HEBRON — A group of residents that is seeking an alternative approach to the renovations underway at the Hebron Academy failed to win a federal court injunction to halt the project, but lead plaintiff Jonathan Karlsen said their attorneys are preparing a more detailed argument to convince the judge that what voters approved in 2017 would violate the criteria set out for historic districts.
Town officials, meanwhile, are asking the U.S. District Court to dismiss the case and award the town legal fees to cover its cost in defending against the civil lawsuit.
In their filing with the court, the plaintiffs — Karlsen, John Hilson, William Nobles Jr., and Gordon Matthews — argued that raising the building, removing the foundation stones, and creating a poured-concrete basement would create “irreversible destruction to the historic fabric of the Hebron Academy Building.”
U.S. District Judge Landya McCafferty issued an order on Sept. 4, finding that the plaintiffs had failed to identify the historic preservation guidelines they say are being violated by the town, or how the addition of a poured concrete foundation would fail to meet those guidelines.
“More importantly, the petition does not explain how these guidelines entitle the plaintiffs to bring this lawsuit,” McCafferty wrote.
“In light of plaintiffs’ failure to show a likelihood of success on the merits or irreparable harm, the court need not discuss the remaining factors,” the ruling concluded. “Plantiffs’ request for a temporary restraining order is denied.”
History of the project
The renovation and expansion plan that finally got underway in late August has been eight years in the planning. The town has been setting aside $150,000 annually to cover the cost, and it hired Christopher P. Williams, Architects, of Meredith — a firm known for historic preservation projects — to come up with a design that would preserve the integrity of the building while meeting the town’s space needs.
Built as a school in 1839, Hebron Academy was absorbed by the Newfound Area School District when it formed in the 1960s. The school district subsequently closed village schools in Bridgewater, Alexandria, and Hebron and absorbed those students in the remaining elementary schools.
In 1999, after the district had stopped using the Hebron school, the town moved its administrative offices into the building. By 2010, the town was feeling a space crunch and voters that year began setting aside money toward an eventual solution.
The architect came up with plans over a series of public hearings and voters in 2017 passed a warrant article to go forward with what was estimated to be $1,442,379 project.
Eleanor Lonske, a former selectman and member of the Hebron Academy Advisory Committee, said that, when the town hired an independent surveyor to verify the work done by a local surveyor in 2012, officials learned that there was no deed turning the property over from the school district to the town. They contacted the school district which was able to verify that voters had agreed to turn the building over to Hebron, but they also could not find evidence that the deed had ever been conveyed. At this year’s school district meeting, voters agreed to pick up the cost of conveying the property to Hebron.
The second unwelcome surprise came when abutters claimed ownership of the playground area. Lonske said the surveyor from 2012 had indicated that the boundary was between the playground and the property to the south, but four years later, he “impugned his own survey … and convinced the neighbors that they owned the lot that had been used as a school playground by generations of schoolchildren.”
She said, “The independent surveyor raised serious questions about this claim, but the Town negotiated a settlement with the neighbors to avoid the delay and expenses of legal action.”
When selectmen were finally able to put the project out to bid, the prices exceeded the original estimate of $1,442,379, ranging from $1,769,363 to $2,249,000. Conneston Construction, Inc., of Laconia was the low bidder. (Other bidders were Milestone Engineering and Construction, Inc., and Meridian Construction Corporation.)
The cost of materials had risen significantly since the vote in the spring of 2017, and to bring the cost down, the architect suggested some adjustments, such as eliminating the elevator that was planned for the building, but putting in the shaft and infrastructure so the town can add the elevator in the future without having to do major reconstruction.
Opposition
The Academy building lies in an area of the Hebron Common that, in March 1985, was designated on the National Register of Historic Places as part of the Hebron Historic District, consisting of 13 buildings in all.
The town maintains in its objection to the civil lawsuit that “there are no requirements or prohibitions arising from that listing that interferes with the town’s decision making on the future use, alternation [sic] or renovation of its building.”
Karlsen, however, said the current plans violate the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for Rehabilitation.
The town said that even the removal of the original granite capstones does not affect the historic integrity of the building because some of them had already been removed, with concrete taking their place.
The remaining granite will be sliced into slabs that will be affixed to the exterior of the new concrete foundation, the town writes in its motion to dismiss.
Karlsen said his group has started an online petition to persuade the town to answer its space needs in other ways. Some of those supporting an alternative approach had attended Hebron Academy, he said, and they do not want to ruin the building.
One suggestion they are offering is to purchase the property next door, which recently came on the market, to provide the extra space needed for the town offices.
