Money for State School planning group OK'd

CONCORD — A legislative subcommittee voted unanimously Tuesday to set aside up to $500,000 to be available for matching funds to support plans to redevelop the former Laconia State School property.

The money would go to back the work of the Lakeshore Redevelopment Planning Commission, which will also seek grant funding.

The vote by Division 1 of the House Finance Committee to support the funding was 6-0.

In addition, the commission has $350,000 from the current state budget to fund its operations this fiscal year, plus access to another $115,000 in a designated state fund.

The vote came during a working session which considered a bill, sponsored by Laconia state Rep. Peter Spanos, that would provide $850,000 annually for the commission during this fiscal year and the next. However, subcommittee Chairwoman Patricia Lovejoy, noting the difficulty in finding more money in the current budget, said the commission should come back to the Legislature this fall to request money to fund the redevelopment during the fiscal year that begins next July 1.

“I’m very happy,” commission Chairman George Bald said of the subcommittee’s vote. “It helps us put in for matching grants and getting the property redeveloped.”

The bill now goes back to the full Finance Committee, which will vote on whether to recommend its passage. After that, it will go to the full House for a vote.

Bald said the commission is looking for grant funding from several sources, including the Northern Borders Commission, a federal-state partnership that distributes federal money to eligible projects in portions of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and upstate New York.

He said the funding would continue the momentum behind the redevelopment efforts.

“There are respectable people who want to be part of this project,” he said.

The envisioned uses for the 235-acre complex are housing aimed at young and middle-income families, a health-related facility, agriculture, a resort or hotel, and retail businesses.

Lovejoy said while she was “loathe to commit money” midway through the state’s two-year budget cycle, she acknowledged that not approving funds for the commission would result in the state continuing to pay to maintain the largely unused property, to the tune of $400,000 a year.

Commission Vice Chairman Robert Cheney told the subcommittee that the commission plans to use $305,000 in operating funds for contracted services, including an updated economic impact study, preliminary engineering survey, additional environmental assessments, sampling and remediation, and a survey of the complex’s historical buildings.

Spanos’s legislation is a companion bill to one in the Senate which would convert the commission into an authority on July 1. A Senate committee has already recommended passage of that bill. Language is being added to Spanos’s bill to allow any money attached to the Lakeshore Planning Commission to be turned over to the new authority once it goes into operation as the commission's successor.