Shaheen targets $12 million to aid Coos County projects
COOS COUNTY—More than $100 million in funding is headed to New Hampshire through the efforts of U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen. Approximately $12 million of that total is targeted for projects in Coos County.
The money is included in the final federal funding bills that were signed by President Biden last month after a turbulent budget process in Congress. Shaheen (D-N.H.), a senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said the money to New Hampshire was appropriated through the Congressionally Directed Spending process, or earmarks as they are commonly known.
Shaheen said she was proud to secure the funding for her state.
“From investments in health care facilities and educational training to resources to combat homelessness and the substance use disorder crisis, these projects will help our communities and our state thrive,” she said.
Projects connected to Coos County include:
•North County Home Health & Hospice Agency: $155,000 to support a rural home health care initiative to reduce hospital readmissions for home health and hospice patients. The agency serves 51 communities in Coos and northern Grafton County. North Country Home Health is an affiliate of North Country Healthcare.
•North Country Community Recreation Center: $2.7 million to help construct a Wellness Center on the site of the former North Country Community Recreation Center in Colebrook. Upper Connecticut Valley Hospital took control of the center and plans include a fitness center, indoor walking track and a therapy pool.
•New Hampshire Catholic Charities: $1 million to purchase land in the North Country that will be the site of a facility to be used jointly by the New Hampshire Food Bank and the Boys and Girls Club. Funds will also be utilized for costs associated with constructing the facility, including legal assistance, permitting and design.
•Town of Gorham/New Hampshire Department of Transportation: $1,372,000 to install concrete, ADA compliant sidewalks along Main Street in Gorham, New Hampshire, as well as complete streets upgrades to include bike lanes with painted symbols, creating buffer zones where possible, painting sharrows and completing necessary streetscaping.
•Town of Lancaster: $3 million for Lancaster to finalize a phased comprehensive water, sewer, drainage, roadway and sidewalk infrastructure improvement project situated at the northern end of Summer Street.
• White Mountain Community College: $1 million to renovate and upgrade the science and nursing laboratories at the main campus in Berlin, New Hampshire.
• Whitefield Public Library: $1 million to address deficits in the current library structure. Funds will be used to renovate the existing 1904 Carnegie library and to expand the space to better meet the needs of library programming and the greater Whitefield community.
• Berlin Police Department: $355,000 for communications equipment to improve operational coordination for the City of Berlin’s public safety departments.
• Mount Washington Observatory: $1,538,000 to measure wind speed as well as updated research instrumentation for the planning and design of software to automate error checking of observational reports and creation of a web-based portal for public access of historic weather data.
