August Roundtable

In August we were joined by Dan Barufaldi of DBIDA, Dover Business & Industrial Development Authority, who shared a summary of accomplishments in Dover in the last 10 years since Dan became the director in 2009.  At the beginning, half of the downtown mills were vacant.  DBIDA determined that a vibrant downtown core was needed and having businesses which could spin off disposable income were needed to support restaurants, retail, and create a walkable, sustainable, vital core.  The four business types that were chosen to pursue for creation of disposable income were advance manufacturing, high end service, health care, and tourism.  Since 2009, development in Dover has added 200 million dollars to the tax rate base and there is currently, 19 projects, totaling 100 million dollars worth of development under construction.  The riverfront project is getting closer to full approvals.  The goal was to also lower the tax rate but the schools have managed to actually increase the tax rate with one large factor being the building of a new 87.5 million dollar high school.

Dover is the fastest growing city in New Hampshire and has the youngest median age in New Hampshire sporting a 10% annual growth in young families. DBIDA used to spend a lot of time recruiting companies.  Now that there is a goodly number of good companies, DBIDA seeks to recruit skilled workers based on the quality of life that Dover offers to provide enough talented employees for these good companies.  DBIDA had an intern program that helped align what schools were teaching with what local companies needed. After 3 1/2 years of great success, the schools have taken this over, participation by students is at 25% of what it was and the tasks students are doing are mundane and not preparing them for the skills companies are searching for. Wentworth Douglass Hospital and Exeter Hospital have recently merged with Mass General which brings specialists from Boston to Dover on a weekly basis. Please join us for the monthly Strafford Town Republican Committee Roundtable on 2nd Tuesdays from 6:45 to 8:30 pm at the Hill Library in Strafford, New Hampshire.  See you in September on the 10th.