Allenstown News : Suncook

Suncook all-stars win once in District 1

Hooksett Editor — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 18:52:00 GMT

BY MATT SCHOOLEY

Suncook extended its summer schedule by one game, advancing to the second round of the losers’ bracket in the District 1 tournament.

The local 11- and 12-year-olds were knocked from the top bracket on June 29 after an 11-1 loss at the hands of Bow, but bounced back nicely with a 5-4 losers’ bracket victory over Pelham on Monday, July 6.

Relief pitcher Shaun Davis was a big reason for the win over Pelham, as he came on to fire four scoreless innings of work while fanning six.

Centerfielder Matt Chartier also had a hand in the victory, blasting two triples, scoring once and driving in two runs against Pelham.

On Wednesday, July 9, Suncook was eliminated from the tournament when the squad’s bats went silent, falling 12-1 to Manchester Westside.

Suncook manager Jeff Swanson said he was excited with his team’s effort.

“They did pretty well for their age,” said Swanson. “I gave all the kids the chance to play, and hopefully that gave them a little more drive to play the game.”

Shortstop Parker Heath’s smooth defensive abilities were on display throughout the three games, and Swanson was happy with his team’s overall defensive play.

Davis, Jake Gaskill and Chase Ranfos are eligible to play on next year’s team after playing this summer as 11-year-olds.

Chartier, Heath, Spencer Nowe, Gage Munson, Alex Trujilo, Kenny Poole, CJ Swanson, Liam Wright, Evan Christiansen, Jeremy Caruso and Corey Senechal were 12-year-old members of this year’s squad.

Native American ‘reservation’ proposed

Hooksett Editor — Wed, 07 May 2008 18:38:00 GMT

BY JENN McDOWELL

A Southern New Hampshire University professor and former minister wants to turn the 36 acres of land he bought on Route 28 adjacent to the Suncook Business Park into a Native American “reservation.”

Dan Stauffacher, who spent millions on the land, said the park would include an open air pavilion for outdoor concerts, a meetinghouse, a church, retail shops, affordable housing for seniors 55 and older, a town square and a village green.

“It’s an early 1800s vintage environment that’s going to be educational, recreational and a whole lot of fun,” said Stauffacher.

The development, called “Meetinghouse Park,” is still in the conceptual phases and has not had official review from the town’s Planning Board or Board of Selectmen, but Stauffacher said the town’s boards have showed support for the development.

Stauffacher said he envisions class field trips, concerts, town meetings and day trips for the development, which would include Civil War and Native American re-enactments with hired actors.

Stauffacher added he will donate land to the town for the purpose of building a new town hall and library in case they choose to do so in the future. “The real feature to this that I’m excited about is we’re going to recreate the village green,” Stauffacher said.

Stauffacher, a professor of Native American history, enlisted the help of several SNHU students to film and edit an infomercial promoting the development, he said.

The infomercial would be aired on the project’s Web site, meetinghousepark.net, and on other sites such as YouTube, Stauffacher said.

He added he is talking with Pembroke Academy’s horticulture department to see whether students would be able to design, install and maintain the landscape for the development.

The project would be completed in phases, the first one including going through the planning approval process, installing the infrastructure and building the church, function hall, open air pavilion and village area.

Phase two would add the town square and retail portion, which two retailers have already expressed some interest in it, according to Stauffacher, along with the over-55 housing units. A third possible phase would be to construct an all-Native American cuisine restaurant, Stauffacher said.

Architect Claude P. Gentilhomme signed on with Stauffacher to achieve the vision. Gentilhomme said the development would incorporate 1800s architecture with cuttingedge technology.

“My goal at the end of this project is the people will pull into the village and wonder, ‘Has this been around a long time or is this new?’” Gentilhomme said, adding the streetlights would be the only visible modern addition to the park.

Roland Martel, chairman of the Conservation Committee, president of the Allenstown Revitalization Association and president of the town’s Historical Society, showed his support for the project by participating in the infomercial.

“I’m a hundred percent behind it. All of it is a win-win for the town,” Martel said.

Allenstown cuts town positions, hours

Hooksett Editor — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 19:33:00 GMT

BY JENN McDOWELL

The Allenstown Board of Selectmen has decided to cut more than needed to create a buffer for possible upcoming costs which would include paying for the outside accounting help needed as well as possible spring flooding of the Suncook.

