Kessler seeks voter support in Newport

(Editor’s Note—This is the fourth in a series of statements by candidates running for two openings on the Newport Board of Selectmen. All four candidates submitted statements to the Argus-Champion).

NEWPORT —On May 14, the residents of Newport shall have the opportunity to provide direction to the Selectmen and the Town of Newport for the coming year.

I encourage all registered voters to take the time to learn what the ballot articles are, then come to the Opera House and vote on May 14, between 8 a.m. and 7 p.m.. I am also asking for your vote on May 14 to re-elect me, Jeffrey Kessler, to another three-year term as one of your Selectmen.

I have served as a Selectman for the past 12 years. Before that, I served a separate three- year term as Selectman and also served on the Newport School Board for five years.

During my time as one of your Selectmen, I have represented the Town of Newport and the Selectmen on the Zoning Board of Adjustment, the Airport Advisory Board, the NCTV Board, the Budget Advisory Board, and as one of our Commissioners to the Upper Valley Lake Sunapee Regional Planning Commission. I have worked with our last four Town Managers, Dan O’Neill, Paul Brown, Shane O’Keefe, and Hunter Rieseberg.

I am proud of the work I take part in as a member of the Board of Selectmen withfour other dedicated citizens.While we do not always agree with each other, we are all working to improve Newport for our community.

We are constantly weighing the cost of town services, so that the citizens receive what is in the best interest for Newport. Like every other member of the Board of Selectmen, I am a strong supporter of transparency and of open dialogue with the public during our meetings. Along with the other members of the board, I have readily recused myself whenever a potential conflict, business or personal, has occurred.

Some of the decisions I helped to make as a Selectman produced undesirable consequences for the community. We encouraged the same person to serve as Town Manager and oversee the Finance Department for a number of years. This saved money but several tasks were deferred.

We did not increase our water and sewer rates some each year, instead we left the rates the same for too many years. Now, our water and sewer users will be facing larger rate increases for a few years.

There are other decisions that the Selectmen made that were the opposite of popular opinion but were the right decision for the town. It was widely thought that by combining the town’s and school district’s finance departments that the taxpayers would save money and have reliable numbers from both the town and the school. In a perfect world, combining two well run departments, that may be the case.

Here in Newport, we had a school finance department that lacked credibility and the town finance department was catching up with issues that we deferred earlier (including water and sewer rates). With both finance departments at less than optimum performance and efficiency, and with the additional chaos that combining and shuffling staffs would cause, the Board of Selectmen decided not to pursue combining finance departments at that time. And the estimate prepared by both finance directors, determined that for enduring that potential chaos, the taxpayers would only save a total of $5,000.

There is cooperation between the town and school district where it is in the best interest of the town and the school district. We recently hired an Economic Director that is also the district’s school to work coordinator. This position is funded by the town, school district, ECON, and private partners.

As a member of the Board of Selectmen, I am committed to working to keep Newport a place our residents, our manufacturers, and our businesses want to remain and where new residents and businesses will want to move. I look forward to seeing everyone at the polls on May 14 and I ask you to consider giving me your vote. If you have any questions, I can be reached at 381-3415.