NEW IPSWICH — On the anniversary of the ice storm that knocked out power for days in more than 400,000 residences and businesses across the state, members of PSNH, the state house, the town, and others gathered at Boynton Middle School to remember the heroes who made a difference.

Gary Long, Chief Operating Officer for PSNH, spoke to the invitation-only crowd first.

“One year ago today, history was made by a record setting storm of many firsts,” said Long, who rolled off a list of first-time encounters that occurred in New Hampshire, including the fact that over 60 percent of the electrical systems were damaged.

“The linemen repaired and rebuilt an electrical system that took 60 to 80 years to make in two weeks,” said Long, including 105 miles of line. “Nobody builds that in two weeks, but we did.”

Long said it was also the first time that the state ever had to activate the Army National Guard for a natural disaster, or that PSNH had to set up work centers across the state, including the one that was set up at Boynton Middle School. “This place has a lot of meaning for us,” said Long, who not only got to know the emergency personnel in town, but also the residents.

Long said he remembers a woman who came into the command post at Boynton Middle School to bring the emergency workers cookies. “It was a real act of kindness,” said Long, who was genuinely touched by the woman’s gesture in the middle of such dire circumstances. “It pulled on my heart,” he said because he saw first-hand how hard New Ipswich was hit by the ice storm.

“In this town of New Ipswich, 100 percent of the electrical system was flattened,” said Long, yet the spirit of the people remained strong.

“It’s the spirit of neighbor helping neighbor,” said Gov. John Lynch, who was grateful to the linesmen that worked around the clock trying to restore power one road at a time throughout the state.

“Thank you linesmen,” said the governor. “You performed heroically.”

Long said that PSNH had a total of 1,000 linesmen working on repairing our state’s electrical system, and that many of them came from other parts of the country, and even from Canada, to help with the historic effort of restoring power.

Two local PSNH linesmen from Dublin, Kerwin Mattson and Danny Ahern, were specifically recognized for their selflessness in restoring power to the New Ipswich community. But rather than heap up the accolades for themselves, the two men bestowed it upon others, including the New Ipswich Police Department, New Ipswich Fire Department, the New Ipswich Select Board and Gov. Lynch, whom the men gave a T-shirt and hard hat to that was signed by local linesmen.

“Thank you for leading us,” Ahern said to the governor.

New Ipswich Deputy Fire Chief Meredith Lund, who served as information officer throughout the power outage, thanked the two local linesmen, as well as all the other emergency personnel and volunteers who stepped up to help the town.

“Somebody was listening. Somebody was hearing. Thank you,” said Lund, who deeply appreciated the kindness the linesmen extended toward the townspeople.

“You took the time to say hi to an elderly person. You gave up your families for 14, 19, 21 days. I know it wasn’t easy. God bless you,” she said.

Congressman Paul Hodes, who was not in attendance, expressed his thanks in a letter that one of his representatives read aloud. “You risked your own safety to establish power. While the days turned to weeks and white went to green, you did the work. Quite literally, in our darkest hour, we turned to you and you did not let us down,” read the letter.

It was probably the Boynton Middle School Chorus that brought back the most memories of last year’s ice storm with their own rendition of the song “Winter Wonderland.”

“No bells ring, you can listen. In the lane ice is glistin’. No shower tonight, cause we have no light, sleepin’ in a freezing sleeping bag. Gone away is electricity. Here to stay is a fallen tree. We sing a sad song as we go along, Walkin’ in a icy wonderland.”

This story appears on Page 8 on the Nov. 15 issue