There was a $191,996 difference between the default and proposed budgets, but in two meetings held on March 17 and 18, selectmen decided to cut an extra $43,000 from the budget.

The town’s operating budget will now be $4,822,968.

Following the March 11 vote, hours for the town clerk/tax collector, assessing clerk and secretary have been cut, forcing the Town Hall to close on Fridays.

The Highway Department took the largest blow, losing $71,100 from what its proposed budget, including two part-time landfill attendants. The remaining Highway Department employees will have to rework their schedules for landfill coverage on Saturdays. That includes the road agent, Chris Roy, who is on salary with the town.

The town will also delay the repaving of Library Street for another year to realize savings in the highway and sewer department budgets.

The Police Department’s budget was cut by $20,407, forcing the layoff of the department’s evening help.

Police Chief Shaun Mulholland said he has laid off his evening secretary, cutting the administrative hours of the department to between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m., something that he said will eventually cost more to the town in Bow Dispatch service costs.

He has also considered cutting an officer from the force, but is waiting until after the town’s accounting issues are cleared up before making that decision.

The department got a federal grant to fund three officer positions in the 1990s, Mulholland said, and removing an officer from the force could jeopardize the department’s chances for receiving grants in the future. “This is a painful process,” Mulholland said.

The Fire Department is in no better shape, having to shave more than $24,000 off its proposed operating budget.

The school district budget was also turned down at the polls, leaving a default of $9,838,008.

The School Board has yet to discuss what will come out of the operating budget for Allenstown Elementary and the Dupont School, according to School District Administrator Peter Warburton, to make up for the $116,845 difference from the proposed budget.

According to statistics from the 2006-07 school year, Warburton said, Allenstown spends about $11,609.34, slightly more than the statewide average.

Sewer stalls development

Hooksett Editor — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 19:34:00 GMT

BY JENN McDOWELL

After Allenstown voters shot down the Suncook Wastewater Treatment Plant’s $15 million expansion for the second year in a row, sewer commissioners and the plant’s operator said they are back at square one.

Sewer Commissioner James Rodger said harsh economic times led to tighter wallets this year, which led to the town’s “no” vote for not just the expansion but every single cost item on the warrant this year.

“When the ship sank, our warrant was on it,” Rodger said.

Amendment caused failure Rodger also said a stipulation added to the warrant article at the town’s deliberative session on Feb. 2 made the article worthless.

An amendment passed at that meeting added wording that would not allow the project to go forward unless 50 percent matching grants were secured. The problem with that, Rodger said, is the town needed to say it will pay the project costs up front in order to secure such grants that would reimburse the town.

A Feb. 12 e-mail from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Development Department, one of the agencies being largely considered as a source of grant funding for the project, said the 50 percent contingency added to the article would hurt Allenstown’s chances for funding.

The e-mail, addressed to Michael Trainque of Hoyle, Tanner and Associates, the engineering firm spearheading the expansion project, states limits on the availability of funds may prevent them from providing 50 percent in grants to the project and would compel USDA Rural Development to give it to another project instead.

“Fifteen million (dollars) is a large improvement project,” Rural Development Specialist Scott Johnson wrote in the email. “Rural Development looks forward to being involved if possible.

If Allenstown anticipates securing any grant funds from Rural Development, placing limits on how much of the total project is loan or grant could box them in a corner, rendering them unable to accept monies that may be available.

“Our advice to communities is to vote to borrow the RD portion of the project costs so that they are able to accept grant funds that may be offered to them. Too many times we have seen projects come to a halt due to an inadequate bond vote,” Johnson said.

Grant money can’t come in for the project until construction is done and the town is ready to make payments, said plant operator Dana Clement.

“You can’t put the cart before the horse,” Clement said. “You can’t even make an application to them until the project is complete. You have to spend the money and then they reimburse you.”

Pembroke’s side
A brief discussion on how the failed article would affect Pembroke, where most voters want the expansion to go through, came out of discussion on Pembroke’s sewer rates for the coming year at their Town Meeting on Saturday, March 15.

Pembroke Sewer Commissioner Harold Thompson said he could not comment at this time on what “Plan B” is for Pembroke, but said his commission is working with Allenstown to set up a public meeting with the two sewer commissions, the Department of Environmental Services and Allenstown selectmen.

