There was a time when Bow didn’t have a high school, age-restricted housing or a new public safety building in the works.
Arthur Cunningham remembers those days, and has had a hand in seeing those things change. He was on Bow’s planning board for 19 years, 15 of which he served as chairman. And, while his resignation from the board in November means he won’t be able to see some projects through fully, he’s content knowing his participation in the community has led to some of its biggest changes.
Cunningham arrived in Bow in 1989, looking for a place to buy a home. Back then, he said, Bow was attractive for a young family because you could get a bigger house for less money and lower taxes than in Concord, where he was living at the time. Even then, he could see that the town was headed for a change: a building boom in the 1980s and ’90s was making a dramatic impact on the town. He estimated about 50 houses were being built and 150 people were moving to Bow per year.
“In Concord, you wouldn’t notice 150 people, but in a small town like Bow, that’s huge,” he said.
It wasn’t long before people started talking about the town getting big enough for a high school of its own. The school, completed in 1997, spurred even more growth. But Cunningham said that rapid growth was not good for the town without a diverse tax base. He also saw an issue with the lack of affordable housing and felt one of the board’s greatest achievements was temporarily changing the town’s growth management ordinance in the early 2000s to allow for more high-density and age-restricted housing projects, such as the White Rock Senior Living Community.
And while the school system is one of the town’s biggest attractors, Cunnginham said the cost of the high school made residents wary of spending on anything else. The project’s overall cost was $25.9 million, with $16.2 million in principal and $9.4 million in interest; its 20-year bond matured Aug. 20, 2016.
“Even though the project passed with around 80 percent of the vote, there was still, and I think still is, an undercurrent of, ‘We paid too much for it,’ ” Cunningham said. “But people don’t realize that if you keep putting something off, it’s going to get more expensive.”
Cunningham said he felt the wariness to spend on anything prevented residents from approving what he saw as one of its most-needed improvements: the public safety building, which passed town meeting last year with a $3.5 million price tag and is scheduled to open sometime in the spring.
Cunningham said the land for the building had been purchased by the town before the high school was built. But it wasn’t until 10 years into the high school’s 20-year bond that people started talking about concerns with the fire and police buildings, which included the lack of fire alarms and sprinklers in the fire department and the absence of training rooms and holding cells in the police station.
“It was frustrating, not getting the votes for the facility when all who worked on the project understood the need,” Cunningham said.
Another critical development was the Route 3A water and sewer line, which Cunningham said gave the town an opportunity for growth. And while he was unsure of whether it was paying for itself – voters approved a $12 million bond for the project in 2002 – Cunningham noted that the water line currently supports the Exel Inc. liquor distribution warehouse on 3A, which wouldn’t be there without it.
Cunningham admitted it was not particularly difficult to leave the planning board, saying he did not have the same amount of energy to invest in the town as he once did. But there are some things he’ll miss, he said, such as seeing developments through to the end.
He cited Merrimack Station as one of those developments, which currently makes up 8 percent of the town’s tax base. A superior court ruling in December set the value of all Eversource property related to the plant at $67.4 million in 2013, about 42 percent of the valuation used by the town when it sent the company a tax bill. The town has filed a notice of appeal to the state Supreme Court.
When Cunningham moved to town, the plant took up 40 percent of the tax base, and he said he’s not sure what can be done to make it up. Zoning changes could help, he said, such as the mixed-use zoning proposal the planning board has put forward, which would affect the region where interstates 89 and 93 meet in Bow. He wasn’t sure, however, if residents would go for it.
“I wouldn’t say the majority of people dislike it, but there are some locals who resist the idea and they’re organized,” he said.
Cunningham was hopeful someone might want to take advantage of the existing infrastructure at Merrimack Station.
Regardless, the town will survive, according to Cunningham, because he said didn’t he feel the plant was going away anytime soon. And though there may be more pressure to build housing again once the state begins its 10-year plan to widen I-93, Cunningham was sure the town could handle it.
“It’s nothing we haven’t already seen,” he said.
(Caitlin Andrews can be reached at 369-3309, candrews@cmonitor.com or on Twitter at @ActualCAndrews.)