Surplus to pay for county complex roof

By ROGER AMSDEN, LACONIA DAILY SUN

LACONIA — The Belknap County Delegation has approved repurposing of $605,000 from the $8 million bond issue for a Community Corrections Center to put a new roof on the 97,000-square-foot Belknap County Complex and replace windows at the Belknap County Courthouse.

The action came at a Wednesday morning meeting at which the delegation also approved using $290,810 from the county's fund balance to make up a shortfall in revenues.

The vote to repurpose the bond funds required a two-thirds vote and was supported unanimously by the delegation.

“It's time to fix that roof,” said Delegation Chairman Herb Vadney (R-Meredith) who said that he wanted to make certain that proper procedures had been followed which would allow the bond funds to be repurposed.

County Commission Chairman Dave DeVoy (R-Sanbornton) said that the county received a certificate of substantial completion of the building project from SMP Architecture of Concord Tuesday, which will allow the county to repurpose the excess funds from the bond issue for the roof project.

He said the county’s bond counsel, attorney Renelle L. L’Huillier of the Devine Millimet law firm of Manchester, told county officials that the certificate was needed in order to clear the way for the proposed repurposing of the funds.

Commissioners plan to use $540,000 for the re-shingling the 97,000-square-foot roof over the county complex and $65,000 to replace the courthouse windows.

Adam Downs of Bauen Construction, which is overseeing the Community Corrections Center project, said that the same contractor who put the roof on the center will be used and that the architect who developed the plans will be working with Bauen to ensure that the new roof has the correct materials and will be properly installed.

He said that the work will proceed on a section by section basis so that differences in the roof's original construction can be identified and dealt with.

The vote on using the fund balance to make up for the budget shortfall had been suggested by the state's Department of Revenue Administration after it had received a letter from the Belknap County Commissioners regarding the MS-40 form submitted by the delegation which included as revenue $290,810 from HB 413, which will not be forthcoming as no funds were appropriated by the legislature.

The $27.4 million budget approved by the delegation included a revenue of $290,810 from HB 413, which would have seen the state pay 15 percent of the retirement costs for certain categories of local and county employees.

The revenue was included in a budget prepared by Rep. Marc Abear (R-Meredith) which was adopted by a 9-6 vote of the delegation. But funds were never appropriated by the legislature for the bill, which was retained in committee.