Press Releases/What’s New

Closing of City Clerk’s Office:

The City Clerk’s Office will be closed on Tuesday, November 3, 2020 to all business other than Election matters.

Work related to the repair of the sewer force main on the Pierce Island Road Bridge will resume on Tuesday, November 3, 2020 and continue until December 15, 2020. Scaffolding will be installed along the underside of the Peirce Island Road Bridge and new pipe will be installed in the road on Peirce Island. The work will limit travel, intermittently, to a single lane of alternating one-way travel on weekdays between 7:30 am and 3:30 pm.

The Portsmouth Department of Public Works is responsible for maintaining all of the City’s public works of art, ranging from Jerome Meadows’ fragile ceramic tiles embedded in the African Burying Ground Memorial to the massive steel sculpture by Terrance Parker commissioned for the Foundry Place Garage. One of the works that recently received special attention from DPW Facilities engineers is the Cabot Lyford sculpture, My Mother the Wind that has stood on Four Tree Island for the past 45 years.

Pictured above, left to right: Matt Billings Project Manager, Martini Northern LLC, City Manager Karen Conard, Former May

The Prescott Park Master Plan Implementation Committee and the project consultant Weston and Sampson Engineers will host a public information meeting via Zoom on Thursday, October 29 at 6:30 pm. To register for the Zoom meeting, click here.

On Friday, October 23, 2020, the City of Portsmouth celebrated the completion and opening of the $4 million conversion of a former Army Reserve center at 125 Cottage Street into the City’s Senior Activity Center. Participating in the ribbon-cutting were City Manager Karen Conard, Mayor Rick Becksted, Recreation Board Chair Carl Diemer and Martini Northern LLC Project Manager Matthew Billings.

The Portsmouth Police Department will be joining the Drug Enforcement Administration and other seacoast communities on National Prescription Drug Take Back Day, this Saturday, October 24th 2020, at the Portsmouth Police Department from 10:00 A.M. to 2:00 P.M.  The event is being offered to the community to provide an opportunity to turn in prescription drugs which may be in your household and are no longer needed.  The department will take pills, patches, and liquid medicine.  No needles or sharps will be accepted.  The service is free and anonymous.

As the Department of Public Works prepares to start field work, they will host a second Public Input Meeting on the Fleet Street Reconstruction Project, via Zoom, on November 10 at 6:30 pm. For Zoom registration instructions, click here.