Susan Price: Vote yes to preserve senior meals in Moultonborough

To The Daily Sun,

I ask you to vote yes on Article 7 at the Moultonborough Town Meeting Saturday, May 14. Article 7 will raise and appropriate $865,000 to build an addition onto the Moultonborough Function Hall for a commercial kitchen, secure food storage and office area from which the senior meals program may operate. This is a long overdue project, worthy of your tax dollars, but has many asking, from where did that number come?

Initial costs were derived from the town’s chosen contractor’s (CCI's) Budget Summary Spreadsheet that CCI provided in 2018 outlining costs to construct an addition to, and renovation of, the former Lion’s Club building. Current CCI estimates suggest $350 per square foot as adequate. Article 7’s cost estimate is buffered at $400 (x 1,500 square feet), to allow for inflationary cost pressures, a new septic system ($50,000), kitchen design ($25,000), gas/plumbing connections ($40,000), new well (if needed, $60,000), ventilation/sprinkler ($30,000), and landscape/paving allowance ($60,000).

Article 7 errs on the side of sufficient, rather than insufficient, funds in order to complete. Nothing within Article 7 requires that we spend the entire amount, and nothing within the article obligates us to any particular construction method. This is a simple slab-on-grade rectangle that may be perfectly suited to less expensive building methods (steel structure or modular).

Donna Grow, her senior meals team and our seniors have been waiting over 12 years for our town to address the kitchen issues. This is the first time a commercial kitchen proposal has not been inextricably linked to a repeatedly failed multi-million warrant article. At 24 cents per $1,000 property valuation Article 7 is less than $100 for most homeowners and does not require us to borrow funds at ever increasing interest rates. It’s one and done. Please vote yes to preserve this program for our seniors.

Susan Price

Moultonborough