By Nicholas Brown
Staff Writer

This is the Hooksett Public Library’s granite sign, along a road to be expanded. (The Hooksett Banner/Nicholas Brown)

A new road proposed to serve residential and commercial developments near the Hooksett Public Library is endangering the library’s $3,000 granite sign.

College Park Drive, the new connector road between Route 3 and Main Street in Hooksett Village, is proposed to continue on the northeast side of Route 3. In the way of a would-be right turn lane, to serve library traffic headed north onto Route 3, is the granite sign donated to the library by Hooksett’s Belisle Granite Company several years ago.

Library Trustees Chairman Mary Farwell said she was approached by developers who said they intend to move the sign into storage, as construction on the road may soon begin.

“I got a call,” said Farwell. “They said we’re going to move the sign whether you want us to or not.”

3A Development, the developer of the University Heights project, proposed the road, which would serve dozens of new homes planned for construction northeast of the library and Mount Saint Mary’s buildings, according to records.

The road would also serve a Hess gas station and possibly a supermarket planned for the east side of the library and Mount Saint Mary’s driveway.

3A has yet to file an official application for the commercial projects in town hall, but town officials said the group met with the town’s technical review committee to discuss the plans.

Hooksett Town Administrator David Jodoin said the town has an easement protecting the land where the sign sits. But also in the property deed, he said, there’s a condition that the sign can be moved to another appropriate spot.

Bob Pace, a Londondonderry-based developer that heads 3A, said he and the town are in the process of negotiating a place to move the sign.

Farwell said the town, the library trustees and the developer have all showed good will toward finding a solution to the sign issue.

She described moving the sign as “very well within the realm of possibility.”

“It remains to be seen how it will all work out,” she said.

Farwell said her concern is that newcomers to the library, which is protected from the state road by a sprawling lawn, will have trouble knowing where to go if the sign is removed or blocked by new development.

“We’ve only got one shot at this,” she said of the sign negotiations. “If we get it wrong, that’s it.”

Michael Sorel, who’s been doing work for the library trustees since last year, suggested the library’s livelihood hinges on the placement of the sign.

“The location of that sign, in my opinion personally and professionally, is critical,” he said.

Sorel, who’s made a career in real estate, said, “Signs sell, signs direct people, signs get you from point A to point B.”