South Hero officials may ask voters for permission to borrow up to $1.2 million next year to fund long-discussed renovations at a meetinghouse in the town’s largest village center.
Built in 1816, the Old White Meeting House on Route 2 has served as a church, school and town hall, among other functions. South Hero has owned the structure since 1856, making it Grand Isle County’s oldest publicly owned building.
“This is one of the most iconic buildings within the town of South Hero,” said David Carter, who chairs the town’s selectboard, at a board meeting last month. “And it is important that this historic building be preserved for use by future generations.”
Today, the first floor of the meetinghouse is largely unused, but the second floor houses a local nonprofit organization called Granny’s Attic, which runs a seasonal charity shop there. The group has used the upper level for almost seven decades, though town officials have yet to decide whether it can stay there after renovations are completed.
Planned work includes shoring up the meetinghouse foundation and adding an annex on the back with a kitchen and a restroom. The building would be weatherized and get a heating system, and an elevator would be installed to improve accessibility.
At its meeting Nov. 14, the South Hero Selectboard voted unanimously to hire an attorney to oversee the process of obtaining a bond. Voters would be asked to approve borrowing up to $1.2 million on Town Meeting Day next March.
Carter said at that meeting a bond could be paid off over 20 years at a 4.5% interest rate, with the town paying about $75,000 a year. If passed, he said, it would raise taxes about $15 per year per $100,000 of property value — $45 on a $300,000 house.
Earlier this year, the town received a $100,000 grant for the project through the Vermont Preservation Trust, and town voters approved an additional $150,000 in March. Carter said the town also plans to allocate some of its funding from the American Rescue Plan Act to the project.
The town and other project advocates will also continue to seek grants even if the bond wins approval, Carter said, which could lower the amount the town needs to borrow.
Carter said renovations would allow the first level of the building to be used as a large community gathering space, and if Granny’s Attic stays, the group would use less than half of the second level, leaving the rest of that floor open for public use. He said many of the planned renovations will be necessary to make the building safe to use.
The project also backs up to a lot where a local developer, Nate Hayward — who also sits on the town’s Development Review Board — plans to build a new public park. The meetinghouse is just down Route 2 from an area in the town’s main village center where recent development has included the first new multifamily housing project on the Lake Champlain Islands in more than 15 years. It opened its doors Nov. 14.
Ross Brown, vice chair of the selectboard, indicated he may not support asking voters to fund renovations next year if Granny’s Attic, which does not pay rent to the town, is allowed to remain where it is once renovations are completed. Brown said he supports the organization, but believes that the second level — which at a previous meeting he called “the prime part of that building” — could have other uses that provide a greater public benefit.
“As a member of the selectboard, I am not going to be held hostage by the grannies in a project that has so much more to offer the town,” he said at the meeting Nov. 14.
Granny’s Attic donates the proceeds from its shop — typically at least $30,000 a year — to local nonprofit causes, ranging from library books for children to meals for older adults. Members of the organization said they were not available to comment on the meetinghouse project ahead of publication.
A 2019 study of the project’s feasibility found that advocates for Granny’s Attic wanted the meetinghouse to include a similar space for the organization’s store after renovations, noting the group has long provided benefits to the town.
As part of that study, a survey completed by about 150 people found that nearly 60% supported continuing to house Granny’s Attic in the second-floor space. More than two-thirds of respondents supported using the first floor for recreation and arts activities, meetings, farmer’s markets or rentals for events such as weddings.
Carter said he supports keeping Granny’s Attic in the building, but it is too early in the planning process to say whether the group will stay after renovations, or be asked to move elsewhere so it can continue running the shop. He said the organization will, at least, need to vacate during construction.
“The town is committed to retaining the grannies in South Hero,” Carter said.