Lakes Region Community Developers cut the ribbon on its latest healthy housing project, Gilford Village Knolls III (GVKIII), which provides 24 affordable apartments for seniors in the heart of Gilford Village. Residents are scheduled to move in next month. Stewart Property Management is currently accepting names for the waiting list.
 
GVKIII is the third phase of the Gilford Village Knolls campus, which was the vision of a local citizens group that formed in the 1980s to develop affordable housing for seniors in Gilford.
 
Tony Ferruolo, Chair of the Gilford Village Knolls Trustees, was on hand to welcome the crowd of 70 at the ribbon cutting on June 26. He noted that the Trustees started working on GVKIII in 2007 when the land first became available. After encountering difficulties in assembling the financing required for construction, the Trustees turned to Lakes Region Community Developers who had many years of experience using the federal Low Income Housing Tax Credit program, which is ultimately where 70% of the funding for GVKIII came from.
 
Jason Hicks, Chair of the Board for Lakes Region Community Developers, noted that the organization has evolved over its 25 year history. “In addition to responding to changing demographics, we are responding to the need for resilient buildings. GVKIII represents the pinnacle of our efforts; it is the first multi-family property in the State of New Hampshire to be constructed to the Passive House building standard.”
 
Special thanks were given to Stewart Associates Architects during the event. Stewart Associates had already designed the building before Community Developers became involved. When they decided to pursue Passive House standards with the blessing of the GVK Trustees, Stewart Associates quickly got up to speed on Passive House and modified the building design.
 
Other members of the development team for GVK III include DEAP Energy Group; Steven J. Smith & Associates; Martini Northern; GDS Associates; Sheehan Phinney Bass & Green; and Stewart Property Management.
 
GVK III was financed by Northern New England Housing Investment Fund, New Hampshire Housing Finance Authority, New Hampshire Community Development Finance Authority, New Hampshire Community Loan Fund, NeighborWorks America, and Rural LISC.
 
For questions regarding GVK III’s waiting list please contact Julie Moore at Stewart Property Management at 603.524.6673 or via email at jmoore@stewartproperty.net
 
Lakes Region Community Developers is a non-profit organization whose mission is to create opportunities for the Lakes Region to thrive by building healthy homes, creating vibrant community assets, and engaging residents.

Lakes Region Community Developers began in 1993 with a mission to create opportunities for the Lakes Region to thrive by developing healthy homes, creating vibrant community assets, and engaging residents.  For the past 25 years, we have worked towards that mission by developing high-quality, affordable rental housing throughout the Lakes Region.

On Saturday June 9th, in honor of NeighborWorks Week, LR Community Developers hosted a block party at River’s Edge Apartments in Laconia NH.  More than 60 residents from the various 341 LR Community Developers affordable apartments joined in the celebration enjoying music, food and games. 

The block party welcomed nine local service providers to join the fun and provide information and awareness about the services they offer to local residents. The following organizations joined and hosted various games for resident participation; Navigating Recovery, Laconia Police Department, Belknap County Conservation District, Belknap-Merrimack Head Start, Lakes Region Partnership for Public Health, Stand Up Laconia, Lakes Region Child Care Services, Healthy Families America, and Family Resource Center of the Lakes Region.  Residents played ring toss, got their faces painted and could even blend their own smoothies using the blender bike rented from Global Awareness Local Action.

Each June, NeighborWorks America and its network of local organizations (like LR Community Developers) mobilize tens of thousands of volunteers, businesspeople, neighbors, friends, and local and national elected and civic leaders in a week of neighborhood change and awareness.  If you would like to continue the support, look for the LR Community Developers DIPJAR as it travels around the Lakes Region during 2018 or donate at www.lrcommunitydevelopers.org. 

There are 15 days left to donate to our crowdfunding campaign to build a playground at our Lochmere Meadows development in Tilton! Lochmere Meadows provides healthy housing for 47 working families at a price they can afford. We need your help to give these busy families a safe place to play outside. Click here to make a donation.
 
Thank you to EPTAM Plastics, Lakes Region Community Services, the Annette P. Schmitt Foundation, the Greater Lakes Region Children’s Auction, and KaBOOM! for their support of this project!

Did you know that Lakes Region Community Developers is a member of the NeighborWorks America network? NeighborWorks is a national, nonpartisan, nonprofit leader in affordable housing and community development. For 40 years, it has worked to create opportunities for people to live in affordable homes; improve their lives; and strengthen their communities. NeighborWorks accomplishes this mission through a network of nearly 250 nonprofit organizations in all 50 states, D.C., and Puerto Rico. We are one of those 250 members.
 
Lakes Region Community Developers joined the NeighborWorks network in 2000. For the past 18 years, NeighborWorks has supported us in the following ways:
 

• Reviews our organizational and financial health every year, and every three years they conduct an in-depth on-site assessment. We are rated as an Exemplary NeighborWorks organization, which is their highest rating. This assures our supporters that we are being responsible stewards of their investment in us.
• Provides funding for operations that we use to leverage other resources. They also provide funding to help us pay for pre-development activities that are critical to the success of our real estate development projects.
• Provides training, technical assistance, and peer-to-peer networking opportunities so we can learn from national experts and from other members of the network about the latest trends and best practices. This ensures that our funders get the most bang for their buck and that our residents are best served.

