Proposed Public Works building along Hawkins Brook clears Zoning Board

MEREDITH — Town plans for a $7.6 million, 13,100-square-foot Public Works operations building along Hawkins Brook have cleared the Zoning Board of Adjustment.

The board approved two special exceptions for the project last week, one to permit construction within the wetland resource buffer, and the other to permit a subsurface stormwater chamber system within the buffer.

A condition of the approval requires the town to hire a “habitat professional” to design plantings along the bank of the brook, Town Manager Phil Warren said. The plantings will need to be in place before a certificate of occupancy is issued.

Warren said the town is awaiting additional approval from the state.

Companies will bid on the building project by early December, and a builder will be selected about a month later, Warren said.

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A date for the start of construction has not been set yet.

Voters approved the project at 11 Jenness Hill Road.

The Meredith Conservation Commission had expressed concern about potential effects on the brook, which dumps into Meredith Bay after flowing alongside the recently constructed Laverack Nature Trail.

Engineers say the project actually has the potential for helping the brook, compared to the current situation at the site.

Stormwater will be collected for treatment. Paved areas will be sloped toward catchment basins, where sediments can settle. The water would then pass through the “Downstream Defender,” essentially a large swirling manhole that captures and retains sediments, oil and trash. From there it would go into a subsurface system that would provide a third round of filtration and settling.