City Council to hold public hearing on additional debt bonding for waterfront

posted on 4/7/2023

The City Council will hold a public hearing on the resolution to bond an additional $6 million for the waterfront project public improvements at its meeting on Wednesday, April 12.

The request for additional bonding comes after the bids for the public improvements to the city-owned River Street property were higher than anticipated. Public improvements include constructing a new street system to provide site access and the utilities necessary to serve the proposed buildings. Other improvements include the construction of a new 3.4-acre public riverfront park, stabilizing the Cochecho River shoreline, grading the elevation to account for projected sea level rise, and installing a stormwater management system with green infrastructure.

A public hearing will also be held on the resolution to reprogram $190,360 of unexpended bond proceeds from the sludge dewatering improvements project to the aeration blower retrofit project – both wastewater treatment plant-related projects. According to the resolution background material, the aeration blower work is an active project but needs additional funding to complete.

The Council will take up both resolutions at its April 26 meeting.

Also on the agenda:

Authorizing a license allowing the Black Heritage Trail of New Hampshire to install a marker to honor Dover-born Nellie Brown Mitchell and her brother Edward Everett Brown. The marker would be placed on Central Avenue near Pine Hill Cemetery, where both are buried in the Brown family plot. The text of the marker, included in the resolution background material, states that at the time of Brown Mitchell’s death, “she was remembered as the greatest African American signer of her era." Her brother Edward Brown was the first Black justice of the peace in the state and a civil rights activist and co-founded the Colored American magazine in 1899, among other accomplishments.

Authorizing the purchase of a parcel in Madbury downstream of the old municipal landfill on Tolend Road and the Bellamy Reservoir for $52,800. “The property has significant conservation and water protection values, as well as potential opportunities for future public recreation,” according to the resolution.

Holding a first reading on a resolution to declare the First Settlers Cemetery, also known as Roberts Cemetery, on Dover Point Road as abandoned. A public hearing is to be held between 60 to 90 days after publication in a newspaper of general distribution. “To better understand the property’s history, the City has engaged a title abstractor, who found researched information as to past ownership,” the resolution background material states. “However, attempts to contact the suspected heir have been unsuccessful to date.” If declared abandoned, the cemetery “shall become a municipal cemetery for management purposes and shall be managed by the cemetery trustees, who shall assume all the authorization and rights of natural lineal descendants,” according to state law.

Click here for the complete agenda. The meeting begins at 7 p.m. in City Hall’s Council Chambers and is open to the public. It will be televised on Channel 22 and online at https://dovernh.viebit.com, where it will also be available for on-demand viewing.