White River Junction
The 1880s-era building at 71 Highland Ave. once was a hay barn, owner Tim Covell said, before Covell’s parents used part of the building as a paint, wallpaper and art supply retail store while he was growing up there more than 50 years ago. Covell’s late mother, Frances Picola Covell, had expressed a desire that the home be offered to the school district prior to being placed on the open market, and the two parties have entered into a $315,000 purchase and sales agreement, pending voter approval on Town Meeting Day on March 5.
The sum would be paid for out of the school’s operating budget over of four installments, including a $96,000 initial payment, according to School Board member Peter Merrill said.
While there would be no immediate plans for the use of the building — which also includes a spacious front yard and garden bed on 0.6 acres — the School Board and Superintendent Tom DeBalsi are eager to take advantage of Covell’s offer and determine uses later.
“It’s an opportunity to add a parcel in anticipation of growth,” School Board Chairman Kevin Christie said in an interview following Wednesday night’s School Board meeting. “If we don’t seize the opportunity now, it’s not one we’re going to have again. With the real estate market as tight as it is in the Upper Valley, this is a way for us to look to the future.”
Painted yellow with green trim, the eight-room structure with four bathrooms contains a combination of hardwood and softwood floors, aluminum siding, a standing seam gable roof and an oil heating system. It is assessed at $293,000.
During Wednesday’s School Board meeting, DeBalsi casually suggested that, once acquired, the building might be repurposed as more modern, spacious offices for the superintendent and other School District administrators, citing energy efficiency issues and other problems with the current office building, which is next door to the Covell property.
Adding the property to its campus portfolio would add to the appeal of Hartford Memorial Middle School and High School, DeBalsi said. According to data he presented during the School Board meeting on Wednesday, Hartford High’s enrollment decline over the last decade is only 2 percent, compared with 25 percent across Windsor County.
“Part of that is because of the curb appeal of our campus, with all of the improvements to the middle school and high school in the last several years, like some of the lighting and parking improvements we’ve had,” DeBalsi said. “It helps more parents of tuition students decide to send their kids here. Having this building would only add to that appeal.”
The property also is adjacent to the Hartford softball field, and the land could theoretically be used to expand parking if either the home or the current neighboring administrative building were razed.
Covell, a 1963 Hartford High graduate who now lives in Wilder, said there would be no conditions as part of the sale.
“I’m not that type of person,” Covell, 73, said in a Thursday phone interview. “If they want to tear it down, then that’s what they decide to do. There are no strings attached. I’m sure they’ll figure the best thing to do with it.”
In recent years, Covell has rented the property to residential tenants, though none live there currently. The School Board indicated on Wednesday that renting the space to tenants could resume under district ownership until a long-term plan for the building is reached.
DeBalsi intends to prepare a presentation with visual graphics highlighting key aspects of the 2019-20 budget approved by the School Board earlier this month, and which will also go to voters at Town Meeting. The $39.6 million budget is nearly $1.5 million higher than the current fiscal year, a 3.8 percent increase, with 73 percent of it allotted to salaries and benefits. It still would require an increase of 0.7 percent to the tax rate to $1,649 per $100,000 of assessed value, or to $4,122.50 on a home valued at $250,000.
Jared Pendak can be reached at jpendak@vnews.com or 603-727-3216.