State school redevelopment panel seeks waiver in effort to apply for $1M grant

LACONIA — A panel that is working to redevelop the former Laconia State School property is asking for a waiver so it can qualify for a special grant of up to $1 million.

The Lakeshore Redevelopment Planning Commission voted Monday to authorize the Lakes Region Planning Commission to apply for a waiver so it can seek a grant from the Northern Border Regional Commission. The latter group is a federal-state partnership for economic and community development within the most distressed counties of New Hampshire and three other states that border Canada.

The Lakeshore Commission has been pinning its hopes on getting up to $1 million to help pay for the construction of new water and sewer lines on the 235-acre State School property. The grant would require the state to kick in the same amount toward the project.

The waiver is being sought because the Northern Border Commission recently dropped Laconia from the list of communities that qualified for funding because the city did not meet the poverty threshold. However, communities can receive a waiver if they can show a project will be an economic benefit to nearby communities that are considered sufficiently distressed.

Economic consultant Russ Thibeault, who is working with the Lakes Region Planning Commission to prepare the waiver request, said Laconia missed the poverty threshold by several tenths of a percentage point. Thibeault, who runs Applied Economic Research in Laconia, said redevelopment of the old State School property would create 660 on-site jobs, with an additional 170 jobs in other local locations.

The waiver request must be submitted within a week.

All six Lakeshore commissioners who attended the meeting via teleconference voted to apply for the waiver.

In other business, Commission Vice-Chairman Bob Cheney said work is due to begin Wednesday on a survey of hazardous materials in the 28 buildings that once made up the State School complex. Cheney said an environmental testing and consulting firm will be looking for the presence of any hazardous substance, but principally asbestos, mold, lead paint, and PCBs. He said the first building to be inspected would be a warehouse that sits close to North Main Street/Route 106.