Friday Updates - May 19, 2017

                    NEWS & HAPPENINGS...

Friday, May 19, 2017

Wagon Hill Farm - Courtesy Elise Sullivan

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UNH Commencement is scheduled for tomorrow, Saturday, May 20th, at the new Wildcat Football Stadium.  While the photo above is not the typcial UNH image we use for commencement weekend, one can imagine the young graduates hitching up their wagons and heading out of town toward whatever their bright futures have in store.   

View the full schedule of commencement events HERE.

UNH GRADUATES ON SATURDAY, MAY 20TH

The UNH Commencement ceremony is this Saturday, May 20th with a change this year to the Wildcat Football Stadium rather than Memorial Field in front of the Whittemore Center. The graduates will begin lining up around 9AM to march into the field starting at 9:45AM.

Traffic in and around Durham will be extremely heavy as parents and family members arrive to enjoy the celebration. Visitors are directed to outlying parking areas for bus transportation into the stadium area. As in the past, all of the buses are escorted by marked police vehicles ensuring that they will arrive on time.

This year’s commencement speaker is General Lori Robinson, UNH Class of '81, the first woman to lead a major combatant command in the history of the U.S. Armed Forces. In 2016 Robinson took over as commander, North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and U.S. Northern Command (USNORTHCOM) after entering the Air Force more than 30 years earlier through the ROTC program at UNH. 

Durham residents should be aware that during the seven-hours between 7:00AM and 2:00PM, navigating Durham roadways that are in close proximity to UNH will be challenging.

It is planned that there will be a traffic pattern shift on Main Street between the Field House and Route 155A, Mast Road. Westbound traffic on Main Street will be directed to turn right onto Sage Way, (Formerly Mast Road Extension) and will follow that roadway exiting onto Main Street. All eastbound traffic will encounter a one-way pattern from the intersection of Main Street and Route 155A and remain one way until vehicles reach Main Street and Sage Way.

Once the graduation ceremony ends at approximately 12:15 PM it is estimated that traffic patterns will return to normal in approximately 2-hours as traffic leaves Durham. Durham and UNH Police will be stationed throughout the area to ensure that traffic and pedestrians traverse the area safely and as expedient as possible.

Facilitator (and resident) Emma Rous in blue sweater with one of her groups during Staurday's Future Land Use Community Forum held last Saturday.  Courtesy Phil Kincaid

FUTURE LAND USE COMMUNITY FORUM

The Town sponsored a very successful Future Land Use forum last Saturday. The forum was held in Holloway Commons at UNH. Just over 100 people attended! From all reports, the participants found the presentations and small group discussions stimulating and enjoyable. Kudos to the Land Use Committee for organizing an outstanding event and to our facilitators for their hard work in coordinating the discussions! And a hearty thank you to Peggy Kieschnick, who did an exceptional job as the main facilitator.

Strafford Regional Planning Commission, the Town's Master Plan consultant, and Peggy will prepare a written synopsis of the forum in the coming weeks. This document will be posted on the website when available. 

TOWN COUNCIL ADOPTS 2017-18 GOALS

At its meeting on Monday, May 15, 2017, the Town Council adopted its list of goals for 2017-18. To view the final goals list, click HERE.

DPW DIRECTOR MIKE LYNCH CELEBRATES 40 YEARS OF SERVICE WITH TOWN OF DURHAM
Michael Lynch last week celebrated 40 years of service with the Town of Durham as a dedicated, loyal, and hard working employee. If you happen to see Mike out and about, please be sure to tell him, “well done!”

DURHAM-UNH SELECTED TO RECEIVE 2017 NHDES SOURCEWATER SUSTAINABILITY AWARD
NHDES honored the Durham–UNH Water System with its 2017 Source Water Sustainability Award at the Drinking Water Source Protection conference on May 18. Our water system was chosen for its outstanding efforts to maintain the sustainability of surface and groundwater sources through a water conservation ordinance and plan, expanded storage through artificial aquifer recharge, requirements for low-flow appliances, and promotion of water conservation with customers.

