Dover Download is a weekly look at what's happening in the City of Dover, New Hampshire, hosted by Deputy City Manager Christopher Parker. Tune in for a closer ...
State of the City 2025: The Waterfront District Development
In this episode of the Dover Download podcast, we hear the State of the City address focused on Dover's Waterfront Development project, held March 27 at 121 Broadway in Dover, and hosted by the Greater Dover Chamber of Commerce. The event features multiple speakers including Chris Parker (Deputy City Manager), Jackie Huber and Rob Simmons from Cathartes (the development partner), Norm Fracassa (chair of the Cochecho Waterfront Development Advisory Commission), and acclaimed local chef Evan Hennessey. The speakers discuss the transformation of a 29-acre waterfront site from its industrial past and former use as a wastewater treatment plant into a mixed-use development featuring residential buildings, commercial spaces, and a significant public park named Nabi Park. The project, which has been decades in the making, is structured as a public-private partnership between the city and Catharsis. Phase one of the development (named "The Truette") will include 197 apartments, 23 townhouses, co-working space, and commercial areas including a new Mediterranean restaurant by Chef Hennessey called "Topolino." The project is expected to be completed in phases, with the first residential units available by late 2025 and the public park opening in May 2026.
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1:23:23
Breaking Down Dover's Budget: Community Services, Public Library, and Information Technology
In this episode of the Dover Download podcast, Deputy City Manager Christopher Parker chats with Community Services Director John Storer, Library Director Denise LaFrance, and Information Technology Director Annie Dove about the proposed FY26 budget.John Storer discusses Community Services' fifteen budget areas totaling about $35 million (3.6% increase from last year). He explains how they track historical data on expenses like electricity and fuel to make projections. A major change involves transitioning from the current pay-as-you-throw trash bag system to an automated cart collection system. While the city will continue using bags for the next two years under a contract extension with Waste Management, they'll eventually move to automated pickup with costs rolled into the general fund rather than direct resident fees. Storer also highlights increases in street maintenance funding for paving, traffic signals, bridge repairs, and sidewalk improvements.Denise LaFrance explains the library's focus on balancing physical and digital offerings. Despite library renovations, they'll continue purchasing physical books while increasing digital resources by 23% to meet growing demand. She describes how she offset these increases by cutting underutilized databases, saving almost $7,000. The library is maintaining staffing levels and increasing programming funds, supported in part by Friends of the Library.Annie Dove details IT's approach to budgeting, which involves tracking hardware replacement cycles and software costs. FY26 includes enhanced network services for water and sewer facilities, replacing aging network equipment at communication towers, and accounting changes that reorganize subscription costs into a dedicated line item.In This Week in Dover History, we learn about the devastating 1889 fire that destroyed Dover's second City Hall. The site of the fire, known as "the Hot Corner," saw multiple structures burn over the years.
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22:22
From Homes to Classrooms: How Housing Really Affects School Enrollment
In this episode of the Dover Download podcast, Deputy City Manager Christopher Parker chats with Sarah Wrightsman and Ryan Pope from New Hampshire Housing Finance about the relationship between housing development and school enrollment. They discuss common misconceptions about housing's impact on school enrollment and property taxes. The guests explain that new housing developments typically produce far fewer students than people assume - approximately one student per six units in multifamily housing and 0.44 students per single-family home.They highlight three key misunderstandings: people overestimate how many children live in new housing, don't understand the difference between average and marginal costs for educating students, and forget that new housing generates tax revenue. Sarah notes that school districts across New Hampshire generally have capacity for more students, and that enrollment has been declining statewide. Dover's enrollment has remained relatively flat compared to more significant declines elsewhere.The conversation references a study conducted by New Hampshire Housing called "From Homes to Classrooms," which provides data disproving the myth that new housing significantly increases school enrollment and property taxes. The guests emphasize that different housing types generate different numbers of students, with manufactured housing producing almost no school-aged children. They express hope that communities will shift from using potential school enrollment increases as a reason to oppose housing development to recognizing the need for more children and younger families in New Hampshire.In This Week in Dover History, we learn about Judson Dunaway, a philanthropist who died in March 1976. Dunaway established the Expello Corporation (later the Judson Dunaway Corporation) in Dover in 1928, which produced household products including mothballs and Vanish Toilet Bowl Cleaner. After retiring in 1958, Dunaway created the Judson Dunaway Foundation, donating over $2 million to Dover for hospital expansions, recreational facilities, and the Dover High School athletic fields.
