Looking Back: 1984
Excerpts from the Hollis Times
February 1984
Public kindergarten was the big issue, with numerous Letters to the Editor in the Hollis Times. Although the issue was tabled at the 1984 School District Meeting, public kindergarten was approved in 1985.
1984 was also an election year. On February 4, Annie Glenn, wife of Senator John Glenn, presented her husband's views at a coffee. And on February 14, "a huge crowd" greeted Democratic Presidential candidate Senator Ernest Hollings at the home of Endicott Peabody.
March 1984
Town and School District meetings each lasted one night. The kindergarten question was tabled by a vote of 214 to 153. The $4,354,724 school budget did not include future salary increases being negotiated between the school board and teachers' association.
Voters at Town Meeting tackled a 30-article warrant in one evening, appropriating $1,686,452. A petition to prohibit baseball and frisbee playing in the Town Common was defeated. The combined budgets totaled a little over $6 million.
April 1984
The front page featured four photos of the dramatic rescue of four canoeists stranded in the Nashua River below Runnells Bridge. "Two of four male canoeists from Massachusetts lost their boat in the extremely heavy water brought on by a combination of last week's downpour and fast melting snows." Police rescued the first man by cutting a pine tree and using it as a bridge; the second was picked up by Pepperell firemen in a small aluminum boat.
The Police Building Committee was discussing five possible sites for the new fire station. The Board of Selectmen unanimously appointed Richard H. Darling as the new Chief of Police.
May 1984
In addition to the Garden Club Plant Sale and Friends of the Library Book Sale, one of the last Firemen's Dinner Dances took place — a roast beef and ham dinner followed by dancing, for $15 per person.
The June Jamboree "returned" at Hollis Elementary School, featuring over 20 games, rides in a fire engine, antique car and hay wagon, food and raffles.
August 1984
Plans for the new police station were revealed with architectural drawings for the renovation of the 240-year-old "Sundstrom house" at the Four Corners. The Hollis Budget Committee voted 4-3 not to support the project, citing "the overall negative feeling expressed by the public."
The Hollis Planning Board was considering a shopping center on Ash Street (the Hollis Village Marketplace). Planning board member Tom Jambard "expressed concern that the shopping center 'will generate as much traffic as the Nashua Mall.'"
September 1984
"An emotionally charged Special Town Meeting at the high school on September 12 resulted in rejection of the Board of Selectmen's proposal to purchase and renovate the Sundstrom property for use as a new Police Station." The plan was voted down by a narrow margin of 195 for and 225 against.
In 1984, the Hollis Police Department was housed in the small square building at the west end of the Town Common — the Always Ready Engine House. The department didn't move into its current facility on Rte. 122 for several years, with voters approving funds incrementally through 1987.
October 1984
New Hampshire voters were asked to consider thirteen proposed amendments to the Constitution, covering topics from voter access to gubernatorial succession.
Under the headline "Vote Tuesday, November 6" was printed: "In some countries voting is mandatory. In Australia you are fined if you don't, in Greece you can't get a driver's license and in Italy you can't get a government job. Because we live in America, we don't have to vote. But we ought to vote – because we live in America."
