Our daily transportation decisions have major impacts on our personal health and the wellness of our communities. Places that design streets to encourage walking and biking inevitably get people active and out of their cars. A robust transit system encourages good public health because it gets people walking to bus stops. Buses also help us breathe easier. They produce 95 percent less carbon monoxide, 92 percent fewer volatile organic compounds, and 45 percent less carbon dioxide than private automobiles, according to the American Public Health Association.

Thankfully, Lebanon residents have many options to use public transportation or take a safe walking or biking trip. Advance Transit provides frequent connections to places to shop, work, and play throughout Lebanon and the Upper Valley “core” towns. Need to get to Dartmouth Hitchcock for work or an appointment? Advance Transit’s Blue Route provides a quick, fifteen-minute ride from Downtown Lebanon an astonishing thirty times per day. Perhaps you want to get into downtown Hanover to walk around and do some shopping. Hop on an Orange Route bus in front of the Kilton Library, and you’ll be there in ten minutes.

Thetford resident Stacey Glazer says Advance Transit is particularly helpful on days when she carpools. “Last year, I carpooled into the office twice a week and took the Orange to Hanover where I met my daughter for yoga class at the Dartmouth gym. After class we would drive home together. Advance Transit helped us have one fewer car in the household.”

If you’re commuting into Lebanon from further away, you might be able to use a longer-distance bus to get to work. Connecticut River Transit provides rides from communities along I-91 south to major employers, including Dartmouth Hitchcock, Dartmouth College, Hypertherm, Fuji-Dimatix, and the VA Medical Center. Stagecoach provides similar services from I-91 North and I-89 North in Vermont. If you feel tired and stressed from a long commute, chances are a bus ride could help you feel more relaxed and ready for your workday.

Lebanon’s resources for biking and walking are getting better each year. Area residents have for years enjoyed the Northern Rail Trail, an off-road biking and walking path that runs from Lebanon through Enfield to southern New Hampshire. Now, the City is working to extend this trail into West Lebanon through the Mascoma River Greenway project. This exciting, four-mile project will run all the way to the Vermont border and provide approximately half of Lebanon residents a connection within a mile of their homes.

Walking to work is a great option in many parts of town. Nate Miller lives and works near Lebanon’s Colburn Park, and he enjoys many benefits from walking to his job as Executive Director of the Upper Valley Lake Sunapee Regional Planning Commission. “I’ve walked to work nearly every day for the past eight years. Not only is it good exercise, but it’s also good for the wallet. My fiancée and I save thousands of dollars each year because we don’t need to own a second vehicle.”

To the north of downtown, the Mount Support multi-use path provides a safe way to access Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, Lebanon High School, Timberwood Commons, and other residential areas. Paved in 2012, the separated path gives cyclists and walkers an option to go north and south in the Route 120 area without having to travel on the four-lane state highway itself. Advance Transit has also adjusted its Blue Route to accommodate the new residential developments along Mount Support Road.

These many improvements have not gone unnoticed. Last year, the Upper Valley Transportation Management Association recognized the City of Lebanon as the winner of its “Municipal Project of the Year” award, saying Lebanon received the award for many projects that are helping to build a strong transportation network. Continue to look for great new ways to bike, walk, and take the bus around Lebanon – the city is on the path to a great transportation future!

Lebanon was once known as “The City of Fountains” – and the Lebanon Fountain Committee is on a mission to help it live up to that name. Established in 1997 to spearhead the restoration of the Marion Carter fountain downtown, the five-member committee continues to raise funds, recruit volunteers, and strive toward the restoration and building of the fountains the city was once known for.

According to Lebanon resident and committee volunteer Priscilla Gosselin, the priority this year is to build a fountain on the downtown Mall, providing another enjoyable space where residents and visitors can gather. As the city recognizes the 50th anniversary of the Lebanon fire that destroyed much of downtown, Gosselin said it seems like a good time to create a new downtown attraction that will add to the feeling of community and fellowship.

The project has already received initial funding of $50,000 from the Timken Foundation, while Mascoma Savings Bank and the Lebanon Rotary Club are also supporters. Both also helped fund the committee’s three fountain projects completed since its establishment in 1997. The first was the refurbishment of the Marion Carter fountain and its dedication for its 100th anniversary on August 7, 1998. The second was the refurbishment of the Colburn Park fountain, with a pedestal and bowl donated by the Babineau family on Green Street. The third effort was the creation of the High Street water feature and park, commemorating the Lebanon Rotary Club’s 100th anniversary and recognizing the men and women who lived and worked on High Street in the early days of the mills on the Mascoma River.

“These fountains are a gift to the community through their continued support,” Gosselin said of the Lebanon Fountain Committee’s donors.

Of course the committee is diligently seeking further support to make the downtown Mall fountain a lasting feature of the community. Residents can support the efforts by volunteering for the committee or specific efforts, Gosselin said, giving “truly a gift of ideas” to move projects along. Donations of any amount are always appreciated, as well, and may be sent to the Lebanon Rotary Club, the fiscal sponsor for the project. Learn more about the Lebanon Fountain Committee at lebnh.net.

