By Patrick Adrian [email protected]
BELLOWS FALLS, Vt. — An educational nonprofit group from New Hampshire is interested in acquiring the longstanding but deteriorating former church and YMCA building at 66 Atkinson St., which is still being considered for demolition by the town.
Northern Heritage Mills, a STEM-centered educational organization based in the Claremont area, has communicated interest to Rockingham Town Manager Scott Pickup in acquiring 66 Atkinson St. from the town as a future center for engineering programs for young women.
The organization’s Young Women in Engineering program, now in its twelfth year, engages female students in middle and high school in hands-on engineering workshops, with projects ranging from bridge building to remote-controlled sailboats.
Gerry Demuro, president of Northern Heritage Mills, said the lack of women entering the sciences and engineering fields results from a lack of opportunities to develop an interest at an early age.
“We need to do something in our region to bring more women into the sciences and engineering,” said Gerry Demuro, president of Northern Heritage Mills. “Our workshops have been very successful [in engaging students].”
The interest in 66 Atkinson St. may initially seem strange without context. A town inspection in October 2018 found the building to be structurally unsafe, with failing roof trusses, the second floor ceiling on the verge of collapse and heavy slate roof shingles that are coming loose and falling to the ground.
The owner, Chris Glennon, purchased the building for $1 with the intent to restore the 186-year-old building but failed to deliver. The town, which has spent about $20,000 to date in legal fees and public safety measures, is in the final steps to take ownership of the property.
But contrary to public knowledge, Northern Heritage Mills has been involved and interested in 66 Atkinson St. for three years. Demuro said his organization even lent Glennon tools and equipment to assist Glennon’s restoration plan.
The reason Rockingham officials are only now learning about Northern Heritage Mills’ interest is because Glennon, despite numerous meetings with the Rockingham Selectboard, never mentioned them.
“He didn’t give us a heads up or keep us in the loop about [his situation],” Demuro said. “Which is unfortunate because we might have been able to help.”
Unlike Glennon’s plan, Northern Heritage Mills does not intend to keep 66 Atkinson St. on site. Instead the organization would dismantle the building in sections and rebuild the building, with full renovation, on a separate property, most likely in Sullivan County or North Walpole.
Demuro, a certified preservation contractor, said the renovated building will be retro-built to run entirely on green sustainable energy.
“This includes solar, wind and steam-generated electric [with] wood chips from managed local forests,” Demuro said. “We also have a Pelton Water Turbine for hydroelectric development [which] can be generated by water over one mile away.”
This project, assuming a viable plan and agreement are reached, could be a win-win for all parties, Demuro said. The saving of a beautiful piece of historical architecture would be a “wonderful symbol” of the fruits cultivated from engineering and sciences. And residents of Rockingham would be able to still feel a sense of ownership over the building.
Rockingham would also inherit a lot for useful development while unburdening itself of a major safety hazard.
But time may be a central obstacle.
Town officials on Tuesday said they would be interested to hear Northern Heritage Mills’ proposal but they need to make a decision in the fall about whether to demolish the building.
“I think we will be very hard pressed to get through another winter with some sort of catastrophic failure,” Pickup said.
Any plan would require being able to stabilize the building before winter, parties said.
Demuro said the organization “isn’t even off the ground yet” as far as its proposed plan, as Demuro and Pickup only initiated the conversation three weeks ago.
The organization will expectedly seek partners on this project to create a viable funding plan, Demuro added. In addition to a plan to acquire and deconstruct 66 Atkinson St., the organization will need to acquire a property to renovate and house the building.
“We are going to try to put something together,” Demuro said. “Taking the building down is the first step.”
To learn more about Northern Heritage Mills, including its Young Women in Engineering workshops and programs, visit their website at northernheritagemills.org.
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