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Written by Patrick R. McElhiney

Category: Articles

Published: 10 December 2019

First Seacoast Bank had a ribbon-cutting ceremony with the Greater Barrington Chamber of Commerce on Tuesday, December 10^th, 2019 to celebrate the rebranding from Federal Savings Bank, and 45 years of doing business in Barrington, NH.

It was a foggy night on RTE-125, where First Seacoast Bank is located next to the Journey Church. It’s been a milestone year for FSB, which is a community bank that has been successful because the community supports them.

First Seacoast Bank originally opened in 1890 under the name “Dover Co-Operative Savings Fund and Loan Association”, and its original meeting location was the Cocheco Hose Company on First Street in Dover, NH. It was renamed to the “Dover Federal Savings and Loan Association” in 1974, and in 1983, it was renamed to “Federal Savings Bank”.

Barrington was FSB’s first branch – First Seacoast Bank was first headquartered on First Street in 1972, and they’ve been there ever since. The Barrington branch was opened in 1974. In 1979, the Durham branch opened, and in 1987 the Fourth branch was opened in Portsmouth. Rochester was the Fifth branch, which opened in 2009, and it was named Business of the Year in Rochester in 2019. First Seacoast Bank was also the recent recipient of the Cornerstone Award from Cornerstone VNA.

Their mission throughout the years has been to serve the community, which is why after all these years, the bank has changed names to reflect that. They sponsored the tree-lighting ceremony at the Barrington Soiree this past weekend, and the bank gives away over $300,000 in donations to the community each year.

After the ribbon-cutting, FSB served refreshments and hosted a Barrington Chamber of Commerce Business After Hours (BAH). Chamber members and bank customers, alike, brought in non-perishable food items to help the Barrington Food Pantry. There was also a raffle, that attendees could only enter if they brought in a donation for the Food Pantry.

Familiar faces, food, and beverages flowed throughout the Barrington branch’s location tonight. The Chairman of the Board of the Barrington Chamber of Commerce, Michael Guyre said, “This was the best Business After Hours ever!” Members and employees from other branches traveled through rainy weather to Barrington for this amazing event.

First Seacoast Bank is a mutual bank. They work hard for their customers and the community. The bank is committed to meeting the financial service expectations of individuals, families, and locally owned businesses. First Seacoast Bank focuses on:

• Providing high-quality, personalized, convenient service.
• Offering a challenging and rewarding work environment for its employees.
• Maintaining public trust as an independent mutual community bank by operating in an ethical and sound financial manner.
• Empowering their employees to make a difference by actively and positively contributing to the quality of life in the surrounding community.

First Seacoast Bank offers Kasasa® Cash Checking, which offers 3.00% APY on balances up to $20,000, when the account meets specific qualifications – See This Flyer. For more information about First Seacoast Bank, please visit www.firstseacoastbank.com.

For the Greater Barrington Chamber of Commerce, there’s a monthly membership meeting on January 8^th, 2020 for all Chamber of Commerce members.

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Written by Kat Roedell

Category: Articles

Published: 08 December 2019

Saturday, December 7, 2019, dawned cold, crisp and clear.  A few hearty souls, lined up at 8 am, stomping their feet and blowing into their hands, were outside the Christmas Dove waiting for trees to arrive or ornaments to appear.    As more people arrived, trees began to pop up, lights were strung, and ornaments placed in strategic locations.  Themed trees and wreaths were the word of the day, puzzles, legos, patriots, homes, all donated by local organizations and businesses.  The most popular, scratch tickets, gift certificates, and cash, all given to raise money for a good cause.

The cause, the Barrington Area Centennial Lions Club.  This second annual event has grown, with over 35 entries this year.  The event runs in 2 sections – from 8 to noon, tree and wreath setup; from 12 to 4 voting.  By purchasing $10 worth, people receive 25 tickets, which they then use to “vote” on their favorite tree or wreath.  There were 4ft and under trees, over 4ft trees, and wreaths.    At the end of the event, a lucky winner was drawn for every tree or wreath, and two donor awards were given – Best Tree and Best Wreath.  Shown below, the Lion’s Club President, Wanda Walker with the People’s Choice Best Tree Winner, Hadden Fine Carpentry and People’s Choice Best Wreath, Partners in Health. Both winners were LEGO-themed!

At 1 pm, the Granite State Choral Society performed Christmas carols decked out with beautiful matching red scarves and festive attire.

All in all, the Festival of Trees was a great, family-friendly event.  There was a drive for supplies for homeless teens, baked goods for donation, hot chocolate, and coffee provided as well.    This is from Kris Pavlik, part of the leadership from the local Lions group:

“Kat - We wanted you to know that we had a successful tree festival and want to thank our new Leo’s group for all of their help, and the Christmas Dove for allowing us to hold our festival there, to everyone who donated a wreath or tree, and who donated to our collection for items for homeless teens, and to everyone who came out to see our wreaths and trees, share some hot cocoa and many laughs! All of the funds raised will be used to fund our Charitable activities within the community. Thank you so much for all of your continued support! Coffee. Soon!”

One of the best things about Barrington is how giving our local community organizations and businesses are – and how family-friendly our town is.  We at Barrington Town News looks forward to next year and the growth of these wonderful local events. 

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Written by Patrick R. McElhiney

Category: Articles

Published: 10 December 2019

DURHAM, N.H.— Researchers at the University of New Hampshire has been awarded a three-year grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in partnership with Saildrone, Inc. of Alameda, CA, and the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) to develop data quality tools for a new unmanned wind-powered a sailboat-like vehicle capable of long-duration missions to collect vital ocean mapping information.

