On Monday night at the biweekly Selectboard meeting at Hanover town hall, the Hanover Selectboard discussed creating an assistant town manager role and proposed a review of fiscal policy guidelines to prepare for increases in town capital expenditures.
The Selectboard presented a new initiative to create an assistant town manager position “to support a succession plan” for current town manager Robert Houseman. The assistant town manager would support excess work from Hanover’s recent string of projects, and “potentially serve as a replacement” for Houseman. Houseman, who stepped into the town manager position in October 2024, said during the Monday meeting that he is preparing to retire and plans to remain in the role for “not less than two years.”
According to Houseman, the town is preparing a review of the “job description, salary, benefits and how [Hanover] can afford” to create the position, which will be featured on the next Selectboard meeting agenda.
He said the town aims to be “proactive in our efforts to onboard and train a person” who can act as town manager following Houseman’s retirement. However, he noted, the town is not “handpicking” the new manager but instead “trying to tee up an overlay in training” to assist with the major upcoming projects within the next two years.
In an interview with The Dartmouth, Houseman said he hopes to “ensure that there’s a smooth transition” once he retires.
“The hope would be that the assistant town manager structure could create an opportunity for someone to step in,” Houseman said.
The town currently has two employees in the town manager department: Houseman and administrative assistant Kate Shea, alongside seven members of the administrative service department. According to Selectboard chair Carey Callaghan, the proposed assistant town manager position would create a “deeper bench” of employees managing municipal projects.
“An assistant town manager would allow the Selectboard to have help with all that is in front of us,” Callaghan said. “We need additional capacity to execute projects like South Main Street, which will be huge and ongoing.”
The Selectboard has the authority to choose the town manager and set their salary. In the past, they have used both internal and external hiring processes. Houseman replaced former town manager Alex Torpey after serving as the planning, zoning and codes director from 2016 to July 2024. He served as interim town manager in the three months before officially becoming town manager in October 2024.
The Selectboard also unanimously moved to start a review of their established current financial policies and budgets in the Selectboard meeting. The budget guidelines were established in December 2015 and last revised in December 2019.
Houseman said the goal of the review is “to determine whether or not [the guidelines] can be updated to meet the current direction the board is going,” in an interview with The Dartmouth.
“The first thing we do is evaluate to see if they’re still on point and in compliance with appropriate policies and also to modernize them,” Houseman said. “Forecasting projects and using the fund balance to fund the capital reserve for future debt and pay for projects rather than incur future debt.”
During the meeting, Selectboard member Athos Rassias emphasized the importance of a policy review.
“We owe it to ourselves to look through these guidelines,” Rassias said.
Callaghan noted that revising the budget will be a “multi-meeting process.’’
“There has been a significant step up in capital spending,” Callaghan said. “South Main Street is the biggest, most prominent of our capital needs. The town is feeling the coming wave of capital spending.”
Changes to South Main Street, which has had no major construction projects since 1974, are projected to cost the town $14.9 million by 2029. The project was proposed last January and will change the layout of the road to add bike lanes, replace water and sewer mains and remove parking spaces, among a host of other changes.
According to a South Main Street frequently asked questions document available on the town website, Hanover “has not yet selected a final financing method” for the South Main Street project. Financing options will be evaluated after the design is finalized and a cost estimate is developed.
The financial deliberations come in anticipation of what Callaghan called a “tsunami” of capital expenditures not limited to South Main Street. Hanover plans to allocate $47 million to major infrastructure projects and $6.5 million in additional capital asset spending over the next two fiscal years.
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.
