Last week, City Manager Tom Aspell was so excited about Valentine’s Day, he spent many late nights making chocolates in the shape of Concord landmarks, filling out Concord-themed Valentine’s Day cards and writing personal notes to each citizen. But never fear, he also had time to pen his weekly city memo, too.
Writing checks
New property on the books
The Concord Housing + Redevelopment Authority (CH+R) has added a new purchase to its portfolio of properties. 84 S. State St. has been an under-performing property in Concord’s south end for many years and CH+R plans to return the neglected building into a gem. The property contains four residential units and a 1,000-square-foot commercial/retail space. Extensive renovations will begin immediately to elevate this under-performing property into desirable market rate housing and commercial space. Currently, two of the building’s residential units are occupied.
CH+R plans to combine the two empty units, one of which is an efficiency unit, into a 1,000-square-foot, two-bedroom apartment; making it a larger, more attractive place to live. The commercial/retail unit is available immediately, Aspell writes. Maybe it could one day be a new place for us Insiders to deliver the news?
Visit concordha.com to learn more about CH+R, or call 224-4059.
Making moves
Upgrades for wastewater
The city of Concord has just completed a series of technology improvements to the system controls for both of its secondary wastewater treatment plants that serve Concord and neighboring portions of Boscawen and Bow.
The Wastewater Treatment Division of the General Services Department has had their computer Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system under development since the refurbishment of the Penacook Wastewater Treatment Plant.
The SCADA system allows staff to continuously monitor the equipment of both plants from central and mobile interfaces and allows operators to remotely make changes to the equipment, adjust process control parameters and manage the entire plant in the case of an emergency.
The final phase of SCADA upgrades, completed in December, ext ends its functionality to the eight remote pump stations in the city.
While these significant improvements in process control technology were deployed, the city also invested over $9 million in improvements to improve biosolids management and odor control processes. Odors from the Hall Street Wastewater Treatment Plant have been significantly reduced and Class A production exceeds 95 percent for the last two years, Aspell writes.
And we’re all thankful for that.