More stringent rules Forthcoming studies on the Merrimack River may compel the plant’s upgrades in order to comply with possibly more stringent water cleansing standards, Clement said.

The state is also looking at tightening the standards for phosphorous and nitrogen concentrations in the Merrimack.

Should both of these scenarios come to pass in the next several years, the current plant is incapable of handling the new standards, Clement said. The expansion plans already drawn up would have accommodated such changes, he said.

Rodger said the Sewer Commission will continue its efforts to pass the expansion by continuing the public information sessions on the issue and creating a packet of information to go door-to-door with.

Development held up Both towns have commercial and residential developers waiting for sewer hook-ups, according to Rodger and Thompson.

The U.S. Army wants to put a training facility at a large parcel off of Route 106, Thompson said.

“I’ve got probably about $10 million worth of buildings wanting to go in Pembroke,” he said.

Rodger said several projects, including a retirement community and the possible expansion of the strip mall at 48 Allenstown Road, which includes a Family Dollar, Kutter’s Korner and Curves for Women, have been shelved in the past few years because of a lack of sewer capacity.

If the state steps in to mandate upgrades to comply with the new cleaner water standards, sewer users rates are going to go up, and there won’t be added capacity, Rodger said.

“We’re going to have to do it on the backs of sewer users, and we won’t get any flow out of it,” Rodger said. “To upgrade the plant just to satisfy new requirements, how much is that going to cost us? We might as well get some capacity out of it.”

Sewer bond fails in Allenstown

Hooksett Editor — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 19:39:00 GMT

BY JENN McDOWELL

Voters in Allenstown said no to all the proposed monetary issues brought forth on this year’s ballot for the town and school district.

In a to 388-264 vote, Allenstown voters again nixed a $15 million expansion for the Suncook Wastewater Treatement Facility, serving both Allenstown and Pembroke.

At the town’s deliberative session, voters changed the original warrant article to stipulate the expansion would only go through if at least half of the total cost could be defrayed with matching state and federal grants the project qualifies for.

The state Department of Environmental Services put a moratorium on sewer hook-ups in 2002 after several instances in which the plant’s flow exceeded it’s allowed capacity. Since then, development in Pembroke and Allenstown has slowed.

The plans included installing secondary clarifiers which would relieve the exisiting clarifiers of their current capacity and flow problems. Overall sewage capacity would increase from 1 million to 2.1 million gallons per day.

Under the terms of the 20- year bond, Pembroke would pay 52 percent of the total costs and Allenstown 48 percent, based on flow. According to the plans, the new additions to the plant would not be up and running for about 10 years.

Mike Trainque of Hoyle, Tanner and Associates, the engineering firm spearheading the project plans, said the expansion qualifies for a number of grants at various public informations sessions on the issue.

The Allenstown Board of Selectmen would have taken out the bond as soon as 50 percent matching grants are secured. The grant money would decrease Allenstown’s share of the cost to about $3.6 million.

Sewer commissioners have said money from the plant’s septage process, which takes in septage from other towns in a process separate from the plant’s sewage process, would also go toward the expansion.

That fund is also being used for odor control and engineering costs, so commissioners have said they cannot commit to a specific amount that would be devoted to the expansion costs.

The town will go to a default budget for 2008-09 of $4,865,968. A total of 272 voters approved the proposed budget of $5,057,964. The remaining 264 thought it best to take the default.

In the hotly contested race for one open Board of Selectmen seat, Roger Lafleur won with a total of 132 votes, unseating incumbent Selectman Sandy

McKenney.

Chris Roy, the current Road Agent, will go into his second term having gained 369 votes for his seat, more than the other two candidates, James Rodger and David Bouffard, combined.

Sewer expansion goes to voters again

Hooksett Editor — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 22:07:00 GMT

BY JENN McDOWELL

Allenstown voters will once again consider spending tax dollars to improve its sewer plant.

Public meetings regarding a $15 million bond to expand the Suncook Wastewater Treatment Facility will continue after Allenstown selectmen and Budget Committee members put their stamp of approval on the drafted warrant article for the 2008 Town Meeting.

“It’s really a Catch 22, said Selectman Tom Gilligan, because the sewer expansion would end the block on hookups, bringing more development into town and thus expanding the tax base, he said.

“The town needs the revenue, but nobody wants to be hit with the full price tag,” Gilligan said, adding the natural increase of labor and raw materials as time goes on will only make the burden heavier.

