In Rye, NH on June 7th, the Mill City Park project was awarded the NH Planners Association 2019 Project of the Year. In a state with so many incredible projects and happenings, this is a tremendous honor.
Chris Sununu, the Governor of New Hampshire, stands with our City, a community historically known as Franklin Falls, and with outdoor enthusiasts, believing in the sustainability of outdoor infrastructure and the benefits it provides. Not only in attracting visitors, but also as a sustainable means of attracting residents and businesses. Days ago, we received proof: the referenced letter identifies a one time investment of $1.5 million in Mill City Park as a flagship project to promote economic development though outdoor recreation. The state is focusing on outdoor infrastructure as a new economic tool, or rather that would be the job of their new proposed office within the department of Business and Economic Affairs.
Governor Sununu and State Officials -
Our Team, City, and Partners are incredibly grateful that you and your administration recognize a different vision of economic prosperity and sustainability for this city, region, and state through the outdoors, the people they attract, and the vibrant communities that they build.
This substantial contribution moves us significantly closer to our goal of breaking ground on the whitewater park component of Mill City Park in the Winnipesaukee River. It will create a unique iconic outdoor destination free for all to enjoy in their own way, while rebranding and refocusing our community to look inward to build our city’s sustainable future.
Today, the national annual revenue of the outdoor industry is larger than annual car parts, car sales and gasoline sales combined. Outdoor gathering spaces and outdoor experiences have positive impacts for children ranging from higher intelligence to reduced stress, improved self confidence, and enhanced connection to the environment and to those around them. When designed appropriately, outdoor spaces can improve the environment, connect people to the environment, promote a healthy outdoor lifestyle, and attract visitors and new residents.
This is the economic value of Mill City Park; it will breathe life into old underutilized spaces for new entrepreneurs and business owners. It will attract both residents and visitors alike to stay and play here. It will provide new free outdoor sport venues for school children, connecting them both to the community, to each other, and to the environment. In building a vibrant city, it will also build the tax base, providing sustainable solutions to some of our greatest challenges: education and infrastructure.
This investment is a testament to the relentless perseverance and adaptability of every team member, whether they are a volunteer, partner, believer, or contributor.
Thank you, Governor and all for enabling this project to grow.
To ensure this investment remains in the Governor’s budget “it will be critical for your voice to be heard.” Please reach out to info@millcitypark.com to learn how and to get involved. Let’s break ground on a new Franklin Falls!
The Board of Directors
Mill City Park at Franklin Falls
When most people hear about the nonprofit Mill City Park, an organization working to bring a whitewater park to Franklin, they think about paddlers on the Winnipesaukee River. And the river, which city officials hope will draw whitewater enthusiasts from across New England…
Can people playing in a river help revitalize a struggling city? Can the recreational opportunities in and along a river actually improve the quality of life in and the public image of a city that’s lost its luster?
The Three Rivers City is poised for an economic revival through two major projects that will answer a longstanding need: attracting outsiders.
The Capital Regional Development Council, recently awarded a total of $10,000 to two separate initiatives aimed at reviving downtown Franklin.
CRDC is proud to announce it recently awarded a total of $10,000 to two separate Franklin non-profit organizations through its Community Grant Program.
NH UNION LEADER | JOHN KOZIOL
The race course needed snow trucked in, but paddlers still made a go of the Boat Bash Snow Crash.
Already known as a destination for whitewater kayaking on the Winnipesaukee River, Franklin is making a name for itself by hosting this unique downhill kayak race at Veterans Memorial Ski Area.
In what is believed to be the only event of its kind in New England, some two dozen competitors went head-to-head Saturday in the second annual Boat Bash.
The event was co-sponsored by the Franklin Outing Club and Mill City Park, the former having promoted community skiing in Franklin since 1961; the latter created in 2017 to promote the construction of a whitewater park on the Winnipesaukee in the downtown.
Tim Morrill, who is co-president of the Franklin Outing Club and also a member of the nonprofit that is promoting Mill City Park, said he and Marty Parichand saw snow kayak racing on the internet, thought it would be cool to have in Franklin "and last year we did it."
The 2018 races, like the inaugural ones, were held despite a paucity of snow and were a fundraiser for both the outing club and Mill City Park.
Temperatures were in the mid-40s on Saturday and there were noticeable bald spots at the ski area, whereas last year, the weather was cold and the hill was icy.
The side-by-side race course was given a couple long, swooping curves, said Morrill, while the original course was straighter, and bent only at the bottom so that several racers went off course and right into the ski lodge.
The 2018 course was built at the last minute, said Morrill, with snow trucked in from parking lots all over Franklin. The ski area's groomer pushed the snow up and down the 550-foot-plus course and an excavator was brought in on Friday to shape the track; volunteers used shovels and rakes to fine-tune it.
"It's beautiful," said Morrill, noting that the track was working well and giving racers an exciting ride. He added that the track is also unique: "It's the only one on the East Coast that we know of."
Sam Durfee of Concord was named the overall winner of the Boat Bash and will receive outdoor equipment as his prize.
Parichand, who is the executive director of Mill City Park and also a downhill kayak racer, said Franklin is increasingly on the radar of many whitewater enthusiasts because it offers the closest reliable rapids to Boston.
