Hanover Happenings

Hi all, this is your Town Manager Alex Torpey with your June update. I hope you're staying cool this week at least as I'm recording this, and everyone is enjoying the early summer.

We've got a lot to cover in this month, including:

Thank you for engaging with what's happening in your community! You can find all the episodes at hanoverhappenings.com. All referenced documents, agendas, minutes, memos can be found under "Selectboard" at https://www.hanovernh.org/AgendaCenter. All meeting videos can be found on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLAdkf9ugxof4EZuCY82OEOJu4osEm369e.

This is your Town Manager Alex Torpey here. Have you heard about the Allen Street Placemaking Pilot?

From June 26-August 26, 2024, the Hanover Selectboard has authorized a two-month pilot closure of Allen Street building off the success and positive feedback of the "Block Party" series. The purpose of the Allen Street Placemaking Pilot is to promote community engagement, enhance pedestrian safety, and support local businesses by temporarily closing Allen Street to vehicular traffic. This will allow for public use and activities, outdoor dining, and the creation of vendor spots to bring additional vibrancy to the area. 

Throughout the pilot, we will measure various impact(s) such as traffic, parking, general activity, and more, and use that to inform any future decisions. This idea was generated through the inclusive collaboration of Town officials and local business owners through the Downtown Working Group and aligns with the goals in Chapters 6 and 7 of the new Master Plan and the Selectboard's FY25 Goals #3.

In this episode, I share a brief background, and then we hear from Hannah and Liz from Hanover Parks and Rec about all the great stuff happening this summer from concerns to events, to family/kid activities, outdoor dining, and much more.

After we hear from Hannah and Liz, we hear from six downtown business/property owners what they think.

We hear from:

Not all business/property owners we reached out provided comments, and of course, not everyone is entirely on board with the project, as there are some who have expressed concerned about impacts to parking and ability for vehicles and visitors to get to their spaces or tenants. The Town has been working diligently with all property and business owners to understand and make sure these concerns can be monitored, have provided survey forms for feedback, and are communicating with stakeholders every two weeks as well as collecting data that will help understand how the two-month closure impacts vehicles, traffic, parking, etc for use in future decision making.

We welcome your feedback on the pilot, and we look forward to seeing you on Allen Street this summer! You can find more information, calendar of events, applications to use the vending spaces, survey links, and more at hanovernh.org/allenstreet or email us at [email protected]!

In what will surely be the shortest podcast episode I've ever or will ever record, please join me, your Town Manager Alex Torpey, as I briefly read out the letter to the editor submitted to the Valley News last week.

In the letter and recording, I wanted to take a moment to thank all of the people who participated passionately but civilly. In the true spirit of several centuries of Town Meetings in New Hampshire, we thank all voters who showed up, treated their fellow community members with empathy and respect, and made decisions on behalf of the future of our community.

Hi everyone this is your Town Manager Alex Torpey.

In this episode I give a quick run down of the results from yesterday's election and Town Meeting, thank some of the folks who helped put all of that together, and thank all of you for your engagement and caring about your community.

You can find the results posted at hanovernh.org as well.

In this episode of Hanover Happenings I sit down with Selectboard Chair Athos Rassias to run through the Warrant for 2024 Town Meeting.

Athos and I discuss a little bit about his time serving on the Selectboard and involvement in Hanover's School Board and Finance Committee, why Hanover is such a cycling paradise, who is better Bruce Springsteen or Taylor Swift, and then we run through the entire ballot and Warrant and explanations for Town Meeting. Go one episode back for a budget overview, which we don't spend much time on in this episode.

Town Meeting is Tuesday May 14th at HHS. Ballot voting from 7a-7p, and the business meeting to begin at 7pm.

There is a public candidate forum open house discussion on May 9th from 5-7pm at the Rockefeller Center at Dartmouth, hosted by Dartmouth Civics, where you can meet candidates learn about Town government/meeting, how to get more involved, and ask questions of various Town staff and volunteers.

Additional Resources are available at Hanovernh.org/Townmeeting. This includes:

You can find all budget information: hanovernh.org/budget.

In this episode I sit down with Ellen Bullion, Finance Director, to talk some budget!

We start off with a basic Budget 101 - revenue/appropriations, operating/capital, how the budget leads to the tax rate, and some differences between private and public sector budgeting.

We then move on to cover a very broad overview of the FY25 budget, and the "Top 12" highlights of things to keep an eye on in the FY25 budget that was approved by the Selectboard on April 1st, and endorsed by the Finance Committee.

What we cover in this episode will be largely mirrored in the Town Report as well.

Then we discuss the many backup documents that contain more information if you want more on any specific topic. We summarize some of the key ones below. The available backup documents can all be accessed at hanovernh.org/budget:

In this episode I discuss the importance of civic engagement and recap a project several dozen state and local officials worked recently to produce a produce a free, nonpartisan guide on how to boost participation at Town Meeting. It was covered on NHPR and you can download the guide at nhtownmeeting.com.

