Council requests bids for Weirs docks project, considers boat parking fee

LACONIA — City councilors voted to move forward with a long-awaited project to rehabilitate the public docks at Weirs Beach during their meeting on Monday at City Hall downtown.

The city published a request for bids on its website on Friday afternoon.

The vote, passed unanimously, authorized City Manager Kirk Beattie to make appropriate arrangements to use Weirs Beach Tax Increment Financing District funds to move forward with a large project to remove some of the existing docks and to extend the remaining ones to accommodate larger boats on Lake Winnipesaukee.

“This was a project that was postponed dating back almost 2020 or 2021, when the BIG grant was awarded to the city but we could not act on it because of COVID, as well as difficulty in finding vendors when people finally got back to work, quite frankly,” Mayor Andrew Hosmer said.

The BIG, or Boating Infrastructure Grant, comes from the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services and supports infrastructure for recreational boats at least 26 feet long.

Councilors allocated $100,000 in the fiscal year 2025 budget to the Weirs TIF District toward funding the docks project. The initial cost estimate is $1 million. The final updated costs estimates and permitting requirements will be received by the city in early December and work could be completed by the beginning of the summer boating season, according to a city staff report.

“We have $100,000 that was approved in last year's budget in the Weirs TIF, so that’s going to essentially be our down payment, get started,” Beattie said. “We’re looking for support out of this so I can move forward with finalizing the bids, as well as we will work up a resolution which is going to include what the bond is going to look like, sending it to finance committee, all that. This is so I know that we can start using that money.”

Sealed bids for the project should be submitted to the city by 2 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 12.

“The bond payments will all come out of the TIF moving out over eight to 10 years depending on what the bonds look like,” Beattie said. “We’re staying at a positive in that district.”

The description of the project, outlined in a 167-page document available on the city’s website, requires work on the reconfiguration to be completed within 120 days from the date specified in any forthcoming “notice to proceed.” 

Major work includes selective removals with partial salvage of the docks; providing dock extensions including new piles, pile caps, stringers, decking, cross bracing, fender piles, existing finger dock redecking and footbridge replacement; the replacement of electrical services on the docks, with new conduits, wiring and aquatherm outlets near the ends of the dock extensions and marina power post at the fire boat berth; provision of a fire line; and incidentals including sign and lighting installation.

At present, there are 10 separate fingers comprising the docks which extend varying distances into Winnipesaukee. Fingers at the northern end of the span are shorter than those at the southern end. The drawings included in the bid packet show there are four docks to be removed and another four to be extended further into the lake, leaving more space between each finger.

Bidders are invited to attend a pre-bid conference at the docks at 2 p.m. on Monday, Dec. 2. Representatives of the city will be there to discuss the project with prospective bidders. The city retained Civilworks New England, an engineering firm in Dover, to act as its representative. 

And state Rep. Charlie St. Clair (D-Laconia) suggested councilors consider the addition of parking meters on the docks, noting those along Lakeside Avenue do not inhibit tourism to the Weirs. St. Clair was the only member of the public to speak regarding the project.

“Councilor Robert Soucy asked the question, ‘Why not have a parking rate for using the docks?’ The response was kind of one of, 'That won’t work,' or 'We’re going to chase people away,'” St. Clair said. “Quite frankly, I can’t think of a better idea. I find it hard to believe that people that want to come to the Weirs, use the docks, are going to get there and realize they’ve got to pay $2 an hour or whatever are going to say, ‘Oh, I’m not going to do this, let’s go to Wolfeboro, let’s just make circles or whatever.’ They come to the Weirs because they want to go to the Weirs, just like people that drive there and park on Lakeside Avenue and pay whatever the fee is.”

Soucy represents the city's Ward 2.

St. Clair said capturing the fee for boat parking could benefit the city.

“People with boats, I might add, they’re not in canoes, they’re in very expensive boats. The thought of them paying a fee to park there, whatever the fee may be — and I might remind everybody, that fee, whether it goes into the general fund or maybe a fund that’s going to go back to the improvement of the beach or the docks themselves, to keep the upgrade of the docks, or perhaps the boardwalk is a very good, logical idea,” he said.