Mill City Park, he said, is "re-envisioning the Winnipesaukee River as a whitewater mecca" and events like the Boat Bash Snow Crash help do that.
There are 300 whitewater parks throughout the United States, Parichand said, 30 of them in Colorado alone, but there are none in New England, "and we're hoping to be the first one."
Photo Courtesy of NH Union Leader
http://www.newhampshire.com/Boat-Bash-Snow-Crash:-Franklin-making-name-for-itself-with-downhill-kayak-race
Media Courtesy of Central Street Media.
On November 6th in soggy shoes and damp clothes, we welcomed almost 100 attendees to a community event at Trestle View Park. The rain fell lightly on the tent as Franklin’s Interim Mayor, Scott Clarenbach, set the stage, explaining the City’s deep industrial history and noting that rain is a requirement if we are to welcome whitewater paddlers. Together we celebrated progress and partnerships related to Franklin’s whitewater project, Mill City Park. The attendance, eagerness, and excitement was proof of a spreading idea.
“Ideas and products and messages and behaviors spread like viruses do.”
This is a quote from The Tipping Point by Malcom Gladwell, a book that was required reading somewhere along my educational path. The book is packed with applicable information to understand the movement of ideas through societies. When I first read it, it was simply a homework assignment. It wasn't until I became a part of this community that the book had deeper value and meaning for me.
Multiple organizations at the state and local levels have contributed to and supported our revitalization movement. This connection was demonstrated by the remarks given from the Commissioner of New Hampshire’s Department of Business and Economic Affairs and avid cycling enthusiast, Taylor Caswell. The Commissioner spoke passionately from his own experience of how recreation can be the engine to redefine, redevelop and restart a community.
With little interruption, the crowd then heard from Franklin Savings Bank Board of Directors Chairman, Charlie Chandler. With a direct message, booming voice and gusto, Charlie addressed the crowd, proudly unveiling Franklin Savings Bank’s donation of $250,000 to Mill City Park as seed money. By the time of his announcement, half had already been donated and the second installment is scheduled for the 2018 calendar year.
“That is the paradox of the epidemic: that in order to create one contagious movement, you often have to create many small movements first.”
This gracious commitment didn’t materialize overnight. Multiple steps and accomplishments lead to this point, many documented through past articles and papers, and just as many that are not.
As with all of the ongoing downtown efforts, it starts with a relationship, with collaboration, acceptance and belief. These relationships are incredibly important; without them, we are just another group of do-gooders with an application or cold call.
Our relationship with Franklin Savings Bank started at Outdoor New England on January 1st, 2016. I remember the conversation clearly. I quickly learned the difference between a bank in a community, and a community-first bank. Their commitment to this community is demonstrated monthly if not daily via donations, council, or support to local nonprofits, the City, our revitalization partner PermaCityLife, and now Mill City Park.
“In the end, Tipping Points are a reaffirmation of the potential for change and the power of intelligent action. Look at the world around you. It may seem like an immovable, implacable place. It is not. With the slightest push—in just the right place—it can be tipped.”
There is a lot to this quote.
First, intelligent action. I cannot speak from experience as I am a newcomer to the community. However, others have identified that they believe in the last 30+ years, this is the first time the pieces seem to be coming together. I choose to believe in the players, the change makers, the risk takers, and innovators. This group now encompasses, but is not limited to, municipality members, local and state nonprofits, collegiate academia and administration, state delegates, community members, for profit businesses, and our community-first bank.
Second, the Tipping Point. I honestly don’t believe we are at this infamous moment yet. However, I know we are moving forward. The scale is constantly changing as our idea spreads… The Winnipesaukee River powered Franklin and the region once and it can again. With hard work, continued focus, and our community partners, tomorrow will be brighter and wetter than today… That is our tipping point.
Lastly, thank you Franklin Savings Bank! We are honored and forever grateful for your donation, belief, and unwavering support for this project!
By M. Parichand, Mill City Park
NH Division of Economic Development | Lorna Colquhoun
The old adage says that “a rising tide floats all boats.”
In the City of Franklin, it is more apt to say “whitewater floats a new economy.”
This week, community members gathered alongside the Winnipesaukee River downtown to celebrate a project described as “transformative” for this former mill city, as two significant grants push the Mill City Park closer to reality.
The project received a $180,000 grant from the U.S. Economic Development Administration and Franklin Savings Bank is donating $250,000.
There are about 280 whitewater parks across the country, but this one will be the first in New England. More than that, says developer Marty Parichand, it is a catalyst that for boosting the city’s economy, generating $6.8 million of direct spending in the region.
The river runs through the heart of downtown, which once fed mills turning out wool cloth, hacksaws and hosiery. Thrill seekers will head to the city to run the Class II, III and IV whitewater and entrepreneurs can catch the wave of the new economy on the rise.
Projects like Mill City Park, Commissioner Taylor Caswell, of the Department of Business and Economic Affairs, told those gathered in Trestle View Park, will draw more than visitors; it will draw visitors who turn into residents, drawn by the lifestyle and the opportunities in the Granite State.