The expansion has been a point of contention since the state Department of Environmental Services issued a moratorium on the plant in 2004, barring any additional sewer hookups to the plant.

Michael Trainque of Hoyle, Tanner and Associates, the engineering firm working on the expansion project, said the expansion is critical, with a water quality study on the Merrimack River currently in the works that may put more stringent requirements for water treatment in place.

“This is actually voting for the future. It’s for the next generation,” said Sewer Commissioner James Rodger at a public meeting at the Parish Hall in Allenstown on Monday, Jan. 7.

The problem, town officials said, is where to place the burden of the proposed 30-year bond.

While Pembroke residents – as a group, the plant’s largest user, accounting for over half of the plant’s flow – will pay 52 percent of the bond, the remaining $7.2 million that will rest with Allenstown taxpayers is still a sizeable cost and, in many minds, not fair to residents not hooked up to the town sewer lines.

Armand Verville, an Allenstown resident with a septic system, has spoken out against transferring the cost to taxpayers, as the current warrant article is written. Rather, he told sewer commissioners, he would like to see the ratepayers absorb most of the cost.

Sandy McKenny, chairman of the Board of Selectmen, voted not to recommend the new warrant article because, she said, she doesn’t feel the town is ready to absorb the cost.

Without the help of various grants the project qualifies for, taxpayers could see an increase on their bills of $1.67 per $1,000 of assessed value in the first year of the bond repayment, which would be a year after construction is complete, Trainque said.

For the owner of a home assessed at $200,000, that increase could amount to an extra $334 in that year’s tax bill.

The tax increase is compounded, McKenney said, by the fact that Bear Brook Park comprises 51 percent of the town and generates no tax revenue, along with several mobile home parks in town, leaving the brunt of the tax burden with a rather small group of residents.

Trainque said the expansion has a good shot of getting one or a combination of several federal and state grants which have the potential to knock millions off the price tag, but the applications can’t go through until Allenstown voters pass the entire amount of the bond.

Pembroke’s interest in this is greater in terms of development, said Pembroke Sewer Commissioner Harold Thompson at the public meeting. Currently, there are developers lined up for construction, he said.

Pembroke would have to decide how to fund its share of the project, for $7.8 million of the total costs, after Allenstown voters pass the expansion.

Pembroke would either have to schedule a special Town Meeting or wait until the 2009 elections to put the question of funding the expansion to voters.

“I’ve got enough commercial property stuff that I don’t think it would be hard to pass it on our side,” Thompson said.

Pembroke Selectman Cindy Lewis, also a liason to the Planning Board, agreed Pembroke is ready and likely willing to absorb the expansion costs, given the potential development and end to the moratorium it would bring.

“Pembroke would want the increase,” she said of taxes. “It’s going to be good for growth in both towns.”

With Pembroke’s larger tax base, the effect on taxpayers would be less than that of Allenstown, but no official numbers on that potential impact have been released.

Suncook sewer expansion costs questioned

Hooksett Editor — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 20:08:00 GMT

BY JENN McDOWELL

The Allenstown Sewer Commission is trying once again to get voters to pass a $15 million bond that would expand the current Suncook Wastewater Treatment Plant.

The proposed expansion would pay to construct new clarifiers to deal with the amount of sewage passing through the plant, doubling the plant’s capacity to 2.1 million gallons per day from the current 1 million gallons.

Taxpayers and sewer ratepayers would like to know who is going to pay for the upgrades.

The bond is set up so that Allenstown would pay 48 percent of the total bond, or $7.2 million, and Pembroke 52 percent, or $7.8 million.

Those numbers are based on what was referred to as the worst-case scenario, in which the project would receive no grant money Despite the town’s long partnership with Pembroke, Michael Trainque of Hoyle, Tanner and Associates, the engineering firm planning the project, said the decision to expand the plant falls on the residents of Allenstown because Allenstown retains the permit to operate it.

“Pembroke is really like one large user,” Trainque said at a public information meeting on the proposal on Monday, Nov. 12, at St. John the Baptist Parish Hall.

Pembroke Sewer Commissioner Harold Thompson said his hands are tied until the bond passes with Allenstown voters, adding that he fears the amount of grants the project qualifies for will disappear as more facilities throughout the state max out and look for funding to expand.

