Moultonborough Budget and Warrants town Meeting next week Tuesday and Saturday

[winni83]

Unfortunately the Taj Mahal community Center group will not take no for an answer. Some recent comments after the defeat at Town Meeting from the group’s social media:

‘Do not give up! You were closer than ever… never give up! 👏🏻💕😻”

“don’t worry. We will continue our work on behalf of the entire Community.”

They claim that they do not have any cost numbers, which strains credulity. A 34,000 square foot facility, including an “11,000 square foot facility featuring a 25-meter 5-lane pool for swimming lessons, water aerobics, and water polo.” And “a 40-foot therapy pool with a ramped entrance for no-impact physical therapy.”

So 34,000 square feet at $400 psf is $13,600,000.00 Do the math for higher psf costs. And yearly staffing, operating and maintenance costs will surely be high.

Yeah a really great way to try and spend our tax dollars. They say they are fundraising but at Town Meeting they stated that $17,000 had been raised.

[John Mercier]

It isn't a matter of giving up.
Small groups try things forever.

But in the end the projects that get built are usually needed and largely supported.

The day may come when this happens for them... but the concept would be so different as to not make sense to the people that started it.

Even with Laconia's full time residential size and density... their community center goes largely unused.

[phoenix]

i guess you're right . the one thing they know if if it requires bonding they will lose so maybe continue the drip approach. Glad it got voted down

[fatlazyless]

Originally Posted by John Mercier

Even with Laconia's full time residential size and density... their community center goes largely unused.

Next to Rite Aid and close to Laconia High School ......

Three cheers for the Laconia Community Center ..... https://www.laconianh.gov/1030/Community-Center ..... this old former NH Guard Armory building is a 'work of art' beautiful building with a luxurious hardwood maple floor supporting its' combination use as a basketball court and two pickleball courts and a yearly Christmas Village.

The indoor temperature is kept low throughout the winter which makes it great for playing their very popular and well-attended pickleball schedule.

Community Center rule; hit the overhead steel girder with pickleball, and you lose the point. ..... ..... so sorry!

[John Mercier]

But it still goes highly unused.

What they did was take a building that already existed... but was no longer needed for the purpose that it was built... and worked on finding a way that it could be useful again.

Old New Hampshire didn't like to waste.

Being in walking distance of most of Laconia - the Weirs would be a little far out even if the WOW trail was to shorten the distance - and having most everything else that could be thought of... the City decided on a community center.

No one that I have ever met can actually think of a different use for the building.

As they ''decommission'' current buildings... most are looked at to change into housing; but with the costs of material and labor currently... those projects take longer.

Moultonborough is talking about building a whole new building. These generally do not pay off in civic engagement... which is the underlying purpose of a community center.

[Sue Doe-Nym]

This community center/gymnasium issue has been going on for at least a decade….maybe more. When the Taj Mahal concept fails with a certain group of voters time and again, the must-have-it group keeps marching on. They have zero intention of compromising…and sadly, their concept of what’s necessary keeps getting more grandiose.. If they had been less combative and willing to negotiate, I think that we might already have a very acceptable facility on old rt. 109, a renovated, comfortable, affordable Lions Club building. All of this could have been achieved pre pandemic, pre inflation, pre rising interest rates, and escalating building costs. Now everyone is holding on to their wallets for dear life, and we may never get a new community center. 😎👏🏼🤞