January 2024 - Parks & Recreation - 15

The City of Keene collaborated with
partners to host a race series during the
summer of 2023, drawing visitors from
nearby states.
amazing results. A culture begins
to develop, and as one organization
provides funding, they begin to
bring in other organizations. Soon,
each group is matching their funds
and reducing the city match into
large grants. This has been a key to
Keene's success.
Connecting Students
Although
project
opportunities
College provides
to
funding
is
a strong reason to focus on
collaboration, there are other ways
to utilize local resources. Keene
State
connect
students
with
real-world experiences. During
the 2021 spring semester, students
in the graphic design studio came
together to create images of how
they saw Keene. City staff provided
guidance and worked
with
the
students as the designs took shape.
After more than 150 images
were created, city staff whittled
down the options to four images.
These images were placed in two
locations and used as backdrops
to community
bulletin
boards.
When the city was not advertising
its events, the images served
as public art, and three out of four
images featured Keene Bike Park,
parks and trails combined with an
image of the Ashuelot River Park
arched entrance. The arch provides
architectural synergy to many
landmarks around the city. The
promotion of the parks, trails and
bike park is unsolicited and shares
a message to those driving around
Keene that the city supports this
important lifestyle.
Examining Economic
Development
Beginning to see the culture change
to support the trails, the city worked
with the University of New Hampshire
(UNH) Cooperative Extension
to complete a downtowns and
trails economic development study.
Shannon Rogers, Ph.D., outdoor
economist, led the project to investigate
spatial assessment utilizing
ESRI GIS data collecting tools, an
intercept survey, and focused on
wayfinding. The final report, adopted
in 2022, supported the Bicycle
Pedestrian Pathways Advisory
Committee's advocacy work to include
bike lanes in the city's downtown
redevelopment project.
The study helped identify needs
within the city utilizing a metric
that
identified 19 characteristics
that would help increase economic
development when located in a
downtown. One of the attractions
of the rail trail in Keene is that
two rail lines from the Boston and
Maine railway were part of the history.
The Ashuelot Rail Trail begins
in Keene and goes southwest
to the border of Massachusetts.
The Cheshire Rail Trail crosses
Main Street and connects both
south to Massachusetts and north
to the Vermont border. As a result
of the Main Street crossing, Keene
is ideal for economic growth related
to our trail system.
The UNH study showed that
when visitors came to Keene, they
were spending $38 more than the
average visitor to New Hampshire.
These
survey results
built
momentum to continue to promote
and educate the community and
city
council on the importance
of trail connectivity. Currently,
we have renewed our relationship
with the UNH Extension office,
working with graduate students to
investigate how we can improve
our opportunities to increase the
economic impact and find the gaps
toward a more outdoor recreational
economy. The continuation of work
was sparked by the bike park. The
city collaborated with NEMBABK
and Alpine Bike Works to host
a race series during a six-week
stretch in July and August 2023.
The program registration quickly
filled with close to 50 registrations,
but
it wasn't the total number
that was important - it was the
nonresident number. All for a
45-second ride around the park
loop, bikers
from Connecticut,
Massachusetts, Rhode Island,
Vermont and other towns in New
Hampshire converged in Keene.
These folks came to spend a day,
fuel up their vehicles and eat in our
local restaurants, for less than one
minute of action.
With more than eight miles of
rail trail, 40 miles of a single track,
a nearby private/public farm, a revitalized
alpine ski hill and community
members working toward a
vision of making Keene a destination,
the reality is people are coming
to ride Keene! As a writer in New
Hampshire magazine shared, " It
doesn't get much better than Keene "
(tinyurl.com/ynzk3fxa).
Andy Bohannon, CPRP, AFO, is Parks, Recreation and
Facilities Director at City of Keene, New Hampshire
(abohannon@keenenh.gov).
PARK S ANDRECRE AT ION . OR G | J ANUAR Y 2 0 2 4 | Parks & Recreation
15
PHOTO COURTESY OF KEENE (NEW HAMPSHIRE) PARKS AND RECREATION
http://tinyurl.com/ynzk3fxa
January 2024 - Parks & Recreation

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