“One of the biggest things for me is to be able to emphasize the fact that in New Hampshire, we have a community; we have recreation and we have quality of life for everybody,” he said. “In the big picture, it is absolutely crucial what you’re doing, not just for your community, but for the state as a whole, because that is what we are doing every day — telling the story of New Hampshire; telling the story of the quality of life and telling everyone how great it is here. This is one more piece we can put in our toolbox.”
http://blog.nheconomy.com/proposed-whitewater-park-poised-to-transform-franklin-economy/
LACONIA DAILY SUN | THOMAS P. CALDWELL
Efforts to create New England’s first whitewater park got a double infusion of capital on Monday when Franklin Savings Bank pledged $250,000 and the Franklin City Council accepted the first portion of a $170,000 federal grant in support of the project.
Marty Parichand, owner of Outdoor New England, a shop that sells kayaking gear, had founded the nonprofit Mill City Park to promote the development of a whitewater park on the Winnipesaukee River.
The section of the river between Cross Mill Road in Tilton and Trestle View Park in downtown Franklin is a popular kayaking run, dropping an average of 77 feet per mile over the 1.25-mile distance.
“Kayakers already know this river,” Parichand said, “but this will bring other people to see it, as well.” Parichand said he had been seeking a federal Economic Development Association grant for preliminary engineering, and found there was a $25,000 shortfall in funds.
“I spoke with Ron Magoon [president and chief executive officer of Franklin Savings Bank] and said, ‘We have $5,000 in our bank account and are $20,000 short in making up the difference,” Parichand said. “He responded, ‘We’ve been working on our own to see how we could support the project, and we’re thinking of something much bigger.’”
During Monday’s ceremony, Charlie Chandler, chairman of the Franklin Savings Bank Board of Directors, said the board voted unanimously to give $250,000 in support of the project, of which $125,000 would be immediately available.
“This seed money will see that this project is transformative for Franklin,” Chandler said.
Once a booming mill town, Franklin today has many dormant mill buildings and the city has struggled to recover from the factory closings. Parichand sees the whitewater park as “the centerpiece of the largest adaptive reuse effort in Franklin’s history, turning the downtown into a vibrant micro-urban centerpiece.”
Acting City Manager Judie Milner said the Franklin City Council formally accepted $129,870 in grant and matching revenues on Monday night. The money represents the portion of funding available from the Fiscal Year 2017 federal budget, with the remainder of the $170,000 grant to come from the 2018 budget, which started Oct. 1, once that budget has been approved.
The federal grant will cover the cost of engineering, permitting, and survey work associated with the whitewater park, covering the lower 1,000-foot section of the river. A second phase would cover the upstream portion as far as Cross Mill Road.
“They’ll be taking pictures of what the river looks like underneath to plan the features of the whitewater park in the correct spots, and also take care of debris in the river from the factories,” Milner said.
The engineering work will use the strength of the river and the new features to create the volume needed for kayaking without having to adjust the flow level, she said.
The take-out area will remain in Trestle View Park, but there will be stadium seating for spectators, she said.
Franklin Savings Bank’s donation will support the construction of the whitewater park once the engineering is complete.
“This is an opportunity to change the tide in Franklin through outdoor recreation,” Parichand said. “We’ll reinvent ourselves.” He said the project presents a combined solution to Franklin’s problems. Interim Mayor Scott Clarenbach supported that notion in his comments during Monday’s ceremony. “Today’s gathering is all about Mill City Park at Franklin Falls, which is writing a new and exciting chapter by reutilizing the power of Franklin’s beautiful rivers for another prosperous period in our community’s long history,” he said.
Taylor Caswell, commissioner of the New Hampshire Department of Business and Economic Affairs, compared Franklin’s effort to the recent revitalization effort in Littleton, which used recreation as a way to redefine the community.
“It is part of what we need as a state to attract new residents at a time when there are more job openings than there are workers,” he said.
Parichand said of the project, “We have the opportunity to create a downtown tourist attraction and recreational amenity that will be equally appealing to users and spectators, and there is no competition in the region.”
The project, he said, “is consistent with our motto as being ‘The Three Rivers City’ — the rivers got us here with the factories and mill buildings, and now we turn to them once again for our rebirth.”
UNION LEADER | BEA LEWIS
A century ago, the Winnipesaukee River powered the mills that were the city’s lifeblood.
On Monday, it was announced that $180,000 in federal grant funds and a $250,000 donation from Franklin Savings Bank will help the city turn to the river again as an economic catalyst for the downtown.
Plans call for the creation of a whitewater paddling park on the Winnipesaukee River. The U.S. Department of Commerce grant will pay for engineering and design work.
The park is the brainchild of Marty Parichand, who runs Outdoor New England in Franklin, a shop that sells kayaking gear. He founded Mill City Park, a state-licensed non-profit to advance the idea.
“What you’re going to hear today is a story of progress and a story of change and it’s very, very exciting,” Parichand told those who gathered to hear the announcement beneath a tent in Trestle View Park.
The river drops more than 7.7 feet over a 1.25-mile section extending from Cross Mill Road in neighboring Tilton, to Trestle View Park, offering prime whitewater rafting.
“We believe this project will be transformative. Don’t forget that word, because it’s going to be exactly that,” said Charlie Chandler, who chairs the board of directors of Franklin Savings Bank.
After hearing multiple presentations about the project, the bank’s board voted unanimously to donate $250,000 toward making it become a reality; $125,000 has already been paid in.
