By CHARLENE LOVETT
With summer in full swing, the Claremont City Council elected to meet only once rather than twice in July. It was a welcome break as members opted to go on vacation or spend more time with family. Now that August is upon us, the Council will return to its normal schedule. In addition, the Council will be meeting with the Clare-mont School Board on Aug. 9.
On Aug. 8, the council will be discussing and a number of issues. One of the discussion items concerns the Ashley Boat Landing. This is a subject that Councilman Nick Koloski requested be added to the agenda as it is a recurring concern within our community. Each year, the city council and administration receive complaints from residents about the condition of the boat landing. These complaints are usually about the presence of trash, the condition of the road or the inability to use the boat ramp due to silt build-up.
Every year, local clean-up efforts are conducted at the boat landing. This year, the conservation commission and several concerned citizens collected bags of trash and removed numerous tires during our community-wide clean-up effort. Though these efforts are always successful, the real challenge is preventing the trash from becoming litter in the first place.
Currently, the city’s responsibility for maintaining Ashley’s Boat Landing ends at the bottom of the access road. Beyond that, the rest of the area is the responsibility of the state. Consequently, the city’s department of public works grades the portion of the access road leading down to the river and relies on the state to complete the maintenance of the parking area and boat ramp. When that occurs, depends entirely upon the availability of the state’s resources. Unfortunately, these resources are not sufficient to adequately maintain all the boat launch sites throughout New Hampshire. As a result, the parking area is often filled with potholes and the ramp unusable for many weeks into the summer.
Given the popularity of Ashley’s Boat Landing as Claremont’s only public boat access to the Connecticut River, finding solutions to these issues will be the focus of the council’s discussion. Having direct access to New England’s longest river is an asset to Claremont, and we want to ensure that residents are able to use it every year by Memorial Day weekend.
As an aside, the Connecticut River Conservancy will be conducting its 22nd annual Source to Sea Cleanup on Sept. 28 and 29. In 2017, the conservancy was named the Cleanup Champion for most river miles cleaned. That year, 2,500 volunteers removed more than 46 tons of trash from over 249 miles of river banks and waterways. If you would like to learn more about this event or participate, please visit their website at www.ctriver.org/cleanup.
Charlene Lovett is the mayor of Claremont and welcomes your feedback. Please email questions, comments or concerns to her at [email protected]
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