FEBRUARY 2019
Strafford Regional Planning Commission Newsletter
Stonehouse Pond in Barrington ( Photo courtesy of Shayna Sylvia )
Happy February!

The countdown is on. Only 47 more days until spring! And with the blustery weather we’ve seen this past week, I’m sure I’m not the only one looking forward to Mar. 20. As to whether those 47 days are cooler or warmer, we’ll leave that up to Punxsutawney Phil, who will make his yearly prediction tomorrow, Feb. 2.
 
Here at SRPC we are finishing up the last of the town reports, working with the Barrington Master Plan committee on its critical facilities and utilities master plan chapter, and earlier this week applied for funding to continue the Strafford EDD Brownfields program.

In this issue you’ll read about COAST’s service to the Strafford County Emergency Shelter, Colin Lentz’s successful Conquer the Cold Challenge, planning events of interest, our topic for the Feb. 28 Commission meeting, media attention given to the January King Tide event, items you may have missed, Nancy O’Connor’s trip to Little Rock to make a presentation to the Federal Highway Administration, and community happenings. 

Until Next Month,

Shayna Sylvia
IN THIS ISSUE
COAST Offers Free Rides to Strafford County Shelter
Colin Conquers the Cold
Planning Events of Interest
SRPC Focuses on Staff Projects at February Meeting
First King Tide of 2019 Draws Attention
Nancy O’Connor Travels to Arkansas for Presentation
In Case You Missed It
Community Happenings
STAFF SNAPSHOTS - JANUARY
Lisa Wise (UNHCE/NH SeaGrant) takes notes during a meeting of the Durham Leadership Team attended by Kyle Pimental, SRPC principal planner. ( SRPC Photo )
CommuteSMART NH Coordination Meeting on Jan. 17. ( SRPC Photo )
Presentation at the FHWA PlanWorks event in Little Rock, Ark. (SRPC Photo)
COAST Offers Free Rides to the Strafford County Emergency Shelter
Coast Bus at sunset. ( Photo courtesy of COAST )
The Cooperative Alliance for Seacoast Transportation (COAST) will offer free transportation to the Strafford County Emergency Shelter at the County Complex in Dover during the current period of extreme cold, the nonprofit public transit provider has announced .

COAST is offering the following services during the extreme cold emergency:

  • Free rides to individuals taking Bus Route 33 to the Emergency Shelter.
  • A weeknight shuttle direct to the shelter leaving DTC (Dover Train Station) at 8 p.m., after service on Route 33 has ended for the day. This shuttle, which will not make any stops between DTC and shelter, will operate only if there is anyone who wants to go to the shelter.
  • A morning and evening shuttle on Saturday, Feb. 2, departing from the DTC at 8 a.m. and 8 p.m., followed by an inbound bus from the shelter for anyone who wants to return to town. These buses will run regardless of whether there are rides who want to go to the shelter from downtown. They can stop at recognized Route 33 stops on Sixth Street on the way to or from the shelter.

“After attending a Transportation Subcommittee meeting of the Tri-City Mayor’s Task Force on Homelessness last week, we became more aware of this specific issue and are glad to be able to offer aid to individuals needing this important service connection. This type of service and assistance is central to our mission of providing customer-focused public transportation with a commitment to excellence in safety and service,” said Rad Nichols, COAST executive director.

Contact Rad Nichols at 603-743-5777 for more information. 
Colin Conquers the Cold
Senior transportation planner Colin Lentz bundled up on the last day of the Conquer the Cold challenge. ( SRPC photo )
Thursday, Jan. 31, marked the last day of the annual Conquer the Cold challenge, CommuteSMART Seacoast’s winter sustainable commute initiative that promotes walking, biking, and bus travel over driving between November and January.

SRPC’s own senior transportation planner, Colin Lentz, joined over 100 participants in this year’s event, which was featured on a segment of NH Chronicle. Colin logged 32 trips totaling 74 miles, saving $42 in travel costs and avoiding 68 lbs. of carbon dioxide emissions.

Now that the Conquer the Cold challenge is over and Betti the Yeti (the challenge mascot) can hibernate, it will soon be time for Supra the Super Commuter, (the summer B2B challenge mascot) to make an appearance. There’s no time like the present for you smart commuters to start planning your strategies for the next CommuteSmart Seacoast challenge.

