What Will Happen to Town Information Booth?

Merrimack Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Deb Courtemanche received an early morning phone call from the Merrimack Police on Sunday, May 26.

Automatically your brain goes to your kids, she said. But it wasn't family-related.

Instead, Courtemanche was being notified of the fact that the Town Information Booth in Fraser Square had been obliterated by a car earlier that morning.

Matthew Jones, 22, of Merrimack, fell asleep behind the wheel early Sunday morning, police said, veering off the road, missing a flag pole, a fire hydrant and a monument, instead ripping through the low hanging branches of a tree on the green and shattering the information booth into pieces.

First thing Tuesday morning, a crew from the Merrimack Department of Public Works arrived on the scene to dismantle what was left of the booth, remove the debris and clean up the area.

By Tuesday afternoon, the only indication that a small structure onces stood there was a patch of dirt covered with grass seed, some stone pavers at the front of the booth and where the doors were and a small bundle of wires tucked into the ground.

Courtemanche said the she's not yet sure if or how they will replace the booth.

"Ironically, I've been in talks with the town about ways to sort of bring it back to use," Courtemanche said.

The information booth, in its heydey, was staffed on a part-time basis by volunteers who provided direction or help to the visitors who stopped at it. It was stocked with brochures about local attractions and was a place for people to get directions if they were lost.

With the Internet age, however, Courtemanche said most people can get that information right from the phone in their pocket these days, and it hasn't been staffed since 2004.

Courtemanche said she's been researching the booth, trying to figure out when it came to be and what the original vision was behind it. In its prime, Courtemanche said it would average anywhere from 20-40 stops a day. She knows this because the attendants kept logs, noting who stopped, where they were from and where they were headed.

In more recent years, the booth was used by Scouts to sell treats during the town's Fourth of July and Christmas Parades, but when the parade route was changed that use disappeared as well.

Courtemanche said she'd been toying with the idea of pitching the booth as a place for Scouts to use to sell cookies, or for local youth sports teams to hold fundraisers, but any possible plans for it changed dramatically a week ago.

Courtemanche said she could definitely envision something being rebuilt, but not just for the sake of having a structure there.

"I think it's important to put it back if we can determine a valuable use for it," she said.

That said, Courtemanche wants to know what the community would like to see go there? Do you have a suggestion? A new booth with a new plan? An information kiosk? Nothing at all? Share your suggestions in the comment section below.