By BOB MARTIN
Eagle Times Staff
The Sullivan County Commissioners unanimously voted to accept a strategic planning grant involving the county looking into replacing or repairing drinking water tanks, as well as a donation of photographs from a local photographer intended to beautify the walls of the nursing home.
At their March 3 meeting, the commissioners voted 3-0 to accept a Department of Environmental Services (DES) grant of $30,000 for strategic planning for replacing drinking water tanks, which requires a $15,000 match.
“Currently in this year’s annual budget we have $75,000 that was allotted for a broader scope of evaluating and potentially designing a solution for repair and replacement of our drinking water tanks,” said Facilities Director Mary Bourque. “This helps us get started and provides some money toward the first phase of that.”
Bourque said that the tanks are the size of “two good sized swimming pools,” at about eight feet deep. She said this is phase one of the scope that was approved in the budget, and this takes into effect that there is now $30,000 from the state to go toward work that was already planned.
Commissioner Bennie Nelson said there are two cement ponds for drinking water storage covered by a wooden building, which he called “less than ideal.”
“We are looking into other solutions,” Nelson said. “We have water from our wells that we pump into these storage facilities, and we are looking into a better storage facility.”
The commissioners also voted 3-0 to accept three photographs from Washington based photographer Monica Scanlan that will be put on display in the Sullivan County Nursing Home.
“We put out a solicitation for proposals for artwork last fall,” Bourque said. “We received a couple proposals for that, which we enacted on and bought a few pieces. What it really did leave was our creativity and sourcing for the bulk of what we needed for the building.”
Bourque reached out to local and regional photographers to use their digital images. In some cases, they purchased digital files or prints, but Scanlan also donated images to be used, as well.
“She gave us the option of about seven or eight digital images, and we selected three images to be used,” Bourque said.
One of the images was the home of the Washington Historical Society. When it was built in 1849 it was the model one-room schoolhouse cited by the N.H. Board of Education, and it essentially looks exactly the same as it did when it closed in 1938.
The second photograph is called “Sleigh Ride with You,” and depicts a couple in East Washington venturing out for a sleigh ride after an early snowfall.
The third photograph is of a sawmill in Washington that was built in 1982 on the foundation of an earlier mill, using 200-year-old materials to create an authentic building equipped with a century old steam engine.
“These three images depicting life in Washington will be used in the facility,” Bourque said. “We want to publicly recognize Monica and thank her for donating images.”
Commissioner Joe Osgood said this will really dress up the facility, and Bourque agreed, adding that there is plenty of photography that will be gracing the nursing home that reflect being from the local area.
“We’re really excited that we’ve been able to find different pieces,” Bourque. “Even if it is not directly one of the towns in Sullivan County, it is close by.”