“The vision brought for this project is a vision for the city of Franklin,” Chandler said.
Taylor Caswell, commissioner of the Department of Business and Economic Affairs said the whitewater park will be the first in New England. He described it as one more quality-of-life asset to tout as the state continues its efforts to attract new residents at a time when the state has more job openings than it does workers. Tim Morrill was among those who attended Monday’s announcement.
“I came to show my support,” said Morrill explaining he enjoys kayaking and serves on the Mill City Park Board.
Morrill is the seventh generation of his family to call Franklin home. His grandfather ran the boiler room at the Stevens woolen mill, the last of the big mills. It closed in the 1970s and burned in the 1990s.
The giant iron wheel that is the centerpiece of Trestle View Park was the drive wheel that spun the belts that operated machinery throughout the mill, Morrill said.
He cited an example of the paddling park’s economic impact, saying he has friends in Ashland who come to Franklin to kayak. When it came time for them to replace some furniture, they bought it at Grevior Furniture because the Central Street store’s founder donated the land for Trestle View Park.
Interim Mayor Scott Clarenbach said the whitewater park is helping to renew the community’s sense of purpose and reenergize it.
“Today’s gathering is all about Mill City Park at Franklin Falls which is writing a new and exciting chapter by reutilizing the power of Franklin’s beautiful rivers for another prosperous period in our community’s long history,” he said.
The City Council was to vote during its Monday night meeting to formally accept the grant funds, Clarenbach said.
http://www.newhampshire.com/outdoors/Franklin-paddle-park-plan-gets-430000-cash-infusion-11072017
"We need to rethink our vision of downtown. Look at Franklin. They have an organization there that’s been acquiring properties, not turning them into retail, but co-working spaces, restaurants, outdoor stores. They’ve applied for grants to study the construction of a new white-water rafting park, and they’ve got really good mountain bike trails. That stuff works..."
Concord Monitor | L. Masin-Moyer | June 1, 2017
Rushing, choppy waters.
That was the backdrop for a portion of U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen’s visit to Franklin on Thursday, when she toured local storefronts, learned about the city’s renewed focus on its rivers, and attempted to calm business leaders in a community facing the turmoil of steep funding cuts in the Trump administration’s proposed budget.
Shaheen stopped in at businesses set up with the help of Todd Workman and his group PermaCityLife, a nonprofit geared toward revitalizing the Franklin.
Workman has been driving to bring new businesses and younger demographics to the city of 8,500, and he said a core part of his group’s work has hinged on federal community development programs set to be slashed in the Trump budget plan.
“What we really rely on is the economic development toolbox that’s in place right now,” he told Shaheen. “There are very specific target programs that work, and they generate more money than they cost the federal government.”
Workman said PermaCityLife’s efforts have been aided by federal money from Community Development Block Grants, the Department of Agriculture’s Office of Rural Development and the Economic Development Administration.
These programs all face cuts with the new Trump administration budget, according to Workman.
“This city is on the rise,” he said. “We have the tools we need to do it, but some of those tools are in jeopardy.”
Shaheen applauded PermaCityLife’s efforts and stressed her commitment to maintaining funding for federal programs facing cuts.
“I’m here to say we can’t let these efforts go away; they’re really important not just to Franklin or New Hampshire, but communities across this country,” she said. “I’ve had a chance to see these programs – as both governor and senator – and I know what kind of difference they make, and I’m going to do everything I can so we don’t see the cuts that are coming out of the Trump budget.”
Workman stressed the importance of federal funding to continue the growth in Franklin, which has seen 16 new businesses spring up in the last year and a half, he said.
Key to Franklin’s revitalization efforts is not just driving new enterprise, but drawing a more business-friendly demographic to the city. Marty Parichand, the owner of Outdoor New England and the architect of a plan for a new white-water park, said he’s trying to do his part.
Parichand said his white-water park would help infuse the city with life and a younger population.
“The demographic is perfect for a city that struggles with millennials,” he said. “The core group of white-water kayakers – 60-70 percent – are less than 30 years of age. These boats are not cheap, and they have disposable income.”
The push for changing demographics in Franklin is real. Twenty-four percent of its residents live in poverty and 60 percent of public school students received free or reduced-price lunch, according to City Manager Elizabeth Dragon.
On top of that, the cuts in federal funding will hinder continued development, Dragon said, a bitter truth in city that favored Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton by a 15 percent margin in the 2016 election.
Shaheen’s tour made stops at Colby-Sawyer College’s Sustainable Learning Initiative building, Franklin Clothing Company, coffee shop and restaurant The Franklin Studio, Toad Hall Art Bazaar, and Outdoor New England, all which said they started business in Franklin due to Perma City Life’s efforts.
Acadia LeBlanc, a rising junior at Colby-Sawyer, talked about studied sustainability initiatives in the community while helping to teach water conservation at Franklin High School.
“It’s so cool that we have our own space here, we were transporting all our stuff from New London, which is 30 minutes away,” she said. “It’s awesome because we get to build this relationship with Franklin.”
With white-water rafters traveling down the Winnipesaukee River behind him, Parichand said the ability to fuse his passion with revitalization efforts for the city was a great privilege.
“My passion is to influence a community on the things I hold dear, which is white-water kayaking,” he said. “Revitalizing a town, or helping to revitalize a town, through a sport I’m passionate about is the best case for me.”
