By Nathan Duke
Staff Writer

The Candia Heritage Commission is helping eight residents pay the rent in order to keep the town's rural feel.

The commission is hoping to keep the town's historic structures intact through its barn preservation program, which will evaluate eight local barns on a yearly basis.

KEEPING CANDIA RURAL - Deb Dekkers and Doug Dukerschein own one of the eight barns in the Candia Heritage Commission's Candia Barn Preservation Program. Their barn on Chester Road is more than 100 years old. (Nathan Duke Photo)

The program will enable the barn owners to seek tax relief from the town in exchange for a 10-year preservation easement on the building. The structures must be 75 years old to qualify and deemed to serve public benefit by being viewable from a public road.

"The idea is to preserve historic Candia," said Ken Madden, the commission member in charge of the program. "The money value is not really the incentive - it is meant to offset some of the maintenance cost of the barn. The real reason for the project is to keep the agricultural background of Candia intact and to help save some of the beauty from the past."

Once a barn owner commits to the preservation program, he gets a tax abatement of 25 to 75 percent on taxes for the structure. The easement requires that the barn owners maintain the building for 10 years. If they sell the property, the new owners are required to comply with the rules of the program until the 10 years runs out.

State law requires preserving towns' historic structures, though each town has the right to implement the law how it sees fit.

As Heritage Commission members view the barns, they carry a checklist that requires inspection of each building's foundation, structure, external siding and roof. Barn owners must notify commission members if construction on the building will take place in the upcoming year.

Heritage Commission Chairman Jon Godfrey said the tax relief helps barn owners, though pride for their structure is more of a motivating factor for participation in the program.

"You have to want to participate in the program because you believe in the concept," he said.

Currently, there are eight barns being evaluated for tax relief, though commission members said they intend to possibly add four more barns to the program, which is in its second year.

Deb Dekkers and her husband, Doug Dukerschein, own a large pine wood barn on Chester Road that is connected to a smaller, older barn. In 1976, the barn was listed as a bicentennial barn by the National Register of Historic Places.

Dekkers' parents lived in the house next to the colossal barn for years and used the accompanying fields as farm land.

For years, Dekkers rented the house and barn, in which lodgers parked their cars. Currently, the barn is used for storage, though Dekkers intends to make space in it for a horse for her daughter.

She said the preservation project is a good step to keeping Candia's historical heritage alive.

"I think the evaluation is an excellent idea," she said. "It is an incentive to keep New Hampshire barns intact. They are a dying breed. Our barn is over 100 years old. Hopefully, it will keep for another 100 years."

Hope and Robert Pearson own a 30-foot-wide by 60-foot long barn on Main Street. From 1951 to 1985, they used to house cows. In recent years, they have used the barn for storage. During the course of the next year, the Pearsons will have work done on the roof, as well as some windows that need to be replaced.

Pearson said her house was built immediately after the Civil War and the barn was built shortly thereafter. She said the most unique aspect of the structure is the sliding doors in the shape of a scissor-like mechanism.

Many of the town's historic barns have fallen to ruin or been relocated, she said.

"So many of them have fallen down or been shipped off to other states like California - they like to have a little bit of New England," she said. "We hope to keep our barn in shape so it will be here a long time. We won't be here forever, but we hope it will."

Diane Philbrick's family owns a barn on South Road, where they run a family farm. The Philbricks harvest their own hay and grow their own meat and vegetables.

She said the tax rate abatement was a pittance and took part in the program in order to keep her barn alive and well.

"This program raises the awareness value of historic places, lifestyles and buildings in town," she said."What makes the town so beautiful is the heritage we have here."

The commission is currently evaluating the barns, splitting up the assessments among its members.

The other five structures that are part of the program are Boyd Chivers. barn on Depot Road, Joseph Lemieux's barn on Patten Road, Johann Rothwangl's barn on North Road, Jeff Philbrick's barn on South Road and Lee Petrin's barn on High Street.