CEDC Director’s Report
December 2008
Fresh off a wonderful Annual Meeting evening at the Mountain View and already deep into a coming year of activity for CEDC, you will see the agenda will ask us all to roll up the sleeves and get right to work planning the coming year.
Included in your document for review is the proposed operating budget (a similar version was submitted along with our request for the same county appropriation we enjoyed last year -$48,000). There is some minor tweaking of the budget but little in the way of increases except where real costs have crept up. This request, along with the rest of the county’s budget, goes to public hearing at West Stewartstown this Saturday. The county commissioners have recommended that funding levels remain the same as last year.
We also will be looking for officer nominees and asking veteran members if they want a hiatus from service. Norm Charest (already in Florida for the winter) wants to continue even should he tender a retirement from daily work duties.
With our last Partnership loan to Colebrook Development Corp. we have little in the way of revolving loan funds to offer to businesses. There are alternative methods for approaching this but that will be one of the discussion topics for the 11th.
There also is promising news on the Fraser Papers front with some hope that their needed steam could be provided by the planned NH Clean Power biomass plant nearby (just across the river near the Berlin’s wastewater treatment plant). This sort of partnering is a great move on the energy efficiency front and we are thankful the state (from DRED to BFA to other unseen players) has pushed for this sort of dialogue. What that does do to the $1 million CDBG funding already approved by CDFA and the NCIC-CEDC boards is anyone’s guess. I suppose NH Clean Power might want to tap some of that though that probably means a reapplication and rehearing even at the local level.
While on thermal products it is noteworthy that the district heating bandwagon is attraction a lot of interested communities with Errol and Berlin joining Colebrook and Groveton trying to sort out project plans. One evening in mid-November CEDC, North Country Conservation and Resource Development hosted traveling members from the Danish District Heating Board in Lancaster/
They addressed how the systems operate/dominate in Denmark satisfying 65% of the country’s heating needs, mostly from biomass (and some solid waste incineration) and offered their services whether it be for insulated pipe, valves and controls/meters or engineering services. Hard to believe that Dr. Morris Pierce of Rochester University made his services available about 15 months ago and that already he drew a crowd of about 60 to Lancaster, spoke with a group in Berlin and is consulting with the Mt. Washington Resort about Combined Heating and Power.
On the Wausau/GPP front I continue to look for a collaborative that might take the lead in securing all property and development rights to the facility. Apparently potential environmental concerns may be scaring off potential investors and one way around that would be for a consortium of non-profits to take on the property using New Market Tax Credits, attract federal grants to repurpose the mill, address the environmental issues and get moving at leasing space to businesses interested in it. The liability for holding such a large property is daunting and frightens several of the natural agency partners who fear a loss of their current solvent position if the project proves too nettlesome, costly or there is no private, for profit company interested after the mill is repurposed.
As we start a new legislative session we are working to ensure that legislators communicate the sort of support they need for legislation that benefits the region. The support could be in the form of testimony at a public hearing (often in Concord, but sometime nearby) or marshalling forces to launch a phone calling campaign.
Monday, Dec. 1st I participated in North Country Council’s Legislative Session with reps and senators from the three northern counties as well as Congressional delegation staff. I addressed the needs of Regional Development Corps. like ours, asked for an increase in CDBG funds from HUD (the amount has been static or decreased in the past 10 years) and recommended some legislative changes to what qualifies for Renewable Energy Credits (RECs) under the state’s Renewable Portfolio Supply Standards adopted last year.
So far only electricity receives RECs which leads to inefficient biomass to energy plants which would be two-thirds more efficient if they distributed heat, hotwater and steam from their operations instead of sending it too costly cooling cycles. These thermal products would be a boon to local communities in reducing their dependence on imported oil, improving the wise use of local resources (low-grade wood fiber) and keep the benefits of those products local instead of shipping them great distances to benefit those from away.
See you all Dec. 11th
Peter Riviere, Executive Director
Coös Economic Development Corp
148 Main Street
Lancaster, NH 03584
788-3900
631-0217
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