DURHAM ENERGY COMMITTEE HOUSEHOLD ENERGY SURVEY

The Durham Energy Committee is asking all residents to complete a short survey (15 minutes tops) to provide feedback about their use of and understanding about renewable energy technologies from the household level to state regional questions of policy and practice. This survey helps to meet the Committee's commitment in the Town Master Plan to survey resident needs as a means to get feedback and past and future activities and plans of the Town regarding our energy use. You may have seen signs in Durham and surrounding towns promoting Energize 360 (http://energize360.org/), which is an effort undertaken by the Durham Energy Committee in collaboration with other towns' energy committees to promote a comprehensive approach to conserving energy.

Residents are guided through the process of apply energy efficiency technologies as well as generating electricity at their homes through the use of rooftop or ground mounted solar panels. We encourage you to check it out after you complete the survey. If you have any questions about either the survey or Energize 360, please contact the Energy Committee at dec@ci.durham.nh.us.

Take the 2017 Household Energy Survey HERE.
 

TOWN OFFICES CLOSED ON MONDAY, MAY 29, 2017 FOR MEMORIAL DAY
All Durham Town offices will be closed on Monday, May 29, 2017, in observance of Memorial Day. All Town offices will reopen for regular business on Tuesday, May 30, 2017.

Transfer Station and Refuse/Recycling Schedule Changes for the Memorial Day Holiday are as follows:

No Collection of Refuse and Recycling on Monday, 5/29 - Delayed one day all week. Monday collection on Tuesday, Tuesday collection on Wednesday, etc.

Transfer Station Closed, Saturday, 5/27

No Commercial Collection on Fri, 6/2

TOWN OF DURHAM SUBSIDIZES RESIDENT COSTS FOR UNH OUTDOOR POOL MEMBERSHIP
The Durham Town Council has committed to subsidizing resident costs for UNH Outdoor pool memberships up to a sum of $30,000. When purchasing one of the various pool pass options from the University of New Hampshire, Town of Durham residents will receive a 20% discount off the purchase price. Passes need to be purchased in person at Campus Recreation and proof of residency must be provided to receive this subsidy. Additional information and membership fees can be found HERE.

DURHAM SPRING BULKY WASTE PICKUP NOW OVER
A reminder that the annual spring bulky waste pickup is now over. If residents put bulky waste curbside after DPW had already come by, they will now have to dispose of that material by bringing it themselves to Durham's LaRoche Transfer Station and Recycling Center on Durham Point Road utilizing a bulky waste coupon.

Randall Trull

DURHAM FIRE DEPARTMENT WELCOMES NEW DEPUTY CHIEF OF FIRE PREVENTION

Please join the Durham Fire Department in welcoming Randall Trull. Randy has joined the Department as the New Deputy Chief in charge of Fire Prevention and will start on Monday May 22, 2017. He holds a Bachelor of Business Administration and an Associate of Fire Science. He leaves behind a Career as Fire Chief in Berlin, New Hampshire where he spent 15 years as the Fire Chief.

MOU BETWEEN DURHAM AND UNH REGARDING A JOINTLY FUNDED REPLACEMENT FIRE STATION

The Town of Durham and the University of New Hampshire jointly support the Durham Fire Department and McGregor Memorial Ambulance, which provide emergency services to the Town and Campus. Both are currently housed in facilities on the UNH campus owned by the University. These facilities are aged and no longer well suited to support emergency services. Durham and the University have been working together to find a suitable location for a replacement fire station and potentially a combined emergency services facility that would support the Durham Fire Department, McGregor Memorial Ambulance, and the UNH Police Department. While the details are still in discussion and not resolved, the parties have developed and agreed to a set of broad principles that will guide discussions and be ultimately reflected in an amended Durham/UNH Fire Protection Service Agreement.