Beverly Damren has been an energetic and sociable presence in West Lebanon for 65 years. She has made her mark as a parent, a Den Mother, and counselor. She has worked in the schools, in social service groups, and most recently putting a strong shoulder to the wheel to get the Kilton Public Library up and running. Growing up in Claremont during the Depression, she learned not to wait around for someone else to do things for her.

Different Times, Different Pace

“Everybody walked – you didn’t think anything of it,” Bev recalls of her childhood. Her maternal grandparents had a farm, which her uncle later took over. The farm supplied some luxuries, such as butter, during the hard times of the Depression and World War II rationing, though the taste was “strong,” Bev remembers. And life in an old farmhouse wasn’t easy in winter. “They lived in the kitchen, which was huge, with a big woodstove.”

Claremont was a regional center in those days. “People went there to shop,” says Bev. “What changed it was the Interstate coming through. And then of course the changes in manufacturing.”

Bev was home from college in 1946 when she met Jerry Damren, recently out of the service. He had served in Italy, fighting at Monte Cassino. Taken prisoner, he spent eight months in a German prison camp late in the war. “There was not much to eat,” says Bev, describing his captivity. “It was the worst winter in quite a while, and there was no heat. You’ve heard of grass soup… But the worst thing was there was nothing to do. Boredom was the biggest problem.”

When Jerry returned, he finished up an education degree at Duke, where he had a baseball scholarship. His real love was history, recalls Bev, but when he moved back to New Hampshire he landed a job teaching social studies at West Lebanon’s high school, then in the Seminary Hill school building. Those first years he also “coached everything they had – well, not track.”

Sports were important, because there was not much for kids to do. “We figured to start in a small school, a good place to start, stay a couple of years and then move on,” Bev laughs. But Jerry stayed with the school his whole career, moving to Lebanon when the schools consolidated in the late 1950s.
Nowadays Lebanon and West Lebanon merge into one another, with commercial and residential development of various density linking the two centers, but the two towns felt very separate 60 years ago, Bev remembers, and because classes at the West Leb high school were so small the kids were very close. “Jerry took a job at the new high school to go with the kids,” she says. “It was very hard, especially for the kids who were going to be seniors.

At first, the couple lived in an apartment across the street from the school, a useful convenience since they had no car. In 1960 they moved to the house on Maple Street, just down the hill from Mt. Lebanon School, that is still Bev’s home.

While Jerry taught, Bev also involved herself with the schools, first as a volunteer, then subbing. “I really enjoyed Mt. Lebanon School,” she says. “I did everything but be the janitor! I even covered for the principal a few times.”

Bev and Jerry had four boys, three of whom have stayed in the area. While their claims to fame are various and impressive, it’s probably Jon who is familiar to the greatest number of people, since he is the owner and co-founder of Stateline Sports, which supplies equipment and clothing to most local schools, and also supports a wide range of recreational teams – an excellent example of a local, community-oriented business.

Kilton Library

Bev’s biggest mark on the town is undoubtedly the new Kilton Public Library. The old West Lebanon library, a small, solid building on the west side of Main Street, has an interesting origin. The library on the Lebanon Green was one of almost 1,700 across the country built with assistance from Andrew Carnegie. When West Leb residents heard these plans, they gathered money from community dinners, dances, and other grassroots fundraising to build their own library. Both libraries opened in 1909, but West Lebanon opened first.

Bev remembers using “the little library down here,” but adds, “You were very limited in what you could do. Still, it was friendly: Miss Watson was the librarian there, for 50 years, and the kids used it; it was the only place to look things up.”

In the days before the Interstate, Jim Kilton graduated from Dartmouth and returned to his father’s drugstore, Red Cross Pharmacy on West Lebanon’s Main Street. (The building is now a chiropractic office.) He ran the pharmacy, which also had a popular soda fountain, for many years, known for his kindness, and for putting in long hours. He and his wife, Willena, had no children, and in 1999 they left generous bequests to local organizations, including Alice Peck Day Memorial Hospital, their church, and $1.3 million to renew or replace the library.

The library trustees, including Bev, who had joined the board in 1997, examined the possibility of on-site expansion. “But there wasn’t much space, and it just didn’t seem wise to put that much money into a limited site. The place on Main Street – it was a filling station when I moved here – was an unattractive empty lot for the main street of a city. And they were asking a tremendous price, almost a million dollars. When Dan [Smith, then board chair] called, they had a potential buyer. He said, ‘If anything changes, let me know.’”

Over the next ten years, the trustees bought the land, raised additional funds, found an architect, and shepherded the project to completion. Bev, who was board chair when the library opened in 2010, says, “The best advice we were given was to get an architect who’d done libraries before; they knew things we wouldn’t have thought of. And Walter Paine [former editor/publisher of the Valley News] came on the board. I don’t think we’d be where we are if he hadn’t joined in – so involved and hard-working.” Considering, she adds, “It was a lot of work, but worthwhile, and I think everyone’s happy with the outcome.”

