Planning commission partners with Tapply-Thompson Community Center for expansion

BRISTOL — The Lakes Region Planning Commission is collaborating with the Tapply-Thompson Community Center and the town in developing a master plan for the center’s new property at 90 Lake St., and the adjacent Kelley Park.

Center Director Leslie Dion told the Bristol Selectboard on April 2 that including Kelley Park in the planning will benefit both the town-owned park and the new facility, tentatively to include a gymnasium, program space, and senior center.

Dion said Tim Andrews, who works on brownfields environmental site assessment and cleanup projects with Nobis Engineering, of Concord, and Mark Westa, a senior landscape architect with Environmental Design & Research, of Portsmouth, will be able to assist “through their grant money, so it won’t cost us anything for us to collaborate on it.”

While helping to develop plans to renovate buildings on property that formerly served as Prescott Lumber Company, Parkhurst & Company hardware store, and most recently as Kathleen’s Cottage Irish restaurant, Dion said they would have “more of a master plan for our property, as well as how that can benefit Kelley Park, which we would be all about anyway, because we use Kelley Park, and it’s been a good relationship back and forth.”

The group from LRPC toured the property and discussed potential uses, and now they are looking for a joint meeting with the town in June.

“We’ll retire into one of the areas in there, and they’ll talk about, OK, what does the community want to see in a building like this? Because we want to make sure we get plenty of feedback from the community so that we’re supported,” Dion said. “So far, we’ve had incredible support toward the project, but now we want to know what does the community need the most for us to include in that building, and with Kelley Park.”

TTCC leaders were able to purchase the Lake Street property through a “generous donation,” and Dion said they also received $1.5 million in federal funding directed by Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), as well as receiving confirmation of another $1 million, directed by Rep. Maggie Goodlander (D-NH).

“We have not seen the paperwork yet, but hopefully, we just applied for another $1 million from Shaheen,” she said.

Dion said she and Assistant Director Dan MacLean had been touring other community centers for ideas, including Newport’s new facility.

“They have a baseball field right there by their center, and they built their concession, their kitchen in their building, so that it serves from the park side, and then it serves for their gym side, which was really efficient. Dan and I were both impressed with that.

“The other piece that I’ve been thinking about with Kelley Park is, if we had bathrooms at that end of the building as well, the bathrooms would be available whenever the center is open, instead of what we have now, where we can’t leave them open all the time. So that would kind of be a win-win for all of us.”

TTCC staff intend to continue offering programs at its current location, a former Methodist Church on North Main Street, but the new facility will enable the center to expand its offerings to the community.

Prior to purchasing the Lake Street property, TTCC leaders bought a parcel of land at 171 North Main. Dion said, when they were working on a design for the property, “what came of that was ... we wouldn’t have enough parking there ... and we really wanted to be on the park. So we had talked to Dead River, we talked to everybody along that stretch, to see if anybody was ready to move on. And this happened to come up — it took a few years, but it happened to come together.”

They were able to sell the North Main Street lot to an abutter.

Selectboard members asked about efforts to preserve the historical buildings on the Lake Street site.

“Everything is on the table,” Dion said. “When this group walked it, they were starting to get concerned about the setbacks ... whether keeping that building would infringe on using that setback area, that area of our building. As you know, I’ve said many times publicly that I’d be all for keeping it. Some of the board agrees with that.

“I’ve been told repeatedly, you can’t put it out there that that’s going to happen until we have all of this feedback, and see what’s going to happen. No guarantee, but at least the goal [would be to preserve what we can]. Another thing that was thrown out was that, if we can’t keep that building, that we use those bricks for a walkway in memory of the building. But I’d have to leave everything on the table.

“The company that we met with, he was all about historical buildings. So he was like, ‘Oh, this is amazing. This would be great to keep.’ Yes, somebody in my corner.”

As to what the new facility might contain, “The No. 1 thing people have said they want is a pool. It’s impossible,” Dion said. “We’ve talked to the other rec departments that have just built centers; that was the same thing in their communities, and it’s just not feasible. Very nice, yeah, [but] very expensive.”

As for the alternative, providing a splash pad, “Newmarket put in a pretty decent-sized splash pad, and they have it open to anyone from anywhere. And they don’t charge, because if they charged, it opens them up to the liability. But what I learned was they have to test it every four hours ... and so it changed everything.”