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Looking for a town in Southern NH that offers a community center and pool. I would also like a town that offers recreation for teens on the weekend, maybe even open gyms at the local schools or dances once a month or even movie nights for families. I really just want a nice safe town with things to do for families, I feel this is the best way to get to know other families. Also it keeps the kid under a watchful eye and out of trouble.
Right now I live in an area that the kids have to be driven everywhere. There is not a place to really just hang out except the mall (trouble in my eyes) and at friends houses.
Also a town with a great high school football team and spirit would be a plus. I grew up where everyone went to the games on weekends. A great way to spend a fall day!
None of the towns I know have 'community centers' if you mean recreation buildings. Hollis has a sort of double 'town' center, but not a rec building; neither does it have a town pool or football team (basketball is the thing!). But the school is excellent, and the chorus and bands are fabulous.
Greenville (tiny town) has a town pool, but not a rec center; it shares schools with New Ipswich. New Ipswich (bigger than Greenville) has a town pool, but no rec center, there might be a football team at Mascenic not sure (don't follow football, I really don't know!). Those are the towns I have most knowledge about.
I'd love to be able to say that Londonderry has a great football team, but they don't have the greatest record. BUT home game nights = good crowds, and from the chaperoning I've done (with the band) there are quite a few who follow as well. We don't have a town pool, but our local YMCA is expanding, and hopefully in the next few years, we'll have an aquatic center. There is a privately-owned health center that you can buy "pool passes" for. Probably not what you're looking for... Next door Derry has a "Boys and Girls Club" with many activities, and there is an actual downtown that has a music center, several restaurants of varying quality and style, etc. Schools are generally considered fairly good, and high school is Pinkerton Academy, which accepts students from Derry, Hampstead & Chester. Might be worth looking into...
Kids here are generally driven everywhere in most southern NH towns---there are very few sidewalks so that folks can safely walk from place to place.
I think you need a fairly large population to justify the kind of bustling community center the poster is talking about, and most NH towns just aren't big enough. That doesn't mean teenagers here don't have enough to do, it just means the pool/movie/activity is usually owned and run by a private company rather than the town. Cities like Concord may be your best bet for public pools.
That said, many towns including Amherst and Brookline and others further north do have town beaches, many libraries do have teen and 'tween clubs with movies and events, and many towns do offer soccer/art/other partially subsidized classes for kids. Libraries tend to be a hub of kids' activities.
I guess I'm just old and came from too small a town and have no kids; but I just don't understand why so many people (not just this OP, but a bunch of folks recently looking to move) seem to think a town should be responsible for amusing their kids. Having all those programs and buildings makes your taxes go up.
Seabrook has a pretty good REC center, built by the power plant. We've also got a really good library and the town is right on the beach.
We also get a lot of the special ed kids from neighboring districts, and their test scores get averaged in with the whole district. It hurts the town average, and the schools are better than they look on paper.
Salem has a Boys & Girls Club with a pool and it is within walkable distance from the High School and Middle Schools. The Middle Schools had dances monthly when I attended, but that was 8 years ago, so I'm not sure if it is the same now. The High School has a few dances, but not monthly. Overall, I thought the schools were pretty good, even though it took finally being out of them to realize it.
Unless you live within a mile of the high school area, on Geremonty Drive, you will likely be driving your kids places still. This is kind of hard to avoid unless they enjoy biking and you have no problem with them biking on some busier roads.
As far as community centers go in other towns, I think you're mostly looking for YMCAs or Boys & Girls Clubs. Those are the only real community centers that I know of that would have decent facilities.
Although, I have to admit that there are more activities for kids, teens, and seniors in Seabrook than there are for twenty-somethings. This is an issue that folks have been talking about recently.
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