BITS AND PIECES

A Weekly Update from the Strafford Region

IT Update

Earlier this week, you were notified of a hacked email account belonging to one of our staff members. Our cybersecurity partner has assured us that the threat has been contained. If you opened the attachment in the email with the subject line “Final Statement from Strafford Regional Planning” on Wednesday, August 16, be sure to change your password immediately and conduct a scan of your device with a trusted antivirus program. Follow up with your IT department for further instruction.

Please email Rachel Dewey if you have additional questions.

Help Hawaii – Women Helping Women – Maui Food Bank – IMUA Family Services

Planning

Last week, Senior Regional Planner Lisa Murphy and Regional Planner Autumn Scott traveled to Detroit, Michigan for the Brownfields Conference. Topics ranged from redevelopment design workshops to environmental justice. SRPC will be administering a $500,000 Brownfields grant starting in FY24. With this funding, SRPC will inventory regional Brownfields sites, identify potential contamination issues at Brownfields sites through Phase I and Phase II assessments, evaluate cleanup and reuse strategies, conduct focused redevelopment and area-wide planning, and ultimately return otherwise distressed, abandoned, or environmentally stigmatized sites back to viable and sustainable reuse. The grant will also support on-going public outreach measures that keep the communities informed about the proposed work activities, completed assessments, and general health and economic issues. Lisa will be managing the program for SRPC, and Autumn will use new connections from the conference to implement an equitable engagement plan for the program. They had a blast using micro transit to explore the city between sessions!

Visit the Brownfields 2023 website for more information.

Transportation

On Tuesday, August 15, Senior Planner Colin Lentz and Regional Planner Mark Davie met with leadership from Prep Partners, a local shipping contractor. Prep Partners and other industrial leaders in the Tri Cities have expressed interest in enhanced freight connections in the Strafford Region, as the region continues to grow outward from the greater Seacoast and shipping demand has only risen since the pandemic. Some shipping groups have indicated interest in connections to streamline national connections while others would prefer stronger east-west connections within New Hampshire or more direct connections to the national highway system for local movement within New England. The Southern New Hampshire Planning Commission, to the west of SRPC, has begun work on a truck parking inventory in the Manchester region.

Economic Development

Last week, Executive Director Jen Czysz and Principal Planner Blair Haney submitted a CDBG application co-written with The Granite YMCA (The Y) and the City of Somersworth. The Y acquired the Early Learning Center of Somersworth earlier this year, adding the facility to its portfolio of childcare and after-school programs throughout the state. Plans are to renovate the facility's interior and exterior, replace the play equipment, and add air conditioning to the classrooms. The goal is to reach full capacity of 120 families served within two years; it currently serves only about 60 families. The timing could not be more perfect. From the application, “A March 2023 publication from the New Hampshire Fiscal Policy Institute indicated that the New Hampshire labor shortage plaguing businesses of all sizes is primarily due to a childcare shortage. Low-income families were already disproportionately burdened by this shortage before the pandemic, but now the challenge has become even more critical.” SRPC’s Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy has noted childcare as a critical need for the region.

Working families need strong networks and collaborative solutions; SRPC was proud to work alongside the Y and the City of Somersworth organizing the grant application to the Community Development Finance Authority (CDFA). We want to send warm thanks to Bob Belmore and the Somersworth City Council for supporting this critical project and acting as lead applicant. 

Strafford Regional Planning Commission | 603-994-3500 srpc@strafford.org| www.strafford.org

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August 18, 2023