The playground at Henry Law Park in Dover. ( SRPC Photo)
Planning
Marcia Moreno-Báez, GIS planner, recently began the first phase of Strafford Regional Planning Commission’s Pathways to Play project. In this project, which is funded by the NH Children’s Health Foundation, staffers will map and analyze access to recreation in the Strafford region. The goal is to provide municipal planners and decision makers with information about where there is and is not access so they can prioritize funding for projects that increase families' ability to be active.

The first phase includes reviewing recreation data provided by NH GRANIT and integrating local knowledge to fill gaps in the data. SRPC staffers discussed strategies for this process at the monthly staff meeting and offered great suggestions for ways to verify data.

After this process is complete, staffers will work with municipalities to verify the information compiled through the first phase and review the database, adding information when needed.

For more information on the Pathways to Play project, contact Marcia Moreno-Báez at 603‑994‑3500, or see SRPC’s December press release .

Pieces of Interest


Transportation
Stefanie Casella, data collection and analysis assistant, started the annual process of collecting data for SRPC’s regional building permit report last week by sending letters to municipal contacts. This year, SRPC is coordinating the building permit data collection with the NH Office of Strategic Initiatives (NHOSI), which is collecting data on dwelling units. Instead of contacting each community in the region separately, SRPC and NHOSI sent their data requests in a single packet to make the process of responding more efficient for the communities.

The idea to combine data requests came out of a meeting SRPC had with NHOSI back in October, which allowed staffers from each entity to discuss their services, and opportunities for collaboration.

For more information contact Stefanie Casella at 603-994-3500.

Pieces of Interest

Economic Development
Colin Lentz, senior transportation planner, and Stefanie Casella, data collection and analysis assistant, facilitated a meeting of the Branch River Scenic Byway advisory committee on Friday, Feb. 15. The byway runs through Milton and Wakefield, and the committee is looking to expand the trail into Brookfield, Farmington, Middleton, and New Durham and link with the Lakes Region Byway in Wolfeboro and Alton. These communities, minus Alton, are part of the Moose Mountains region, an area identified and promoted by Explore Moose Mountains, a grassroots initiative.

Over the past year, Strafford Metropolitan Planning Organization staff members have been meeting with communities to assess their interest in being part of an expanded byway through the Moose Mountains Region. Staffers met most recently with Wolfeboro town planner Matthew Sullivan to discuss the process of linking a potentially extended Branch River Scenic Byway with the Lakes Byway.

For more information on the Branch River Scenic Byway, visit the SRPC website .

Pieces of Interest

Strafford Regional Planning Commission | 603-994-3500 | srpc@strafford.org | www.strafford.org
February 15, 2019