By Patrick Adrian
EAGLE TIMES STAFF
NEWPORT — The bid to build a new community center in Newport survived its first test on Monday when residents authorized an amendment to increase the allowable funds to complete the project to nearly $8.7 million.
Approximately 102 residents at the town budget deliberation on Monday voted by a majority show of hands to amend the original warrant article for the proposed community center to increase the total project funding from $7,000,000 to $8,650,000 and to permit the Newport Selectboard to acquire a bond prior to raising the targeted matching funds in grants and donations.
Selectboard Chair Jeffrey Kessler, who motioned the amendment, said the changes to the article were necessary on two fronts.
Increasing the total funding was needed to meet the current estimated cost, which has increased significantly from the town’s estimate last year, Kessler explained.
The selectboard also wanted the ability to acquire a bond sooner than later, as interest rates are expected to increase in the future. The original article’s language prevented the board from pursuing a bond until securing the funding portion sought in donations and grants.
The amendment does not increase the taxpayer’s portion of the project, which would still cover up to $4 million of the cost, according to Kessler. Private donations and grants will cover the remainder.
“[The project] may not be $8.7 million,” Kessler told residents. “But it’s definitely going to be more than the $7 million we thought it would be a year ago.”
The target of $8.7 million was a “worst case assumption” targeted by the town study committee, based on increase in construction costs since the start of the pandemic, Kessler added. Should the actual project cost less than projected, the town would retire the bond sooner to reduce the impact on the taxpayers.
Some opponents to the project said this amendment increased their worry about the tax impact, particularly in the event that the town falls short in meeting its goal in outside funding.
“It seems extremely irresponsible to me to start a project and know the future at this time,” said Heidi North, a resident and owner of Newport Fitness & Spa. “Taking inflation into consideration, wouldn’t it be responsible to wait?”
North, along with other opponents to the proposal, cited taxes as a primary concern, noting that voters in March approved a 20-year bond to renovate Newport’s Sugar River Valley Regional Technical Center.
Newport resident Daniel Pitta, a supporter of the project, countered a claim that private facilities could meet the community needs in the absence of a new recreation center, saying that the promise of a new facility in Newport was one of the reasons he sought to move to the town.
“I see so many things that could be done with the [proposed] center that can’t be done with the current rec center,” Pitta said. “Things that I have traveled all over the country to go to because I couldn’t get them where I lived.”
Pitta, who is opening a mixed martial arts gym in Newport, said he does not see this proposed center as competition. Rather, having a variety of recreational resources tends to attract more people to the community, which benefits many businesses, including Pitta’s own.
Supporters of the project also warned that failing to amend the article would equate to further “kicking the can down the road.”
Had the original article gone to voters in May, the town would have had to return to the voters in 2023 to request the remaining funding, Kessler said. That delay to bidding the project and starting construction could potentially increase the cost further.
Newport School Board member Burt Spaulding, a supporter of the project, said that scenario might also cause residents to be wary of supporting the proposal.
“I’m not going to buy the horse and pay more the next time,” Spaulding said. “It has to be packaged correctly and done so that it is complete and understandable by the voters so they can make a good decision.”
Complicating the vote could also impact the town’s fundraising from private donors. The town has previously received over $1.7 million in cash donations and pledges toward the project, though some individuals and groups have told town officials they may have to withdraw those pledges if the project does not get voter approval this year.
The current center, located at 65 Belknap Ave., is nearly 100 years old, requires substantial rehabilitation and is too small to accommodate many of the community’s needs.
The proposed center would be twice the square footage as the existing facility and be located at Meadow Park, if voters approved the article on Tuesday, May 10.
reporter @eagletimes.com
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