To view the new MOU regarding a jointly funded replacement fire station, click HERE.

PLANNING BOARD AND ZONING BOARD MINIMUM APPLICATION FEES REVISED

On Monday, May 1, 2017, the Town Council adopted a resolution updating the Minimum Application Fees for the Planning Board and The Zoning Board of Adjustment within the Town-wide Master Fees Schedule. Fees for these two boards had not been adjusted since 2007.

View the revised Planning Board fees HERE.

View the revised Zoning Board of Adjustment fees HERE.

OYSTER RIVER HIGH SCHOOL  PRESENTS “Power of One:  Students Creating Change” COMMUNITY EVENT

The social studies department at Oyster River High School is pleased to host the 10th Annual Power of One; Students Creating Change. This year, over 200 freshmen are participating in this unique assignment, which is a culminating activity for the 9th grade World Cultures class.

For this project the students have chosen an issue they are concerned about, researched the issue to better understand the root causes and impact it is having, and they have taken action to help address their issue.

The focus of their projects include local, national and global issues, and they cover a wide range of topics, from focusing on local farming and homeless veterans to explaining the perils of shark finning and raising funds to combat Haitian poverty. In the past, students raised and donated over $20,000 for local and international charities, and they educated thousands about their topics. 

The Power of One event will be held Tuesday, May 23rd from 5-6:30pm in the ORHS cafeteria. The entire event is free and the public is encouraged to attend.

This map depicts the approximate location of an upcoming oil spill boom deployment text on Little Bay.  Courtesy NHDES

NHDES TO CONDUCT OIL SPILL BOOM DEPLOYMENT TEST ON MAY 30TH
On May 30th, 2017, the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services (NH DES) will be deploying a portion of an oil spill protection strategy in Upper Little Bay as a test to improve the effectiveness of the overall strategy. The test consists of deploying 3 lengths of oil spill boom totaling approximately 1,950 feet. These lengths are part of the overall strategy, which is intended to minimize the amount of spilled oil that could be carried by the current upstream towards Great Bay.

The trial will begin at approximately 9:45 AM and continue until approximately 3:00 PM.

The river will remain open to vessel traffic under the direction of the NH DES and Newington Fire Department vessels on scene.

DURHAM/SRPC SELECTED FOR NH SETTING SAIL $6,000 GRANT
I’m pleased to report that the Town of Durham's application was selected to receive $6,000 in technical assistance to support the development of an extended coastal flood hazard overlay district. As far as next steps go, the Strafford Regional Planning Commission (SRPC) will be contacting Durham directly in the coming weeks to refine our proposed work plan and project timeline to ensure completion by the end of February 2018. In particular, reviewers were interested in the extent of additional outreach that might be needed to support final adoption of the updated regulations and where/how our project staff from the UNH Cooperative Extension and/or Great Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve might best be able to assist with those outreach-related tasks.

Learn more about the NH Setting Sail grant program HERE.

MINOR TRAFFIC CHANGE ON GARRISON AVENUE – Addition of 12 Business Permit Parking Spaces to Support Downtown Business.
The Public Works Department is implementing a minor roadway/traffic change near the Middle School in order to test out a new parking configuration while school is still in session.

This morning, Durham Public Works grinded off the center line and arrows on Garrison Ave from the Dennison Road intersection by the Middle School down the hill to the Madbury Road intersection in order to install 12 new Business Permit parking spaces along this stretch of Garrison Ave on the north side (sidewalk side).

The results will be this stretch of Garrison Avenue becomes one lane exiting the Middle School front parking lot. This parking stretch will then become “ Business Permit Parking Only”. We’ll be monitoring both the morning and afternoon traffic for the first few days.

POLICE ARE HIT WITH A SCAM TOO!