There is some contention over when it starts – some say the beginning of the senior year, some say in the second semester of junior year – but when “senior-itis” hits, it hits hard. What is “senior-itis?” It can be a hazy, glazed-over look in an upperclassman’s eye, a telltale sign that his or her mind is not there in the classroom, but in what lies ahead for them after graduation. It can be seen in the lounging groups of seniors in the library, luxuriously enjoying the final moments of high school. It can include a sense of fear, too; “senior-itis” is just as much an admission of anxiety over the future as it is an eagerness for the future to come.

As the end of the school year draws closer, we asked seniors at Lebanon High School about their plans after graduation. We also asked them to describe the overwhelming emotion that comes with this change. You can see an interesting perspective on Lebanon in these questioning young adults. Home, for them, is now as much a place to move on from as it was a source of comfort for 18 years.

Ed. Note: Congratulations, Class of 2014! I hope you find your passion and ways to pursue it.

Natalie Cantlin – Lebanon

“After I graduate, my plan is to take a gap year and do some traveling. I want to see some more of the world before I’m stuck in a job to pay off my student loans. My friend Izzy and I are planning on traveling through Western Europe during the beginning of 2015. Until then, I will be working to earn money to fund this excursion. I am so looking forward to graduating; it will be nice to get out of Lebanon and expand my global perspective.”

Emma Poplack – Lebanon

“Next year, I am off to Stanford University to study who-knows-what. Right now, I’m a 50-50 split between terrified and excited. I’m terrified to do something so different from everything I know, but I’m also thrilled to be taking advantage of the next four years to experience new things. I’m hoping to study everything, from math to history to dance. I’m definitely looking forward to more sunshine and more days above freezing! Most of all, I’m excited to be moving on from high school. After four years, I’m ready to try something new and have more freedom and opportunity. So while I’m dreading that June deadline, I also can’t wait for it to come.”

Ian Girdwood – Lebanon

“After my experience this past summer working on an archaeology dig in England, I’ve dreamed of pursuing archaeology as a career. After graduation this spring, I plan on heading off to college, majoring in anthropology at either St. Lawrence University or George Washington University. While I’m sad to be saying goodbye to old friends, I’m excited to meet interesting people and make new friendships. I can’t wait to take advantage of study abroad programs and travel the world, hopefully taking part in some more summer archaeology digs. While my time here in Lebanon has been great, and left me with many memories that I treasure, I think I am finally ready to go out and see what this world has to teach me!”

Kaylee Rogers – Grantham

“I plan on attending UNH for a major in political science and a minor in some form of history. I really want to use my degree for something with politics or in law. We live in an era with so many national and world issues, and I want to use politics and the government to give people a voice and help out those suffering in the United States and around the world. The U.S. has such power and influence around the globe, and I want to be a part of that! I’m so excited to graduate and use my independence to lead me wherever I end up. I want to get out into the world and make a name for myself.”

Kenny Weitzman – Lebanon

“I’ve been accepted to UNH, UVM, University of Colorado Boulder, University of Rochester, and Tufts University. Tufts is my top choice for now. I’m looking to study political science, international affairs, and economics. I’m excited to make new friends and have great new life experiences. I’m both very excited and somewhat apprehensive about graduating, because while I’ve spent a lot of time here and I’ve definitely gained something from my four years of high school, I think the opportunities I’ll be offered in college will exceed those I can find at LHS.”

Kelsie Atwater – Plainfield

“Next fall I will be attending Colgate University in Hamilton, N.Y. Colgate first came on my horizon freshman year, but I knew it was the school for me the first time I put foot on campus junior year. I applied and was accepted Early Decision. I am extremely excited. My current plan is to major in neuroscience and then continue on to a career in the medical field. Graduating high school is bittersweet. I am ready to move on to the next stage of my life and out of the bubble I grew up in, but I will also miss the people and places that have surrounded me for the past 17 years of my life.”

Jake Jasinski – Lebanon

“After graduation I will be studying computer science at college. I am incredibly excited to be able to get a change of pace and a breath of fresh air. I am most anticipating a different living style, and being able to take the classes which I specifically choose. Graduating feels awesome, but bittersweet. Every time I think about it I can’t help but thinking that I won’t be seeing most of my friends for much longer. Although graduation will be an amazing culmination of 12 years of hard work and I look forward to an exciting and fresh next four years, I will always remember my friends from Lebanon.”

Yen Truong – Lebanon

“I can’t believe I’m graduating; I can’t believe I’ll be leaving my teachers and my high school friends! Without familiar faces, I will be quite frightened, but I am excited for college nonetheless. I’m going to Dartmouth in the fall. My long-term goal is to be a pediatrician. I love children, and if I become a successful doctor, I would have enough money to open an art therapy clinic. Art is a great way to have fun and connect with different people, and I’d like to give my patients that opportunity.”