Bill to fund State School planning group seen as ‘priming the pump’

CONCORD — The $1.7 million contained in a funding bill for the commission that is working on plans to redevelop the former Laconia State School property is necessary to “prime the pump” of economic development in the Lakes Region.

State Rep. Peter Spanos, the bill’s prime sponsor, told the House Finance Committee Tuesday that the money would enable the commission to continue to make progress on coming up with development options for the 235-acre property, which has been largely unused for the past 20 years.

“Right now the state is losing,” Spanos said, referring to the $300,000 to $ 400,000 the state spends every year on minimal maintenance on the grounds and roughly two dozen buildings.

“In 10 years the state would have lost $4 million,” if the state just continues to let the property lie fallow, Spanos said.

He said the seven-member Lakeshore Redevelopment Planning Commission of which Spanos is a member has been working for the past three years to come up with an overall redevelopment plan that will create jobs and boost business and commerce.

“We need to prime the pump like we did at Pease,” commission Chairman George Bald told the committee, referring to the state-funded program to redevelop the old Pease Air Force Base into a business and industrial park.

Bald said the goal is to transform the State School property into a mixed-use development which will create jobs, generate tax revenue for the state and the city of Laconia, and provide starter and middle-income housing.

A hearing is scheduled for today on a separate bill which would transform the commission into an authority. That body would have the power to authorize the letting of contracts and the purchase of land connected with the development. That bill is being sponsored by state Sen. Chuck Morse.

Commission Vice Chairman Robert Cheney said the group is working “to remove uncertainty” about the feasibility of redeveloping the property, which should result in developers becoming more interested in the site than in the past.

Some of the money in the bill would be used as matching funds to pay for a comprehensive reconstruction of the site's water and sewer system, Bald said.

Laconia Mayor Andrew Hosmer called the project “a real economic generator and jobs creator,” and urged the committee to support the bill. “We in Laconia think it’s long overdue. The property has been sitting there neglected.”

But state Rep. David Danielson, R-Bedford, expressed reservations, saying: “Laconia is in an isolated position when it comes to development.”

Bald said just the new housing component of the redevelopment would be an economic benefit.

“If we have 150 to 300 units of housing then there will be a real impact,” he said.

Also testifying in favor of the bill were Executive Councilor Michael Cryans, and Mary Macdonald, co-owner of Genuine Local, which is looking at the site as the location of a multi-faceted farm-to-table operation.

A subcommittee of the Finance Committee is expected to take a closer look at the bill next Tuesday. The full committee is scheduled to take up the bill again on Feb. 5.