Concord Monitor | E. Reed | May 8, 2017
On a given day, drivers passing Sanel Auto Parts and crossing over the Winnipesaukee River in Franklin may notice some brightly clad paddlers crashing through the current, mouths opened wide as cold water hits their faces.
Floating past old mill ruins, beneath splintered trestle bridges and between overgrown sections of riverbank, Mill City Park Director Marty Parichand and others are generating momentum for a new reputation in the “Three Rivers City” – it’s the place to go for recreation.
This is a rather evolved image for a former industrial city that once stunk to high heaven.
Prior to the 1970s, raw sewage was dumped into the Winnipesaukee River by Tilton, Northfield and Franklin. More discharges flowed from failing septic systems throughout the watershed.
Former Department of Environmental Services Commissioner Thomas Burack wrote in a report that in summertime, water consistency was described as “pea soup.” Fish kills, algal blooms and strong odors were common.
The year after Stevens Company Mill closed, New Hampshire’s legislature voted to address the problem. They established the Winnipesaukee River Basin program in 1972.
For two decades, the program worked with local communities to construct the Franklin wastewater treatment plant, 14 wastewater pumping stations and more than 60 miles of sewer lines.
As effluent was gradually removed from the Winnipesaukee River, people began to appear, riding down the rapids.
Paddler paradise
National Alliance on Mental Illness New Hampshire Executive Director Ken Norton – an avid paddler – said the annual “First Day” whitewater event in Franklin dates back to the 1980s.
In the very beginning, it started with people floating down the Winnipesaukee River in tubes. To arm themselves for the chilly January air and freezing-cold water (and the general stupidity of what they were doing), Norton said alcohol, and not lifejackets, was the protective gear of choice.
“Not exactly a safe scene,” he said. “If you had a wetsuit, you were lucky – there weren’t drysuits. There wasn’t the gear that exists now that makes it a whole lot safer endeavor.”
Norton, who lives in neighboring Tilton, helped organize a more formal event with the Merrimack Valley Paddler’s Club and the Friends of the Winnipesaukee River in 1981. There, Norton said he and a dozen more people paddled down the river.
“Each year it sort of successively grew,” he said.
Marty Parichand paddled in his first “First Day” in 2003. The Epsom native returned to Franklin more than a decade later to open his paddling business, Outdoor New England, and to start the nonprofit Mill City Park, which aims to create a whitewater playpark on a 9-acre parcel of city land along the Winnipesaukee River.
Parichand envisions creating a place for people to come and paddle, ride mountain bikes and grow things in a community garden. Historic preservation of mill remnants is part of the plan, too.
Parichand said the most expensive iteration of the park’s construction costs is estimated to be $4 million to $6 million. In return, a New Hampshire Department of Resources and Economic Development impact analysis shows a facility like that could bring $6.8 million in direct spending to Franklin on an annual basis.
While the park is still very much in the planning process, the promotion of recreation in Franklin by Parichand and those before him have resulted in visible community change.
The takeout spot for paddlers going down the Winnipesaukee, for example, is at Trestle View Park. In the 1990s, the restaurant formerly on that parcel burned, and in 2002, the Grevior family bought the land. They then gifted it to Franklin.
A few years later, just across the street, the Winnipesaukee River Trail Association completed a walking path along the river. This past fall, Norton said that Northfield landowners Roger and Gloria Blaise donated a ¾-acre parcel of their property along Cross Mill Road so paddlers can have permanent access to the upper river.
As recreation infrastructure has grown, so is its use. The walking trail is active, and Parichand has continued to recruit more paddlers.
Franklin native Tim Morrill is one of them. After cruising the Winnipesaukee River on First Day 2016, the landscaping company owner said he’s taken more than a dozen trips since, and he’s now learning to guide a raft.
“(It’s) a whole new adventure,” Morrill said. He gained a new hobby, plus friends from the experience. And he’s noticed the atmosphere in his home city change.
Norton has seen it, too.
“There’s a certain spirit that Franklin has, of people coming together that want the city to be more than a has-been of the city’s past,” Norton said.
River cleanup
Norton was recently involved with a “Winnipesaukee Trail Clean-up Day” at the put-in spot for paddlers on Cross Mill Road. He said he and others have been working to improve the river since the 1980s. While the mill dams had been dynamited decades before, pieces remained – dangerous pieces.
“(We) would just go down and we’d spend half a day cutting out the dam and pulling out the rebar and making the river safe,” Norton said. There was one particular loop of rebar they were determined to get out of the river – the loop was large enough to trap someone’s boat.
“I have a friend who used to say he’d have nightmares about that loop,” Norton said.
Parichand and the others behind Mill City Park are looking to finish the job, removing the rebar, cribbing and pipes that remain to improve safety for paddlers.
“The riverbed would get an improvement,” Parichand said.
New economic engine?
The city of Franklin has made numerous attempts to revitalize its economy, its downtown, and its sense of community. But it was hard to find a central focus for those efforts, City Manager Elizabeth Dragon said.
Until now.
“Marty’s enthusiasm about kayaking in the river – it was sort of like a light bulb went off,” she said. “We could do all the work we wanted with new buildings. But if we didn’t have the people to support the businesses, we would just have a revolving door.”
