By Nicholas Brown
Staff Writer

The Hooksett Village School building may yet house town offices, despite the recent efforts of a private organization to lease the historic building.

The Hooksett Town Council was approached at its May 11 meeting - one day after the town's annual elections - by affiliates of the Mount Zion Christian Schools, currently located in Bedford.

Hooksett resident and a parent of two Mount Zion students, David Ross, along with the head of the Mount Zion school's building committee, Nick Dager, expressed interest to the council in leasing the building for either a short or long term.

Their approach was in the wake of the defeat of the warrant article that would have granted the town $1.5 million to turn half of the building into town offices and the other half into a community center.

Ross said the council was unreceptive to the proposal.

"They want to do what they want to do with that building and they don't care what voters say," said Ross, a self-employed installation and maintenance technician of home electronics systems. "They don't care what anyone else says."

Ross added that he was twice denied access by the council to view the inside of the Village School building.

Town Councilor Michael DiBitetto said approaching the council one day after the vote didn't give the council time to regroup.

"I suggested then that the council should sit down and think of plans," said DiBitetto.

DiBitetto said that since May 11, the town has begun an inhouse survey to determine the feasibility of moving town offices into the school. The survey, he said, will be conducted by various members of town boards, committees and departments.

DiBitetto said much of the $1.5 million allotted in the warrant article would have been used to update the community center portion of the building to code, since the center would have likely held public assemblies. With the community center project on hold, DiBitetto said, the town may be able afford transferring some offices.

"We're trying to seal up the municipal side right now," said DiBitetto. "That is our focus."

DiBitetto described moving the offices as "Plan A," and all other possible uses of the building as potential "Plan Bs."

"What Dave (Ross) did was bring in a Plan B before we had an opportunity to fully investigate Plan A," he said. "That was my thinking."

DiBitetto added that the town has already transferred some older documents and files into the Village School building.

"It's alleviated some congestion," he said. "But we hope that it's not the extent of how we're going to use the building."

DiBitetto said the building, vacant since last June, is regularly monitored by town employees.

Bob Carter, principal of Mount Zion, said the school has been looking more seriously at other sites since communication with Hooksett.

The school, which housed 153 kindergarten through 12th-grade students this year, needs to relocate by the 2006-7 school year. The school's current building will next year be demolished in favor of a new highway.

"We were essentially told that Hooksett (Village School) was not an option," said Carter, adding that the school may be close to agreeing on a different site.

Ross said the town's use - or lack thereof - of the building has been a sign of "poor stewardship of taxpayers. money." He said a Christian school would have been a valuable asset to the Hooksett community, and more beneficial than a community center.

"I don't need it, and neither do my neighbors," Ross said of a community center. "If you want to help the elderly and the poor people, stop raising taxes."