Chief Kurz received this email from Bobby Smith:

“I am Mr Bobby smith a bank internal auditor, I contacted you about $6.2 million U.S. Dollars left in the account of our late client your cousin fund, I promise you 50% as a percentage of the fund. Upon hearing from you, I will give you comprehensive details about this transaction meanwhile kindly contact me via my private email address at (Bobbysimeth@gmail.com)”

What is helpful about this scam is that it obviously is a scam due to the poor composition, grammar, and spelling of Smith as smiteh!

This should serve to remind us all that the limitation of these scammers is without bounds if they contact ... a police department!

SCHOOL BOARD MEMBER MARIA BARTH RESIGNS CREATING VACANCY FROM LEE TO BE FILLED BY LEE BOARD OF SELECTPERSONS
Wednesday night, May 17, at the regularly scheduled School Board meeting, Maria Barth, who represented the Town of Lee for the past five years on the Oyster River Cooperative School Board, resigned.

Maria served as Chair her first two years on the Board, was the Policy Committee Chair and served with a keen attention to detail. She constantly challenged the district to continuously improve by asking thought provoking questions and through her keen observations. Maria always made sure financial decisions made were in the best interest of our students and the taxpayers. She will be missed as a School Board member. She served Oyster River and the Town of Lee with distinction.

The Town of Lee has the legal responsibility to fill this vacancy. The Selectpersons of Lee will establish a process to find a candidate to complete her current term, which ends in March 2018.

SOLICITING FEEDBACK FROM RESIDENTS CONCERNING IMPACTS OF UNH STUDENTS WITHIN DOWNTOWN DURHAM NEIGHBORHOODS
The Town is planning to focus efforts over the course of the summer concerning enhancing its strategies in concert with UNH relative to the various impacts students may have upon traditional Durham neighborhoods surrounding the downtown core.

Students bring innumerable positive benefits to Durham, as does the presence of the University here for our town. At the same time, there are challenges posed. While we believe we have a pretty good list of concerns including noise, trash, intoxication, etc., we thought it made sense to ask the community for feedback.

If residents have topics they would like to share so we are sure to capture them all, please email these suggestions along to Todd Selig at tselig@ci.durham.nh.us.

EFFORTS TO ADDRESS WAGON HILL FARM COASTAL EROSION AND SEA LEVEL RISE ADAPTATION RECOGNIZED IN NHDES MAY-JUNE 2017 NEWSLETTER

Wagon Hill Farm, the public recreation (and more!) spot at the mouth of the Oyster River in Durham that is popular for its beautiful views, dog-friendly trails and boat access. The town of Durham, which owns the property and maintains public access on the site, has had to move the fence that runs along the shoreline back 16 feet several times since 1989.

For about a year, a team of municipal staff, University of New Hampshire researchers, Strafford Regional Planning Commission planners, and NHDES staff have been working together with the goal of minimizing the erosion, restoring lost salt marsh habitat, and adapting to expected increases in water levels through the design and construction of a living shoreline, a stabilization technique that uses nature-based elements. If installed, the Wagon Hill Farm site will be one of the very first living shoreline projects in coastal New Hampshire.

This work recently got a boost when Durham was awarded a NHDES Coastal Program Design Solutions for Coastal Resilience Grant to continue to study the causes of the erosion and to develop detailed designs that incorporate living shoreline techniques along 300 linear feet of fringing marsh.

A living shoreline uses a variety of structural and natural materials such as wetland plants, submerged aquatic vegetation, oyster reefs, coir fiber logs, sand fill, and stone to reduce erosion. It can be designed to adapt to sea-level rise—naturally building elevation as water levels increase and eventually moving upland if water rises too quickly and if space allows.

The Wagon Hill Farm site will include saltmarsh habitat and provide space for the marsh to move inland as sea levels rise.

Next steps for the project team include completing final engineering designs and continuing to reach out to residents and town committees. The team showcased some preliminary conceptual options for a living shoreline to the public at Wagon Hill Farm during Durham Day in September 2016, as well as presented at a recent Town Council meeting. Students will also have the chance to get involved with plantings and monitoring at the site.