“It became really clear that, if we do a good job cleaning up the river and restoring the river, we have the potential to bring in 6 million dollars of new spending,” she added.
The Mill City Park area is now incorporated into Franklin’s redevelopment plan being carried out by public-private partnerships. The next step is making sure the city can get the dam releases it needs on Winnipesaukee River from DES – two dams still sit on the river itself, with others upstream in the river basin.
Franklin must also consider how to ensure the ecological future of the river that it’s looking to, once again, as an economic engine.
“It gives us an opportunity to think of things differently,” Dragon said.
http://www.concordmonitor.com/return-river-franklin-nh-recreation-9512485
Concord Monitor | E. Reed | May 7, 2017
Eighty-five-year-old Franklin native Andy Nadeau calls himself an “original river rat.”
He grew up on River Street, in the Three Rivers City, a short walk from the water-powered mill where his parents manufactured hosiery. The workers and machines of Sulloway Mills are long gone, now converted to the Franklin Falls apartment building.
As a young man, Nadeau remembers his home city as vibrant, well-off and full of familiar faces – now he sees it as a center for renters and a downtown full of decaying storefronts.
Developers, city officials and volunteers are attempting to change that, and they are gaining traction after years of effort. Franklin is just beginning a $400,000 downtown facade renovation.
Nadeau wonders, though, if the mill city can ever recapture the wealth of its industrial past.
It comes from humble roots. Like much of New England, the first white settlers harnessed the wilderness around them.
They cleared tall pine trees for crop fields, raised farm animals, built homes and occasionally came into conflict with Native Americans. The History of Franklin author Alice Shepard describes these newcomers establishing Stevenstown in the 1740s, at what is now Webster Farm.
To create their community, the settlers used water to power their first sawmill in Punch Brook, beginning a centuries-long history for Franklin’s mill activity.
“Most of the grist, lumber, cider mills – if you’re settling an area and creating homes, you have to create the materials you build your homes with,” said Leigh Webb, president of the Franklin Historical Society. “And you have to feed yourself.”
The Pemigewasset River would become choked with logs as a highway for the timber industry, Webb said, and the Winnipesaukee River’s drop toward the Merrimack River headwaters would grow particularly valuable as the population increased.
Six paper and pulp mills were eventually built in the Winnipesaukee, with dams redirecting the water flow at six points along the river.
“It created a current that was year-round – that was the attraction for the mills,” Webb said. “Franklin wouldn’t exist (if not) for the confluence of the rivers.”
Mill city
Nadeau was born at the tail end of Franklin’s prosperity as a mill city, in 1931.
As the author of Papermaking Industry of Franklin, New Hampshire: The Rise and Fall of the Mills, Nadeau said the rise of Franklin began in 1821 with the first paper mill, “The Old Vat Mill.”
“It gave a lot of people (the) chance to go to work,” he said.
In addition to paper mills, wool and hosiery mills came into town, including Sulloway Mills, where Nadeau’s parents made socks and stockings.
The textile operations lasted longer than the paper industry. Four decades after Franklin was incorporated as a city in 1895, the paper and pulp mills were all shut down due to labor strikes and the Great Depression, Nadeau said. In 1934, the dams were damaged by spring floods, then dynamited.
As a child, Nadeau still experienced the benefits of Franklin’s industrial success.
“Main Street was full – Central Street if you will,” he said. “Every Friday night was a shopping night. You could hardly walk on the sidewalks.”
Webb said that in the city’s “gilded age,” Route 3A – the road to the White Mountains at the time – was busy, too. Gas stations, restaurants and souvenir shops lined the way.
In warmer seasons, Nadeau said, there was always a weekend baseball game in Odell Park, and in winter, he would go ice-skating on a pond that used to be there. At one time there was even an in-ground public pool.
“It was a very, very busy community,” he said. “I think everybody in the community was happy because they all had a job.”
Dirty rivers
The mills meant vitality for the Franklin community. Yet for the waterways, they created obstruction and filth.
That was something Nadeau witnessed in his time. “Everybody was dumping into the river,” he said. Sewages, chemical waste, dye – anything undesirable.
“My father-in-law came to visit from Indiana,” Nadeau said. “I took him down to the Merrimack. He’s standing there fishing, and he says, ‘I’ve never seen a river with an asphalt bottom.’ ”
It wasn’t asphalt, but sludge and slime.
“You couldn’t see through the water except near the shore,” Nadeau said. “It smelled no matter where you were along it.”
Some people did swim in the Pemigewasset, Nadeau said, including his mother and father and their families.
“I say, ‘Oh dear lord,’ ” he said. “ ‘Course, back then, they never tested it or anything.”
Change
Sulloway Mills closed in 1953, and from there, Nadeau said, his father went right to the wool manufacturer, Stevens Company Mill. By 1971, that shut down too, emptying Franklin of its last operating mill.
Since then, Nadeau has watched his home city change, from the struggling storefronts to the loss of the skating pond in Odell Park to the renters now filling the mill building where his parents once worked.
“Today there are so many strangers,” Nadeau said.
Webb, the historical society president, said Franklin’s decline is typical of any city losing its prime industry.
“The demographics changed drastically,” he said. “There’s a significant portion of Franklin that struggles to pay taxes. It became a city that struggled to meet its bills.”
