Bristol community center expansion effort gets boost from $1.5M HUD grant

BRISTOL — A $1.5 million grant is putting a long-sought expansion of the Tapply-Thompson Community Center on the horizon. The executive board has a purchase-and-sales agreement for property at 90 Lake St., adjacent to Kelley Park, and the grant will help the TTCC begin the planning and development of a new recreation center with a full-size gymnasium, a commercial kitchen, and potential amenities like a lap pool and splash pad.

A condition of the Housing and Urban Development grant was the completion of an environmental survey of the property, with a 30-day public comment period that included a hearing at the Barbara Greenwood Town Office Building on Nov. 17.

“The bigger purpose,” said Executive Director Les Dion, “was in case somebody came forth and said, ‘No, I’m sorry, there was something on that property that they didn’t pick up on, and it needs to be looked at deeper.’”

The environmental study came back clean, she said, but, “if there were any issues out there that we were unaware of, this is their time to say something. So, it’s one of the checklist items we have to do.”

Hopes for expansion date back two decades, Dion said.

“It was probably 20 years ago we started Friends With Vision with the senior center, to see if we could purchase the Ford property at that time, and put something in that would serve the seniors and for our additional needs,” she said. “There were three big projects at that point, so we took ours off the table, realizing that that wasn’t an appropriate time to do it.”

That didn't stop the Bristol Recreation Advisory Council, which serves as a board of directors for the community center, from investigating potential properties that could meet their needs for additional space, especially a full-size gym, since the one at the current community center is not regulation size.

“Our goal was to have a space that would abut Kelley Park to keep our kids from having to cross traffic to access the building.”

The board hired the Thalia Group to help develop a three-year strategic plan. In May 2022, the plan was complete, identifying three strategic goals: strengthening financial structure, upgrading the building, and developing comprehensive succession. Dion is its longest-serving recreation director — 30 years by 2026.

To meet the initial financial goal of increasing the overall operating revenue by at least 54%, to $1 million, by 2025, the board hired Mark Dionne as its grant writer. He succeeded in obtaining a $1 million Community Center Investment Program grant through the Community Development Finance Authority in late 2022, but it required the TTCC to come up with $150,000 in matching funds.

Within a few months, local donors raised that match, allowing the TTCC to tackle the second goal: meeting the physical space needs of the community center to ensure it is safe, welcoming, and accessible.

Although it was not the ideal spot, the TTCC purchased property at 171 N. Main St., abutting Newfound Memorial Middle School. When the board learned that lot would not provide enough parking space, it approached the Newfound Area School District about the possibility of making a land swap for the area next to the park, which served as a bus parking lot.

“We also hoped to work with the Town of Bristol to have the use of the property where the current maintenance shed is on Kelley Park, and use both properties to build a new center,” Dion said.

Ultimately, the board dropped the idea, because working with two municipal entities would be a long process, and there was no guarantee it would be successful.

Community center beginnings

The Tapply-Thompson Community Center is a former Methodist church. When the church merged with the town’s Congregational church to form the Bristol Federated Church — now the Bristol United Church of Christ — Methodist Minister A.B. Thompson, along with Richard “Wink” Tapply, spearheaded the effort a create a place where Bristol youth could take part in recreational and educational activities. What started in 1946 as the Bristol Community Center has expanded through the years to serve all Newfound Area communities, and the Town of Hill.

During the Nov. 17 public hearing, Rick Alpers, chair of the TTCC Executive Board, noted the Tapply-Thompson is an anomaly in the state, as it is not a municipal facility, but rather a nonprofit recreational asset serving the eight towns.

“My guess is, if Bristol was to form their own recreation department tomorrow, you’re probably looking at $400,000 or $500,000 in an operating budget,” Alpers said. Instead, the community center operates on a formula assessing the towns based on their usage of the facilities, supplemented by grants and donations. Bristol, which still provides the largest share, contributed $125,778 in 2025. The total assessment to the towns was $251,113.

While there have been minor renovations through the years, the million-dollar CDFA grant allowed the board to embark on major renovations in January 2024, including the installation of a new gym floor, new offices, an updated game room, new stairwells, and a lift from the basement to the main floor. During the renovations, the board learned installation of a sprinkler system also would be necessary. The project cost $1.56 million.