Stay tuned to www.commutesmartseacoast.org for more information, or contact CommuteSmart NH manager Anne Rugg
Planning Events of Interest
Partnership for Active Transportation Webinar: Exploring the Human-Centered Mobility Principles Feb. 28

Register now for the Partnership for Active Transportation’s webinar on Thursday, Feb. 28, at 2 p.m. The webinar will explore Human-Centered Mobility Principles to guide planning centered on shaping mobility and addressing community design choices facing our society. It will focus on the Human-Centered Mobility Principles guidelines and how they might be applied to current efforts. The webinar will also offer a look at how two communities are embracing what's next in active transportation.

Learn more online.


Plan NH Workshop: Nature & Economy – Recognizing and leveraging natural assets for economic vibrancy  Mar. 4

Join Plan NH from 8:30 a.m. – noon on Thursday, Mar. 14, for a workshop on nature and the economy presented by Shannon Rogers, Ph.D., of the University of New Hampshire Cooperative Extension. The workshop is for planners, economic development folks, community and thought leaders, and anyone interested in making their community more vibrant and delightful. It will be held at NH Audubon in Concord.

Through case studies and interactive activities, participants will learn about the connections between the environment and the economy. They will sketch out their own community’s natural assets and see how they can be used to advance community and economic development goals. Everyone who attends will leave with actionable ideas and potential next steps for their communities or organizations.

SRPC Will Focus on Staff Projects at February Commission Meeting
Rather than invite a guest speaker to address the next meeting of the Strafford Regional Planning Commission (SRPC), staffers will make presentations on the various projects they are working on to offer Commissioners and guests a more detailed look at work being done with communities throughout the Strafford region.

The meeting will begin with all staff members briefly introducing themselves before discussing their project areas of expertise. The staff presentations will then focus on three or four projects currently underway.

The Commission will meet at 4 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 28, in conference room 1A of the SRPC office, 150 Wakefield St., in Rochester. Anyone interested in attending should arrive at 3:45 p.m. RSVPs can be forwarded to srpc@strafford.

Contact communications and outreach planner Shayna Sylvia at 603-994-3500 for more information, and stay tuned to our website for the latest meeting updates. 
First King Tide of 2019 Draws Attention
An aerial look at the King Tide around the Seacoast on Wednesday, January 23, 2019. (Photo courtesy of Rich Beauchesne/ Seacoastonline)
Tuesday and Wednesday, Jan. 22 and 23, saw the first King Tide of the new year. The term “King Tide” refers to the highest high tides that occur multiple times a year when the moon is in alignment with the sun and closest to the earth. These higher than normal tides often can cause coastal flooding, especially in low-lying areas, and are increasingly viewed as harbingers of what could become the “new normal” as sea level rises. [i]

Staff members from the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services (NHDES), the Conservation Law Foundation (CLF), and local media were invited to join LightHawk, an international non-profit that uses aviation to promote conservation, in a flight over the seacoast to view the king tide effects first hand.
 
The resulting images, photographed by Rich Beauchesne of Seacoast Online, were featured in Fosters Daily Democrat and show the impacts of rising sea levels and coastal flooding. Images 33, 39, and 40 are especially noteworthy for the impacts they show. To learn more about King Tides and other coastal adaptation issues, visit NHCAW’s website .
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[i] NHDES Coastal Program definition of a King Tide

Nancy O’Connor Travels to Arkansas for PlanWorks Presentation
Nancy (first row, second from left) and transportation colleagues at the Arkansas Department of Transportation after a successful peer exchange in Little Rock. ( Photo Courtesy of FHWA )
Program content coordinator Nancy O’Connor was in Little Rock, Ark., this week to present at the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) PlanWorks Peer Exchange held on Jan. 30 and 31. She joined other recipients of Second Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP2) Implementation Assistance Program Grants and prospective state transportation and metropolitan planning organization (MPO) practitioners to discuss stakeholder collaboration in the planning process.

Nancy shared how Strafford MPO implemented its performance measures project using Planworks, a web resource that supports collaborative decision making in transportation planning and project development. She reviewed the tools used to create and maintain strong collaboration with internal and external stakeholders. And she gave examples of approaches Strafford MPO took that might help future PlanWorks users.

