Newfound votes to purchase bank building, current location of school district offices

Superintendent Paul Hoiriis and Facilities Director Armand Girouard provided an update on the bank’s offer to sell the bank building and the adjacent structure which SAU 4 currently occupies, during the school board’s May 27 meeting. The Bristol property is one of four locations in New Hampshire where TD Bank will be closing branches.

“As a school district, we’re not looking to go into the real estate business,” Hoiriis said, “but we are also facing losing the inadequate space we already occupy, to then look in this market for space in-district that we could all occupy at an affordable price. We are looking to satisfy a need.

"The goal was to fulfill the need of housing our central office staff.”

The district currently rents office space in the building next to the bank for $650 a month, an amount that has not changed since June 1993. If the district doesn't purchase the property and has to pay a new landlord or seek an alternative rental space, staff can expect much higher rent.

“I don’t know where we would find a building that could hold 15 offices, 15 people, that would rent anything close to what we’ve been paying, or that the cost to purchase something else would be far more than this, and not have rental income potential as well,” Hoiriis said.

A preliminary look at the options indicated the second and third floors of the bank building — which unlike the current facility is compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act — could accommodate the full district staff. The district then might rent out the street-level space.

Girouard gave a rough estimate of possible rental income at the board’s previous meeting, but since that time, Old Mill Properties of Bristol provided a competitive market analysis to determine more realistic figures. Based on the real estate firm’s experience with other rental properties in Central Square, Old Mill determined the potential monthly rental income for the 3,542 square feet of space on the first floor of the bank building could be as high as $4,250. There are 2,160 square feet on the first floor of the building currently housing district offices, presenting the opportunity to realize $2,800 a month in rental income. The unfinished space in the basement is suitable only for storage, but some staff members are using that space.

TD Bank offered to sell both buildings at the current assessed value of $665,400. Over the last year, the bank has spent $1.8 million in improvements to the bank building, including replacement of all windows and screens, the roof, repointing and repairing all exterior bricks and masonry, repairs of the entrance steps and ramp, upgrading the entire electrical and HVAC system, and some plumbing and flooring work.

Old Mill Properties estimated the current market value to range from $989,000 to $1.075 million. Bristol is currently engaged in property reassessment for the whole town, and Hoiriis said they might seek a purchase-and-sales agreement to lock in the current assessed value. Such an agreement would have to include a contingency clause to nullify the sale if voters do not approve the purchase.

The school district initially considered a special meeting to bring the choice to voters, but not only would that incur extra costs, the district might not have all the information voters would need, Hoiriis said. The other option is to wait until the March 2026 district meeting.

“We’ll have to find out if they’ll agree for us to stay on in our current situation until March, and for us to present this at our annual meeting,” Hoiriis said, “thus saving the taxpayers money on a special meeting, and allowing us more time to gather all the information.”

To pay for the purchase, the school district is considering bond financing. TD Bank said the current rate for a 20-year bond is 3.75%. Another option, the superintendent said, is to raise the money through taxation, offset by the district’s fund balance.

Bridgewater resident Aubrey Freedman argued against the purchase.

“That sounds good,” he said, “but I’m thinking long-term here.

"How do you know you’re going to be able to rent out all that office space for many years? We saw what happened during COVID, that, you know, a lot of the commercial office buildings sat vacant. We don’t know what’s going to happen in the future with the federal government. I mean, I’m sure you’ve heard about that Moody’s downgraded the U.S. government’s credit rating recently, because, obviously, the folks in Washington are not interested in cutting spending.

"There’s a big problem with the economy, and this will affect here in Bristol as other places if you’re trying to rent out the office space.

"If you’re not able to rent it out, it sits vacant. It’s a possibility that falls back on the taxpayers.”

Freedman also pointed out Bristol would be losing the tax revenue from the property if the school district owned it, and he wondered why district staff could not be relocated to other district buildings, with declining student enrollment and the withdrawal of three towns (including his) from the Newfound Area School District.

Hoiriis said it's true school property is not taxable, but any rental income they obtain would be. As for relocating into other district buildings, he said there is no free space.

“We do not have any unused, unoccupied space in any of our buildings, let alone one that would fit 12 to 15 employees who work in close proximity. There is little to no meeting space. Currently at 20 N. Main St., we have little to no meeting space. Most of our meetings as an SAU or any kind of outside meeting with anyone at the SAU, we often have to schedule at another location, at one of the buildings. We’ve even used the town police and fire department because they have a brand new building with some office and conference space.”

Hoiriis added that, before recommending the purchase to taxpayers, “we would want to make sure we have as much information for the public about the tax impact, about how much it costs to heat the building. I mean, as we get closer and closer, we’re going to have as many details as possible.”

The board, now down to four members with the loss of the three towns, voted unanimously “to move forward with the next steps” in pursuing the purchase.

The four-member board demonstrated the problem of having an even number of voting members when deciding whom to appoint to a newly established at-large school board position. Three candidates applied for the position, which is effective July 1. Two board members voted for one candidate and two members voted for another. They had to break for a non-public discussion before coming back and choosing Michele Lang of New Hampton.

Lang cited her experience as former president of the New Hampton Community School Parent-Teacher Organization, and her involvement with the Newfound Memorial Middle School Parent Teacher Community Organization, and noted she has a flexible schedule which will allow her to spend more time learning about educational issues.

“I think it’s important to provide our children — all of our children — with what they need to succeed,” she said. “And I understand that the budget is not an infinite number, and when we do go forward to looking at things for the children and for the schools, they can’t just get everything that you want.

"You have to look at the numbers and make it so that we’re not killing our townspeople by raising the rates every year.”

The other candidates for the position — Dana Torsey and Rev. Andrew Akers — also are from New Hampton.

Torsey noted he is an eighth-generation New Hampton resident, high school valedictorian, and a 42-year programmer-analyst at an aerospace manufacturing company. During that time, he also has built the family farm from 55.5 acres to 904 acres, and if he were not attending the meeting, he said, he would be home splitting wood.

“My last year [at the job], we shipped $48 million in aerospace parts,” Torsey said, “so I know how [to] have someone give me a problem and I can solve it.”

Akers said he attended New Hampton Community School starting at age 8, and graduated from Newfound Regional High School in 2004.

“I then went to school before I decided to take a job with Homeland Security,” he said. “I worked counterterrorism for about 10 years and, in that time, I joined the Army Reserve for eight years, where I was a military police officer.

"And then, when my spine decided to crap the bed, I got into security contracting and ran a desk. And then I retired from the federal government, and since then, I have been a minister, volunteering.”

The initial tie vote was between Lang and Torsey, and after choosing Lang as the at-large member serving until next March’s elections, Chair Melissa Suckling urged Torsey to apply for the at-large position on the Newfound Area School District Budget Committee.