Vacancy!

The Newington Conservation Commission has a vacancy due to the departure [sob] of Erin Baird, an alternate member, and Michelle Lozuaway. We are seeking one permanent member to replace Michelle and as many alternates as may be interested.

Conservation members must be Newington Residents and willing to attend our monthly meetings the second Thursday of each month. It is hoped that interested persons will also help out with the Commission's other activities. The Commission is responsible for protection of Newington's natural resources under RSA 36-A, and also manages a conservation fund for the acquisition of land and easements in the Town for conservation purposes. In addition, the Commission reviews and comments on applications to dredge and fill in or adjacent to wetlands and waters in Town.

In 2009 we expect to complete a number of conservation projects including: (a) develop a management plan for the Newington Town Forest; (b) develop site plan regulation to address storm water pollution in the Great Bay Estuary; (c) complete landscaping improvements on publicly owned lands in Town; and (d) finalize a survey of threatened and endangered species habitats.

If these or other conservation projects interest you, please send me an email expressing your interest in joining the Commission, and feel free to attend one of our monthly meetings normally at 6:30 PM the second thursday each month.

-Justin Richardson, Chair

Newington Conservation Commission

Fresh Local Bayside!

Those of you in Newington or the Seacoast may remember Currants, the phenomenal restaurant at the Great Bay Marina. Currants was fun, delicous and a great place to meet people in town. You could get a great cup of coffee by the water, take the kids to see the ducks, eat lunch made from locally grown ingredients, and meet people that might live down at the end of your road that you'd never have time or occasion to meet in the bustle of day to day life. Sadly, Currants closed two or three years ago and suddenly Newington took one step closer to being just another town that people passed by on the spaulding turnpike.

The great news is that a new restuarant, Fresh Local Bayside, opened today. Its owners, Josh and Michelle live right down the street from me. We are truly luckly to have them and their restaurant in Town.

I know little about Josh and Michelle before they moved to Newington, except that they both worked at Limbergh's crossing in Portsmouth. They also ran a concession out of a bright orange truck called the Fresh Local Truck which served lunch on state street in Portsmouth with local ingredients.

They are really just getting started, and today their menu was not at full capacity. But for breakfast they offered three varieties of eggs benedict (classic, florentine and irish), buttermilk pancakes, omeletes. But despite the limited menu, their talent already shines. The home-made corned beef hash with the Irish eggs benedict was phenomenal; the buttermilk pancakes were served with dried cherries and real maple syrup were spot on. This restaurant already looks promising on its first day, and stands to improve significantly as time goes on.

Check it out when you can. It is located at the Great Bay Marine (directions) and is currently open Saturrdays and Sundays from 8-3 pm.

Updates from all walks of life

It feels like I have not had a moment to gasp for air since my last update here.

So here are a few newsorthy items since July:

The NH Public Utilities Commission approved Nashua's petition to acquire Pennichuck Water Works. On a personal level, the decision gives some meaning to the last five years of my life, in which I have married, bought a house, had two children, the oldest of which is already in pre-school. Those are impressive milestones.

I captained a seacoast ultimate summer league team named "the Squalodons of Krill". This was my first foray as a captain. By nature, I am analytical: more critical than inspirational. It was challenging, to say the least, to try to educate and lead a team when much of your training involves analyzing other's mistakes. I am happy to report that we ended our season, not with a winning record, but with the ability to say that we played close to our best even when significantly outmatched.

The Newington Conservation Commission applied for a grant from the New Hampshire Estuaries Project to address stormwater runoff in the Great Bay Estuary, which is contributing to rapid loss of eelgrass and other aquatic life in the bay.

I travelled around the state presenting a lecture and article entitled The Shoreland Protection from a Municipal Lawyer's Perspective as part of the Local Government Center's 2008 municipal law lecture series, in cooperation with Arlene Allen from the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services.

Seeing this list reminds of a recent conversation I had with a friend. "So what's new and exciting?" I asked, expecting to hear about football, a hunting trip, or some other item of interest. Instead, I got details about his latest spreadsheet he had been working on. Five minutes later, I managed to interupt and pose the question as to how he saw a question about new and exciting events to be a chance to seguay to the details of a spreadsheet. We laughed but only because he and I know eachother too well, and this post could be my spreadsheet.

Summer

The garden is almost completely planted, the flowers are up, and Seacoast Ultimate summer league starts this week.

A family of foxes has literally moved in next door to our house. They have four pups. I managed to take a picture of them in the grass recently.

What's not to love about summer?

Everying is going down (FTP)

Well, it's been a long time since I updated. I literally took the month of December off, and January was spent with the family, the flu, or re-inventing my legal career after the last 4 years working on essentially one case.

This post is not a reference to the stock market, or at least it is not intended as such. But rather I have switched FTP service providers which means that all of the PDF files linked from this site will be unavailable very soon. If you come to this site and can't find a document that is linked, try emailing me at jcrlaw at gmail and I will send you the document.

On February 13th, the Newington Conservation Commission meets again at 6:30 PM at the Town Hall. The agenda and package are available at the Plannind Department or electronically upon request. Hope to see you there.

-Justin Richardson