By Devon Cormier
Staff Writer

New Boston has been selected as one of the state's three "livable, walkable communities" in a program sponsored by the New Hampshire Celebrates Wellness organization. The program will kick off in April and take about eight to 12 months to complete.

Resident Sandi Van Scoyoc applied for the grant from the organization. Three towns were selected for the program. Nashua was selected in the urban town category, and Berlin-Gorham was chosen as the rural town.

New Boston was selected as a rural town next to a big city.

Another criteria for receiving the grant, which involves access to organization resources but no money, was the need for help making the community more accessible for pedestrians and bicyclists.

"We were looking for communities that have some issues," said Executive Director of New Hampshire Celebrates Wellness Terry Johnson. "There are areas in town where traffic moves fast and where there isn't great pedestrian access, so we established that they had a need."

The program aims at making communities in New Hampshire more accessible by bicycles and pedestrians, hence encouraging more recreational and physical activities, Johnson said. The point is to make communities more conducive to physical activity every day.

One improvement New Boston has been considering for some time is installing sidewalks in the village. However, it has been tough to carry out since all the roads in the village are state highways. This program will provide the town with a tool kit to figure out what improvements in town will make it more livable and walkable and a final report will delegate the responsibilities of each suggestion.

"We will start with community forums," Johnson said. "We will look at what areas of New Boston are not livable and walkable in terms of sidewalks, connectivity to parks, schools and stores and places. We will look at how people can get around town better by walking or by bike and rely less on autos."

Johnson said a steering committee had been formed at the time the application was sent in. The organization considered the strength of each town's steering committee before selecting the towns to participate in the program. The steering committee and Johnson will run a couple of community forums throughout the process to get public input about problem areas and about how to make the community more accessible.

Johnson will also discuss things like the town's master plan at upcoming forums. The point is to see if the town is developing in a way that makes the town more livable and walkable and has a structured master plan that promotes more physical activity.

Van Scoyoc will lead the steering committee but will have access to the state organization's resources, including Johnson's expertise.

The end result will be a final report, or a livable, walkable community action plan. The plan will involve certain prioritized steps that would lead to improvements.

Each step will name a person or people who are responsible for carrying that step through and a plan how they can do that. Recommendations like sidewalks, however, would need to be budgeted for and approved by town officials in order to be acted upon.

New Hampshire Celebrates Wellness was formed in 1986 to improve the health and wellbeing of the residents of New Hampshire. They have many programs throughout the state and are supported by organizations dedicated to the health and well being of New Hampshire residents.