PWAAB endorses Water Street launch site

The Public Water Access Advisory Board (PWAAB) yesterday unanimously recommended that the New Hampshire Fish & Game Department (NHF&G) proceed with plans to construct a trailered boat launch on Water Street in Laconia.

After outlining the project to the board, Lee Perry, executive director of the NHF&G, said that expenditures will be required to move beyond the conceptual stage and asked for the board's endorsement of the undertaking. Calling the proposed site "a win-win situation," Chairman Allen MacNeil agreed, reminding the board that "they're going to spend some money down there."

The plan for the facility, which was first unveiled last month, calls for the boat launch and parking spaces to be built on about 2 acres of land along the Winnipesaukee River on Water Street between the Boulia—Gorrell Lumber Company and the Winnipesaukee River Basin Project (WRBP). The boat launch would be supported by 37 parking spaces for vehicles and trailers — two of them handicapped accessible — and four spaces for "cartops" (canoes and kayaks) — one of them handicapped accessible. The capacity of the facility matches that of the launch site built by the state at Newfound Lake.

John Cowan of the North East Bass Association of New Hampshire said that since sponsors of fishing tournaments have agreed with the NHF&G not to use more than half the available capacity of state launching facilities, the number of spaces should be sufficient, even when demand is at its peak.

The ramp itself would be 30 feet wide, equal to three car widths, and set into the riverbank at an angle, enabling boats to launch with the current flowing into Lake Winnisquam. Sheathed by concrete bulkheads, the ramp would be joined to concrete retaining walls on either side to hold the riverbank in place.

The site would be lit by overhead lamps and equipped with restroom facilities. Rich Tichko of the NHF&G said that to reduce the risks and costs of vandalism, the department would most likely contract for portable toilets.

Most of the facility would occupy a 1.4 acre parcel owned by the city, which the Department of Public Works uses to store materials and equipment. The plan calls for the city to transfer the property to the state in return for the cost of constructing new storage facilities on another tract of municipally owned land.

The remainder of the property required would be carved out of 4.4 acres, owned by the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services (DES), where the WRBP has its headquarters. Several buildings on the DES parcel, which are scheduled for demolition, would be removed to make way for the launch facility. Moreover, DES would also contribute a strip of land along Water Street to provide more parking spaces and a turnaround area for vehicles with "cartops," which can be launched from the foot of Water Street.

The facility would be open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, except during the winter months. City Councilor Fred Toll (Ward 3) explained to the board that ice fishermen have traditionally used Bartlett Beach, which is owned by the city but open to the general public, along with the south beach at Ahern State Park, to set out bob houses.

Jacquie Colburn of DES advised the board that a 2,000 gallon underground fuel storage tank on the Boulia-Gorrell property, which was drained and filled in 1997, did leak into the groundwater. However, she said that readings from six monitoring wells have not recorded detectable levels of contamination on the site of the launch facility.

Fred McGarry, chief engineer of the Waste Management Division of DES, indicated that significant contamination of the site was unlikely and that, if necessary, any remedial action would be relatively inexpensive. In any case, McGarry pointed out that the responsibility for any remedial measures rested with Boulia-Gorrell, the source of the original pollution.

Perry assured the board that he was "quite optimistic that this is a workable project," adding that coordinating the land transfers and demolition work made it "complex in terms of what to be done." But, he stressed it is a "cooperative project," that enjoys the support of the city and the WRBP.

Perry ventured that the project could be completed before next winter. In the meantime, he said that the NHF&G would work with other state and local officials to ensure that Ralph Langevin, owner of Martel's Sport Shop on Winnisquam Avenue, was able to keep his ramp open until the new facility was built.

In August, Langevin closed his ramp, the last open to the general public on Lake Winnisquam, out of frustration with the reluctance of state and local officials to assist with the traffic problems at and around his store. Only after Governor Craig Benson said he would do "everything in my power" to ensure a public launch site was built "within a year," did Langevin reopen his ramp.