By GLYNIS HART
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CLAREMONT – City Manager Ryan McNutt fielded questions from a live audience and a few dozen followers on Facebook at an open forum Thursday night. The “Ask Me Anything” billing for the forum seemed designed to respond to public criticism of McNutt’s relationship with city administration or city employees, but no critics showed up at the community center. Most questions dealt with the city’s economic future, and what could be done to improve a negative image of Claremont.
Asked what he sees as the top three challenges facing Claremont, McNutt said the top one is the city tax rate. “If we practice austerity and focus on economic development, hopefully it will meet in the middle,” he said.
“People equal economic activity,” said McNutt. “We need to attract more people, young folks especially. America’s economic model is heavily based on discretionary spending. When our downtown businesses have less foot traffic, they have their regular customers but less impulse purchases.
“The third top priority is we have an aged infrastructure. Most of the Northeast has housing stock from the 1940s, 1930s. We have a lot of mill buildings, and my predecessor focused on redevelopment of those waterfront mill buildings very successfully. We’re continuing the work of repurposing those buildings so they’re on the tax rolls and productive.”
Delving into the history of the city manager’s job, McNutt said the city manager/council form of government dates from the 1890s, when many cities were dealing with corrupt elected officials. In the era of Tammany Hall, many cities wanted to create professional managers to keep government functioning. On a day-to-day basis, McNutt said he is involved in managing the city by working with many of the departments. He appoints board members and commission seats and is responsible for building the city budget and presenting it to the city council.
“I work for and am hired by the city council,” he said. “I am their sole employee.”
A woman in the audience asked, how can Claremont attract an economically diverse population. “Can city government support our school system? I work in the Upper Valley,” she said. “I frequently get negative feedback about our school system.”
McNutt said addressing that perception involves some things the city can do, some things that are market driven, and some that are up to the people who live here. “In many cases we can be our own worst enemy by things we say about ourselves. Find something good to say about Claremont and tell your friends, your family, and people you know.”
He mentioned increasing workforce housing and senior housing as part of economic development. Workforce housing can attract the workers the manufacturing companies on River Road need, as well as families starting out. “Hanover and Lebanon don’t have a lot of new housing going on,” he said.
“Some of this stuff is going to happen by osmosis, and some of it we can be a force multiplier for. If we build more senior housing, that gets seniors out of high-cost homes, allows them to cut their overhead, and creates more turnover in single-family homes. You can get a nice, quality home in Claremont for $155,000. The same thing in Lebanon would cost over $300,000.”
Dave from Healthy Vibrant Claremont, a community action group, said in a housing forum held last May the focus groups talked a lot about Claremont’s image and its pride.
“The community I’m from in Massachusetts suffered a lot from pride issues,” said McNutt. “I can relate to this. We really need to tackle the internal negative perceptions. We kind of were a two-company town for a long time, and when those jobs went away, it was a big hit. In Fitchburg, everything was GE, and when it closed it was a big hit to the community.”
He pointed to the Goddard Block development, which represents an investment of $7.5 million in the downtown, bringing 36 new apartments as well as new retail space when it opens. “I think it’s really important to accentuate private investments; I’m a strong believer in private/public partnerships. One of our goals is to make downtown better.
“I think it’s very important to have an attractive downtown. Thousands of people drive through Claremont every day, and it’s the face of our community. Fixing up our downtown will set new impressions,” said McNutt.
Jason Benware sent a question through Facebook about the recent hire of a communications liaison to connect the city manager and the city administration. McNutt said the hire hasn’t actually been finalized yet, and he’s not sure what the full scope of their work will be. “I intend to treat this as a professional development tool to help me be a better communicator to the public and the city council,” he said.
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