Friday Updates - May 1, 2020

DURHAM’S LEADERSHIP TEAM MET VIRTUALLY ON APRIL 28TH TO ADDRESS DEPARTMENT MATTERS AND TO PROVIDE ROUNDTABLE UPDATES / Prepared by Planning Director Michael Behrendt – Here’s what was learned…

Economic Development. Christine Soutter said she reached out to a graduate student organization that will do a survey of where students are living now, what they are paying in rent, whether they would like to come back to school, whether they would like to live close to the campus.  She is working on RSA 79E Downtown Revitalization provision and some zoning changes for the downtown. She is doing some research with Jim Rice about Mill Plaza.

The Federal government approved more funding for PPP. The money in the first round got taken up very quickly. Todd Selig said it is hard to keep up with the status of local businesses as things are changing quickly. Christine said she was having more contact with local businesses in the beginning and less now.  

Police.  Dave Kurz said things are fine. Everybody is healthy and working. There have been no major incidents. Over the weekend they verified what they were afraid of. People are coming back on the weekend to party. Leases are still active. Students have a place here and they are taking advantage of it. There have been mostly small gatherings with 3-8 people, people sitting in the yard. If officers see that they talk with the students about social distancing. We hear from residents about these situations. There have unfortunately been domestic situations. People are pent up and it is a challenge for everybody.

Captain Dave Holmstock said the Pandemic Operational Plan is coming along well. Todd asked if there is anything in the plan suggesting something that we should be doing that we are not doing. Dave said no, we are just staying on top of issues as they come up. There are no major issues suggesting we should shift direction. Todd said we should think about the future if UNH does or does not come back into session. What would this mean for Durham, etc.?

Deputy Chief Rene Kelley said they are working on a lot of court cases over the telephone. It helps to dispose of cases over the phone if possible to bring down the backlog. The new police cruiser was ordered in January but is not expected to be delivered in October. Ford has redirected work at some of its plants including making respirators. The same is true for the new roll off vehicle at DPW.

Recreation.  Rachel Gasowski said she is busy working on plans for summer camp and revamping what they can do virtually. She is working with the school district. They have been cleaning things up at the Jackson’s Landing playground. A lot has been cleared but it is still a bit of a mess. The area has been opened up some with the cutting of some of the tall pine trees there, which now allows more light for the solar panels (which were being shaded and not producing as planned as a result). The area was overgrown and people couldn’t use it. The picnic tables are in rough condition. DPW put down mulch and bark chips and regraded. There is one particularly large tree stump which they will incorporate somehow. Oyster River Gives Back Concert was Wednesday night. They had a partnership with Celebrate Durham and the Freedom Café. The Memorial Day Parade will be all virtual. Organizers hope to have remarks from Kitty Marple and Lee Alexander, some ceremonial speeches. They will include some footage from last year.

Assessing.  Jim Rice said the utility appraiser looked at Seacoast Reliability which is 50-60% complete. He will provide values next Tuesday for the first billing cycle. 4-6 Main Street just came on the market. There are 5 properties on this site. Paul Berton, the owner is asking $5-1/2 million. He may be focusing on other properties he has in Portsmouth. The student housing market is still strong; it has not dried up at all. Jim talked with UNH. UNH is grappling with the number of students living in one unit. The trend for new projects was to include 3-6 bedrooms per unit but due to coronavirus lots of parents won’t want their kids with so many students. Todd wondered aloud if UNH pares down from a 4 to 2 person suite where will those students go? Probably to the private market. Even if Durham experienced declining enrollment, if students go to the private market, UNH would not see vacancies on campus, and in-town rentals would see additional demand. Jim said UNH lost about 200 students last year but they are making up with transfer students and in other ways, so overall enrollment is not declining.  

Fire. Fire Chief Dave Emanuel said this week the fire department leadership team worked to identify and address blind spots within the fire department. They are looking for anything that they should be doing better.

Chief Trull contacted the local hospitals to get the pulse of COVID Trends: Hospitals reported occupancy capacities as of 4/27/2020: Exeter is 52%, Portsmouth 63%, WDH 54%, Rochester 33% FD members should keep up the disinfecting and mask-wearing and not let their guard down.

McGregor response times have increased since they moved to Putnam Hall and the Medic Company/DFD may be using more PPE equipment because they are initiating patient contact. Shifts should focus on providing timely safe patient care when operating before McGregor arrives. 

The department should work to improve inventory controls when equipment is delivered to the FD, where it is to be placed, and when it is being used.



The FD is still working with UNH on the IT, Box, and email transition project. Dave thanks Luke for transitioning members email over to UNH a few at a time. 

The proposal for a Verizon antenna on Dimond Library is in the preliminary proposal stages and UNH Facilities is still coming up to speed. 

The FD is investigating a potential grant opportunity – “FEMA makes additional $100 million available to Firefighters for COVID-19 Response”. 

The Deputy Fire Chief of Prevention position has been advertised and applications are due on May 15, 2020. 

Public Works. DPW Director Mike Lynch reported Eversource hopes to be done with the Seacoast Reliability project by the end of May. That is not far from the original schedule. The Town has let them work a few Sundays with no incidents and that helped them stay on schedule. Public Works is cleaning catch basins and painting crosswalks. He and Doug Bullen are going to the Middle School tomorrow to mark up the layout for the new traffic pattern to enable on-street parking. They will direct traffic with Doug’s truck and cones so they don’t need the Police to control traffic.  

DPW had a setback with delivery for the new roll off truck (used to take dumpsters to the market). Due to the virus the mechanical components are not finished yet. The truck was supposed to be delivered in May but won’t come until probably October. We think that off the shelf products should not be delayed but they are being pushed back.