Some residents expressed concern the TTCC would assess the towns for costs of making renovations, but Dion said, “We did not come to the towns after that money. We said we wouldn’t, and we didn’t, and that’s what we’re saying on this [current] project.

"We will be fundraising on our own to do that, and we have had some very generous donors step up to help us at least get the property.”

By mid-November, the TTCC had raised 78% of the purchase price of the Lake Street property, with other donors prepared to provide the balance.

“With the funding from the $1.5 million [HUD] grant, we will be able to get started on our designs, site work, and bid process,” Dion said. “We are not asking for funding from the taxpayers in our local towns. We are confident that we will raise the funds through major donors, grants and fundraising.”

Among public comments in support of the new project, some focused on concerns about losing another taxable property in Bristol. The town’s conversion of the former Mill Stream Restaurant property into a town park has long been a bone of contention, and the purchase of the North Main property for the TTCC took that off the tax rolls. Currently, the Newfound school district is looking to purchase the TD Bank property, currently assessed at $1.1 million. The 90 Lake St. property is assessed at $853,600, and would be another property taken off the tax rolls, shifting the tax burden to homeowners and other businesses.

Alpers, who also is a former selectboard member, pointed out the TTCC has now sold its North Main property, and with another town-owned property on Merrimack Street also selling, some properties are returning to the tax rolls. He also defended the town’s decision to create Mill Stream Park after the restaurant on the site was destroyed in a fire.

“It’s really a non-conforming, non-buildable lot because of its proximity to the river,” he said. The law allows a period of time to rebuild, and “they did get a couple extensions from" the Department of Environmental Services, Alpers said, “but then they let those extensions lapse, and then you could no longer build on that footprint that was there.

"If the town turned around and sold the Mill Stream property tomorrow, it’s just a narrow, rectangular lot that is really close to the Newfound River. And so, you need to be 50 feet away.”

Town Administrator Christina Goodwin noted that, because the municipal sewer lines do not reach that far, the Mill Stream setback would have to be 150 feet, which the size of the lot would not permit.

“So you know,” Alpers said, “all you can put on there is a row of sheds, essentially.”

Responding to a question about possible use of the Bristol Elementary School property, which the school district is hoping to replace and turn over to the town, Alpers noted a decision about accommodating those students through additions to the middle school would not occur anytime soon. Purchasing the Lake Street property will allow them to start architectural design work right away, even though actually replacing the existing buildings will not happen until they have raised the necessary money to build a new facility.

“Taking it off the tax rolls, I get that,” Dion said. “I mean, it’s a concern for everybody. But I think what we’re going to be putting out there is something when, if you sat in on the budget meetings … and listened to Walter Waring’s passion about the need for something for seniors, this is going to be an area that the seniors will be able to make wonderful use of and have available to them, and that is something that’s been lacking.

"So there’s a lot of things that we’ll be able to do that the community has not been able to do for the entire Newfound community.”

The HUD grant gives the TTCC until 2032 to use the money.

“We expect that it’s going to take us a few years to get to the dollar amount that we probably need to build a new recreation center,” Alpers said. “Right for now, the building will stay up, as there is no rush to take it down.”

When told of the seller’s request to preserve the huge wooden beams in the building, Alpers said, “They may not structurally do anything anymore to the buildings, and it will probably end up being a metal, steelish building, but they’ll be able to tie them in from an aesthetic standpoint.”

Dion said they will be holding a series of public meetings to determine what the community would like to see in the new building. Some of the features envisioned are multiple courts for pickleball, space for youth sports, meeting and office space, and facilities for senior citizens.

She noted the new property will not replace the existing community center, which will continue its operations. It simply will allow the organization to offer more programming for the community.

Alpers admitted the new building will require additional staffing, but some of that expense can be covered by rental fees.

“You’re able to rent that space out to local teams, and that’s what helps offset some of those expenses that we’ll have operationally,” Alpers said. “You know, once the building opens, obviously, a building like that, you have to have staff there.”

The proposed operating budget for 2026 includes increases to town assessments — from $251,113 to $266,180 — and increases in program fees, from $416,651 to $501,000. Part of that comes from the fact that some offerings, such as the after-school program, have exceeded the budget. There also are additional accounting costs associated with administering grants.