Bathrooms, concession stand approved for The Meadows in Gilford

GILFORD — The Meadows — the athletic complex the defending state champion Gilford High School football team calls home — will receive quite an upgrade following a unanimous school board vote Oct. 5.

According to Superintendent Kirk Beitler, the project will involve the construction of a bathroom, a family bathroom, and a concession stand to the estimated tune of $700,000. The exact cost won’t be known until a bid is awarded, ideally to be done before the end of the current school year.

“It would be great to have it finished before we leave for the school year, but it depends on the contractors, and materials can be hard to come by,” Beitler said.

The plan is to convert existing garage bays into a functional center for the school and community. This includes three bathrooms, a state-mandated family bathroom, a concession stand, and a storage closet.

A new scoreboard will also be installed on top of the building. It currently stands in the grass near the end zone closest to the structure. The scoreboard installation is included in the current budget, and not part of the recently-approved project. Beitler said it will likely also be installed by the end of the school year.

An open house about the improvements was held Sept. 12 before a football game against Bishop Brady High School. A public hearing was held at Gilford High School on Oct. 5, prior to the vote, with Beitler saying there were less than 10 community members in the room. Only two community members spoke: one in favor, and one against.

Beitler said he and other school leaders support the project, because there have been portable toilets in the area for more than two decades.

“Having bathroom facilities is important for the spectators, and the participants, the athletes,” Beitler said. “That is the really important thing.”

He said one member of the school’s booster club spoke in favor of the project, because they are currently serving concessions without running water or electricity. Beitler agreed with her that having to run extension cords for slow cookers holding food being served was inconvenient, and having a place for proper handwashing was vital.

“Just having a facility to wash their hands and have the proper electrical outlets,” Beitler said. “It’s somewhat of a safety hazard running the electrical cords, and running water is really important when serving food.”

Not everyone is happy about the project. Doug Lambert is a community volunteer who has been on a number of committees, going back decades when there were upgrades to the middle school, and a new high school was built.

Lambert has been outspoken against improvements at The Meadows, including at the fall 2025 budget meetings, the district budget hearing, and the deliberative sessions in February. He also spoke out against the project during the public hearing.

“I have been pretty much opposed to any and all development of The Meadows since we received that property,” Lambert said.

The Meadows was donated by the Carye Family in 2011, and includes an athletic field and onsite building, which has often been the subject of proposed renovations.

Lambert said his biggest concern is upgrades in a district with steadily declining enrollment.

“As a taxpayer advocate, one of my issues is that we have declining enrollment, and yet the budgets continue to go up,” Lambert said.

Lambert said he “understands to a certain extent” the school district’s needs for having infrastructure and maintaining student services, but also said it speaks to the district needing to pay for infrastructure in perpetuity.

Lambert said he doesn’t like that the project wasn’t put into any long-range planning. He noted his wife is on the Capital Improvements Project committee, and he has gone through the public documents over the last couple of years. While $16,000 was budgeted for planning work, he said the full project was never included in the capital plan.

“That’s a far cry from $650 to $700,000,” Lambert said.

Lambert criticized information distributed at the annual meeting, and said the only reason it was discussed there was because he brought it up. Lambert spoke often during the deliberative session, and has been vocal on social media.

He recognizes the school board has the authority to spend money from CIP accounts, but he still thinks this should have been voted on by district taxpayers.

“I still think they should have brought something of this magnitude to the voters,” Lambert said.

Lambert thinks it is disingenuous to say this is being done without affecting taxpayers. He said surplus funds are used, and the tagline is there is no additional taxation, but this isn’t exactly true. He described the capital surplus account as being a “slush fund.”

Lambert pointed to the new bath house at Gilford Town Beach, the approval for which took multiple years of discussions, and while he opposed it, the voters approved it. He said while voters could have also agreed with the district on this, he would have felt better if this was how the project was put forward.

“My bigger problem is the process,” he said.

Gilford football Coach Brandt O’Hara said he doesn’t know the ins and outs of the project, but he is excited upgrades will be made.

“When it comes to an opportunity for new bathrooms it is great, and awesome they are putting money into the facility,” he said. “It means a lot for our program and the lacrosse programs.”

O’Hara said it has always been a challenge when there are only portable toilets for an entire crowd of spectators, especially during the one night game of the year for the Golden Eagles.

He was pleased to hear a “snack shack” will be added, saying it should provide an opportunity for more products to be offered to spectators.

The Golden Eagles are coming off a championship season after beating rival Laconia 20-7 in the Division III finals. O'Hara is excited the stadium is moving toward matching the product being offered on the field.

“I’m happy that the players and fans will benefit,” he said. “They’re good steps in the right direction.”