The proposed emergency management communications tower was discussed. Mike sent photos of Beech Hill.  

Todd said the Town made an offer to Mr. Richard Reine of Bedford, NH (formerly DPW Director for Concord, MA) for the position of Director of Public Works. He accepted. Todd will bring his name to the Town Council on May 4th. His tentative start date is June 1 which would provide for overlap with Mike Lynch.

Mike asked NHDOT about the sidewalk for Riverwoods but NHDOT is so tied up with health issues this seemed to go on the back burner. The state will go to bid for the work at the Route 4 – Route 108 ramp in August. The work probably won’t happen in 2020 so it could align better with the sidewalk work. Conduit was put in the ground for signals. We see people probably from Riverwoods walking down Route 108 in the grass to get to Jackson’s Landing and into town. We see some new trails they have put in. They are an ambitious crowd! They walk everywhere. Mike was told the average age is ten years younger than they expected.

Todd said Public Works is working with UNH and EPA for the permit for the WWTP affecting Great Bay.  

He is now working for Bauen who is building the Middle School. Mike said Bauen also built our police station and library and the high school athletic fields.

Mike said construction on the Route 4 bridge over Bunker Creek will go to 7 days per week. He does not know if they will close Route 4. Dave Kurz said their ability to work a longer week may keep the closure shorter.

Planning. Dir. of Planning Michael Behrendt said the Planning Board has a very busy agenda Wednesday night with the amendment to the Durham Business Park, Alpha Tao Omega, Mill Plaza and the fiscal impact report, 74 Main Street, and Gerrish Drive subdivision. Christine Soutter commented on public hearings where residents raise the same objections to projects over and over again. Michael said the Planning Board continually wrestles with this issue trying to balance having transparency and giving the public a full opportunity to speak with keeping meetings moving along and not hearing the same things over again. He said the board sometimes limits the amount of time for comments and closes public hearings.

Clerk’s Office.  Town Clerk/Tax Collector Lorrie said things are running pretty smoothly with the new window. Most transactions are on line, via email or in the drop box. They get a lot of phone calls and emails The water/sewer bills are going out today. They are adding a note on the bill about how to pay. They are due June 1. They are working next week on the warrant figures to get that to the Council for the May 18 meeting. Then the property tax bills go out a week or so afterward.

The state has extended the timeframe for temporary plates to May 31. The state is putting together a committee to look at the election and how to help cities and towns with extra costs, especially from the large numbers of absentee ballots. DCAT Coordinator Craig Stevens helped update the website. This will make it easier for residents to do on line registrations and payments with just one click. Deputy Town Clerk Rachel Deane discussed the Top Dog program.  The deadline to register dogs is April 30 as mandated from the state. If you register on time you are eligible for a raffle. The winner gets a doggie gift basket with donated goods and services. The drawing will be May 4 at the Town Council meeting. The winner will have the dog’s photo and bio in Friday Updates. A lot of people do not know they need to license their dogs. Over 1,000 dogs were registered last year. The number so far is in line with last year. She hoped for more but maybe there was a drop off with coronavirus.

Business Office. Business Manager Gail Jablonski exclaimed that everything is wonderful! She has nothing to report. Audrey asked where to get the cheapest gas at this time , at the state pumps or at Irving. Gail will research.  

Information Technology. IT Manager Luke Vincent said the growth of activity for Zoom is huge from 10 million connections per day to 300 million now. He did not think that was sustainable growth. It will be interesting to see how things shake out with cloud services and remote learning and access services. Luke said Zoom is releasing a new version that you will be forced to upgrade to but it should have a more sturdy protocol and better security. Zoom has worked very well for Durham to date.

Luke said we are launching a new platform for user events. We will have a single portal page. Luke said we are lucky to have a position for DCAT coordinator. Volunteer extraordinary Jay Gooze is coming back soon. 

Todd asked about the Fire Department email addresses. Will they be CI.DURHAM or UNH with the transition? Luke said you can send to either address but in the long term the Fire Department will break away into its own domain.  

Building. Code Officer Audrey Cline exulted that she found toilet paper at Hannaford! She said 9 Dover Road sold. She noted that buildings shut off for weeks have a potential for Legionnaires Disease when the buildings are turned back on. Audrey gave some background about Legionnaires Disease. It was first identified after an outbreak at an American Legion meeting in 1976. By tremendous coincidence the members came down with Legionnaires Disease there. It is spread by water droplets in air conditioning and other similar systems.

Other Matters. Todd said UNH is giving much consideration about what to do this fall. They are actively coordinating with the governor and state epidemiologist, Dr. Benjamin Chan. Todd said resident Lee Alexander is working to recreate a photo of the Town seal with Todd’s help. He and Todd will work on this. Lee has a canoe that has a sail like a gundalows. Todd will take a picture as the sun rises in early May.  

Library. Library Director Sheryl Bass had provided a summary of library activities in writing

• Staff are all well and continue to work from home maintaining their services to patrons and creating new content for the website, newsletter and social media platforms.
• They continue to plan programming for the Summer. They are developing contingency plans for both children and adults should they have to shift to a virtual model for Summer Reading.
• Sheryl is working on a phased re-opening plan for the Library that involves restoring public services and re-integrating both staff and patrons into the building by degrees. She is anxiously awaiting guidance from the Governor's office, with regard to the Stay-at-Home order and new data regarding infectious spread, to get a better sense of what the immediate future holds in terms of re-opening. She knows that the public and staff are anxious to get back into the building, but they have to be able to maintain the health and safety of all involved.  
• On a fun note... their Haiku poetry contest has been a huge hit in a time when people need a little fun! They’ve had many submissions and it has been great fun reading them and sharing them via social media.