2021 Asset Management Award: NHDES Recognizes the City of Dover

Concord, NH – On December 16, 2021, the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services (NHDES) presented the 2021 Asset Management Award to the City of Dover and their Community Services Utilities Division Asset Management Team. The award was established to promote and encourage communities to implement Asset Management Programs (AMPs), which are a holistic approach to manage total infrastructure systems over the life cycle of assets in the most cost effective way.

NHDES believes that by providing assistance to communities, village districts and water precincts for the development and implementation of AMPs, New Hampshire residents will benefit from more sustainable water, wastewater and stormwater systems throughout the state.

Since the start of the NHDES asset management initiative in 2012, NHDES’ expectations have been surpassed as communities have embraced the challenge of asset management. With each day that passes, asset management is increasingly becoming the accepted and expected way of doing business within the water industry and New Hampshire continues to be on the right path with adopting this philosophy.   

In 2019, the NHDES Asset Management Award was established by the NHDES Drinking Water and Groundwater Bureau (DWGB), Wastewater Engineering Bureau (WWEB) and Watershed Management Bureau (WMB). The award recognizes exemplary AMPs within the state.

NHDES recognizes the City of Dover and their Community Services Utilities Division for the 2021 Asset Management Award. Dover has developed an asset management program specific to Dover’s needs using its current software, VUEWorks. Dover’s AMP is a team effort. By consciously pulling institutional knowledge from personnel and turning that knowledge into usable information in their AMP, Dover continues to be a leader and a success story in the field. Dover representatives have participated in NHDES’ annual asset management workshop, as well as other opportunities, to freely share lessons learned with other communities. In addition to their work with both drinking water and wastewater asset management, Dover also took a unique approach to their stormwater asset management program by taking the next step to solely use in-house personnel, without the assistance of a contractor, to add stormwater assets to their AMP. Dover personnel fully embraced the mission and immersed themselves into the development of their Stormwater AMP. 2016 was the first year that funding was available for Stormwater AMP, and Dover is one of twenty-eight New Hampshire communities thus far that has taken advantage of the Clean Water State Revolving Fund Loan Program to develop a Stormwater AMP. Overall, Dover is a great asset management success story, and well deserving for recognition of their hard work. They have demonstrated that they are an asset management leader in the state, and continue to lead and grow their AMP in the City of Dover.  We proudly present the 2021 NHDES Asset Management Award to the City of Dover Community Services Utility Division.  

As NHDES continues promoting asset management throughout the State of New Hampshire, exemplary work like that of the City of Dover will help to set an example for other municipalities to follow. NHDES urges communities, village districts and water precincts throughout New Hampshire to continue their asset management work or to contact us to find out how to get started. Perhaps you or your community will be presented with the next NHDES Asset Management Award.

For more information about Asset Management and funding opportunities, please visit our Asset Management webpage or email Luis.S.Adorno@des.nh.gov or kathryn.c.moran@des.nh.gov for drinking water, Sharon.L.Nall@des.nh.gov or Eliza.J.Morrison@des.nh.gov for wastewater, or Deborah.S.Loiselle@des.nh.gov or Katherine.E.Zink@des.nh.gov for stormwater.