“This innovative partnership will produce a much more efficient and cost-effective way to collect needed data for mapping the ocean and monitoring the marine environment,” said Larry Mayer, professor of Earth Science and Ocean Engineering at UNH’s Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping (CCOM), and co-head of Seabed 2030’s Arctic and North Pacific Regional Data Center. “The data we collect will play a critical role in the safety of navigation, tsunami and storm surge predictions, ecosystem and other environmental studies, and modeling climate change.”

The Saildrone Surveyor, currently under development and scheduled to be deployed in spring 2020, will be a 72-foot unmanned surface vehicle (USV) capable of going out to sea for six to 12 months. Working with UNH and Kongsberg, which specializes in advanced maritime technologies, Saildrone will install three state-of-the-art sonar systems on the USV enabling detailed mapping data of the seafloor and water column to be transmitted back to shore, some in real-time. UNH will analyze and evaluate the data quality and will lead the development of autonomous data quality monitoring tools to identify targets of interest.

“We are very pleased to be working with the University of New Hampshire and the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute to further ocean characterization research using eDNA and achieve global bathymetry goals” said Richard Jenkins, founder, and CEO of Saildrone. “Over the past five years, Saildrone USV's have performed extensive missions in the Arctic, Antarctic, and Pacific and Atlantic oceans, proving it to be a capable and effective vehicle for collecting data in the most extreme environments. The larger Saildrone Surveyor is an exciting evolution that leverages all our expertise and experience to create an extremely capable platform to further explore our oceans and share that data with projects such as Seabed 2030.”

The Saildrone Surveyor will be equipped with a complete suite of environmental sensors to support studies looking at harmful algal blooms, microbial ecology, water quality, and environmental DNA (eDNA) indicative of invasive species and larger animals.

Even though the world’s oceans are widely traveled, fished and explored, experts say only roughly 15 percent of the Earth’s seafloor has been mapped with high-resolution imaging.

Mayer is part of the international consortium known as Seabed 2030, which hopes to accomplish that goal by the year 2030.

The new Saildrone Surveyor will be piloted remotely rather than operated fully autonomously enabling responsive mission adaption whenever sensors indicate an area of interest. Data will be relayed in real-time to a shore-based operator via broadband satellite communication.

Funding was provided by NOAA's Office of Ocean Exploration and Research (OER) and is part of the National Oceanographic Partnership Program (NOPP) which facilitates partnerships between federal agencies, academia and industry to advance ocean science research and education. Since 1997, NOPP has funded over 200 projects that address our nation’s economic development, national security, quality of life and science education.

Saildrone, Inc. is a provider of oceanographic and atmospheric data, collected by a fleet of wind and solar-powered unmanned surface vehicles, known as sail drones. Each vehicle can stay at sea for up to 12 months, transmitting real-time data before returning to shore for servicing and sensor calibration. Saildrone has deployed vehicles to the most remote corners of the planet, in locations ranging from 75°N, on the ice edge in the U.S. Arctic, to 62°S in the Southern Ocean. Using clean renewable power, sail drones provide access to the world’s oceans at a fraction of the cost of traditional ship-based methods.

The University of New Hampshire inspires innovation and transforms lives in our state, nation, and world. More than 16,000 students from all 50 states and 71 countries engage with an award-winning faculty in top-ranked programs in business, engineering, law, health and human services, liberal arts and the sciences across more than 200 programs of study. As one of the nation’s highest-performing research universities, UNH partners with NASA, NOAA, NSF and NIH, and receives more than $110 million in competitive external funding every year to further explore and define the frontiers of land, sea, and space. 

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Written by Kat Roedell

Category: Articles

Published: 07 December 2019

There is something about the town of Barrington, a small-town feel in an internet world. Every December, many of the major community organizations gather around in the “Village Center” to participate in the Barrington Soiree.  The Soiree is a community open house, outdoors and indoors, a gathering of locals who eat, chat, view, and investigate many of the offerings that Barrington has. 

As we wandered through the stores, each little corner revealed something different – from authors inside Calef’s to the Historical Society with their raffle inside the Edward Jones office and artists throughout the Christmas Dove.   Outside featured bonfires and little talking spaces – at booths and around the town firetruck, where little kids were idolizing their heroes!

There are three central gathering places at the Soiree – Calef’s Country Store, the Christmas Dove, and The Village Barn.  Local merchants this year also included American Dream Stables, Elf Made, the Florist at Barrington Village, KCob Plumbing and Heating, The Barrington Chamber of Commerce, the Barrington Local Artist Galler, ReFined Art, Citizens Bank, Great View Landscaping, Bellaviso Salon and Edward Jones Investments.  There were 5 food trucks/tents: Lexie’s Burger Bus, Jeremy’s Roadside Barbecue, Kozy’s Pizza, Sausage Express, and the Barrington Recreation Department had a Cocoa and S’mores Tent. The Boy Scouts were selling Fried Dough Boys and Hot Cocoa, while the Girl Scouts offered hot cider.  Each organization had something to do, buy or talk about! 

Every booth had something to offer, from the Barrington Food Panty – giving away a free Santa picture with every donation received, to the Friends of the Barrington Public Library with raffle baskets. Other organizations represented included the Barrington Middle School with a Jazz Band performance on Calef’s porch, the Barrington PTA with its famous discount card, the Barrington Historical Society, Special Olympics, the Police Department and Fire Departments, Lion’s Club, End 68 Hours of Hunger, Barrington BYA and Blaze, the Elementary School, and Journey Church.

Everyplace we wandered last night had something to look at, explore and enjoy – running into old friends and meeting new people – the night was full of things to do.  Next year is the 20^th anniversary, so it will be a night to remember!  If you plan on attending next year, bring some cash, gloves, warm shoes and appropriate weather gear – you will linger longer and enjoy the family-friendly community that Barrington has to offer.