One thing that has improved is the rivers. The water now runs clear, is unobstructed by the mill dams and no longer has raw sewage and industrial waste pouring into it.
As the Three Rivers City looks for opportunities to revitalize its economy, the fast-flowing Winnipesaukee River is an attractive resource. It’s a whitewater paddler’s paradise, and, if everything comes together just right, it could mean an influx of desperately needed tourism dollars.
Nadeau isn’t sure that will happen, but is rooting for his home city.
“I’d like to see it,” he said.
http://www.concordmonitor.com/return-river-franklin-nh-mill-town-9512458#fbcommentarea
Concord Monitor | E. Reed | May 6, 2017
Beneath cool, overcast skies, Paul Pouliot took in the land, the river, the trees – all the geophysical features – of Franklin’s Odell Park.
The chief of the Cowasuck Band of the Pennacook Abenaki People looked past the empty baseball field, the dilapidated mill buildings and the developed river banks. Eyeing the U-shaped bend where the river slowed, Pouliot knew – that’s where his Native American ancestors would have fished.
He pointed to the spot just in front of the historic Riverbend Mill, under renovation for an affordable housing project. It was downstream from the river’s rapids, where local community partners are suggesting a whitewater play park can be installed to attract eco-adventure tourists and help revitalize New Hampshire’s second poorest city.
The natural resource Franklin is turning to for its new lifeblood, Pouliot pointed out, is why people came to the area in the first place.
Before it was known as the “Three Rivers City,” Stevenstown, or, informally, “the Crotch,” the land at the intersection of the Pemigewasset, Winnipesaukee and Merrimack rivers was frequented by its indigenous people.
The History of Franklin by Alice Shepard notes that “the Crotch” is how Native Americans described the headwaters of the Merrimack River to Lt. William Miles, a 17th century scout from Canterbury.
Present-day Franklin is just one spot in an expansive area inhabited by the Abenaki. It stretches across the province of Quebec, Canada, as well as Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, New York, and Massachusetts.
That was, and is still, called N’dakina – “our land.”
Earliest community
“The Native tradition – Abenaki tradition – is that native people have been here since the snows,” Stephen Berwick, a Concord author with indigenous heritage, said. The last glacial period ended 11,500 years ago, which is when other historians have the first humans inhabiting New Hampshire, too.
Native American artifacts – tools, tomahawk weapons – have been found in several parts of Franklin, including Odell Park. Many of them are now kept at the Hood Museum of Art at Dartmouth College.
“This was just one more of a connected line of villages because of the food source,” Pouliot said, scanning the tongue-shaped piece of land occupied by the park today and hugged by the river. “I think the fish would have flown up that way like crazy.”
There is evidence of that. In the “Indian Mortar Lot,” a small patch of grass along Route 3 in Franklin, a rock found along the Winnipesaukee River sits with a giant carving of a fish, thought to be a shad.
According to a sign on the lot, the other boulder that sits there has a large mortar “first hollowed out by water, then by many years of apparent use of (Abenaki) Indians.” Fish like shad and salmon stopped coming up the Winnipesaukee River after dams were put in.
Pouliot said in addition to abundant fishing, nut-bearing trees and berry bushes would have grown nearby, and the flat land along the riverbanks would have been perfect for agriculture – corn, beans, squash.
“The early reports of what New England was like – it was like a garden,” Berwick said. Amid all the pine trees and growth, he said, trails following the rivers would be cleared by wildfire for hunting deer, moose and, in lean times, bear.
Historical accounts and present day interpretations differ slightly on where exactly indigenous people would have pitched their wigwams, buried their dead and grown their crops. But all agree that on a consistent, seasonal basis, the rivers brought the early inhabitants to what is now Franklin.
Around the time fish began spawning in spring, Pouliot said, “This village would probably be hopping.”
River as a resource
Pouliot said the Winnipesaukee River would have provided not only shad but salmon, alewife and eel. Standing on the present-day fishing pier off Odell Park, he was just a stone’s throw from where an old fishing weir made of sticks and stones was found in the water below Franklin Public Library.
While Pouliot said indigenous people “over-fished the hell out of everything,” he added that none of their activities would have dramatically altered the landscape, or riverscape. They needed the rivers for fishing, bathing, medicine and transportation by boat.
“Earth was sacred because they had to use it,” Denise Pouliot, a council member for the Cowasuck Band of the Pennacook Abenaki People, said.
A shift
The Abenaki descriptions for these rivers – Pemigewasset, “swift current,” Merrimack, “deep river,” Winnipesaukee, “land around the lake” – have outlasted history. Their use, however, shifted dramatically when European settlers came to New Hampshire.
Without immunities to diseases introduced by colonists, combined with conflicts with both Europeans and the Mohawk indigenous people, Abenaki in New Hampshire began to decline in the late 1600s. Those who survived either left for Canada, retreated to rural parts of the state or integrated with the new settlers.
Indigenous people moved around based on seasonal resources for millennia, but colonists suddenly introduced the western idea of a fixed place and land ownership. What was once referred to by its geophysical description – “the Crotch” – gave way to Stevenstown, a land grant incorporated in 1768.
That spot is now Daniel Webster Farm, which sits in present-day Franklin along Route 3A.
