Each week, City Manager Tom Aspell puts on his bandana/blond wig combo and his best pair of ripped jeans and takes to a makeshift stage in front of City Hall to shred on guitar. By the end of his opening two-hour guitar solo, most of the audience has passed out from having their minds blown; when they wake up, all they can remember is the city memo.
Bridge is out
Rubber duckies take note
Contractors began making repairs to the Franklin Pierce Bridge located in White Park on June 10, Aspell writes. The Coast Guard will be on hand to pert all marine traffic.
The repairs will require staff to lower the pond by 2 feet so that a flat bottom boat may be used to repair the underside of the bridge, which is falling apart. Of course, it’s flat-bottom boats that make the rockin’ world go ’round.
Other repairs include reappointing the mortar, removing the blacktop walkway and replacing it with concrete, and resetting the stone caps. Baseball players used to wear stone caps, but neck injuries became too prevalent.
The bridge will be closed for two to three weeks while the repairs are made.
And the survey says . . .
This stuff is real old
The Heritage Commission has been awarded a grant from the New Hampshire Division of Historical Resources, which will allow it to survey the carriage houses and urban barns in a Concord West End neighborhood that was established before the age of the automobile, Aspell writes. To ensure authenticity, the survey work will be done in horse-drawn SUVs.
The survey will provide a prototype for future surveys of these structures in other neighborhoods within the city. A key goal of this project is to raise the public’s awareness of the historic carriage houses and urban barns interspersed throughout their neighborhoods and to build appreciation for the character that these structures add to inpidual homes and local streets. To the uninitiated, urban barns are characterized by their trendy style choices and tattoos.
