Rep. Hough seeks City Council support for State School bill

LACONIA — A Laconia state legislator urged the City Council to support his bill that calls for the repeal of a portion of a rider to the state budget which deals with the sale of the state-owned Laconia State School complex.

State Rep. Gregg Hough asked for the council’s support at Monday’s council meeting, just three days before the House Public Works Committee is due to take up the bill.

The hearing on the bill is scheduled for Thursday at 9:30 a.m. in Room 201-203 of the Legislative Office Building.

Gregg has said the bill — HB 1032 — would give the city its best opportunity to have input on the sale of the long-idle complex which consists of 17 buildings spread over approximately 250 acres of land, some of it undeveloped.

Since 2017 a volunteer panel has worked to prepare the property so it could be offered for sale to a private developer. But last year Gov. Chris Sununu short-circuited that process by putting a rider into the state budget to engage a real estate firm to find someone willing to buy the property as-is “with all its faults.”

Hough told the council the seven-member Lakeshore Redevelopment Planning Commission did not have much to show for its efforts during the past four years.

“This has been in place since 2017 and since then the needle hasn’t moved. It hasn’t gone anywhere,” Hough said.

In response, Mayor Andrew Hosmer said the work the commission has done — removal of hazardous materials, land surveys, and charting of wetlands — had “enhanced the value of the property.”

Hough said if the council had suggestions on how the language of his bill could be improved he would be willing to consider them as amendments.

Hosmer told Hough he was puzzled that Hough was only now coming to the council.

“To get a bill passed takes a lot of work, to build a coalition, and now you’re saying, ‘Help me,’” Hosmer said.

The mayor said the delegation was silent on the State School issue when the budget and the rider — called the trailer bill — were being debated in the Legislature.

But Hough answered back that neither Hosmer nor anyone on the council had reached out to him and asked for his help.

He acknowledged that his bill, which has no co-sponsors, is a long shot. But regardless, it was a “place keeper” which he felt would improve the city’s chances of having some input in any forthcoming sale of the property.

“We have a chance, maybe, to do something,” he said.

In October the Executive Council approved a contract with CBRE, a major commercial real estate brokerage firm, to market the property.

In approving the contract, the council passed a resolution calling on the broker to work collaboratively with the Laconia City Council, including presenting any bona fide offers to the council before presenting them to the Executive Council. In addition the resolution says the broker should meet with the Lakeshore Commission during the marketing process.

The resolution was offered by Executive Councilor Joe Kenney after twice meeting with the City Council.

City Council Bob Soucy asked Hough if he had discussed his bill with Kenney, and Hough said he had not.

Hough’s bill is one of two related to the State School site which will be heard Thursday. The other would exclude the property where the 9-1-1 call center, and the Lakes Region Mutual Fire Aid dispatch center are located.

That bill is scheduled for a hearing starting at 10:30 a.m., also before the Public Works Committee.

After Hough’s presentation, Councilor Bruce Cheney, said he considered passage of that bill more critical because of the cost involved should the two emergency call centers have to move in the event the land where the building sits at 50-67 Communication Drive was sold to a private developer.

“Moving 9-1-1 is more in the $10 million range,” said Cheney who formerly headed the state’s 9-1-1 agency. “If he’s concerned about effect on taxpayers, he (Hough) better support that bill.”