More than 400 Hanover residents crowded into the Hanover High School gymnasium last night to vote on a proposal to build a bicycle path through the woods from Hanover to Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center. The proposal was defeated soundly.
Town Selectman Kate Connolly proposed to authorize funding for the construction of the bicycle path from the Mink Brook area in Hanover to the Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center, and a staggering majority of Hanover residents defeated the motion.
The controversy over the construction of the bicycle path arose in March when Hanover officials introduced the proposal to build the path with the $80,000 Elm Street Fund -- a fund created when the College purchased Elm Street from the town of Hanover.
Residents disagreeing with the proposal complained it would be an impractical route for a bicycle path, citing safety hazards caused by steep grades.
Much of the proposed path consisted of steep hills with grades as steep as 10 to 12 percent. The ideal grade for a bicycle path is five percent.
Although the proposal called for rest stops along the areas of steep grade, residents were still concerned about the downhill speeds of cyclists, which could reach up to 35 miles per hour.
Town residents said they were also concerned about the potential environmental damage the bicycle path could cause to the wetlands and the trees in the area. "There has been no study done on the environmental impact," Hanover resident Roger French said. "This is not just a path through the woods."
During the course of the meeting, Hanover resident Ellis Rolett proposed an alternative motion, which sparked another half-hour long debate.
Rolett motioned for the funds be used to build a strictly pedestrian foot path in place of the asphalt bicycle path. He also proposed that a new committee be formed to develop the alternative route.
Hanover resident Scott Drysdale, one of the writers of this new proposal, said that a foot path would be utilized more than a bicycle path and would be a more sensible way to spend the money.
However, other town residents disagreed with the proposal.
One resident said "the alternative pedestrian path complicates what is already a complicated situation."
"I'm opposed to using the money just because it's there," another resident said.
The new proposal was defeated by a narrow margin.
Hanover Town Manager Julia Griffin said the town board "will have to go back to the drawing board" come up with alternative ways of spending the $80,000.
The money would have provided 20 percent of the funding for the bicycle path. The New Hampshire Department of Transportation would have provided the other 80 percent -- an amount totaling $292,000.
"The [Department of Transportation] will hold the money for a year until we come up with a revised plan," Griffin said.
