There are still skid marks outside Georgia Wishnefsky's Home Decor Shop, located on Main Street, from the time skateboarders closed her propped-open door, then removed her doormat and skated down the stairs in front of her shop.
"My feeling is this -- a sidewalk is for pedestrians," she said. Pedestrians "shouldn't have to dodge skateboards and bicycles."
The complaints of merchants like Wishnefsky, who do not look kindly on the town's free-wheeling adolescents, have recently prompted a minor controversy, involving shopowners, the town government, and the kids themselves.
But in the end, everything seems to have worked out.
Town Manager Clifford Vermilya said he has received many complaints from merchants about skateboarding, especially from shops near the Nugget Movie Theater, including Home Decor and Foreign Accents, and also Omer and Bob's Sports Shop.
Hanover Chief of Police Nick Giaccone said "the skateboarders were using some recent decor that the town and the Hanover Improvement Society had spent over half a million dollars on."
Vermilya said Hanover's Board of Selectmen responded to complaints during a May 15 board meeting by proposing an ordinance to prohibit in-line skating and skateboarding on the Main Street sidewalk in the main business district.
But Vermilya said the ordinance was tabled when a large group of young people who came to the meeting "asked for the opportunity to try to control themselves."
Vermilya said the ordinance has not been revived since the meeting.
"Merchants who had been complaining all indicated that things had gotten much better," Vermilya said. "If they continue to police themselves and correct the problems, we won't need an ordinance."
Two of the young people who came to the Board of Selectmen meeting in May were Matt Denine and Ben Guest -- both are 14-years old and will be freshmen at Hanover High School this fall.
"My father skateboarded in Hanover," Guest said. "I think that skateboarding in Hanover has a deep history," Guest said.
He added: "I think people have this fear of skateboarding. I think a lot of people think we have less control than we really do."
Denine said he and his friends tried to be sensitive to the merchants' requests after the ordinance was tabled.
"We changed a lot," Denine said. "Once we got kicked out of one spot, we wouldn't go back."
Long-term solutions
Such merchants said they are seeking optional areas for people to use for their sport.
Some merchants in Hanover have sought long-term solutions to the over-crowding of downtown streets by trying to start alternative recreational areas.
Jay Campion, who owns of Subterra Sports, located on the corner of Main Street and Lebanon Street, said he believes the solution is to "initiate a private, non-profit enterprise that promotes recreation through providing a facility."
Campion said he has already begun by organizing adult softball games through an organization he founded called "Valley United Sports," an idea he thinks he can apply to skateboarding and other sports.
But to succeed, he said the facility would be "directly user-supported," just like his current organization.
"Valley United is responsible for a field, but softball players put it all together," he said. "The skateboard aspect is peripheral to the overall concept," he said.
He said the overall package could include space for indoor hockey, in-line skating, and other sports that aren't provided for by the town, the College, or the Hanover school system.
Jack Stinson, owner of Stinson's Market, director of the Ford Sayre Ski Council and a member of the Hanover Parks and Recreation, is also interested in developing a space for skateboarders.
Stinson said "the selectmen deserve a lot of credit." He said, "We could have easily had a new law." He said tabling the ordinance "was a big positive action."
During the May 17 meeting of the Hanover Parks and Recreation Board Stinson proposed to start a skateboarding park, he said.
"I'd buy it. I'd run the program," Stinson said. "All I needed was a place to put it."
He was also looking for the town to absorb the insurance costs, he said.
Hanover Committee
Meanwhile, Hanover Parks and Recreation formed an "In-Line Skating Committee."
The committee, made up of concerned citizens from Hanover and nearby towns, aims to look at the concerns of in-line skaters and skateboarders, Stinson said.
Hanover Parks and Recreation hopes to develop programs to encourage cross-training, such as having snowboarders practice by skateboarding, Stinson said.
"We have a lot of young kids who are asking to cross-train and have some fun," Stinson said.
Stinson said he is interested in looking at many different ways to make the facility into a reality.
"The quickest person to make a move would be someone like a Jay Campion," Stinson said.
John Lawe, the clerk of the Norwich, Vt. Board of Selectmen said he would be very interested in hearing a proposal for a skateboarding facility.
"It would be too expensive for one town to develop, but maybe several towns could develop it together," Lawe said.
These proposals could alleviate the concerns of Hanover merchants.
Denine said he and other skateboarders would be interested in using a skateboarding facility instead of the downtown area.
But he said "it would have to be close by and big enough." He said, "if it were a small area, we'd get bored of it."
A skateboarding area in walking distance of downtown Hanover would be nice," Guest said. "A nice skateboarding park would attract people no matter what."