The team is currently exploring funding options for construction and hopes that construction will take place in summer 2018.

MILL PLAZA REDEVELOPMENT UPDATE – A new design is in the offing.
Since mid-November, Admin. Selig, Part-time Economic Development Director Mary Ellen Humphrey, and Lead Architect from the Mill Plaza AIA 150 Study Committee Process, Patricia Sherman, have been meeting informally with the Mill Plaza design team to determine whether a new configuration could be developed for the Mill Plaza site that would be more in keeping with the objectives of both the the Town and the Mill Plaza owner.

After many weeks of discussions we have arrived at a new design layout that integrates numerous Mill Plaza Study Process goals from years ago, and could very well be workable today for the community and the owner alike.

Given the circumstances and constraints with which the parties have had to work, the progress collectively made with the owner’s team is very promising.

The Mill Plaza team will be gearing up to return to the Planning Board in June as part of the public conceptual review process with its new design.

MUSEUM OPENING: “Everything Old Is New Again!” at the Durham Historic Association Museum

For the first time in many years the DHA Museum will be open from 9 a.m. - 1 p.m. on Memorial Day Monday May 29th, before, during and after the Memorial Day Parade. The museum is located on the second floor of the old brick Town Hall/District Court building at the traffic light on the corner.  Come visit the new exhibit of Durham’s 400 year history.  The DHA plans to host “Summer Saturdays at the Museum”, where every Saturday afternoon throughout the summer residents may explore Durham’s history in eight chronological periods from the 17th century to the present in air-conditioned comfort.

DURHAM APPLIES FOR $140,000 GRANT TO NATIONAL FISH AND WILDLIFE FOUNDATION (NFWF) – “Collaborative Land Stewardship and Riparian Restoration in Durham, NH: A Model for Other Towns”

Total Amount Requested: $140,000
Matching Contributions: $141,273
Proposed Grant Period: 01/01/ 2018 - 12/31/ 2019

Ellen Snyder, the Town’s part-time Stewardship Coordinator, is doing a super job pursuing many of the initiatives we have set out for her, one of them being to search for enhanced funding opportunities to further our local stewardship efforts.

This grant application targets the NFWF priorities of “Healthy Forests and Rivers” through a collaborative land stewardship effort that will restore river connectivity, water quality and riparian habitat and create early successional and pollinator habitats on town-owned conservation lands within the Town’s three significant sub watersheds: Oyster and Lamprey Rivers and Crommet Creek.

We will focus on the following project objectives:

1. Manage 60 acres of early successional habitats on town-owned lands
2. Develop and implement a pollinator management plan on four Town-owned conservation areas
3. Evaluate and implement riparian restoration along 2.25 miles of the Oyster and Lamprey Rivers
4. Restore connectivity and river function on Littlehale Creek

We will expand capacity and focus our Town volunteers on these priority projects by partnering with The Stewardship Network: New England, located at the University of New Hampshire.

DURHAM LAND STEWARDSHIP SUBCOMMITTEE WEEKLY REPORT - Join us for a Conservation Easement Volunteer Monitoring Workshop

A conservation easement is a restriction placed on a property to protect its key resources and values. The easement deed is a binding agreement between a landowner and the holder of the easement that limits certain types of uses or prevents development from taking place on the land in perpetuity while the land remains in private hands. Durham holds a handful of such conservation easements on private lands and it is responsible for monitoring these conservation easements annually to ensure that the provisions of the easement deed are being followed. Easement monitoring often relies on volunteers.