In the episode we cover the phrase “Authentic and effective public engagement” and why it’s important to have shared definitions of terms such as these. We go through some of the reasons behind the handbook, and then go through the five best practices we identified, as well as some quotes from local officials in NH and VT who have put these in practice in their communities. This all should help give some background to why these sorts of efforts are so important to the Selectboard and all of us in the Town government in Hanover.

Press release below:

State and local officials work together to increase Town Meeting participation in NH

Two weeks after New Hampshire's 104th first-in-the-nation primary, the focus now shifts to another hallmark of state leadership: Town Meeting. As more than two hundred New Hampshire communities gear up for this traditional event, they celebrate one of the world's purest forms of democracy, where residents directly participate in legislative decisions from budgets, zoning, and more. Through this process of governing, often joined by shared meals and community awards, Granite Staters sustain the small-town unity that historically has been such a big part of our state’s culture of involvement at the local level.

Despite its roots in the 1600s and a cornerstone of local engagement, Town Meeting still faces challenges similar to those affecting civic systems nationwide, with declining attendance worrying officials who champion its significance. In response, a nonpartisan coalition of state and local officials has compiled a handbook that aims to make some well- tested best practices more widely accessible.

“I came to New Hampshire with a requirement to work in a town with Town Meeting.” Hanover’s Town Manager Alex Torpey, who moved to the Upper Valley from New Jersey in 2022, explains the impetus for the project. “I’ve been fascinated with the process for years, and since coming here, have learned so much from the experience of others who have been leaders in their communities for years or decades. I also heard a lot of differing ideas from people about declining numbers, and what the rules and best practices are, which we wanted to organize and provide to anyone interested.”

The best practices were sourced from nearly two dozen Town Managers, Clerks, and Moderators in New Hampshire, as well as Vermont, through organizations such as the Municipal Management Association of New Hampshire and the New Hampshire City and Town Clerks Association, as well as independently. The handbook was reviewed by the New Hampshire Municipal Association, New Hampshire Secretary of State, and the New Hampshire Department of Revenue Administration. The New Hampshire Attorney General’s office provided advice about the project as well, though they did not perform a review of the handbook, specifically.

Margaret Byrnes, the Executive Director of the New Hampshire Municipal Association shared that “So many policies that affect our everyday lives are made at the local level, and voters have more influence over these decisions than they may realize. And you don’t need to be a parliamentarian or skilled orator to participate in your town meeting and raise your voice (and your hand)! As the association of all New Hampshire’s cities and towns, NHMA has resources to support local officials in running town meeting—and in effectively running local government throughout the year. We’re pleased to be part of this collaborative effort with Hanover, state agencies, and municipal managers to raise awareness and share best practices for a great town meeting!”

New Hampshire Secretary of State Dave Scanlon, whose office helped provide advice and support of this initiative, commented that “New Hampshire elections are well-run and transparent because they are carried out on the local level by locally elected officials. The Secretary of State’s Office is here to support those officials in their successful efforts to protect our democracy.”

Officials hope this guide will inspire and support local leaders, media, and citizens to find ways to increase engagement in Town Meetings, preserving New Hampshire's democratic foundation and fostering community collaboration. They anticipate making new ideas and resources available as well in future updates.

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You can download a copy of the free Handbook: nhtownmeeting.com. Reach out to Alex Torpey for more information at: [email protected].

Hey folks, this is your Town Manager Alex Torpey here with a bit of a late update for December and Happy New Year, and January 2024. How it's 2024 already I have no idea, but we'll have to save that for a different podcast.

A lot has been happening in the last month, though much of that has been really on the staff side, both working on turning the data and feedback from our retention and recruitment study into proposals and then budgeting them out and working with our collective bargaining units and staff and selectboard to move forward, so with that and a few persistent vacancies in some key positions, we've all been a bit flat out and probably will continue to be like that until we get the budget adopted by the Selectboard in March.

Here's some of what we covered in our meetings in December and January:

Additional information/resources:

This is your Town Manager Alex Torpey with another spotlight episode.

In it, I sit down with Heather Drianan, Director, Dartmouth Government Relations, Jim Alberghini, Director Dartmouth Institutional Events & Logistics, and John Sherman, Hanover Parks and Rec Director to talk about....

This winter, check out free, public skating (BYOS(skates)) at the Dartmouth Green! Thanks to a new collaboration between the College and Hanover Parks and Rec, the rink will generally be open to the Dartmouth community and general public during daylight hours, weather permitting, starting early January. Learn more about it and the behind the scenes work to get it ready in this special spotlight episode.

If you have feedback about the project or suggestions for the future, you can email Dartmouth's Conferences and Events at [email protected], and if you would like to reserve the rink for an event, please reach out to Hanover Parks and Rec at [email protected].

Hi all, this is your Town Manager Alex Torpey here with your November update. We covered a lot of ground in November, and in this episode I'll provide updates from:

11/6 and 11/27 Selectboard meetings:

My monthly Town Manager monthly report, with updates on:

Resources and links: