Lebanon
Board members voted, 4-1, on Monday night to approve the expansion, which will add an additional rink and nearly triple the building’s current footprint.
New operating hours were also approved, appeasing rink supporters who said earlier regulations would have hampered the rink’s financial stability.
“I certainly don’t feel there’s a need for anything more,” said Zoning Board Chairman Jeffrey Halpin, after reviewing a draft approval during Monday’s meeting. “I feel pretty satisfied with what we have here.”
The new agreement gives the rink two sets of operating hours; one for pre-construction and another that will take effect when work is complete.
The hours taking effect now are akin to those the rink used for decades, with the rink to be open from 6 a.m. to midnight between mid-September and mid-April.
Once construction is completed, hours will vary based on season. Rink officials say the facility doesn’t need to remain open during warmer months and can close earlier in seasons when demand is low.
From mid-October through mid-April, the rink can open from 6 a.m. to midnight. Hours then switch over to 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. from mid-April to mid-May.
In the spring, the rink would close, but locker rooms would remain accessible to support the nearby Dartmouth College playing fields. Then, in late June, the rink would reopen from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m., until early August, when the building will close again.
After Labor Day, the rink would open from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m., expanding to midnight again in mid-October.
Board member Jennifer Mercer said separating the hours is necessary to ensure the almost year-round operations don’t begin until the rink can manage them.
“I feel that they need to meet all the conditions, including the construction, quieter insulation, the trees, the screening before they go to any expanded hours of operation,” she said in an audio recording of Monday’s meeting.
The approval is similar to one the board granted in May, where the rink is responsible for measures that will better protect neighbors from light and noise at the building. The biggest change is in operating hours.
When the board initially approved the expansion in May, it cut back hours during seasons with peak demand, rink officials said. The rink proponents argued the hours would hamper efforts to break even on the nonprofit venture.
The rink appealed, as did neighbors opposed to the expansion.
Zoning Board members this week agreed to build further protections into the new approval on Monday, mandating that any event with more than 200 spectators would require a police detail.
The measure was proposed by board member Al Patterson, a retired Hanover police officer who has openly worried about the expanded rink’s impact on area traffic and safety.
The rink is required to hire police for high school games under NHIAA regulations but, Patterson said, that requirement doesn’t cover other large gatherings.
“That’s great for high school games but in testimony given and in complaints from abutting neighbors, if they have a large event, there’s got to be some sort of control out there,” he said in the audio recording.
“… It’s very clear that they’re not going to police themselves,” Patterson said. “They haven’t done it before and I have no reason to believe they’re going to do it in the future.”
While other board members were receptive to Patterson’s proposal, they tussled over the number of people the rink could hold before police are needed. Patterson himself struggled to put his finger on a specific proposal.
“Unless you give us a number, we can’t do anything,” said board member William Koppenheffer. “We’re stuck. What do you want us to do?”
Ultimately, the board worked together to come up with the 200 number, but indicated there would be leeway for non-ticketed events, which are more difficult to predict turnout.
“This one’s just going to have to require a fair amount of good faith on both the applicant and the city to make it work,” said Zoning Administrator Tim Corwin.
Patterson was the only board member to vote against a variance for the expansion proposal on Monday, and said the project’s size and potential impact played into his decision.
“It’s doubling in size,” he said on Tuesday afternoon. “It’s going to be huge.”
Plans submitted by the nonprofit Hanover Improvement Society and Campion Sports and Recreation Project, which operate the rink, show the facility’s footprint nearly tripling in size to 56,570 square feet. It’s not yet known how much the project will cost the groups.
Plans for the new rink will still need to be reviewed by the Lebanon Planning Board before construction can begin, but it’s not certain when that will happen.
John Hocherither, chairman of the James Campion III Rink Committee, would only say on Tuesday that “there’s a lot to do between now and (opening).”
“This is a long process and we’re glad to get it underway,” he said. “We’re thrilled we got the go-ahead and we’re looking forward to it.”
Tim Camerato can be reached at tcamerato@vnews.com or 603-727-3223.