When Governor John Lynch presents the state budget today/tomorrow, one of the many organizations closely watching the numbers will be the Land Community Heritage Investment Program, or L-CHIP.
L-CHIP provides matching funds to communities looking to protect land and preserve historic buildings.
But the organization recently announced it has run out of money.
It’s now up to the Governor and legislature to decide what the future of L-CHIP will be.
New Hampshire Public Radio’s Rebecca Kaufman reports.
When Governor John Lynch presents the state budget today/tomorrow, one of the many organizations closely watching the numbers will be the Land Community Heritage Investment Program, or LCHIP.
LCHIP provides matching funds to communities looking to protect land and preserve historic buildings.
But the organization recently announced it has run out of money.
It’s now up to the Governor and legislature to decide what the future of LCHIP will be.
New Hampshire Public Radio’s Rebecca Kaufman reports.
Town hall in Gorham was built in 1919. It is one of the few brick buildings remaining in town. And town officials say it has unique architectural features like a rare clock in the clock tower.
But right now Gorham town hall is in desperate need of repair.
Town officials say the building, which houses municipal offices, doesn’t meet fire and safety codes. And they say, it’s not the most comfortable work environment.
Denise Valley is the finance director for the town of Gorham.
9:30 we have water leaking in, especially when it rains in a certain direction, it comes in the window casings and drips all over the place, we don’t know to what extent the walls inside have been damaged
Three times now the town has applied to LCHIP for money to help with the costs of restoration.
Every time they have missed the cut.
Denise Valley says right now they’re keeping their fingers crossed.
9:10 it’s just getting critical now, if something isn’t done we’ll get to the point where it’s beyond repair and we really don’t want to let it go that far, so we’d really like to see something happen in the next year or so
Before providing matching funds, LCHIP requires that towns come up with some of the money they need for preservation.
The town of Gorham has about half the money for the project set aside. This year they’re requesting LCHIP fund the remaining half, about 1.1 million dollars.
But that’s close to LCHIP’s total budget for the state over the last two years.
And during that time, LCHIP took on very few projects…less than a dozen, and none of the money went toward historic preservation.
Rachel Rouillard is the executive director of LCHIP. She says this year, they are asking for what the legislature gave them four years ago…12 million dollars over two years.
Track 6 :11 when you decrease dollars you obviously have less and less of an impact at what point do you not have the kind of impact we need to have, that’s the question, that’s the policy question, we have been providing and will continue to provide information to the legislature, for x dollars this is what can be accomplished.
And Rouillard says there are some compelling arguments to increase funding.
Track 3 :36 at a time when we’re growing and we’re not investing in our resources, what keeps us unique, we will really lose that advantage and where will be 20 years from now, we’re not going to be any different from mass, or ct, or Kansas for that matter, except for the snow
Governor John Lynch, who calls himself a friend of the environment, has said LCHIP is an important program.
And Lynch spokesperson Pam Walsh says he will address LCHIP in his budget, although she would not say at what dollar amount.
:32 yes, there will be funding for LCHIP in his budget
But in the legislature, there seems to be some uncertainty.
Fred King is a republican representative from Colebrook and chair of the house finance committee.
He says many lawmakers like the idea of LCHIP, but he calls it a special request.
1:18 what are our priorities making sure kids that aren’t getting services through health and human services or the elderly aren’t being taken care of in nursing homes, which is the most important, that will be what the committee has to decide
That has some lawmakers thinking about ways towns can conserve land without relying on the state.
Senate majority leader Robert Clegg recently sponsored a bill that would allow towns to set aside money for conservation through impact fees.
Clegg says presently the state can’t afford to fund LCHIP and he sees this proposal as a good alternative.
1:59 LCHIP people keep saying to the government give me money, this is a program where the community votes to determine what its course will be and it says anyone who builds must put money aside to help us with open space
LCHIP’s executive Rachel Rouillard says despite the financial challeges the state faces, she remains hopeful.
Track 8 :10 yes its concerning to look at the fiscal situation the state is facing but at the same time I think people can accomplish anything and if this is something that’s important to the state we just need to find a way to do it and people have been working on this for year, I thinks it going to be okay…I think so…I hope so…
For NHPR news, I’m RK
