Boscawen is considering putting a coffee shop in its old police station building, and, at least at its initial proposal during a public hearing Wednesday, no one seemed opposed.
“It’s not an idea that’s off the wall,” observed Bruce Crawford, a resident and the town’s planning board chair.
“So when do we get our first cup of coffee?” Mark Varney asked with a smile.
Mason Donovan brought the idea to the select board. He is currently a Webster resident and co-founder of the global diversity and inclusion consulting practice The Dagoba Group, but he’s planning to begin building a new home in Boscawen in 2017.
He said that because a move to Boscawen is imminent, he wants to help create community there with an establishment that offers not just transactional, but cultural ties.
“Our work is all about diversity, right? And a coffee house just embraces diversity,” Donovan said. He also called that kind of a business a “multiplier,” given the opportunities it could provide artists, musicians and other professionals.
Donovan said, too, that a coffee shop would be a place for people to stop in a town where cars usually just pass through.
“We don’t have a destination right now,” Donovan said. “We’re not monetizing the traffic.”
A cafe might also make the town more inviting to younger people, “which we know New Hampshire has a really hard time retaining,” Donovan said.
His vision seems to fall in line with what others voiced at a Boscawen “open house” in November. At the event, held at the Winthrop Carter House to gather input for an ongoing zoning update for Boscawen’s main thoroughfare along Route 3, several residents said they wanted a coffee shop in town, somewhere to meet up or get some breakfast.
“Somewhere that’s an alternative to Dunks,” resident Elaine Clow reminded the select board referring to the town’s Dunkin’ Donuts location.
Select board members agreed the idea was “tremendous” and “great,” but weren’t sure exactly how to proceed. The old police station has been mostly vacant since the department moved out in 2003, though it has been used by the fire department for training. The fire station sits on the same lot along High Street.
“Would you expect us to do whatever you want in there, renovate before you leased it?” Bernard Davis Jr. asked Donovan.
He added that it was pretty late in the town budgeting process to add money into the operating budget before it is voted on at the town meeting in March.
Select board members decided they could get the building rent-ready according to what is legally required, and then let the lessee – either Donovan or any other business that applies for the space – do additional renovation.
Donovan said he was just interested in seeing the old police station put to use.
“That building you have is a valuable resource,” he said.
(Elodie Reed can be reached at 369-3306, ereed@cmonitor.com or on Twitter @elodie_reed.)