By CHRIS FROST
Eagle Times News Editor
with staff reports
NEWPORT, NH — After years of deliberation, studies, votes, fundraising and preparation, Newport broke ground Thursday, Dec. 21, on a long-awaited community center.
The nearly $9 million dollar facility being built at the location of a former Little League field on Meadow Street will include offices, locker rooms, fitness and weight training space, classrooms, multipurpose spaces and a gymnasium with a suspended walking track.
Scheduled to have its soft opening in November and be fully operational in 2023, the center will replace a facility built more than 70 years ago as an armory.
Public hearing
On Monday, the town’s Board of Selectmen held a required public hearing for the $4.785 million USDA Rural Development Authority Grant which will fund more than half of the project.
Town Manager Paul J. Brown said the board has often talked about the grant — authorized by Congressionally Directed Spending and requested by Sen. Jeanne Shaheen — during past meetings.
“It got through the appropriations committee and then through the budget process and was approved,” Brown said. “We are working toward finalizing the documents for this.”
He said the grant will only be spent on building the community center.
“It’s just over 50 percent for the project,” he said.
The displaced Little League Field also received a donation, he said, which will start being developed in the spring.
“We applied for and are pretty confident about a State of New Hampshire Million Dollar Grant for community centers,” he said. “Originally, when it came out, it was for rehabilitation and remodeling.”
He said the former town manager called and discovered they added new buildings to the grant.
“They tailored it for us,” Brown said. “We’ve looked at some alternatives if, for any reason, that doesn’t come in.”
He added the construction cost is also funded by $156,000 from the Department of Homeland Security.
“That building will serve as our emergency operations center for emergency situations, like blizzards,” he said.
The construction can stop at any time without penalty, Brown said, so if funds started coming in slowly, they can adjust and go forward.
Pledges from private donors, cash on hand and a state grant make up the remaining funding.
Bert Spaulding Jr. asked about the current shortfall.
“I guess the $1 million commitment from the state is not guaranteed,” Brown answered. “When this was printed, $52,000 worth of donations were not received from pledges.”
“If you don’t get the funding, is there a Plan B,” Spaulding asked.
Brown admitted the board hasn’t had a full discussion about a Plan B.
“We have potential money coming in, and we would use that money if there was a need to use that,” Chair Barry Connell said.
Brown said a $1.1 million grant is coming through for workforce housing, which could be a fallback position.
Vice Chair James Burrows said they don’t want to go to the citizens and say, “we screwed up, and we need an extra amount of money.”
“That’s not the board’s position,” said Burrows. “Our intention has been since we decided to move forward that we are confident enough in the funding source as it’s been laid out to us. We’re guaranteed it, but we have to go through certain steps and processes to get the funding.”
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