Milestones and Momentum: July Wrap-Up for Dover's Boards, Committees and Commissions

In this episode of the Dover Download podcast, Deputy City Manager Christopher Parker chats with Director of Media Services Mike Gillis about what Dover's boards, committees and commissions took up in July.

The City Council met twice. They discuss additional scope of work approved at Maglaras Park, tied to the Cochecho waterfront project and paid for with previously identified funding, an approach meant to shorten construction along River Street, Payne Street and Henry Law Avenue. The Council also approved added outdoor pool expenses within the original bonded amount, awarded a bid extending pedestrian-level lighting south along Central Avenue, and directed Dover Business and Industrial Development Authority land sale proceeds to the Light Up Dover initiative and to a new Dover Arts Commission program placing rotating sculptures at ten downtown locations. Councilors also funded ADA improvements at Sullivan Field and Woodland Park, set 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. voting hours for the September primary and November general election, and held annual property appraisal hearings. Separately, after City Manager J. Michael Joyal Jr. announced his December retirement, the Council said it will first look internally for a successor.

At its single July meeting, the Planning Board continued talks on the cottages at Back River Road, approved a Church Street conditional use permit and a Dover Point subdivision, and posted annual zoning amendments, including proposed transfer of development rights changes that would tie density to neighborhood character.

The School Board approved a one-year teachers' contract to stagger bargaining cycles and reviewed the first year of the school device ban.