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Town Hall Restoration Committee Discharged with Thanks

DEEP RIVER - At its own request, the Deep River Town Hall Auditorium Restoration Committee, which has been at work for 23 months, was discharged by the Board of Selectmen recently. The committee presented its final report to the selectmen Nov. 26. The charge of the committee was to complete the restoration of the Town Hall's historic auditorium.

Committee Chair Arthur Thompson presented the report, saying, "At first I thought we should present you with a detailed report, but I realized that over the last 23 months our committee has sent out several reports on our progress and that hundreds of residents attended the events in May that introduced the auditorium. Since then there have been many meetings, hearings, lectures, and performances in the auditorium. I think people know what we did there."

What the committee did was beautifully restore and update an auditorium on the Town Hall's top floor. It took a project that had been moving very slowly over the years and gave it new energy.

"I want to remind people what our committee was asked to do," Thompson said. A town meeting charged the committee to "arrange for completion of the auditorium renovation to the extent that funds were available" and also that it be renovated to allow for a variety of uses. In other words, the committee was not allowed to spend beyond the funds donated over the years for the auditorium's renovation.

The committee, therefore, had approximately $260,000 to work with.

"We have spent approximately $258,000. No other funds were raised for this effort. We are returning the remaining $2,863," Thompson said.

The donations given over the years to fund restoration of the auditorium had been sitting in an interest-bearing fund separate from town funds. The selectmen indicated the remaining $2,863 will be placed in a separate fund to be used for the facility in the future.

With the completion of the renovation close at hand, the Board of Selectmen appointed a separate five-member auditorium management committee. It is now appropriate for the management committee to oversee operations of the auditorium.

"Our board's job is finished and we thank you for this opportunity to serve Deep River and our neighbors," the committee said as it handed over its final report.