At their biweekly meeting on May 18, the Hanover Selectboard voted to use the town’s contingency fund to pay the Valley News's legal fees in a 2024 Right to Know lawsuit and approved symbolic resident petitions passed at last week’s town business meeting against the state’s school vouchers and property taxes. The Selectboard also voted to “take no action” on the anti-apartheid pledge passed at the May 12 town meeting.
The Selectboard voted unanimously to authorize the use of contingency funds for “an amount not to exceed $79,000” following the New Hampshire Supreme Court’s April ruling that held the town responsible for the Valley News’s legal fees in a 2024 Right to Know lawsuit. The Valley News had sued Hanover over the release of arrest records for Roan Wade ’25 and Kevin Engel ’27, who were arrested during a protest on campus in October 2023.
In their April ruling, the court found the town violated RSA 91-A, which requires that “public bodies and agencies … make governmental records available upon request.” The amount Hanover must pay will be determined by a Grafton County trial court.
The contingency fund, which totals $100,000, allows the town to “to spend money without having to do a special emergency town meeting process,” unlike the town’s undesignated balance fund, which consists of around $5 million but requires special authorization, Selectboard vice chair Joanna Whitcomb explained at the meeting.
The Selectboard also voted to send a letter containing Articles 21 and 22 — resident petitions against school vouchers and income taxes, respectively — to Gov. Kelly Ayotte, State Senator Suzanne Prentiss, D-5 and four state representatives who represent Hanover and Lyme. Hanover-Lyme Town Democrats chair Deborah Nelson proposed Article 21 — which asserted that school voucher eligibility should be limited — and Article 22 — which opposed increasing tax burdens on local property taxpayers — at the May 12 town business meeting. Residents passed both by a voice vote.
In a draft of the letter to Ayotte, Prentiss and the state Representatives dated May 14, town manager Robert Houseman and the Selectboard notified the governor that Hanover voters adopted a resolution to “call upon state legislators to protect taxpayers by requiring the Education Freedom Account program to provide fiscal and educational performance reports comparable to those required of public schools and by limiting eligibility to families with demonstrated financial need.”
In the letter, Houseman also wrote that voters approved a resolution “calling upon the New Hampshire Legislature to protect local taxpayers by ensuring adequate state revenues for essential services and by avoiding policies that shift costs onto local property taxpayers.”
In June 2025, New Hampshire expanded its school voucher program, which provides families with money for private schools, tutoring and school related expenses, to all income levels. It was previously only available to families who earn below 350% of the federal poverty line. In March, the New Hampshire House of Representatives pushed for a “3-3 Tax Savings Plan,” which would levy a 3% income tax for all residents and “a $3 tax per $1,000 of equalized property value for all homeowners,” which has not yet passed.
Hanover is “currently creating a charter” for a public art committee that would “define how we select art” for public town spaces, according to Selectboard secretary Jarret Burke. Burke said at the meeting that public art committees are “fairly common in other towns.”
The Selectboard also unanimously approved a conduit license application which will allow electric utility company Liberty Utilities to erect electrical wiring for light fixtures on 4 Parkway Street, approved a public hearing to review the fiscal year 2027 fees and schedule on June 15 and pushed a vote on adopting a Centers for Disease Control initiative titled the Active People, Healthy Nation Project, which encourages community efforts to increase physical activity, to the next Selectboard meeting on June 1.
The Selectboard meets every other Monday in Hanover Town Hall at 41 South Main Street. Meetings are open to the public.
Olivia Sapper ’29 is a reporter from Darien, Conn., and is majoring in Government.
