Hanover residents overwhelmingly approved a complex plan -- involving a three-way agreement between the Dresden School District, the town of Hanover and the College -- to renovate the local high school and middle school.
Under the current proposal, Dartmouth would pay $9.7 million to the school district -- which serves both Hanover and Norwich, Vt. -- and give Dresden 23 acres of land on Lyme Road, where the new middle school will be built. Hanover High will be renovated on site.
In return, the College will take possession of playing fields on Reservoir Road and parking spaces on Sargeant Place and will also gain access to a former land fill site for use as a staging area for maintenance equipment. Dartmouth officials have also noted the College's interest in having a strong local school system.
The proposal will be reviewed in March by the Dresden School Board before a vote later in the spring by Hanover and Norwich residents on a bond issue to pay for the renovations and construction.
A strong majority of voters approved the agreement, comprised of three separate articles. Although dissenting voices were heard, the proposal was often lauded as a "compromise" between Hanover, Dresden and the College.
Hanover resident Kevin Mabey reminded the crowd that the plan would never be perfect, but that it was important to move the issue. The attendants were anxious for the school issue to move forward, town moderator Willy Black said.
The vote was held in special session because the offer Dartmouth made as part of the agreement would have expired tomorrow if not approved by Hanover residents.
"If we vote no on any of these articles we are back to square one, and God help us if we are back to square one," Mabey said. The debate about how to renovate the schools has been raging for 10 years.
"This is a piece of history," Hanover resident John Hatheway said.
"This was the light at the end of the tunnel tonight," Black said. The 77-year-old Richmond Middle School and 66-year-old Hanover High buildings have fallen into disrepair, district officials said, and also do not provide enough space for current needs.
The new proposal consisted of three articles. The first outlined zoning changes and was passed 1,331 to 99. The second stated that the town of Hanover would pay Dresden $2 million over 20 years. The third article, passed 734 to 31, empowered selectmen to proceed with the many exchanges of land between Dresden, Hanover and Dartmouth.
Article two, which needed a two-thirds majority to pass, overshot that figure by 224 votes. Article three was approved by an almost-unanimous voice vote.
Last March, in response to the town's need for school renovation and its lack of resources, Dartmouth offered to give $18.7 million dollars toward the construction of new school buildings at a different location in return for the land on which the schools are currently located.
However, Hanover residents rejected that proposal, expressing concern about moving students out of the downtown area and the conversion of Hanover to "the town of Dartmouth," explained Dartmouth history professor and voting Hanover resident Jere Daniell.
Two of the Hanover residents' most voiced concerns at the meeting were maintaining and improving parking space near the town's Howe Library and recreational facilities such as town fields.
Dartmouth's role in the local "history of cooperative movement," mostly land trading and consolidating, began in the 1940s and 1950s, said Chairman of the Hanover Board of Selectmen Brian Walsh.
