ORFORD — Town Meeting has a familiar pattern to it.
Debate about school budgets, a regional issue with an environmental hook, a little pie at lunch, then a squabble about trash fees.
That was the case 45 years ago, at least.
Hanover residents at the 1975 Town Meeting debated ownership of a bank-owned “parking platform,” Strafford voted to designate Thetford Academy as its public high school, and Canaan residents rejected a proposal to spend $7,000 annually to allow its residents to use the “sanitary” landfill in Lebanon.
But the big issue was a proposal by New York-based Parsons and Whittemore Inc. to build a $200 million pulp mill somewhere along the Connecticut River Valley.
Several towns, stretching from Haverhill to Walpole, voted in favor of the measure, though Lyme residents said they didn’t want it in their town.
The proposal was being pushed by Orford’s own, Republican Gov. Mel Thomson, who said, “It is only by plants such as these that we can produce products that will give strength and vitality to the dollar.”
Some saw value in the hundreds of jobs the mill might produce, while others worried about truck traffic. Ultimately, it never happened, and Parsons and Whittemore turned to Alabama for its pulp mill location.
Another issue debated at 1975 Town Meeting was a proposal for a regional police plan. But the four towns involved — Hartford, Norwich, Hartland and Woodstock — all said no.
Zoning was defeated in West Fairlee that year, by just one vote, but there was a bit of a kerfuffle — an extra ballot was cast.
“It’s crazy,” Town Clerk Clara Langerhans told the Valley News. “We had one more ballot than we had names on the checklist.”
As for those school budgets, Strafford residents approved their $164,638 spending plan for schooling. That’s about $815,000 in today’s dollars.
John P. Gregg can be reached at jgregg@vnews.com.