 
We are extremely proud to be part of such a powerful network of outstanding housing and community development organizations all over the country. Please join us in congratulating NeighborWorks on 40 years of advancing opportunity! We look forward to another 40 years of working together to make every community a place of opportunity.

We continued our 25th anniversary celebration with a block party on June 9th as part of NeighborWorks Week.

Each June, NeighborWorks America and its network of local organizations, like LRCD, mobilize tens of thousands of volunteers, business people, neighbors, friends, and local and national elected and civic leaders in a week of neighborhood change and awareness.

At the block party LRCD residents enjoyed music, games, and burgers and hot dogs grilled by our Finance Director, Stuart, Board Treasurer Geoff, and Board Chair, Jason.
 
A big thank you to Navigating Recovery, Laconia Police Department, Belknap County Conservation District, Belknap-Merrimack Head Start, Lakes Region Partnership for Public Health, Stand Up Laconia, Lakes Region Child Care Services, Healthy Families America, and Family Resource Center of the Lakes Region for being part of the celebration!

If you haven't already, make sure to RSVP to the ribbon cutting for Gilford Village Knolls III (GVK III) on June 26th from 11:30am to 1:00pm. Click the button below to RSVP.

For questions regarding GVK III’s waiting list please contact Julia Moore at Stewart Property Management at 603.524.6673 or via email at jmoore@stewartproperty.net

Did you know June is National Healthy Homes Month? Here at Lakes Region Community Developers, this is something to celebrate because building affordable healthy homes is central to our mission.
 
Healthy homes are safe, energy-efficient, and provide good indoor air quality (no mold, dust, or other contaminants and they have good ventilation). We care about healthy homes because they are the foundation of a healthy community.
 
Kids who live in healthy homes don’t get sick as often, which means they do better in school. Parents who live in healthy homes are more successful at work because they are not called out as frequently to care for a sick child. Families who live in healthy homes are not overly burdened by high medical bills or energy costs – this means they have more money to spend in our local economy.
 
To ensure that the homes we build are healthy, we adhere to high standards and green practices in building, rehabbing, and maintaining our properties. Our goal is that over 90% of our 365-unit portfolio meets healthy homes standards by the end of 2020. Here are some examples of how we will reach that goal:

• 134 of our apartments are EnergyStar rated.
• 32 of our apartments are LEED certified (29 Gold, 3 Silver).
• 24 apartments are being built to the Passive Building Standard.
• We are currently seeking funding to do a major rehabilitation project on 65 units in Ashland and Meredith that were built in the 1970s and require significant upgrades to meet healthy homes standards. We purchased the properties in 2016 to preserve them as affordable rentals and bring them up to healthy homes standards.
• We are working on the funding package to add solar arrays to a cluster of six, two-family buildings in Laconia that will save each of the 12 families living there an average of $645 each year. These units have been completely rehabbed in recent years – they are some of the first properties in Laconia that we redeveloped in the 1990s.
  

Ten families living at Pinecrest Apartments in Meredith signed up for the second year of the community garden. We had perfect weather on May 23rd for the garden planting event! Everyone got their hands dirty prepping the raised beds and planting their veggies. Thank you to NH Electric Co-op Foundation for providing funding last year for all the supplies to build the garden.

Mark your calendars for this fun, family-friendly annual event!

The 3nd Annual Putt Putt Tournament Presented by Meredith Village Savings Bank to benefit Lakes Region Community Developers will once again be held at Pirate’s Cove of Winnisquam.

The event includes a hot lunch and beverage, prizes, raffles, and giveaways. Registration is limited to the first 144 paid registrants. Registration will start at 10:00am. The format is a four person team. If you do not have a foursome we will match you with other individuals. Prizes are awarded to the top three teams. Please register and join us on September 29th, 2018. Contact Caitlin Meaney at cmeaney@lrcommunitydevelopers.org or at 603.524.0747 ext. 108 for more information.

Do you or someone you know want to learn more about buying your home or are not sure where to start?  HOMEteam's next First Time Homebuyer seminar will be on Saturday, July 14th from 8:30am to 4:30pm in Manchester, NH. This program reviews the Steps to Home Ownership and gives you the tools and resources needed to make good financial decisions at every stage of the home buying process.
 
To register click here.

While the environmental impact of grilling is negligible compared with most of the other things we do in our day it is important that we take every aspect of our lives into consideration when it comes to combating air pollution and our carbon footprint. You can make grilling green by making a few changes to the way you grill and the kinds of products you buy.

Click here for 10 suggestions to make your outdoor cooking more environmentally friendly.

Playgrounds Are Part of Healthy Housing
 
What is healthy housing? We define it as housing that is safe, affordable, energy-efficient, offering good air quality, and designed to facilitate access to healthy food and outdoor recreational opportunities.
 
The first goal in our strategic plan is to increase the availability of healthy housing in the Lakes Region. We will do this by designing our new construction projects with all the components of healthy housing in mind and also by investing in new amenities at our existing properties.
 
