Patten voters reject funds for regional development group

PATTEN – Voters at the annual town meeting Tuesday night decided not to provide any local funding to a regional economic development organization that has been marketing the region.

Patten, Sherman, Stacyville and Mount Chase are members of the Upper Valley Economic Council. The group was formed two years ago with the goal of not only trying to attract business to the four-town region, but also to assist and hold on to the businesses already in place.

For each of the past two years, the towns have been asked to appropriate $15,000 to keep the UVEC operating. With the exception of Mount Chase, which gave $10,000, the other three towns all agreed to the $15,000 figure.

After considerable discussion at Tuesday’s meeting in Patten, residents voted 27-20 not to fund UVEC again this year.

“There was a lot of miscommunication,” said Town Manager Rhonda Harvey on Wednesday. “They didn’t feel they had been informed of what was happening.”

Questions about UVEC funding also have been raised in Sherman, which will hold its annual meeting Saturday, and Stacyville, which will meet Monday, March 19.

It also was reported Wednesday that residents of Mount Chase at their meeting Monday night agreed to provide only $5,000 in funding to UVEC this year.

No one at the UVEC office in Sherman could be reached Wednesday for comment.

During municipal elections held Tuesday in Patten, all candidates were elected as none of the openings on either the Board of Selectmen or the SAD 25 board were contested.

For the Board of Selectmen, incumbent Sally Landry was re-elected with 49 votes, while Lana Tucker, a former member of that board, was elected with 52 votes.

Dallas Gerow was elected to the SAD 25 board for a three-year term with 69 votes. Incumbent Lynn Rush was re-elected to a two-year term with 61 votes and incumbent Rodney Lord was re-elected to a one-year term with 64 votes.

Also at Tuesday night’s meeting, voters agreed to raise $20,000 from taxation and take $50,000 from the undesignated fund balance to be used to build a winter salt-sand storage facility. The town also has money in a reserve account for that purpose.

Harvey said the town previously had been ranked as a priority three by the state for the project, with no deadline. The town’s status since has been upgraded to priority two, she said, with a deadline of next year to have the building constructed.

With approval of funding, she said the project would go out to bid later this year.

No decision was made on the fate of the Patten Grammar School, which was closed and turned over to the town three years ago when SAD 25 consolidated its facilities. The school has been vacant since then.

During the past few years, there has been discussion about converting the 45-year-old school into a town office.

Harvey said that in order to do that, the town would have to spend a lot of money.

“We’re not able to occupy it as it is,” she said. “Before we could, we would have to upgrade it to meet handicapped access and building codes.”

In the meantime, she said, the school has become a regular target of vandals.

Last year, the town bought 2,500 gallons of heating oil to keep the school heated to 55 degrees, Harvey said. This year, the school is not being heated.

It was decided at Tuesday’s meeting to form a committee to explore options for the building and report back at a special town meeting in July.