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27:15
Breaking Down Dover's Budget: Police, Fire, Recreation and Planning
In this episode of the Dover Download podcast, Deputy City Manager Christopher Parker chats with several department heads about their proposed FY26 budgets.Police Chief William Breault discusses how his department builds the budget from the ground up, with input from first-line supervisors. He highlights that the biggest change in the FY26 budget is personnel cost increases due to new union contracts with wage adjustments. Breault emphasizes the importance of competitive compensation to retain and recruit officers.Fire Chief Perry Plummer explains his approach to reorganizing the department's budget by reallocating resources from administrative functions to frontline emergency response. He's eliminating administrative positions and pushing division chiefs back to line duty to better handle the department's 8,000 annual calls, noting that over 2,300 times they're responding to multiple calls simultaneously.Recreation Director Kevin Hebert discusses his department's three funding sources: general fund, McConnell fund, and special revenues from programming fees. He mentions fee increases, particularly for non-residents, while trying to minimize increases for residents. Hebert notes that recreation costs taxpayers about $80 annually per citizen, representing just 1% of the overall budget.Planning and Community Development Director Donna Benton highlights that her department will be focusing on updating the transportation chapter of the master plan, which requires substantial technical analysis. She also notes that inspection services will be in their own facility for the first time, requiring budget adjustments.In This Week in Dover History, we learn about Strafford Savings Bank introducing fingerprint identification in 1912 for depositors who couldn't sign their names or had difficult-to-read handwriting. This innovation, one of the first of its kind in New Hampshire, was overseen by fingerprint expert P.A. Flack from New York and was inspired by similar practices at Williamsburg Savings Bank in Brooklyn.
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20:34
The Perfect Storm: Anatomy of an Elusive Water Main Break
In this episode of the Dover Download podcast, Deputy City Manager Christopher Parker chats with Fire Chief/Emergency Management Director Perry Plummer and Community Services Director John Storer about a recent major water main break in Dover.The conversation begins with Storer explaining how the break was first detected late on the night of Feb. 7 when operators noticed more water leaving the system than normal. Despite immediate efforts to locate the break, it remained elusive even after daylight, prompting activation of the city's Emergency Operations Center under Chief Plummer's direction. The break was releasing approximately 2,000 gallons per minute (about 3 million gallons per day), but unusually, no water was visibly surfacing anywhere in the city.Plummer explains how they implemented an incident command structure to coordinate resources efficiently, including fire and police personnel searching the streets, drones with thermal imaging, helicopter support, and engineers. The team systematically isolated different sections of the water system while simultaneously planning for potential water conservation measures if the situation worsened. They also activated an emergency water interconnection with neighboring Somersworth.After extensive searching, they finally discovered the break at 432 Central Avenue, a vacant building overhanging the Cochecho River. The broken pipe inside the building was sending water directly into the river—a "perfect storm" scenario that made detection especially difficult. Both officials praise the collaborative efforts of city staff and the patience of residents during the incident.Parker then speaks with Erin Bassegio from Planning and Community Development and Brian Early from Media Services for their monthly update on city activities. They discuss recent Planning Board meetings, City Council budget workshops, Energy Commission initiatives, Zoning Board approvals, and updates on the Cochecho Waterfront Development Advisory Committee and the city's two TIF boards.
Dover Download is a weekly look at what's happening in the City of Dover, New Hampshire, hosted by Deputy City Manager Christopher Parker. Tune in for a closer look at the city's programs, services, public bodies and projects, as well as a look back each week at Dover's history.
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