Telegraph photo by ADAM URQUHART Sen. Jeanne Shaheen joined local and state officials Monday morning to take a look at the progress made on the Greeley Park Boat Ramp, a project which received funding from the Land and Water Conservation Fund. 

NASHUA – Although access to the Merrimack River is limited, the city will soon complete a project that improves people’s ability to get out on the water.

The new and improved Greeley Park Boat Ramp off Hills Ferry Road is about three weeks out from completion. On Monday, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen met with local and state officials to see this project firsthand and celebrate last week’s Senate passage of the Great American Outdoors Act, bipartisan legislation co-sponsored by the senator to permanently fund the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) and provide mandatory funding for deferred maintenance on public lands.

The city received funds through the LWCF in 2017 to rebuild and repair the previous boat ramp, which was in rough shape until crews undertook this project. 

“Before, the angle was very, very steep,” Superintendent of Nashua Parks and Recreation Department Nick Caggiano said. “It wasn’t well done and a lot of times boats would get stuck and have to get pulled out. Now, it’s beautifully sloped in.” 

This upgraded recreational area also features 25 parking spots and a new access road, which Caggiano said is much safer and stable. A loading dock for people with disabilities will come when there is enough funding in place. With that component included, the entire price tag of the project is about $900,000. 

“The Merrimack River is a very major, beautiful body of water and there are very limited access points – Manchester and then all the way down into Massachusetts,” Mayor Jim Donchess said. Caggiano explained that LWCF gave the city $200,000 and the city then matched that amount. Caggiano said the city got more money through the escrow process.

A contract for the ramp itself was awarded to Northeast Earth Mechanics and then Chappell Farms Logging and Land Clearing came in and took care of clearing trees to make way for the new access road. P&L Landscaping did the hydro seeding. 

City crews then did everything else, including the access road and parking lot.

“This now is the only public access to a 15-mile navigable stretch of the Merrimack River between Cromwell’s Falls, made famous by Henry David Thoreau, and the Pawtucket Dam in Lowell,” Gene Porter, chairman of the Lower Merrimack River Local Advisory Committee said. 

During her visit, Shaheen highlighted the passage of the Greater American Outdoors Act which would help address more than $43 million in maintenance backlog in New Hampshire. The legislation still has to pass the house and get signed by the president. It would make funding for the LWCF permanent. 

According to a summary of the legislation, it establishes the National Parks and Public Land Legacy Restoration Fund to support deferred maintenance projects on federal lands. An amount equal to 50 percent of all federal revenues from the development of oil, gas, coal or alternative or renewable energy on federal lands and waters will be deposited into the fund for Fiscal Years 2021-2025. Amounts deposited must not exceed $1.9 billion for any year. 

Shaheen said the LWCF does not just fund national parks such as the White Mountains National Forest, but that it funds projects such as the new boat ramp. 

“It is a wonderful piece of legislation that for the first time since the Land and Water Conservation Fund was passed in 1965, fully funds that program at $900,000 million a year,” Shaheen said. 

Adam Urquhart may be contacted at 594-1206, or at aurquhart@nashuatelegraph.com.

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