To help volunteers in Durham and surrounding towns and others interested in learning more, we are hosting an easement monitoring workshop:

Saturday, June 3, 2017 9:00 am – 2:00 pm at the Durham Town Hall

This workshop will offer best practices for performing annual monitoring of conservation easements. We'll spend a couple hours learning indoors before heading outside to a nearby property that has a conservation easement to put our new skills to work. Please bring your lunch, plenty of water, and dress for the weather. Emma Tutein, Natural Resources & Land Conservation Field Specialist, UNH Cooperative Extension and Ellen Snyder, Durham Land Stewardship Coordinator, are leading this workshop.

The workshop is free; pre-registration is required: Sign-Up through The Stewardship Network. Download the event flyer HERE. Any questions contact ellensnyder1@gmail.com.

Help Durham Trails! We are still looking for volunteers to help with trail building at the Oyster River Forest on Friday, May 26th and Saturday, May 27th. Sign up HERE.

UNH TO SUBMIT GRANT APPLICATION FOR MAIN STREET SOUTH SIDEWALK PROJECT WITH DURHAM’S SUPPORT

The application focuses on a section of the UNH campus adjacent to south side of Durham’s Main Street from the existing roundabout east to the Field House – by approximately 850’.

The grant will cover the design, engineering, and installation of new +/- 8’ wide sidewalk link connecting the existing sidewalk system at the roundabout with the Field House on the south side of Main Street.

The project will include necessary crosswalk(s), lighting, landscape, railing, and retention wall changes engineered in consultation with the Town of Durham to integrate with existing Town-owned streetscape.

The completion of the Wildcat Stadium and recent pedestrian/residential population growth in Durham calls for logical westward extension of the sidewalk system, which is fully consistent with Durham goals.

The stadium and fields represent large scale pedestrian access events from the main parking in Lot A. Estimated daily pedestrian trips on existing goat path are 150 during current academic weekdays but up to several thousand during stadium athletic events.

The newly expanded Wildcat Stadium has a capacity of 18,000 in addition to events at adjacent Boulder Field. An existing trail on the north side of Main Street is well used but does not adequately serve the high origin/destination demand on the south side of the street.

A known historic resource constraint in this historic transportation ROW/corridor is a single gravestone/marker on the eastern end of the facility, which will be fully reviewed and protected.

The estimated Total Project Cost and TAP request: $460,000.

Main Street is a Town-owned and maintained facility with consistent ROW in this corridor.

UNH and Durham have an existing general services agreement, which requires the University to provide year‐round maintenance of all elements outside the travel way/curb of Main Street.

The University will own and provide year round maintenance to this sidewalk facility. Durham will provide letters of support for this application referencing

Rethink your lawn: A lawn with dandelions is “Bee-utiful". Courtesy Lee Alexander
 

BEE FRIENDLY, JOIN THE PARADE!

To raise awareness about the importance of protecting pollinators in our community, the Agricultural Commission invites young residents to dress in bees and pollinator costumes, such as butterflies and hummingbirds, and march with them in the May 29th Memorial Day parade.

Every youngster wearing a BEE costume and joining the commission in the parade will receive a jar of honey from Durham beekeepers. For more information, please contact Theresa Walker at theresawalker@comcast.net, or 603-659-7226.

FOOD FRIENDLY YARD

Are you growing fruits, vegetables, raising chickens, goats, or bees?
Do you compost your food and yard waste; manage your lawn and landscaping without chemical pesticides? If you do any of these then you have a Food Friendly Yard.

A Food Friendly Yard is a nourishing, chemical free space for people, wildlife and pollinating insects. It turns unproductive landscaping into fresh local food. The Durham Agricultural Commission recognizes these efforts with our Food Friendly Yard signs displayed around the community. They create a community of residents engaged in a common purpose, a patchwork of green spaces which becomes a quilt of restored habitat and food production.

To receive a sign and participate in promoting this program contact Ellen at ellenkare51@gmail.com.

LAMPREY RIVER ADVISORY COMMITTEE SPRING NEWSLETTER
The Lamprey River Advisory Committee has published its 2017 spring newsletter which is available for viewing HERE.