The approval of the Hanover community power plan follows votes in Keene and Harrisville to move forward with plans of their own.
The Hanover plan will give the town more control over what kind of energy is procured so it can choose a more renewable mix of sources. The town’s goal, set in 2017, is to reach 100 percent renewable energy by 2030. Some energy experts are hopeful that community power will allow municipalities to secure more favorable pricing than utilities that go to market only twice a year.
Traditionally, the utilities make decisions about where to procure power and they then provide this power to customers and bill them accordingly. But community power allows electric customers to band together and choose for themselves where they get power from.
Town Meeting: Hanover OKs power-sourcing plan, keeps town manager
Modified: 7/14/2021 3:58:19 PM
HANOVER Voters in Hanover decided Tuesday to adopt a plan that officials hope will allow households and businesses to purchase power from more environmentally friendly sources.
Residents in a show of hands overwhelmingly voted to adopt a community power plan during Town Meeting that gives municipal officials the ability to contract and bid for the energy needs of about 2,500 residential customers.
Meanwhile, residents also opted to maintain Hanover’s town manager form of government and elected two incumbents to the Selectboard in ballot voting, which was held at Dartmouth College’s Dewey Field parking lot.
Hanover Town Meeting includes petition to eliminate town manager >Modified: 7/9/2021 9:39:56 PM
HANOVER Voters will decide on Tuesday whether to maintain Hanover’s town manager form of government or instead delegate more responsibilities to its five-member Selectboard.
A petitioned warrant article on this year’s Town Meeting ballot asks residents if they support “the continuation of the town manager plan as now in force in this town?”
A “yes” vote would continue the work of Town Manager Julia Griffin, who was hired in 1996, while a “no” vote would redistribute some of her responsibilities to elected officials.
In New Hampshire, town managers have hiring and firing power, can pay the town’s bills and set salaries. Hanover, which has a population of about 11,500, switched to the model in the 1970s as the town and Dartmouth College grew.
Forum, July 10: Proposed Hanover budget balances need for services with needs of taxpayers
Published: 7/9/2021 9:59:56 PM
Modified: 7/9/2021 10:00:06 PM
Proposed Hanover budget balances need for services with needs of taxpayers
At the business portion of Hanover’s Town Meeting on Tuesday, voters will face a bevy of appropriations-related warrant articles, $30.6 million in total, for fiscal year 2022. After revenues, the levy to taxpayers is $14.1 million. Tax rates, incorporating the Fire Fund, would increase just under 3% (17 cents on a base of $5.92 per assessed value of $1,000 prior to the increase). The Hanover Finance Committee voted unanimously on March 8 to support the town budget.
In setting the budget, the town faced significant, mostly externally driven, revenue and cost pressures: Multiple revenue streams were impacted by COVID-19 totaling more than $450,000 an amount equal to 19 cents on the tax rate; cost drivers included a nearly $200,000 increase in required
Dartmouth master plan calls for growth along Lyme Road >Modified: 7/2/2021 9:40:23 PM
HANOVER Dartmouth officials are eyeing land along Lyme Road that housed the Hanover Country Club for potential expansion that may involve college housing developments, administrative buildings and park-like space, according to a newly released master plan for the college.
The plan, which has been in the works for two years and has been approved by college trustees, was published on the Dartmouth website Thursday. It outlines the college-owned properties that Dartmouth is considering developing or ones it aims to revamp for open space use in the next 30 years. Under the plan, Dartmouth could establish over 700 new housing units in the region, and over 680 new units within walking distance of campus.