'Location, Location, Location'

Merrimack's website touts the town as "a great place to live," but it is so much more, according to Tom Mahon, newly elected chairman of the Town Council.

It's also a great place to work and visit and shop. It's an hour from Boston and an hour from the Seacoast, Mahon noted in an interview Thursday with Merrimack Patch.

The shop part is timely, of course, with the Merrimack Premium Outlets having a grand opening June 14-17. The work part, too: Mahon was discussing promising economic development within hours of Atrium Medical Corp. to relocate its headquarters to Merrimack.

The company will move into newly renovated 115,000 square feet of space at 40 Continental Boulevard, which will be expanded to include an additional 90,000 square foot state-of-the-art medical manufacturing and research and development facility.

"That's significant for us," Mahon said. 

Next to "Location, location, location," he said, Merrimack offers good services, decent housing stock, and a qualified labor force.

Mahon said Town Council goals mirror some previous ones, such as prioritizing infrastructure improvements. The Public Works garage, for example, is in rough shape.

The town's zoning ordinances could use updating, he added.

He said he would make an effort to have joint meetings of the Town Council and School Board. "We need to work together more effectively," he said.

New Hampshire's economy, as seen through the prism of this town of roughly 27,000 people, is indeed improving.

"We're in better shape," Mahon said, "because our economy is more diversified."