Two local projects have received a total of $66,500 through the states’ Land and Community Heritage Program (LCHIP).
The town of Rindge has received $16,500 to restore mortar work on the historic side of the Ingalls Memorial Library.
“It’s great, we were really excited to receive the grant,” Ingalls Memorial Library Director Donna Straitiff said. “It’s not all of the mortar, but pieces around the doors, windows, and foundation. We have had no issues with leaks, we just want to bring the front half of the library back to its historic status.”
Additionally, the Francestown Land Trust, Inc. was awarded $50,000 to assist in placing a conservation easement on 40 acres of farmland on the Second NH Turnpike in Francestown.
“If you are driving into town, this land is quite visible and attractive, and now it will remain that way,” Francestown Land Trust, Inc. Board of Directors chair Chris Rogers said. “Our principal reason to protect it is because of its agricultural value.”
Forty two projects throughout the state were recently awarded a total of $3.9 million in matching grants.
LCHIP is an independent state authority that provides matching grants throughout the state to communities and nonprofits.
The grants are used to protect and/or preserve the most important natural, cultural, and historic resources throughout the state.
Straitiff said the library has already secured the other funding needed to finance the $33,000 project through the library’s revolving fund and other financing which according to Straitiff will be disclosed later in the month.
The scope of the project will be above the average masonry project, Straitiff said, as the work needs to be done to historical specifications.
“It can’t just be anyone to do the work, there are standards for the kind of mortar that’s used and other things,” Straitiff said.
The library was built in 1894-1895, constructed in a Romanesque Revival style by well-known architect Henry Martyn Francis of Fitchburg, Massachusetts.
The building was added to the New Hampshire State Register of Historic Places in Oct. 2016.
The grant received by the Francestown Land Trust, Inc. will help to protect prime agricultural land in town from being developed.
“Towns need to grow – there has to be construction in towns as more people come in – but you don’t want to build on the best agricultural land in town,” Rogers said. “We have to keep some of that sort of land to grow food some day.”
With money now secured, the land trust will work to place a conservation easement on the Abbotville Farm property, a well known chunk of land for those who routinely drive from Mont Vernon to Francestown on the Second NH Turnpike.
Rogers said the cost of the easement serves as a payment to the current land owner, compensation for the diminished property value that comes with placing such an easement on land.
“We do not own or control the land. The terms of the easement say the owner will never build houses on that land so it will be available to be used for farming,” Rogers said.
Nicholas Handy can be reached at 924-7172 ext. 235 or nhandy@ledgertranscript.com.