Attorneys Rob Ciandella and Kate Miller presented two programs on “Telecommunications Infrastructure in NH” and “Making the Connection: What Communities Need to Know About Broadband and Telecommunications,” sponsored by the Central NH Regional Planning Commission in Concord and Bow on June 10, 2014. The seminars supported the work of local planning commissions to develop broadband plans for their communities. The presentation covered the basics of cable TV franchise law, wireless facility permitting and the importance of a robust planning process for protecting and enhancing broadband opportunities in our cities and towns. Enhanced broadband opportunities in our communities will bring greater economic development, strengthening the local and state economies. The take-away message from the seminars: planning and enacting legislative initiatives at the local level, including telecommunications zoning ordinances, selectmen’s ordinances and Master Plans, are key to fostering greater deployment of broadband infrastructure, including facilities of cable TV operators, competitive internet service providers, incumbent and competitive telephone companies.
Category: News
DTC Receives Workforce Housing Coalition Employer Leadership Award
DTC was recently recognized by the Workforce Housing Coalition of the Greater Seacoast at its Annual Celebration and 2014 Leadership Awards presentation. DTC received the Employer Leadership Award as an active community participant going the extra mile over the years to ensure that workers in the Greater Seacoast Region of New Hampshire and Maine have more housing opportunities available to them.
The Coalition specifically recognized DTC for its early and persistent support of the Coalition’s efforts to raise the area’s workforce housing deficit to the attention of our communities and their leaders. Ashlee Iber, Executive Director of the Coalition, in presenting the award to DTC, cited DTC’s early sponsorship with the NH Charitable Foundation, the NH Housing Finance Agency and other like-minded NH public and business organizations, to underwrite Communities and Consequences, a documentary film produced by Jay Childs and Justin Frances, as well as the companion book written by Peter Francese and Lorraine Stuart Merrill, the ongoing forums and local zoning changes that resulted, as well as DTC’s many advocacy efforts in multiple Seacoast communities on behalf of affordable housing projects.
In accepting the award on behalf of DTC, Michael Donahue acknowledged the Coalition’s many achievements, including two recent successful Mill conversion projects in Dover, as well as ongoing initiatives the Coalition and its active Board of Directors had undertaken in the past year, and urged those in attendance to continue to support, at the grassroots level, workforce housing opportunities in the City of Portsmouth, where many of the younger workers NH needs to retain hope to reside.
More information on the Workforce Housing Coalition, the Annual Celebration and its ongoing initiatives can be found at www.seacoastwhc.org. If you need assistance or are considering a workforce housing project please contact Attorneys Mike Donahue or Sharon Cuddy Somers or, in their absence, Stephanie Guy, DTC’s Land Use Paralegal.
Attorney Rob Ciandella Presents “What Communities Need to Know About Cable Franchise Agreements”
On April 10, 2014, Attorney Rob Ciandella presented “What Communities Need to Know About Cable Franchise Agreements” to the Central NH Regional Planning Commissioners, Boards of Selectmen and the Commission Staff. CNHRPC’s Mission is to improve, through education, training, and planning assistance, the abilities of the municipalities of the region to prepare and implement municipal plans; to prepare a plan for effective and appropriate development and utilization of the resources of the region; and to assist municipalities in carrying out the regional plan. For more information on CNHRPC click here. Materials from the presentation are available here.
Attorney Chris Boldt to Speak at NH Land Surveyors Association’s Spring Seminar
Attorney Chris Boldt has again been asked by the NH Land Surveyors Association to be one of its speakers for the NHLSA’s Spring Seminar on April 25, 2014 at the Conference Center at the Courtyard Marriott in Concord, NH. This year, Chris will speak as part of a panel discussion on the duties of the Surveyor as an Expert Witness, including a mock deposition of a surveyor.
Attorney Ciandella to Serve on TedX Speaker Advisory Committee
Rob Ciandella is serving on the Speaker Advisory Committee of TEDx PiscataquaRiver. The program will be held on May 9, 2014.
Rob served in a similar capacity last year for the inaugural TEDx PiscataquaRiver program, which was held in Portsmouth at 3S Artspace. That program featured presentations by Rodney Brooks, Errik Anderson, Majora Carter, Virginia Prescott and J. Dennis Robinson, among others. Last year’s program can be viewed at http://tedxpiscataquariver.com/.
Riverwoods Celebrates 20 Years
DTC is proud to congratulate its client, RiverWoods at Exeter, on its 20th year in the greater Exeter community. RiverWoods at Exeter started as a dream in the early 1980’s. After hundreds of planning sessions, budget revisions and Town Meetings, the land and funding came together. The first campus opened in 1994. Today RiverWoods is a thriving, vibrant, independent community with three campuses all nestled on 200 wooded acres. DTC is proud to have played an active role in the acquisition and permitting of the entire RiverWoods community. Please join use in congratulating this wonderful fixture in our community. For more information on RiverWoods please visit http://www.riverwoodsrc.org/.
Attorneys Chris Boldt and Kate Miller to Speak at OEP Spring Planning and Zoning Conference
Two attorneys from DTC will be making presentations at the 2014 Annual Spring Planning and Zoning Conference of the NH Office of Energy and Planning, scheduled for Saturday, May 3 at the Mountain View Grand Resort, in Whitefield, NH. Attorney Chris Boldt has once again been asked to speak at a double session on the basic procedures ZBA members should use in making their various decisions on variances, special exceptions, appeals of administrative decisions and waivers of dimensional criteria. Chris will also participate in the Conference’s ZBA/Planning Board Role Playing training session. Attorney Kate Miller will speak on recent changes to federal and state law on the approval process for personal wireless services facilities. For more information and on-line registration, please go to http://www.nh.gov/oep
Attorney MacDonald Editor of A Practical Guide to Organizing a Business in New Hampshire (MCLC, Inc. 2014)
DTC Partner, Lizabeth MacDonald is the Editor of the newly released A Practical Guide to Organizing a Business in New Hampshire (MCLE, Inc. 2014). The book is designed to assist lawyers in acquiring the professional and practical skills needed to represent their business clients in the formation and early stages of their businesses.
Attorney Mansfield Contributing Author to A Practical Guide to Organizing a Business in New Hampshire (MCLE, Inc. 2014)
DTC Partner, Doug Mansfield is the author of a chapter on Employment Law in the newly released A Practical Guide to Organizing a Business in New Hampshire (MCLE, Inc. 2014). The book is designed to assist lawyers in acquiring the professional and practical skills needed to represent their business clients in the formation and early stages of their businesses.
Attorney Miller Becomes Member of DTC
Donahue, Tucker & Ciandella, PLLC, is pleased to announce that Katherine B. Miller has become a member of the firm. Kate came to DTC after practicing in California, serving as Counsel to Senator Patrick Leahy on the Judiciary Committee of the U.S. Senate, and clerking for the Chief Justice of the Vermont Supreme Court. As a partner at DTC, Kate will continue to advise our municipal, not-for-profit and individual clients, in matters including estate planning, trust and estate administration, telecommunications law and creating and maintaining tax exempt status for organizations. Kate is a graduate of Brown University and Northeastern University School of Law.
DTC has offices in Exeter, Portsmouth and Meredith, NH.