Centuries of development and industry have altered the land, but one very basic element has always remained. Flying above Franklin, or looking at a basic geophysical map, the three rivers branching across the landscape still stand out.
As one of the 1,000 or so people still living in New Hampshire with Abenaki heritage, Chief Pouliot still reads the water as his ancestors did. The Alton resident said he wasn’t familiar with Franklin, but as soon as he stepped out of his van in Odell Park, he could see the value of those rivers.
“Just looking at this area – this is a major indigenous community,” he said.
http://www.concordmonitor.com/return-river-franklin-nh-indigenous-community-9512428
Concord Monitor | Elodie Reed
In his three decades of watching Franklin start and stop economic revitalization projects, Franklin Savings Bank President Ron Magoon said this time, something’s different.
“In 29 years, this is the first time there’s been all the right people at the table,” he said.
That includes city officials, local businesses, the nonprofit PermaCityLife and members of the public. Through collaborative efforts, new businesses have opened up downtown, an old mill building has been renovated for affordable housing, and plans have moved forward for a whitewater play park.
It was with confidence, then, that Franklin Savings Bank bought a quarter of the $400,000 in tax credits New Hampshire Community Development Finance Authority awarded to the Franklin Business and Industrial Development Corporation in August.
Franklin Savings Bank made its investment in February. Bank of New Hampshire followed with a $25,000 purchase, and just recently, Eversource Energy bought up the remaining $275,000.
Now, that money will go toward facade improvements for buildings owned by PermaCityLife. They are slated to begin in July or August and last through the end of the year.
“There’s been so much deferred maintenance in these buildings,” Todd Workman, PermaCityLife’s executive director said. Buell’s Block, Shepard Block and 337 Central St. will all get a facelift, though through the above mentioned partnerships, the work has already begun.
Where once empty and boarded storefronts lined the bottom floor of Buell’s Block, new green-painted facades welcome visitors to a coffee shop and outdoor sports store.
Across the street at “Toad Hall,” the former art gallery is being renovated into a tavern – new paint covered the tin ceilings Monday, and the large windows will be replaced within the month.
All of these upgrades will continue with the CDFA tax credit money. More windows will be replaced in Buell’s Block, and the back of the building will have work done to make way for a brewery.
At 337 Central St., the three storefronts there will get “a complete redo,” Workman said.
This work is what moves PermaCityLife’s goals from planning to action, Workman said. And some of the organization’s permaculture ideas will become tangible, too: a “green roof” is part of the upgrade for 337 Central St.
When businesses with rooftop gardens, a tavern, shops and a fixed up city center are noticeable to those driving through, City Manager Elizabeth Dragon said, Franklin becomes a place people want to be.
“People buy with their eyes,” she said. “To be able to see some visible changes to the buildings will be able to help change the perception.”
Workman added, “The stigma goes away and people start to have confidence in the project.”
Franklin has a number of long-held stigmas to overcome, but given all that’s already happened in the downtown, the community partners there are optimistic.
“We have a lot of momentum building,” Dragon said. Workman regularly receives referrals for small businesses wanting to move to Franklin, and tradesmen, business owners and organizations already in the community are getting involved, too.
From the Franklin Business and Industrial Development Corporation’s perspective, the hope is that in addition to retail businesses, a stronger downtown Franklin will attract a skilled workforce.
“We have a shortage of skilled labor,” FBIDC director Jim Aberg said. “It’s one thing to have the jobs offered in the industrial park, but as people say, where’s my wife going to shop, where are my kids going to school?”
It’s a future that seems a little closer, at least to Franklin Savings Bank’s Magoon.
“If it fails this time, it’s never going to happen – this is the best shot we have and have ever had,” he said. “I think everyone is truly optimistic this is going to happen. And it is happening.”
http://www.concordmonitor.com/Franklin-NH-facade-improvements-fully-funded-9410846
Outdoor enthusiasts blazing a trail to the future
Laconia Daily Sun | Adam Drapacho
The First Boat Bash Snow Crash was a success despite the 25+ mph gusts and the well below freezing temperatures. As Northern Yankees we are hearty, as such, every New England state was represented in the over 140 people that came out to our inaugural event. The event was a collaboration between the Franklin Outing Club and Mill City Park, which brought in positive donations for both groups.
However, this event would not be possible without our gracious sponsors and volunteers!
Thank you all for making this event a reality!
Donations |
Rowell's Services, Beck & Bellucci, New England Pro Greens & Turf, JA Garneau, Grevior Furniture, Franklin Studio, Blackfly Canoe, Franklin Savings Bank, Morrill's Landscaping, SKR Site Work, Sweet Protection, LiquidLogic, Hidden Collective, Franklin Fire Department and Outdoor New England.
Volunteers |
Mark Pickard, Steve Nelson, The Stanley's, Colby Morrill, Chris Downey, Dave Curdie, Tom Atwood, Steve Donahue, The Mullavey's, Scott Burns, Chad Carey, Cheryl Joyce, Eric Keck, The Coulter's, Jamie Parent, The Ford's, Alan Carigan, Bob Lucas, Orli Gottleib, Rob Schafsteck, Jeremy Laucks, Owen P, The Grevior's, Jim Jones, Daniel Fithian, James Detzel, Dominic Capozzi and CREEKBOAT MAN!