Marine Patrol unveils detailed plans for new headquarters building at Glendale

GILFORD — Plans for the construction of the new headquarters of the New Hampshire Marine Patrol, which will be built on the site of the existing facility at Glendale, were unveiled this week.

Designed by Samyn-D'Elia Architects of Ashland, the 32,239-square-foot facility will be built on the 0.92-acre lot where the headquarters have stood since 1962 and on a footprint, which in order to meet setback requirements and accommodate existing infrastructure closely matches that of the original structure.

The new building will be adjoined by an abutting 1.4-acre lot, purchased by the state in December, which will provide parking for 80 vehicles.

Captain Tim Dunleavy of Marine Patrol told a small gathering at the current headquarters on Thursday nigh that the building must house the administrative and enforcement functions of the agency as well as a facility to maintain and repair its fleet. At the same time, the building must serve boat owners seeking to register their vessels and attend boater education classes.

The two-story headquarters will face the Glendale parking area. The administrative offices, including an area where boat owners can register their vessels, will occupy will be on the first floor and the enforcement personnel square feet on the second, along with a classroom, with capacity for 60 students. Taken together administration and enforcement will occupy 19,490-square-feet of the building.

The single largest spaces in the building — altogether 12,749-square-feet — are designed for the storage and repair of boats. The existing dock will be reconfigured. There will be a basin added within the building to enable officers to bring persons in custody as well as vessels to be stored or repaired directly into the building. Boats will be stored in the middle of the building and repaired on the east side of the building in space large enough to house a crane to move them about. Dunleavy noted that the building will serve as principal repair facility for the agency's entire fleet.

Along with construction of the building, the stormwater management system at the site will be improved. The site will be ringed by grassed swales and a landscaped buffer to retain stormwater from neighboring properties. Additional drainage and catch basins to capture and cleanse run-off before it reaches the lake.

"We want to be good neighbors," Dunleavy stressed, adding that every effort will be made to minimize the impact of the project on the neighborhood. He assured abutters that once the work is finished the agency would no longer need to store impounded vessels, damaged buoys and other material outdoors, which will enhance the appearance of the site.

The Legislature appropriated $9,379,313 for the project in the 2013-2015 capital budget. In addition, $1,348,000 from the Navigation Safety Fund, accrued from boat registration fees, was applied to the purchase of the abutting lot at 17 Dock Road where Glendale Marine operates.

Harvey Construction Corporation of Bedford will be the general contractor for the project. Gary Brown of the state Bureau of Public Works said he expected work to begin in June or July, after the state takes possession of the abutting property, with the demolition of the existing headquarters and the building next door and be completed within a year.

During construction Marine Patrol will operate from the building on the former Laconia State School campus that last housed the Lakes Region Community Services Council.

The existing building was originally built to store boats in the late 1950s and acquired by the state to house Marine Patrol in 1962. An assessment of the building in 2009 found that '''the building is experiencing settlement in several different directions." The main floor began subsiding after a drain was rerouted in 1990 and the soils settled, undermining the slab. An addition on the north side of the building continues to settle while sheet piles were driven in the 1980s to arrest settlement on the northwest side of the building. Settlement of the footings has caused the wood-framed addition on the second floor to slope toward the lake, hindering use of the office space.

The roofs fall short of snow-load requirements. The building is not accessible to the handicapped and is not sufficiently structurally sound to accommodate an elevator. Three different systems, burning two different fuels, heat the building. All are inefficient and have no control system. The building is without mechanical ventilation. Although meeting current needs, the electrical system cannot support an expansion. The drainage system poses a risk to water quality.

CAPTION: Designed by Samyn-D'Elia Architects of Ashland, the new headquarters of the New Hampshire Marine Patrol is expected to grace the waterfront at Glendale before the close of the 2016 boating season. (Courtesy Samyn-D'Elia Architects)