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‘The biggest need in the state’: Sununu pledges state ARPA funds toward county nursing home project

By Patrick Adrian and Jordan J. Phelan
EAGLE TIMES STAFF
CHARLESTOWN — Road infrastructure, housing growth, and state funding were among discussion topics on Thursday between the Charlestown community and Gov. Chris Sununu, who paid his first gubernatorial visit to the town.

Sununu ended a day-long visit in Sullivan County in Charlestown, where the three-term governor met with firefighters at the Charlestown Fire Department before dining with residents and local Rotarians at the Charlestown Rotary Club.

Approximately 70 Charlestown residents gathered in the town’s historic Old Town Hall for a special dinner hosted by the Charlestown Rotary to commemorate the governor’s visit.

After dinner Sununu gave a short speech to the community and took time to answer questions and issues of priority to residents.

“Overall the state is doing great,” Sununu said. “It’s not that we don’t have problems. We have to deal with mental health and the opioid crisis and some very serious issues. But overall the state is in really phenomenal shape.”

Sununu cited the state’s upward population and business growth and record revenues among the positive indicators.

“It’s really more money than we’ve ever had,” Sununu said. “So [the question] is how do we send that back to our cities and towns? How do we reinvest in one-time infrastructure? Or how do we pay down our [local] debts?”

The state must also consider how to best appropriate federal revenues allocated to New Hampshire through the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARPA) and the more recent Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, a $1 trillion spending bill that President Joe Biden signed into law last November.

Sullivan County residents may be relieved to learn that Sununu pledged to commit a portion of state’s ARPA money to aid the county’s nursing home, which is currently estimated to cost up to $58 million.

“Done,” Sununu told State Representative Terry Spilsbury (R-Charlestown).

The amount that the county will seek from the state, or what the state will improve is still undetermined, but Sununu said the state plans to earmark between $25 million to $50 million toward such projects and that Sullivan County’s nursing home “has the biggest need in the state.”

“We’re trying to get folks decentralized out of the central [residential care] system of New Hampshire and get care back in their county nursing homes,” Sununu said. “We are trying to put the expertise back in the counties, with residents closer to their families and communities.”

Last October the Sullivan County Delegation approved an appropriation of $55 million in funds toward the project, which the county will fund through a municipal bond and between $10 million and $12 million from its capital reserves and from federal and state revenues. The county is asking the state for aid to help close its funding gap.

Maintaining local roads was also a major topic of concern to Charlestown residents.

Many local roads have been heavily impacted by storms, as well as indirectly from the continuing closure of Route 12, which has diverted considerable traffic, including commercial vehicles onto Charlestown’s local roads, residents said.

“These backroads are getting destroyed,” said resident and business owner Thomas Cobb. “And our town is paying to fix those roads.”

Cobb noted that these roads are not eligible for reimbursement through FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency because the state did not designate these roads as an alternate route. Yet drivers are using these backroads anyway.

Resident Bob Beaudry told Sununu that maintaining these roads is costing Charlestown upward of four times what the town normally budgets.

“These roads just weren’t designed for [this use],” Beaudry said.

Sununu said there is money available to help communities in these circumstances, though the wait for federal money is often the major complicator. While federal money is anticipated from the federal infrastructure bill, that money has yet to be appropriated.

Other roads are eligible for reimbursement from FEMA, though the delay to receive those funds can sometimes take up to two years, Sununu said.

One solution, Sununu suggested, might be for the state to provide a zero-interest loan to communities awaiting FEMA reimbursement.

Sununu also discussed his proposed $100 million housing initiative, InvestNH, which aims to expedite new housing construction through grant incentives.

Sununu’s proposal includes $60 million in matching grant money for multi-family housing projects “that are ready to move quickly to the building stage”; $30 million to reward municipalities that approve building permits within six months of application; and $5 million in planning grants directly to cities and towns to update planning and zoning regulations.

The proposal also includes a $5 million grant to help municipalities demolish and remove vacant and dilapidated buildings.

The biggest barrier to new housing projects is not the lack of investor money, but having to clear the local process to get projects permitted and approved, Sununu explained.

These incentives “are basically first come, first serve,” Sununu said. “So if the town is too slow, or it takes six months or more than a year, they are not going to get that money.”

Sununu stressed the statewide need in New Hampshire for multi-family units and apartments, particularly affordable options to support low-to-moderate incomes, which include professional workers in vital industries such as education, healthcare and manufacturing.

New Hampshire communities also need to consider the changing living preferences of young adults, as trends continue to indicate a desire to rent instead of own homes.

In addition to Charlestown, Sununu made visits to Sunapee, Newport, Claremont, Goshen and Washington, where he toured businesses or learned about projects funded through the New Hampshire Land and Community Heritage Investment Program (LCHIP).

In an interview with the Eagle Times, Sununu said he is happy to be able to visit communities again, which was hampered considerably throughout the pandemic.

“The day was phenomenal,” Sununu told the Eagle Times. “Because of COVID, a lot of events haven’t been planned … but we are seeing positive signs [like today] that people are ready to move beyond COVID. We will continue to manage and monitor it at the state level, but I think we have built enough public trust in us to let them know if things need to change.”

Gabe St. Pierre, president of the Charlestown Rotary Club, said he was grateful to his community and the opportunity for Charlestown to receive the governor’s visit.

“We here are privileged in many ways, this visit among them, but most of all with the people who make up our community, [both] those here tonight and those others who work every day to add their piece to the puzzle of our society,” St. Pierre said. “This collective at our Old Town Hall showed the governor what and who we are made of: the place we call home and the people who make it a region on the rise.”

reporter @eagletimes.com

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