“It’s a hard sell. How are you going to tell people that we need it?” Thompson said, adding that if the federal government has to step in to force the expansion, the costs are going to increase.

The Department of Environmental Services issued a moratorium on the plant in 2002, barring the plant from taking on any extra sewage and thus limiting new hookups in Pembroke and Allenstown.

Dana Clement, the plant’s operator, said there are currently eight agreements with other towns to take on septage, which is a different process from the sewage clarifying and does not go through the plant itself.

Allenstown Sewer Commissioner James Rodger said the septage process has taken in about $2 million since it was initiated as a pilot program in 2005. Some of that has been spent on purchasing and installing special covers, on chemicals for odor control and on studies related to the proposed expansion, he said.

He added that the intent for the septage process was to raise money to put toward the expansion and to increase the possibility of grant money from various sources, but that the commission cannot commit to a certain amount of that money that will go toward the expansion.

Trainque said costs would increase in the future if the community waits too long to upgrade the plant.

“It’s always painful to do a project like this. Every community goes through that,” Trainque said, adding that the need for the plant’s expansion would not go away.

The options for funding the expansion include spreading the amount among all taxpayers, limiting it to sewer ratepayers or a combination of the two.

Armand Verville, a resident who is not connected to the town sewer, said he would agree with taxpayers paying 10 percent and sewer users the other 90 percent, but would not vote for something that would be distributed equally among both groups.

“I would like to know before this gets off the ground who and what is going to pay for it,” Verville said. “This thing will never go through unless you tell non-sewer users what it’s going to cost them.”

Trainque said the plant qualifies for several state and federal grants, some of which could reduce bond payments by 50 percent by themselves. A combination of grants could increase that savings.

In what he referred to as a worse-case scenario, in which the project got no grant money and the $7.2 million was equally dispersed among Allenstown taxpayers, taxes would increase by $1.67 per $1,000 of assessed property value. For those owning homes assessed at $144,000, Trainque said, that increase amounts to an additional $240.72 per year.

If only sewer users were responsible for the cost, sewer rates would increase by $5.80 per 1,000 gallons, an increase of about 89 percent over the current rate of about $6.50.

Should the project receive 20 percent in grants, Allenstown’s bond obligation drops to about $5.7 million. If it receives 50 percent in grants, the obligation drops to about $3.6 million.

Trainque added that grants paid for 86 percent of a $2 million bond for a 2004 plant expansion he worked on in Rollinsford, reducing the town’s burden to $276,800.

Thompson said the Pembroke Sewer Commission has not yet looked at how its portion will be dispersed, either among ratepayers or taxpayers, because Allenstown has to pass the bond before those discussions can take place.

“It could come down to the point that the users and the taxpayers could not pay anyting on that bond,” Thompson said, adding that he thinks Pembroke voters would pass the bond if they were legally allowed to do so.

Allenstown resident Jeff Abbe pointed out at the meeting that the sewer commissions from both towns must work together to get the project on track, and that impact fees from developers who wish to build in the towns should help to pay for the expansion.

“It’s so important that this thing gets built for everybody,” Abbe said.

More information on the plans and funding possibilities is available online at Allenstownsewercommision.org.

The next public information session is scheduled for Monday, Nov. 28, at 7 p.m. at the Parish Hall.

Home again – After two floods in two years, Suncook couple begins to recover

Hooksett Editor — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 20:21:00 GMT

BY JENN McDOWELL

Marcia Abbott and Brian Gagne will be happy to be back at home, even if it’s 10 feet in the air.

The house on Riverside Park Drive, a small brown cottage-like structure they have dubbed the gingerbread house, was twice ruined in the Suncook River’s spring floods of 2006 and 2007.

Flood insurance paid to raise the house up on a concrete foundation, something they couldn’t do after the first flood, Gagne said, because their flood insurance requires that it happen twice.

But insurance didn’t pay for decks and stairs to get into the house, nor did it replace the insulation, flooring, appliances, and other brand new items acquired after the first flood.

It didn’t replace the old things, either. A 200-year-old antique wood buffet, passed down through Abbott’s family, survived the first one but didn’t make it through flood waters the second time around.

Abbott and Gagne had been back in their home, newly furnished and completely repaired, for about six months before the second flood hit in April.

A crew of workers, organized by No Place Like Home, Grace Capital Church and the Merrimack County Community Action Program, gave them back some pieces of their home.

