One of the coolest things about resident ownership is that ROC members make the decisions about community improvements.
If you want to fix a road, upgrade a community building, or spruce up a common area, it’s you, the residents, who decide what will be done, who will do it, and how much the co-op will pay for it.
So what kind of community improvements are happening in ROCs around New Hampshire? We reached out to our Facebook group (all ROC members in N.H. are invited to join) and to communities that we knew were working on projects. Here’s a sampling of what’s happening.
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Residents of Stony Brook Co-op in Rochester installed a beautiful new sign. |
After only one year of ownership, Stony Brook Co-op in Rochester has hit the ground running. Residents renovated their community building and brought it up to building code standards; it’s now a wonderful meeting space. A garage has been transformed into a storage building, where members can rent space for personal items. Roads have been repaired and bad-drainage areas fixed, and a beautiful new sign greets all visitors to the community. Nice first year, Stony Brook!
The residents of Colebrook Homeowners Co-op in Colebrook have been busy with a couple of projects. They turned an abandoned home into an office and community building and now have a nice meeting and event space. You may have seen their holiday pictures on the ROC-NH Facebook page!
The Colebrook co-op was also fortunate to receive financial support from the Neil and Louise Tillotson Fund of the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation to improve its roads. Previously, emergency vehicles were unable access one street in the co-op; the road is now wide enough to accommodate those vehicles and everyone is sleeping better.
Members of Pine Hill Co-op in Conway used a ROC USA Community Improvement Grant to update their mail house, and Friendship Drive Co-op in Salem used the same grant to install speed bumps. These are great uses of ROC USA grants and a reminder to register on myrocusa.org if you haven’t yet, so your community can take advantage of these and other opportunities!
Exeter Hampton volunteers spent some time this year clearing brush and bramble from their front entrance. They then planted hostas, creating a warm welcome for visitors.
These are just a few examples of the good things happening in ROCs. It often takes just a little push to get a project rolling, like someone offering to write a grant proposal to ROC USA, or a few members to volunteer to clean up a section of community and do a little planting.
These efforts are great ways to meet your neighbors, improve your community, and have some fun in the process. Everybody wins when members work together.
Is your co-op working on any projects? Anything planned for the year ahead? Please share your news (and photos) on the ROC-NH Facebook page, or email them to us and we’ll post them for you!
ROC-NH™ is a program of the New Hampshire Community Loan Fund, Inc. and a ROC USA® Certified Technical Assistance Provider.
ROC-NH is a registered service mark of ROC USA, LLC.
