Selectmen turn away from Morrill Park as Center Harbor police site

CENTER HARBOR — The Board of Selectmen, with the support of the Building Committee, has jettisoned the proposal to build a police station on a part of Morrill Park in favor of pursuing the project on a parcel on Whittier Highway (Route 25) just outside the village.

Last week the board announced that it had negotiated an option to purchase the three-acre parcel owned by Ann McCahan for $199,000. In a prepared statement, the selectmen said "although we feel Morrill is an excellent location for all the reasons stated at numerous public meetings before this, we felt the opportunity to purchase this property that could utilize all the time and effort spent on developing the facility made sense."

The decision followed a crowded public hearing at the fire station in October that signaled that the plan to build in the park deeply divided the community, lengthening the odds against securing the two-thirds majority vote at town meeting required to fund the actual construction project.

When the selectmen met with the Building Committee last night, Police Chief Mark Chase said the new site represented "an opportunity to bring us back together."

Selectman Charlie Hanson stressed that amid the controversy a park committee has been convened to pursue improvements like those incorporated in the earlier plan for the police station. "We shouldn't lose sight of that," he said.

Nevertheless, Dennis Schofield of Chase Circle, who is challenging the board's effort to change the terms of the original trust that established Morrill Park in Belknap County Probate Court, remained skeptical. "I'm not done with the park," he began. "I don't believe you'll let go of that."

Several speakers agreed with Barry Borella that "the park has become an expensive distraction," including Peter Louden of the Building Committee who said "we're in agreement here to drop the park as a potential site."

"I would be in favor of that and taking one option to the voters," said Richard Drenkhahn, who chairs the Selectboard. Selectmen Charles Hanson offered a motion to instruct town counsel to withdraw the probate court petition, which carried unanimously.

With that the issue turned to the proposal to construct a free-standing police station of 4,200 square feet, including a "sally port" of 500-square-feet and an equal amount of unfinished space, at an estimated cost of $1.3-million. Gary Goudreau of Davis & Goudreau Architects explained that the McCahan property would accommodate the building as designed without the need for significant changes.

Police Chief Mark Case suggested that the cost of the facility might be reduced by eliminating a training room, designed to double as a community room, and moving the lockers and showers downstairs. However, Goudreau said that the Building Committee sound residents before eliminating the community room.

Schofield was the first of several residents to question the project. "We're a little town," he began. "Not a big town like Meredith." He warned that if the town built a police station, "the only big thing we'll have is a big tax bill." New Hampton, he noted, spent less than $2-million to house three municipal departments.

Other speakers asked why the town complex could not be expanded. Goudreau replied that a police station would exhaust the remaining space, foreclosing any prospect of expanding the town offices or the fire station in the future. Chase said that the Building Committee weighed the option only to find that the construction of new space on what is the lawn in from the town offices and renovating the existing space would be more expensive than building a free-standing police station.