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| Community Engagement Academy 2018 group at the Rochester Opera House Source: SRPC |
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Kyle Pimental, principal regional planner, met with the Dover Arts Commission at its meeting in the McConnell Center on Monday, May 7, to discuss a current outreach project. He was joined by a colleague from the University of New Hampshire's Cooperative Extension.
The project is being guided by an ad-hoc committee of local volunteers tasked with implementing public art intended to spark conversations about sea level rise and coastal flooding. Kyle spoke about the upcoming promotion of an art contest targeted at students, who will be asked to create preliminary design concepts that express climate change impacts. One concept will be chosen for on-the-ground installation by the end of the year.
Pieces of Interest
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Transportation
In case you didn't see the announcement in last week's newsletter, we've set the date for the Strafford Regional Planning Commission Annual Luncheon. This year's celebration will be held on Thursday, June 28, from 11:30 a.m. - 2 p.m. at the Governor's Inn in Rochester. The theme of the meeting, trails, will be discussed from a variety of angles including:
- Funding for trails.
- The importance of trails to tourism and the state's economy.
- Trails and quality of life.
- Conserved land and trail maintenance.
- Marketing and advertising of our unique natural resources.
- Importance of trail mapping.
SRPC will host a panel of presenters to cover this topic, including a representative from the NH Bureau of Trails and the chair of the Rochester Riverwalk Committee. We will also introduce our new executive director Jennifer Czysz at the meeting, and we are excited everyone will have the opportunity to meet her! Formal invitations will be forthcoming. We hope that you will mark your calendars!
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Economic Development
Shayna Sylvia, communications and outreach specialist, and Nancy O'Connor, program content coordinator, attended the last of three sessions of the UNH Cooperative Extension (UNHCE) Community Engagement Academy on Thursday, May 10. The session was held at the
Rochester Performance and Arts Center and focused on the use of continued engagement to encourage visioning and action. Four local speakers shared insights into their community engagement work.
Later in the session, attendees learned about the Lilac City on a walking tour around Rochester. Emily Pelletier, president of
Rochester Main Street
, and Matt Wyatt, associate producer and publicist at the
Rochester Opera House
, talked about some of downtown Rochester's great amenities, such as the Rochester Museum of Fine Art and the Opera House. They also touched on plans for the city's core, including the addition of a downtown riverwalk. Emily and Matt were joined by Michelle Mears from the city's planning department and Jenn Marsh from Rochester Economic Development, who gave a tour of the City Hall Annex in Rochester's renovated old firehouse. Sarah Garstka, executive director of the Workforce Housing Coalition (WHC) of the Greater Seacoast, took the session participants to a vacant lot on Hanson Street that will be the subject of the WHC's Downtown Rochester Housing Workshop to be held in September.
Nancy and Shayna added many new skills and tools throughout the training, and they are eager to use what they learned in their outreach and engagement work for the Strafford Economic Development District, Strafford Metropolitan Planning Organization, and SRPC. They also highly recommend UNHCE's program for anyone interested in reaching and engaging their community's residents. Learn more about the program at:
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