State School panel issues contract for economic analysis

LACONIA — A local planning consultant has been hired to help prepare analyses related to efforts to redevelop the former Laconia State School property.

The Lakeshore Redevelopment Commission on Monday approved a contract with Applied Economic Research of Laconia to provide economic impact reports and other related services. The maximum cost of the studies is $40,000, according to the contract, which was approved on a unanimous vote.

One of the services called for in the contract is preparing an economic impact analysis and related information to be part of the commission’s application to the Northern Borders Regional Commission for grant funding. The commission has described these matching grant funds as critical to making the infrastructure improvements –  especially new water and sewer lines – to the redevelopment of the 235-acre site.

Northern Borders, a federal-state partnership concerned with economic and community development in parts of New Hampshire, Maine, Vermont, and New York, issues individual grants of up to $1 million a year, which must be met by a 50/50 match.

But in an unforeseen development, commission Vice Chairman Robert Cheney told the meeting that Laconia is not on the latest list of Belknap County communities eligible to receive grant money. However, he said the commission would look into applying for a waiver on the grounds that other Lakes Region communities which are still on the list would benefit economically from the redevelopment.

The other areas of the Applied Economic Research contract are:

• Updating the economic impact analysis on state and local economies as shown in the commission’s strategic planning report.

• Preparing an initial draft of a financial plan for implementing the commission’s redevelopment master plan and addressing the funding needs to implement infrastructure improvements.

• Assisting the commission or its successor in preparing annual capital budgets for the two-year budget cycle beginning July 1, 2021.

In other business, Cheney said a bill which would provide operating money for the commission for two years, along with $500,000 to match grant funding, has passed the House and will be sent over to the Senate at the end of the month.

State Rep. Peter Spanos, the bill’s sponsor and a member of the commission, said, “We were fortunate to get the $500,000 for the match” considering that projected state revenues have fallen short.

Another bill, which would create a Lakeshore Redevelopment Planning Authority that would replace the commission on July 1, is expected to come up for a vote in the state Senate this week. However, the amount of bonding the authority would be allowed to issue under the bill was slashed from $10 million to $2 million.

“We are going to need more money than that,” Cheney said. Additional funds would have to be sought from the Legislature in the future, he said.

The House is expected to take up the authority bill starting sometime in April, when bills which originate in the Senate are transferred over to the House for action.