By Dylan Marsh
EAGLE TIMES STAFF
CLAREMONT- The Claremont Parks and Recreation Department has hired Nick Lawrence as their new Director.
According to Parks & Rec employees, the position had been vacant since May 6, 2022, after former Director Mark Brislin departed. Superintendent of Recreation Programs, Justin Martin, has served as a sort of interim director in the time between Brislin’s departure and Lawrence’s hiring.
Lawrence comes to Claremont having worked in the field in a handful of other New Hampshire communities. After receiving his masters degree in sports management, Lawrence began an internship program with the recreation department in his hometown of Lancaster. Ultimately, that would become an internship coordinator position, and the beginning of a career working toward bolstering communities recreation departments.
“I got involved there as a volunteer youth coach. I’ve always loved sports and thought it would be a good way to get my foot in the door,” said Lawrence of his time with the Lancaster Recreation Department.
After working with the New Hampshire Job Corps, Lawrence accepted a position as the Assistant Director and was thereafter quickly promoted to the position of Director after his predecessor announced he was leaving. Five years later, Lawrence would find himself in Portsmouth as their recreation supervisor.
It is a city like Claremont that Lawrence says was his career goal. “I think there’s a lot of opportunity here. I’d love to drive the ship that capitalizes on it. There’s a lot of local and natural resources as well as great staff in place here already. It feels like we’re in a position to succeed,” Lawrence said.
According to Lawrence, his major focus is going to be driving memberships up at the Claremont Savings Bank Community Center. He feels as though, through demonstrating the inherent value of the center as well as other programs within the city, it will begin to encourage residents to utilize what the city has to offer.
Investigating ways to drive up membership at the community center may become more of a conversation in coming months. At a recent city council meeting, former city councilor Mike Demars stated that the community center is running at a weekly net loss of $10,000 and will become a tax burden for the city.
A conversation with Rob Walker, co-owner of The WheelHouse left Lawrence excited for the future of the city of Claremont and the opportunities to connect the parks department with our downtown area. “It was my first time talking with him and we connected right away. I think that’s a great idea, to have everything accessible for people. That’s one of the biggest challenges, when you go to a community and look at what ways they are under served it’s usually the accessibility or the communication. So I think just knowing about what is in your community or how to capitalize on what you have available to you is most of the battle,” Lawrence said.
New Hampshire Parks and Recreation Departments have remained an important economic aspect of the state for many years. A study done in 2020 by the state showed that New Hampshire had the eighth highest share of GDP generated from outdoor recreational
Activity. A 2017 study from the same report shows that New Hampshire has the third highest percent of total value added to the state from outdoor recreation, after Vermont and Maine.
As the new director, Lawrence is thinking long term about how to apply these concepts to improve the city of Claremont and plans to stick with the city as he works toward larger projects that will benefit the community. “When you come in to drive some of these projects for a community you have to be long term oriented and invested. So I certainly am thinking long term and I’m happy to be here. It takes time to execute a lot of the bigger projects for a larger municipality and you’re going to have to be here for a while to do it. So I’m very committed to seeing these things through,” Lawrence said of the future of Claremont.
As your daily newspaper, we are committed to providing you with important local news coverage for Sullivan County and the surrounding areas.