City sets public hearing for Weirs docks project

WEIRS BEACH — City councilors moved forward on a request to collaborate with the Weirs Beach Tax Increment Financing district to rebuild and reconfigure the public docks at the Weirs during their regular meeting on Oct. 28 at City Hall downtown.

A public hearing was set for the city council meeting at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 12, at City Hall. 

In the municipal budget for fiscal year 2025, city councilors allocated $100,000 to the Weirs Beach TIF district for the docks project. At their Oct. 24 meeting, members of the TIF district advisory board met with City Manager Kirk Beattie and Ward 6 Councilor Tony Felch and voted to recommend the city council approve Beattie to seek full financing for the project. Future TIF district incremental funds would pay the cost. 

Initial estimates from the city suggest the project could cost $1 million in the long-term. Final, updated cost estimates and permitting requirements will be received by early December and work could be completed as early as the beginning of the summer boating season.

“This was a project that we thought we were going to start a few years ago, unfortunately COVID hit,” Mayor Andrew Hosmer said. “The BIG grant that we had expired.”

The Boating Infrastructure Grant comes from the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services and supports infrastructure for “transient” boats that are at least 26-feet long. 

A grant agreement between the City of Laconia and NHDES showed the funding opportunity expired June 30, 2023. That grant award was limited to $162,764 and NHDES agreed to reimburse the city up to 75% of the total cost of the project. The city was required to provide a 25% match through the use of federal funds or the provision of in-kind goods or services.

“One thing I think we want to have a good handle on when we get to voting, not tonight, but in the future, maybe it’s on Nov. 12, is some sort of projection on the TIF and where it stands and what the pay down would look like there,” Hosmer said. 

Felch said paying down the TIF would take no more than 10 years. 

A 2021 Department of Public Works document on the Capital Improvement Plan notes a potential reconfiguration of the docks would include removing every other finger and extending the length of the remaining docks. The repairs portion of the project notes the replacement of decking and mooring poles on the areas of the docks that were not part of the grant project and adds that the last repair project took place in the 1990s. Since then, public works employees replace individual boards as they become unsafe and have replaced mooring poles when broken.