Colin presents as part of a panel on performance based planning at the Federal Highways Administration and Federal Transit Authority Northeast workshop. (
Rachel Dewey/SRPC Photo)
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Nancy O' Connor, program content coordinator, attended the Community Action Partnership (CAP) of Strafford County's annual meeting on Thursday, Dec. 12. Over the past year, SRPC has had the opportunity to work with CAP on various projects including an environmental justice grant application for an outreach and education campaign focused on lead exposure and remediation, and on the issue of regional homelessness.
The meeting, the organization's 54th, was held at The Oaks in Somersworth. Attendees representing the Dover Police Department were celebrated as the 2019 Community Champion and the late Doug Surina, a long time devoted employee of CAP, was honored with the Mission Award. The meeting's main theme, the launch of CAP's Open Doors Campaign, was explained as a capital campaign aimed at raising $2 million dollars. With $1.2m already been raised, a fully funded campaign will allow CAP to spend more on additional services and resources for Strafford County residents.
The meeting offered a wonderful opportunity for networking, and was a successful celebration of CAP's great work in 2019. To learn more about CAP of Strafford County visit its
website.
Pieces of Interest
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Strafford Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) staffers Colin Lentz, senior transportation planner, and Rachel Dewey, data analyst, were in Washington D.C. during the week of Dec. 9 attending a Transportation Performance Measures (TPM) and Performance Based Planning and Programming (PBPP) workshop. This workshop was the last of five held across the U.S., and was hosted by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and the Federal Transit Administration (FTA). Focused on the Northeast portion of the U.S., workshop attendees included representatives from New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Maine.
During their time at the workshop Colin and Rachel took part in the various sessions which covered topics like coordination and collaboration between state DOTs and MPOs, target setting, integrating performance measures into plans, monitoring progress, and telling the TPM story.
In addition, Colin participated in two panels. The first panel was alongside Alan Warde of the New York State Department of Transportation and Robert Aloise of the Capital Region Council of Governments in Connecticut. Panelists discussed their separate experiences with TPM and PBPP. Colin spoke about Partnering for Performance NH (PFPNH), explaining how PFPNH originally convened as a group of transportation planners working to address a federally mandated shift towards performance based planning with an outcome of creating complementary, regionally significant measures. He added how the group has continued to meet to encourage statewide collaboration between MPOs and the NH Department of Transportation.
The second panel was alongside Jessica Baas of Massachusetts Department of Transportation and Alan Warde. This panel focused on telling the TPM story. Colin spoke about how to best communicate about TPM - common questions and concerns we have heard from our committees, how we communicate the pros and cons of performance targets, and the impacts of PBPP.
You can see photos from Colin and Rachel’s trip on our
Facebook page
by searching the #ColinAndRachelTakeDC.
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James Burdin, senior regional planner, joined Jen Czysz, executive director at the 2019 Brownfield Conference in Los Angeles from Dec. 11 – 13. This annual conference is cosponsored by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and ICMA, the world’s leading association of professional city and county managers and local government employees.
Bringing together government leaders, including elected officials, planners, and economic professionals with private development industry professionals, this conference is the largest gathering of stakeholders focused on cleaning up and reusing potentially contaminated properties. With 10 education sessions to choose from, in addition to plenaries and mobile workshops, Jen and James are looking forward to implementing new ideas with the Strafford Economic Development District (EDD) Brownfields program. Highlights included new ideas for downtown redevelopment, climate change, financing mechanisms, and visualizing change.
For more information on Strafford EDD's Brownfields program and how brownfields relate to community and economic development contact
James Burdin
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