WEST LEBANON — Hoping to bring a satisfactory ending to years-long efforts to renovate James W. Campion III Rink, the Hanover Improvement Society has begun a public fundraising campaign seeking the last funds needed for the job.
“The building is tired,” said Ben Lovejoy, a Hanover resident and former NHL player involved in the effort. “We’re not trying to build the TD Bank Garden, but it needs a facelift.
“We want to clean Campion up and make it a nice building everybody’s proud of.”
To that end, the Hanover Improvement Society, which owns the 34-year old structure, has donated $1 million and raised $1.8 million from “substantial donors during our silent fundraising phase,” said organization president Don Derrick. The rink hosts nearly 90,000 annual users from roughly 40 Twin State communities, including repeat visitors, said HIS general manager Jeff Graham.
The local Jack and Dorothy Byrne Foundation has promised $1 million if another $1.2 million is raised by the end of the year, Derrick said. The latest targets are current and past facility users, including those who do or have skated for youth, high school, Dartmouth and adult organizations.
The total $5 million should cover an almost total building renovation, Derrick said, highlighted by six new and larger locker rooms, each with its own bathroom. A repositioned and larger lobby will mesh with a parking lot reconfigured for the easier and safer drop-off of youngsters by their driving parents.
“We’re planning on kicking off the building phase at this time next year,” Derrick said, noting that work may need to be spaced over three summers once a construction manager is hired and assesses the job. The rink is open roughly from September to April.
Derrick said the building’s ice-making equipment will be completely replaced and new piping will be installed and encased in a concrete slab, as has been common practice for decades. Campion’s current floor is comprised of sand, and its ancient compressors and piping were taken from Dartmouth College’s Davis Rink, which existed from 1929-85.
“If something breaks in that system, it might take six months to get a replacement from India,” Derrick said with a wry chuckle. “We’re going to be top-notch in how the building works when this is all done, but we’re not going for a space-age look or to wow people.”
Two previous attempts to alter and upgrade Campion during the past decade floundered. There were hopes for not only renovating the existing building but adding another ice sheet to the facility. Lovejoy, who has three young daughters and is heavily involved in the Hanover Hockey Association, said he doesn’t think those dreams were realistic.
“It would be amazing to have two sheets, but we’re a rural community that would have trouble supporting them both except from 4-7 p.m. during hockey season,” said the onetime Dartmouth player, who noted that 22 towns in and near the Upper Valley were represented among the HHA’s 262 players this season. “The rest of the time, it would be very expensive and not sustainable.”
Renovation architect Randy Mudge, a past HHA president, said the rink will receive new dasher boards and glass, and Derrick said a new ice resurfacing vehicle is in the works. Mechanical, electrical, heating, ventilation and insulation issues will be addressed, and the new lobby will be a naturally lit addition to the building’s end by the parking lot, Mudge said.
“This project is really a delight, because we’re making the building better for everyone,” Mudge said. “It’s not going to be a Taj Mahal but a good, solid, community rink for the next 30 or 40 years.”
The project’s website can be found at renewcampion.org.
Tris Wykes can be reached at twykes@vnews.com.