LYME — Jackie Carter rents a house owned by the town, meaning she has an unconventional landlord: the Selectboard.

For the past 18 years, this hasn’t been a problem, but in January, when Carter reached out to Town Administrator Dina Cutting asking to renew her lease, which ends on the last day of June, Cutting said plans for the building were up in the air.

“The board discussed the lease for the rental property that you are presently living in,” Cutting wrote in an email to Carter on Jan. 22. “I am sorry to say at this time they cannot make any long-range commitments for this building.”

Carter, 42, a single mom with three children, pays $1,458 a month in rent, plus utilities, for the Pike House, a three-bedroom, 1½-story house located next to the town office building and police station. The family has made it their home for nine years. Carter’s sister, Jenn, 52, had rented the house for the previous nine years, for $1,350 a month, she said.

“I have more memories than I can count here,” Jackie Carter said, sitting at her kitchen table. “We’ve spent every holiday here for the past 18 years.”

About 20 years ago, when the old town offices, located in the basement of the Converse Free Library, became crowded, the Selectboard created a committee to find a new space in town.

At the 2008 Town Meeting, residents voted to buy the Pike House along with a garage, wood shop and since demolished barn for $599,000 from longtime Lyme resident Ray Clark.

Clark, 77, rented out the Pike House to several tenants after purchasing it in the 1980s. “It certainly fills a housing need in town,” he said.

The town renovated the other buildings into the police station and town offices, but kept the Pike House intact and continued renting to Jenn Carter.

Now, the Selectboard is weighing the idea of selling the house to make some cash and shed the responsibilities that come with owning a residential property.

In February, the Selectboard sent a real estate agent to the house who informally assessed it at $375,000, Selectboard Chairwoman Judith Brotman said in a recording of the March 4 meeting.

Also at the March 4 meeting, the three-member board voiced doubts about continuing to own the house, arguing that maintenance takes up too much of town employees’ time, and poses a liability to the town.

Built in 1842, Pike House, has its “quirks” including a wet basement and plumbing issues, Jackie Carter said.

“Part of the problem is everyone’s getting busier and busier,” Selectboard member Ben Kilham said in a phone interview. “Somebody who’s good at renting properties could buy the property.”

In addition to sharing a septic and well with the town offices and police station, Pike House shares a 3-acre lot with the town buildings, potentially complicating the transaction if the board ultimately decides to sell.

Although Kilham said the board has discussed “whether we should we be in the residential rental business,” in past years, the Carters said this conversation is news to them.

“My biggest concern is it’s really come out of the blue,” Jackie Carter said.

If Carter, who is the office manager at the Safety and Security Department at Dartmouth College, has to move, her family will be priced out of Lyme, she said.

As of June 2024, the median household income in Lyme was $136,000, according to New Hampshire’s Economic and Labor Market Information Bureau. That’s about $40,000 more than the statewide median household income.

Carter said she hoped to stay in the house until her youngest child, 13-year-old Isabella Ladd, graduates from high school.

“We’ve been here for so long, all of their friends are in this community,” Jackie Carter said while gesturing to her son, 18-year-old Andrew Ladd, who’s graduating from Hanover High School this June, and Isabella. “It would be very sad for them to have that much drastic change.”

Jackie Carter looked into buying the home herself, but because of the house’s age and condition, she could not get a Federal Housing Administration loan.

The Selectboard has not decided what to do with the house yet, Kilham said.

A public meeting “to discuss the possible option for the use of the Pike House by the Town or to consider selling the property,” is scheduled for May 7 at 6:30 p.m. in the town office building on High Street.

For Jenn Carter, who now lives in West Lebanon, the decision seems like a no-brainer.

“Why take another reasonably priced, single-family home off the market in the Upper Valley?” she said.

On March 17, Jackie Carter wrote to the Lyme Listserv calling for community support.

“The only way we have any hope in staying in Lyme and in the Pike House is if the Lyme community opposes the sale of the house,” she wrote in the statement.

She’s received positive feedback so far, giving her hope for a good turnout at the May 7 meeting.

“The Selectboard can’t make decisions in a vacuum,” Jackie Carter said. “Even if it ends up not going in our favor, they need to be accountable to the community who elected them.”

Emma Roth-Wells can be reached at erothwells@vnews.com or 603-727-3242.