Belmont Village building owner protesting closing of Mill Street

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‘If we don’t . . . we’ll be sitting in the grandstand a few years from now wondering why’— Councilor Bob Hamel
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LACONIA — A majority of the City
Council has agreed to supplement the
School District’s capital campaign by providing sufficient funding to include the
construction of six science laboratories and
the reconfiguration of the athletic playing
fields in the expansion and renovation of
the Huot Regional Technical Education
Center at the High School. Councilors are
expected to consider the amount and terms
of the borrowing required when they meet
Monday night.
“Now is the opportunity to do this project,” Councilor Bob Hamel (Ward 5) said
yesterday, noting that it was the last project to receive school building aid from the
state before a moratorium was declared. “
We should do it right. For the extra money
we have to invest, it will be worth it. “
School Superintendent Bob Champlin
said yesterday that assuming the ongoing capital campaign raises $1-million, the
available funding for the project would be
approximately $813,000 shy of the most
recent estimated cost of $16.6-million.
The Bank of New Hampshire has contributed $250,000 to the capital campaign and
in return the all-weather turf stadium will
bear its name. Other corporate contribusee LHs page 7
Belmont
village
building
owner
protesting
closing of
Mill Street
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THE LACONIA DAILY SUN
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Left to right, Sofia Spanos and her brother Carey Spanos, of the Shalimar Resort, check out “Around Tilton,” a pictorial history compiled by
Bonnie Randall, Dennis Evans and Carol Stone. The book went on sale earlier this month. (Laconia Daily Sun photo/Adam Drapcho)
‘Around Tilton’ believed to be first
book to chronicle township’s history
By AdAm drApcho
THE LACONIA DAILY SUN
TILTON — While all three town residents
Bonnie Randall, Carol Stone and Dennis Evans
came to Tilton “from away,” they might have
earned honorary native status by compiling a pictorial history of the town, published along with
well-researched captions. “Around Tilton”, published by Arcadia Publishing, was released earlier
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this month and its authors believe it is the only
printed history of the township in existence.
“Around Tilton”, with 211 photographs contained within 128 pages, sells for $21.99 and can
be found at Mansfield’s Books and More, Bryant
and Lawrence True Value Hardware, Walgreen’s
or at the Hall Memorial Library. The authors will
also be selling and signing books at several public
see tILtON page 6
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BELMONT — Selectmen
will discuss the timeline
surrounding the village
revitalization project at the
regular meeting Monday
night with an eye to holding a special Town Meeting
in August to determine the
future of Mill Street.
The proposed project recommends Mill Street be
closed from Main Street
down and a new access to
the historic mill be constructed on the site of the
existing municipal parking
lot on the north side of the
library.
Only Town Meeting can
close a road and, with the
project scheduled to begin
in mid-July, voters need to
approve the road closure.
One abutters is not happy
see BELMONt page 6
Union Ave, Laconia
Route 3, Meredith
Press “I Have a Code”
Enter 12348
May not be combined with other discounts. Expires 12/31/12.
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Page 6 — THE LACONIA DAILY SUN, Saturday, June 23, 2012
Belmont voters will go a special Town Meeting in August to decide whether to discontinue Mill Street (background, right) in the village as
part of a revitalization project. The owner of the commercial building in the foreground says the move will devalue his property. (Laconia
Daily Sun photo/Ed Engler)
BELMONT from page one
with the proposed road closure.
Peter McGrath, an attorney for Bill and Carolyn
McDonough, the owners of the former Northway
Bank building on Main Street that is now home to
The Vault , a hair salon, said closing Mill Street will
diminish the value of his clients property by a minimum of $80,000.
He noted the removal of the street would eliminate
the existing handicapped entrance for the lower portion of the building.
He enclosed a memorandum from Pete Duval of a
DUVALTEAM Real Estate in Concord that said the
loss of the seven parking spots on Mills Street, and
the loss of visibility to the office suits on the Mill
Street side of the property lower the rent and resale
value of the property.
Selectman Ron Cormier yesterday said the town
had tried twice to purchase the building from the
former owners and twice the voters rejected the
warrant article — once by a margin of nine votes.
The approximately $1.5-million project entails
the reconstruction of Main, Mill, Center, Fuller and
Sargent Streets and will involve reclamation and
remediation of the pavement and sidewalks, the
replacement of the water system, and landscaping,
lighting and sidewalks.
Cormier said the bids will be opened Tuesday
afternoon by the engineering firm of Hoyle, Tanner
and Associates, Inc. who will review them for completeness and accuracy and move the qualifying
ones on to selectmen for the official award.
Cormier said the project is funded by a combination of U.S. Department of Agriculture Community Development Block Grant, the N.H. Revolving
Fund and money accrued by the town in highway
improvement reserve funds from local taxes and the
highway block grant.
TILTON from page one
appearances. They were at the Shalimar Resort in
Winnisquam on Wednesday and they’ll be signing
books at Old Home Day on Saturday from 1 to 3
p.m., at Mansfield’s on June 29 from 4 to 5 p.m., the
Tilton Inn on July 7 from 6 to 9 p.m., and at other
locations later this summer.
The photographs illustrate the early years of the
town, which broke away from Sanbornton in 1869
and was named in honor of the family of Charles E.
Tilton, a benefactor of the town who provided the
Town Hall and many of the statues and monuments
that townspeople know so well.
In the photographs are glimpses of an earlier way
of life, such as a herd of cattle laying down for a rest
on Main Street, their driver standing idly by. Train
travel and automobiles are documented in the book,
as are train collisions and vehicle accidents. One
photo shows the cable-drawn ferry that predated
the Winnisquam Bridge. In another picture, of the
Tilton Free Camp Grounds, a sign reads “No Gypsies Allowed,” although the captions reports that
none were turned away.
“Around Tilton” also details historic town homesteads, industry and institutions such as the seminary,
New Hampshire Veterans Home and the Tilton School.
It took the team several months and countless
hours to complete the project. Despite the effort,
each of the trio of authors reported the project to be
quite rewarding. Randall found it satisfying to mine
archives when compiling captions, and in doing so,
correct some urban myths about the provenance of
local landmarks. “The research was a great deal of
fun for me,” she said.
Stone’s favorite part of the book project was, “Meeting everyone who gave up their pictures. Meeting
the older generation who shared their history, that’s
the joy for me, what a gift they gave us.”
And for Evans, the project was a chance to explore
the unique history of his new hometown, where he’s
lived since 2008. “I’ve lived in the Lakes Region for
24 years. Tilton has the most fascinating history,
and a character,” he said. “The characters who built
this town were interesting, outstanding characters.”
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