The workers, including electricians, plumbers and construction workers, volunteered their time on Saturday, Sept. 22, to construct decks in the front and back of the house, build staircases inside and outside, finish a large portion of the plumbing and wiring, and dig a trench for a new gas line among other repairs.

Andy Labrie of the Community Action Program walked through the devastated neighborhood after this year’s waters had receded as people attempted to clean up what was left behind – mostly silt and trash, and items such as propane tanks that had drifted into their yards.

Community Action provided the materials, and Pastor Mark Warren of Grace Capital Church got the work crew together after Paula Young of No Place Like Home contacted the church for pastoral care for the couple.

“It’s great to pray for them, but really what I thought they needed was to get some work done,” Warren said.

Gagne, Abbott and their three cats have been living in a mobile home on Abbot’s mother’s lawn in Derry since they had to leave their home.

Both are out of work, Gagne having been laid off at the end of March and Abbott having to quit her job to take on the full time work of cleaning up and rebuilding their home – again.

“We have to get in before winter,” Abbott said, before the cold and snow comes, adding that the clean up and restoration is a “full time job.”

Many local businesses were involved in the work done on their home, including Dumpster Depot, Bagley Construction, DME Construction, and Jim Donnelly from Donnelly Plumbing and Heating.

Ken Hadley, senior project manager for the construction company J.H. Spaine, Assoc., oversaw the project.

“We probably donated over $10,000 worth of labor,” Warren said.

Other homes on the road, which is located near the Suncook’s banks, are in worse shape than Gagne’s and Abbott’s, several of them now empty.

“Everyone on the road just didn’t recover financially, emotionally, or mentally from last year’s flood, and we get hit again,” Abbott said. “Some people have been here 20 or 30 years, and they’re thinking about leaving.”

The flooding, however, pulled together the neighbors. “Disaster sometimes brings the community together,” Gagne said.

Damages from the two floods have cost the couple about $150,000, only a portion of which insurance paid for, Gagne said.

Once their home is livable, they will be able to help others still working to get back in their houses before winter hits, they said.

The couple is grateful for the huge amount of work the volunteer crew completed. “They’ve helped me out quite a bit with what they could do,” Gagne said.

Gagne said they hope to get into their home in the next few weeks. As of now, the walls and ceilings have been painted, and they are working on putting in the floors and getting the electrical and heating work done.

“We just keep plugging away day by day,” he said.

Old double-deck bridge closed on lower level

Hooksett Editor — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 20:17:00 GMT

BY NICHOLAS BROWN

The person in charge of carrying out the $11.3 million Suncook double-decker bridge construction project said work could be completed on time, despite a recent snag that will require the bottom half of the old bridge to be closed.

The upper portion of the old bridge that connects Allenstown and Pembroke on Route 3 is slightly sagging. Traffic use on the bottom half will be sacrificed to shore up the upper level, said Tom Miller, the project’s contract administrator with the state Department of Transportation.

Miller estimated the closure – which will last until the new bridge is complete – will affect about 300 mostly local car trips per day. That’s compared to about 10,000 trips on the bridge’s upper level.

“The traffic down there is minimal,” Miller said. Miller was using traffic counts gathered in 2002, before the double-decker construction project commenced.

“(The closure) is going to be a little inconvenient to the people living down there,” said Allenstown selectmen’s Chairman Sandy McKenney. “It will probably affect more people in Pembroke than in Allenstown.”

Downtown residents are able to cross the Suncook River over the Main Street bridge, which officially opened in January 2006, about three months behind schedule.

Miller said two mild winters have made him hopeful that the new double-decker bridge will open in October as scheduled. “We should make that,” he said.

Miller also said the massive replacement project will likely meet its $11.3 million budget. Funding for the double-decker bridge replacement has come from federal and state sources, and hasn’t required local property taxation in the two towns. The old double-decker bridge was built in 1938 and represents an architectural rarity in the state.

Attempts to sell the bridge for $1 fizzled early last year since buyers would have had to relocate the historic bridge, maintain its integrity and find a suitable use for it.

“It’s just outlived its usefulness,” Miller said of the bridge, which was “red listed” by the state’s bridge task force.

The design of the new bridge follows that of the old bridge, but will handle much heavier traffic loads, said Miller.

“It’s basically a copy of the old bridge, designed wider and taller,” he said. “It should be good for 100 years.”