Essex Heritage to Undertake Quality of Life Survey with Salem State College

As you read this column today, I am just finishing a winter vacation on the west coast of Florida. It was pleasant to get away from the New England winter, and while I enjoyed a few days in the sun, played a few rounds of gold and enjoyed walking without the snow and ice, it will be good to get back to Essex County to continue my work with Essex Heritage. In that role, we continue to develop partnerships with the 34 communities and to build relationships with the many fine organizations in the region that have the same mission.

Quality of Life Issues an Important Reason Why Essex County is so Livable

Last month I saw an announcement of another major medical improvement to the region where we all live and work. The news focused on the decision that Boston Children’s Hospital had decided to dramatically expand its presence in Essex County. For the last decade that hospital has maintained a limited facility in the Leahy Hospital complex at the North Shore Shopping Center, but now they are planning to build a new larger facility at Centennial Park in Peabody. This new facility only adds to the incredible array of medical facilities that are located within the borders of Essex County. North Shore Medical Center in conjunction with Massachusetts General Hospital has built a fantastic new health care complex on Endicott Street in Danvers, and Northeast Health Systems has added a wonderful medical building on the site of the old Danvers State Hospital. Now we learn that North Shore Medical Center is about to announce the completion of a major new state of the art intensive care unit on the Salem campus. When we consider all of the other improvements and office expansions that the three major hospitals have made in the region, it is clear that this region is one of the finest areas in the state for health care services. We are also most fortunate to have wonderful family hospitals in Gloucester and Newburyport, plus the Lynn facilities managed by North Shore Medical. It is clear that his region has become a Mecca for medical services second to none possibly in all of New England. The medical technology that we have at our disposal in the region is only the” tip of the iceberg” as Boston with all of its medical assets only minutes away in an emergency.

Our regional medical assets are truly superb but when we couple them with the educational institutions serving our region like Salem State College, Endicott College, Merrimack College and Marian Court College, North Shore Community College, and Northern Essex Community College, we truly have a wonderful array of schools These institutions provide opportunities for the next generation and with the economy as it is today, there are many adults and seniors who are taking advantage of what the educational institutions in the region have to offer.

Add in the wide range of historic properties, community Historical Societies, world class museums like the Peabody-Essex Museum and the Addison Gallery of American Art in Andover, the Cape Anne Museum in Gloucester and the Wenham Museum and a wide range of theatre and arts opportunities plus the State Park land and other valuable protected open space, then one can quickly see why this region is such a desirable place to live or work. We are also most fortunate to have two units of the National Park Service in our region, and the programs and the educational opportunities available at the Salem Maritime Historic Site and the Saugus Iron Works Historical Site are clearly the “frosting on the cake” for Essex County.

During the 2010 spring semester, Salem State College and its Center for Economic Development and Sustainability will be undertaking a survey on behalf of several organizations in the region including Essex Heritage that will attempt to quantify, and to the measure the economic value of these world class assets to the employers and residents of the region. Watch for that survey in the near future, and we encourage you to participate if you have that opportunity. Your input will be important to us as Essex Heritage and all of the other participants in this survey as we continue to refine strategies to make certain that we continue to provide world-class opportunities to all the businesses and residents of the region that make up the Essex National Heritage Area.

In addition to a much broader use of the web site, Essex Heritage is also communicating using traditional methods like this monthly column and social networks like Facebook, Twitter and Linked in as well as using other non traditional methods like the Essex Happenings BLOG that I post information to three times a week that can be accessed at www.essexhappenings.blogspot.com.

Read more about the region from Tom Leonard on his blog.

Thomas M. Leonard is President Emeritus of the Essex National Heritage Commission, Inc., the nonprofit management entity of the Essex National Heritage Area, and can be reached by clicking here.