One example of the latter is our playground project at Lochmere Meadows in Tilton. (Read below about our crowdfunding campaign to raise the last $5,000 for this project.) Lochmere Meadows is a townhouse style apartment complex off Route 3 in Tilton, near the Lochmere Country Club. The property provides housing to 47 families who work in health care, retail, food service, early childhood education, and automotive services. We are proud to provide healthy housing for these working families at a price they can afford.   
 
There is currently no designated outdoor play space for the 50 young children who live at Lochmere. As you may know, Route 3 in Tilton is not pedestrian-friendly and the closest public playground is four miles away in downtown Tilton. Our Lochmere families are very busy with work, school, and scheduled activities. An on-site playground will give Lochmere families a convenient and safe place to get outside and be more active.
 
Why is this important? Active play is a critical component of children’s physical, intellectual, creative, and social development. Parents also benefit from the creation of safe community play spaces because they provide a meeting area where parents can gather to support each other's parenting needs and discuss family issues. This strengthens the adult relationships that parents need to be successful.
We are fortunate to be partnering with KaBOOM! which is a national non-profit “dedicated to ensuring that all kids get a childhood filled with the balanced and active play needed to thrive.” KaBOOM! has helped build over 17,000 play spaces around the country. The Greater Lakes Region Children’s Auction also provided a grant in support of the project.
 
Our goal is to build the playground in September. We’ve already worked with some of the kids who live at Lochmere to select the playground equipment. This spring, we are planting blueberry and raspberry bushes along the border of the playground plot so the kids can enjoy a healthy snack while playing during the summers.
 
We look forward to sharing photos of the playground build and the kids enjoying their new play space as we move forward with the project. Please check out our crowdfunding campaign below to help us raise the remaining $5,000 needed to complete the project! Thank you.

Sincerely,
Carmen Lorentz

We need to raise $5,000 by June 30th to build a playground for the 50 young children who live at Lochmere Meadows in Tilton, NH! We are proud to provide beautiful apartments for the working families at Lochmere Meadows. A playground will help the kids who live there get outside more and PLAY!
 
Project funding has also been provided by Dr Pepper Snapple Group and KaBOOM! and the Greater Lakes Region Children’s Auction. We need to raise an additional $5,000 by June 30th to match these grants. Please donate today at LRcommunitydevelopers.org. Thank you!

If you haven't already, make sure to RSVP to the ribbon cutting for Gilford Village Knolls III (GVK III) on June 26th from 11:30am to 1:00pm. Click button below to RSVP.

For questions regarding GVK III’s waiting list please contact Julia Moore at Stewart Property Management at 603.524.6673 or via email at jmoore@stewartproperty.net

Mark your calendars for this fun, family-friendly annual event!
The 3nd Annual Putt Putt Tournament Presented by Meredith Village Savings Bank to benefit Lakes Region Community Developers will once again be held at Pirate’s Cove of Winnisquam.

The event includes a hot lunch and beverage, prizes, raffles, and giveaways. Registration is limited to the first 144 paid registrants. Registration will start at 10:00am. The format is a four person team. If you do not have a foursome we will match you with other individuals. Prizes are awarded to the top three teams. Please register and join us on September 29th, 2018.

Contact Caitlin Meaney, LRCD Resource Development Director, at 603.524.0747 ext. 108 or cmeaney@lrcommunitydevelopers.org for more information.

Do you or someone you know want to learn more about buying your home or are not sure where to start?  HOMEteam's next First Time Homebuyer seminar will be on Saturday, May 19th from 8:30am to 4:30pm in Manchester, NH. This program reviews the Steps to Home Ownership and gives you the tools and resources needed to make good financial decisions at every stage of the home buying process.
 
To register click here.

The sun has finally come out and we love it but our skin does not. Sunscreen is essential for protecting our skin from the sun’s harmful UV rays. But did you know that many popular sunscreens on the market have been found to contain chemicals that are harmful to aquatic ecosystems such as coral reefs when they inevitably end up in our waterways.

If you swim in the ocean, much of the sunscreen you apply ends up in the water. When you wash off your sunscreen, the ingredients enter our wastewater and sewage systems. Many of the chemicals are not filtered out by sewage treatment centers and eventually end up in our waterways and oceans. While research is just starting to reveal the full effects of these compounds, recent findings suggest that they have the potential to harm wildlife and wreak havoc on aquatic ecosystems.
 What you can do:

• Read the labels! Wear sunscreens that have zinc oxide as the active ingredient. They are just as effective as common chemical sunscreens when used correctly and these biodegradable mineral sunscreens are free of BP-2 and other chemicals that are known to be harmful to aquatic ecosystems. To take a look at some great biodegradable sunscreen options click here.
• Avoid Spray Sunscreen! These forms of sun protection pose inhalation risks. With spray, it’s also easy to miss a spot and apply too little for adequate protection.
• Better yet, cover up whenever possible! Even sunscreens that are biodegradable often rely on nanoparticle technology and is not 100% environmentally friendly, having been found to pose potential health threats to fish and amphibians when ingested in high enough concentrations.