The Department of Health and Human Services wants to use federal pandemic relief money to help pay for a new youth development center that would replace the Sununu Youth Services Center. (Dave Cummings | New Hampshire Bulletin)
State agencies are looking to invest some of the remaining federal pandemic aid in several initiatives, including a new 911 center in Laconia and a replacement for the Sununu Youth Services Center. Several requests are scheduled to go before the Joint Legislative Fiscal Committee on Friday.
The Department of Safety wants to use $5.6 million to replace the 911 center that sits on the former 218-acre Laconia State School campus, which the state is selling to a Londonderry developer. The new center, which will continue to house the Lakes Region Mutual Fire Aid, is slated for land adjacent to the campus.
Lawmakers previously set aside $13 million in federal money for the project.
Despite halving the size of the new 18-bed youth development center, construction estimates continue to be well above the $21.6 million lawmakers approved in 2023. The Department of Health and Human Services has asked to use $5 million in federal money to cover the $30.5 million bid it received.
Lawmakers previously approved the use of $6.5 million in federal money to close the gap. The new center, which the state intends to add to its behavioral health hospital in Hampstead, would replace the existing 144-bed Sununu Youth Services Center in Manchester.
A proposed community facility in Belmont with a child care center would get $750,000 under a proposal from the Governor’s Office for Emergency Relief and Recovery. The center, which is to be run by the Boys & Girls Club of Central New Hampshire in the former Gale School, would add 35 child care slots to mitigate the state’s dire shortage of child care, according to the request.
The same state agency has asked to use $13.7 million for several other building projects.
Nearly $3.5 million would go toward deferred maintenance at the State House and Annex buildings. Strafford County would get $1.4 million for a new courthouse roof. And about $686,000 would be put toward ventilation improvements at the men’s prison in Concord.
About $2 million would be used for a new eight-bed therapeutic transitional housing program and approximately $3 million would allow the Department of Health and Human Services to renovate its behavioral health facility in Hampstead.
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