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LYME TOWN OFFICES UPDATE
September 2007
WHY DO WE NEED NEW TOWN OFFICES? Unfortunately, the days when Pearl Dimick was able to run the town clerk’s affairs from her front parlor are long gone. Lyme’s current town offices in the Converse Free Library basement were adequate 25 years ago, but the realities of modern town government have created a demand for more space. The taxpayers are simply not being efficiently served by the current working conditions. We have run out of room, and the Library location leaves us no possibility for expansion. We are currently accommodating our elected officials, the town clerk and assistant town clerk, tax collector, zoning administrator, selectmen’s assistant, bookkeeper, treasurer, assessing agent and assistant in a basement that has become overcrowded and
unhealthy.
For many Lyme residents, the image of the town offices is limited to what they see when they visit the town clerk to register their vehicles. Patty, Sharon and Joanne’s office looks workably tight, but walk through the next couple of doors and imagine where another file cabinet or desk could be placed. There is no privacy, no conference space, tiny basement windows, no sun, no fresh air or adequate emergency exits. What was once the town’s selectmen and planning board’s’ meeting room is filled with an island of file cabinets. The vault is a fraction of the size it needs to be for current storage needs, and while NH State statutes mandate that town records be kept in paper form, safe from fire and water damage, too many of Lyme’s irreplaceable records are safe from
neither. The time has come to move out.
Lyme’s selectmen have charged the Town Offices Building Committee to present a proposal for a new facility located on, or as near to, the common as possible. Extensive studies of both the back of the Nichols’ Hardware building and the Alden Inn have found both to fall short of long-term planning and budget criteria crucial to the town’s interests. The Lyme Timber Company on the back of the Common was taken off the market last winter. The Tuckaway Timber property may still be a possibility as of this date. A letter has been sent to everyone in the Lyme Village district (114 properties) inquiring if they have a property that would be suitable. Of six replies, one meets all the criteria: the Barrowes’ property (formerly Sterle Bryant’s) is in a good location and
could easily accommodate a new structure. Another candidate property, the Recreate workshop property at #1 High Street, could make use of the existing shop building for part of the new offices. We are currently in the process of creating schematic plans and cost estimates for each of these sites.
WHAT'S NEXT? We have been meeting with community groups to explain our progress and to ask for input on what would best serve the town. We will continue to do this and will be holding a public meeting at 7PM on October 10th in the Lyme Library’s Betty Grant Art Gallery Room in the basement of the Lyme Library next to the Town Offices Conference Room to give everyone a chance to look at current plans and options and to provide further input.
For more details, please visit our website at: www.lymetownoffices.org. This website should be up and running by late-September. Questions? Suggestions? Contact committee co-chairs Don Metz (795-4445) or Frank Bowles (795-4891).
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