This was the second time Nancy had been invited by the Federal Highway Administration to present on Strafford MPO’s use of Planworks. In April 2018, Nancy gave a similar presentation at the PlanWorks Champions Peer Exchange in Washington, D.C.
 
To learn more about Strafford MPO’s SHRP2 program and the Partnering for Performance NH initiative that grew out of it, visit the Partnering for Performance NH website .
In Case You Missed It
New Dover solar panel array on the roof of the Children's Museum of New Hampshire. ( Photo Courtesy of Revision Energy)  
Strafford MPO logo (SRPC Photo)
Solar Ribbon Cutting Dover, NH

The City of Dover will hold a ribbon cutting ceremony for its new solar array on the roof of the The Children's Museum of New Hampshire and the Dover Indoor Pool on Wednesday, Feb. 20, at 11 a.m. The array is projected to save the city over $500,000 in long-term electricity costs.

The event will also feature the unveiling of a mural designed by Seacoast Charter School student Sofia Self to spark conversations about the local impacts of climate change. Sofia’s project was the winning entry in a youth art context organized by the Dover Rising Waters initiative with assistance from SRPC.. Dover Rising Waters is a group of citizen volunteers working to implement the town master plan’s chapter on climate change, which was adopted by the planning board last year.

To learn more about the ribbon cutting, view the event listing on Dover's Facebook page
Strafford TIP Public Comment Period

The draft 2019–2022 Transportation Improvement Program (TIP), and an updated version of the Metropolitan Transportation Plan (MTP) that includes the new TIP, is now out for public comment. The public comment period will run until Thursday, Feb. 14, and a public hearing will be held the following day during the Stafford MPO Policy Committee meeting. 
 
The TIP, which is updated biennially, is a list of regional transportation projects funded by the state and federal governments to be completed over the next four years. Projects that receive federal funding are first developed in the MTP. From there they move into the state’s Ten Year Plan, and finally into the TIP.
 
The combined draft TIP and updated MTP can be found on the SRPC website. Comments may be submitted via email, phone, mail, or fax. 
 
Contact Colin Lentz. senior transportation planner, at 603-994-3500 with any questions. 
Community Happenings
Southern New Hampshire Ukulele (SNHUG) Groundhog Day Luau


Saturday, Feb. 2
2 – 6 p.m.
The Strand, 20 3 rd Street, Dover
Join the Southern New Hampshire Ukulele Group (SNHUG) on Saturday, Feb. 2, for the seventh annual groundhog day luau at the historic STRAND Theater in Dover. Shake off the winter blahs with the sweet tropical tones of warm ukulele music.

The day’s festivities will include performances by wildly talented ukulele groups from near and far, including The Silvertones, The Ukulele Strummers of Southern Maine, The Flukes, Steve Roy, and more!

Along with performances, there’ll also be food, raffles, sing-alongs and play alongs – so bring your uke! And if that’s not enough, the Maka Maka Hula Girls will perform too! So get your grass skirts out of the snow bank and come to Dover on Groundhog Day.

Tickets are $30 and can be purchased in advance at Brown Paper Tickets.

Learn more online.

4th Annual Winter Carnival
 
Saturday, Feb.16
10 a.m – 4 p.m.
Johnson's Marketplace, 69 State Route 11, New Durham

The Powder Mill Snowmobile Club of New Durham will host its fourth Winter Carnival at Johnson’s Marketplace on Saturday, Feb. 16, from 10 a.m. – 4 p.m.

Snowmobilers and all members of the public are invited to come warm up by the firepit, enjoy free hot chocolate, and sample Johnson’s famous steak tips.

Exclusive Powder Mill Snowmobile club apparel and raffle tickets with fabulous prizes will be for sale. There will also be demo rides on one of Rochester Motorsports’ newest snow machines!

Learn more on the Facebook event listing.
Seacoast Eat Local Winter Farmers Market

Saturday, Feb.23
10 a.m – 2 p.m.
Wentworth Greenhouses, 141 Rollins Rd, Rollinsford

The Seacoast Eat Local Winters' Farmers Market will take place at Wentworth Greenhouses on Saturday, Feb. 23. This is the fifth of six to be held at Wentworth Greenhouses between November and April; the other six take place at Exeter High School and the Kittery Community Center. The markets features local cheese, maple syrup, eggs, vegetables, bread, beer, soap, crafts, lots of other goodies - and music. Head on over and check it out!

Learn more at: