demolishing the digester (HB 565)

Legislation has been introduced to demolish the sludge digester on the Water Street property, which is owned by the state and houses the Winnipesaukee River Basin Program (WRBP), to make way for a public boat launch.

House BIll 565 is sponsored by Representative Donald Flanders (R- Laconia) and co-sponsored by Representatives Jim Fitzgerald, Ralph Rosen Frank Tilton and John Veazey — all Laconia Republicans — as well as Senators Carl Johnson (R-Meredith) and Rob Boyce (R-Alton).

The bill would appropriate $350,000 to demolish the red brick building and dispose of any hazardous materials. In 2001, an estimate prepared for the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services (DES) by Camp, Dresser & McKee pegged the cost of demolishing the building at $198,000. However, that estimate did not include either the cost of removing either hazardous materials or construction debris from the site. Dick Flanders, the director of the WRBP, said that the sludge digester was built in the early 1950s and, like other buildings of that vintage on the site, was likely to contain asbestos and lead paint.

Flanders explained that demolition of the sludge digester was included in the Master Plan for the facility prepared in 2000, but because it did not bear directly on the program's operations was assigned a low priority. Moreover, if the WRBP funded the demolition the cost would be born by the ten member municipalities. Construction of the boat launch, he said, increased the priority of razing the building.

Plans to construct the boat launch at the Water Street site got underway last summer when Ralph Langevin of Martel's Sport Shop on Winnisquam Avenue closed his boat ramp, which provided the only access to Lake Winnisquam for the general public, to protest the failure of the city and state to assist in managing traffic and parking. Langevin agreed to reopen his ramp after then Governor Craig Benson agreed that the state would provide public access to the lake within a year.

At the initiative of the late Councilor Fred Toll, the land on Water Street, consisting of parcels owned by the state and the city, was chosen as the site for the public boat launch. The demolition of the sludge digester, which sits on the state-owned portion of the site, is necessary to provide access and parking for the launch. Lee Parry, Executive Director of the New Hampshire Fish & Game Department, said recently that the pieces of the project were falling into place.

HB 565 has been referred to the House Public Works and Highways Committee. A hearing on the bill has not yet been scheduled.