberg afford to be without health insurance if her husband becomes unemployed. Early in the recession, her fiance lost his job working with developmentally disabled children in New Hampshire and it took him nearly 18 months to find his current position with a mental health agency in Massachusetts for care.

But as a cancer survivor, continuity of coverage is imperative because of exclusions for preexisting conditions," Bloksberg said. Her fiance's health plan would not impose a waiting period before she could collect benefits for a recurrence of cancer, though Bloksberg and her husband may have to pay more than other members of the plan. The couple, who have lived together since they having a baby. Her plight is one that the Keene writer believes is shared by many self-employed New Hampshire women. She does not want to be dependent on her future husband's employment situation for her health coverage.

The solution, Bloksberg said, would seem simple. "I could marry Bob, and maternity would be covered under his group plan, although it would mean going to an HMO in Cross-Blue Shield of New Hampshire. It has been two years since Bloksberg, 37,, was diagnosed with breast cancer. It had not spread to her lymph glands, and her oncologist has said that she can now consider George L. Johnson, was 'hell on spruce' and when he had taken all the trees of sawable size, he moved on, leaving behind Hopefuls in GOP race list who donorsare By John Milne By Allen Lessels GLOBE STAFF I NCOLN -Murray Clark, between bear shows and a steady stream of bear questions, ducks behind a GLOBE STAFF 0 0 As 1992's political focus centers Jfcion whether big corporations and their execu-I I tives wield too much political influence, the Z7three major Republican candidates for gover-w nor began releasing lists of contributors a month before the state deadline.

The reports of each candidate reveal concentrations of fund-raising power. State Senate President Edward C. Dupont Jr. reported receiving more than $20,000 from officers and others linked to Cab-. '( Sy; I Clt letron the big employer in Roch- MMg.

acfoi Ilia linmo tniim Ho raramraH mnra 92 than $103,000 in contributions overall. Stephen E. Merrill of Manchester, a former state attorney general, ac doorway at Clark's Trading Post and pulls out several old postcards. He points to a schoolhouse along a dirt main street in one. Describes how buildings were laid out in another.

Notes the mill and mill pond in a third. The Pemigewasset Valley Historical Society building on Church Street has more post-cards and pictures. The scenes are similar to those in a couple of large framed photographs on the walls at the McDonald's Restaurant just off Interstate 93 here. One of those shows several people in front of the Johnson Post Office and General Store. Another depicts a gang of workers at the Johnson Sawmill.

Both are labeled, Johnson, N.H., and were taken just after the turn of the century. The postcards and pictures depict a town that is no more actually, a town that never was. "It was a section of Lincoln -along the Pemigewasset River, "south of the Indian Head Re-' sort," Clark said last week. More than a logging camp. Less than a town.

Much like several other communities now mostly for- gotten that sprang up around Jogging operations and railroad GLOBE STAFF PHOTOS MARK WILSON Murray Clark's home In Lincoln was once the school-house for the now-gone community of Johnson. The postcard he Is holding also at right shows the former schoolhouse, which has been moved twice. (Postcard copied courtesy of Clark.) cepted at least $9,500 from executives of the Henley Group, a major Hampton business now named Abex as well as other large firms in the $112,000 he has collected. Merrill is a native of the Hampton area. Breakdown of contributions to GOP gubernatorial candidates.

Page NH 8. Elizabeth S. Hager, the Concord state representative who heads the House Appropriations Committee, has received contributions from supporters of abortion rights and old friends from the Midwest in her $80,000 war chest Hager has long been a national leader on the abortion rights issue. For the first time since 1980, when Warren B. Rud-man was elected to the US Senate on a campaign platform of opposing political action committees, campaign financing has taken center stage.

"The whole system has broken down, and that's why we need to invest in political change," said Raymond MONEY, Page NH 8 Filling the political war chests such as 100-year-old Willie McGee, who drove a team of horses in the area, and Howard Chase, 82, the son of a logger, who spent a winter in one of the logging camps that sent its stock to the Johnson mill. McGee, later a fireman on the Cog Railway and on the Canadian Pacific Railway, remembers a time many years ago when it snowed a foot on Nov. 15, and the snow stayed the rest of the winter. He now lives in East Rochester during the summer and spends his winters in Hartford. McGee worked for the J.E.

Henry Mill, here, but had 1 ines in the state, only to move ILTrn to the next stop when the jvood ran out Like most of them, Johnson friends in Johnson. Chase's father worked for George L. Johnson, proprietor of the sawmill, postman, and the man who gave the town its name. JOHNSON, Page NH 20 exists now only in pictures and scattered remnants. And in just a few memories of people By Gary Ghioto SPECIAL TO THE GLOBE VA home loans are helping vets in tough straits New cultural affairs chief defines his role By Clare Kittredge SPECIAL TO THE GLOBE By Ralph Jimenez GLOBE STAFF When the wolf of unemnlovment arrived at the door.

ONCORD New Hamp-bhire's new culture czar plans to tread carefully as he takes over the bureaucracy that oversees the po I I thusands residents found that 1 1 I recess'on na(I turned their Li dream home into a house of sticks VOH 0 In politics today it is not unusual I Jfor questions to arise over why executives of I big businesses contribute money to political campaigns. v. Groups, such as Common Cause, the pub- lie interest watchdog, say corporate officers are giving more than ever to New Hampshire gubernatorial and congressional hopefuls to enhance future financial opportunities and access to government But New Hampshire executives who regularly give to incumbents and front-runners at election time insist their motives are honorable. They say their sole political interest is helping "responsible candidates" who share their views on fostering a strong business climate. The Globe tracked the campaign contribution reports of New Hampshire candidates who have received funds from executives and the political action committee of the Henley Group and its former subsidiaries, Fisher Scientific International and Properties.

CONTKIBUTIONS, Page NH 8 Adamovich in the post created under former Gov. John Sununu in 1985. McLeod wants culture recognized as an economic force. "The cultural industry is part of the economic development picture, but we're rarely looked at that way," McLeod said. "I want to make sure artists are seen as an important part of the economic development community." But, he adds: "My biggest responsibility is to stop and listen for a while to our division directors and constituents and see what they need, and then develop partnerships and jet-works to serve people in the ate McLEOD, Page NH 6 or straw.

Among those who have lost their homes to foreclosure have been veterans whose mortgage loans were guaranteed at least in part, by the Veterans Administration. But homeowners with VA loans enjoy a little more protection against hard times than holders conventional mortgages who often face a choice between bankruptcy or years of loan pajf-; litically sensitive relationship between government and public taste. Van McLeod, 46, a Concord native and son of a top aide to the late US Sen. Styles Bridges, was raised in politics but chose an arts career instead. Next month, he will become New Hampshire's commissionei of Cultural Affairs, replacing Shirley VAN McLEOD.