At a selectmen's meeting on June 20, Hampton Beach resident Mike Scanlan dropped the s-word while commenting about a $12 million infrastructure project currently underway at the beach.
Scanlan and several other residents contend that the town has been uncommunicative and uncooperative with beach residents throughout the project.

The project will upgrade the precinct's nearly 100-year-old sewer system. But it will turn Ashworth Avenue into a two-way street with sidewalks on both sides, one of the main sticking points for Scanlan and other beach residents who feel the two-way street idea is unwise, unfair and possibly dangerous. With the conversion, parking spaces on Ashworth Avenue would be eliminated; other spaces and loading zones on side streets and in front of beach businesses will also be cut as part of the project. According to Hampton Beach Sidewalk and Parking Committee, a total of 543 spaces will be lost at the already space-strapped beach.

"The town is not listening to voters, and then they wonder why the precinct is up in arms," said Scanlan at a June 30 meeting of the committee.

But Mike O'Neil, a Hampton Beach precinct commissioner and a state representative, said that "Hampton Beach is not going to be seceding from the town of Hampton."

"It was brought up by one individual...(and) the person who brought it up has no clue about the process about how to do something like that," he said.

O'Neil attributes the tension between the town and the beach to a lack of communication.
"At this point, everyone needs to sit back, relax a little and work things out. We need to work together, not against each other," he said.

How would secession actually happen? First, a majority of Hampton Beach residents would have to vote to secede; then, the town of Hampton would have to vote to approve the secession. The state Legislature would also have to approve the change-in short, "it's a long, complicated process," according to O'Neil. And that's not counting the task of setting up a new government, figuring out the municipality's infrastructure and determining how services like police and fire will be provided.

"You'd have to contract with the town for all those services, if the town would be willing to do it. It doesn't make any sense at all," O'Neil said.

Hampton town manager James Barrington said the town has not taken a position on the threats of secession and he doesn't consider the possibility very likely.
"I don't think they really want to do that," he said.

But unlike O'Neil and Scanlan, Barrington doesn't think the conflict is a case of poor communication.
"They just don't like the answers they're hearing," he said. "There's been plenty of communication back and forth, but when someone doesn't like what they hear, they will blame it on communication (problems)."

Voters approved the project in 2003, and Barrington said beach residents have had plenty of opportunities to discuss plans for the improvements.

"There's nothing new here. This has been going on for years, but all of sudden now that it's going into concrete, people are saying, 'Oh, you never told us that,'" he said.

Workers broke ground last fall after the beach's annual Seafood Festival. Barrington expects work to wrap up sometime in 2006.

"This is a good thing for the community. If you get a few people that don't like the particulars, you have to look at the bigger picture," he said. "For everyone I hear complaining, I probably hear three at the beach saying they're in favor (of the project)."

The Hampton Board of Selectmen will next address the issue at their July 25 meeting. Depending on the outcome, Scanlan said the precinct may hold a special meeting to figure out its next move.
The committee was established last March to explore alternatives to the parking and sidewalk changes that were bundled in with the project.

But just how serious are they? Secession is a last option said Geannina Guzman-Scanlan, a member of the Sidewalk and Parking Committee, but it's one some residents are considering.

"We are very serious about holding our government accountable for ... listening to what people in the community need, what they request, what they're entitled to and (they) should be incorporated into the planning process," said Guzman-Scanlan. "In no way are we trying to (call) attention and bluff."

She added, "It's not a good thing when citizens of a town have to sue their own town (to hold) them accountable for what they have to do."

Barrington doesn't think the trend of communities trying to secede from their respective states, counties and cities carries much weight.

"I'm from the South originally-secession didn't work in the 19th century and it's not going to work in the 21st century," he said.