Sanbornton building project will upgrade many town departments

SANBORNTON — Residents recently gathered on Meeting House Hill and, with shovels in the earth, paid homage to the community’s past as they began creating its future.

For years the vibrant community had looked for ways to address safety and space in their town. Built in 1964, the structure at 573 Sanborn Road has served Sanbornton, first as the Fire Station and after the construction of the Life-Safety Building in 1986, as the Town Office building.

Sanbornton is a burgeoning community which has increased population substantially, leading to a need for a new town hall and police department. As with most small towns, needs sometimes fall to economic realities.

Over a period of more than 20 years as the need grew for an up-to-date police facility for Sanbornton, several efforts were made at town meetings and failed. After much research by the building construction committee, which met more than 60 times, a functional, workable, economical project was submitted at the town meeting in May of 2021 and accepted by a “yea” vote of 86%.

Within 5 months shovels were placed in the ground and construction scheduled.

The plan for the new building was a creative one. The addition of the new town office building will have an effect on numerous other departments. “It has a domino effect,” said Fire Chief Paul Dexter “recreation, welfare, assessors, police and fire departments all will be positively affected.”

Both police and fire presently share a building. The new construction will leave a fire department with more room in that building. Next door will become the police department as the present occupants of town offices move to the new town office building located on town property at Meeting House Hill situated behind the old town hall.

The new concrete police facility will provide substantial safety and security improvements and provide space for detainee processing, evidence storage and interview rooms. Sally ports will be fitted for secure transfer of detainees as well as storage items which currently have to go to private storage yards.

According to James Dick, selectman and member of the building construction committee, “with the ground breaking in mid-October, the projected completion of the new Town Office building should be in late spring 2022. Following that work will begin on the conversion of the new police department which should be finished in early spring 2023.”

Town Administrator Trish Stafford referred to the actions taken as “a major effort” on the part of all the involved residents.