Meet the candidates for the Charlestown Selectboard

By Patrick Adrian
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CHARLESTOWN, N.H. — If there weren’t enough pivotal decisions already on the town warrant this year between the school withdrawal question and the fire department’s second effort to request a new fire engine, Charlestown residents must choose from a field of eight candidates to fill three selectboard seats.

Between 40 to 50 residents attended a Meet the Candidates night at the old Town Hall on Thursday to listen to a brief introduction and pitch from each selectboard candidate, as well as candidates for other public positions. The Charlestown Rotary Club hosts the event annually.

“This is probably a record year for people willing to step up, take a chance and put their hat in the ring to share what they have to offer the people of Charlestown,” said resident Robert Beaudry, who is one of five candidates running for the one-year term selectboard seat.

There are some unique factors in this year’s election that arguably accounted for the increase in candidates. One reason is that Charlestown is expanding its town selectboard from three members to five. The second reason, according to some candidates, concerned the current selectboard’s involvement during the ongoing and heated conflict between members of Charlestown and the Fall Mountain School District.

Candidates for two three-year term selectboard seats

Three candidates are running to fill two three-year term selectboard seats: Steven Neill, the incumbent; Bill Rescanski; Scott Wade.

Neill, the lone incumbent in the field, is a lifelong resident who has served on the selectboard for 21 consecutive years.

Neill said that one of the major challenges facing the next board will be the funding of a major water system interconnection project between Charlestown and North Charlestown.

The interconnection project is necessary to ensure the town’s water quality meets the federally mandated arsenic level in public water.

“That’s going to take an interconnection between the symptoms to make that a viable option,” Neil said. “It’s going to be expensive but it’s got to be done.”

Neil expects that expanding to a five-year board will face initial challenges, though he believes the board will eventually adapt to the new system.

Rescanski noted that his name appears in both the three-year and the one-year field because he decided after initially filing for the one-year term seat that he would rather seek a three-year term seat.

Rescanski said that he primarily decided to run because of the selectboard’s involvement in the school withdrawal issue. Though he didn’t elaborate on those disagreements at Thursday’s event, Rescanski had been a vocal critic on community Facebook forums about the selectboard’s decision last fall to withhold $1.83 million in budget payments to the Fall Mountain Regional School District last year over a dispute involving student enrollment reporting.

As an accountant who has worked for area manufacturers like New Hampshire Industries in Claremont, Rescanski said he has a strong understanding of the challenges facing locals businesses and communities and the resourcefulness required to make solutions feasible.

“I like the big picture and would have that same role in town,” Rescanski said.

Rescanski said the big issues for Charlestown are high taxes, the town’s low property valuation and finding ways to better engage residents in public information.

Wade has served on several town committees, including the school withdrawal research committees. While indicating that he will likely continue involvement in that initiative if approved by voters on Tuesday, Wade reiterated that if Charlestown voters defeat the withdrawal proposal that issue will officially end.

Like the other candidates, Wade identified high taxes and low property valuations as the biggest challenges facing the community.

“We are not attracting big business and home valuations are not increasing at the same rate as our neighboring towns, if at all,” Wade said.

Wade contended that reducing the tax rate should be the first step to improve property values, though the town must also attract big businesses to broaden the tax base. The town must also review its planning and zoning regulations to make them compatible with commercial growth.

Candidates for one one-year term selectboard seat

In addition to Rescanski, four other candidates are on the ballot for the lone one-year selectboard seat: Robert Beaudry, Nancy Houghton, John Streeter and Jeremy Wood.

Streeter is a local IT contractor who cites his six years of service on the Fall Mountain School Board among his experience in assembling budgets and working with people with differing backgrounds and views.

Streeter said he believes Charlestown must strike a “happy medium” between spurring economic growth and retaining the community’s small-town culture and aesthetics.

“We need to preserve our downtown and our neighborhoods, but we absolutely can keep that small-town feel while growing this community in a way that will increase our property values and lower our tax rate,” Streeter said.

Streeter also stressed the need to promote community dialogue, listening to one another and increasing community participation in the democratic process.

“You can’t represent people who won’t talk to you,” he said. “You cannot claim that you represent the will of the voters when so few people show up to vote.”

Houghton, who has served on numerous town committees, echoed a similar message about community involvement and cited it among her reasons for running.

“What’s really bothered me the most has been the lack of participation by our people in Charlestown,” Houghton said. “It just seems like people aren’t interested. I would like to get more people involved in doing things.”

In addition to hoping to increase community attendance of public meetings, Houghton also noted the needs of local committees, from the Fall Mountain Educational Endowment to the town zoning board, who need members.

Wood, a businessman and military veteran, stressed the need for Charlestown to increase its businesses and marketing.

“We have the space, the know-how and the people,” Wood said. “What we don’t have is advertising.”

Wood would like Charlestown to form a chamber of commerce to provide marketing for the community’s businesses and organize business forums to discuss ways to collaborate.

“I believe that a lot our town needs could be, while not solved, lessened with businesses here in town, such as with donated time,” Wood said, sharing that his own company donated time to repair the roof on Fort #4.

Wood also said that Charlestown needs to “spend money wisely” through long-term budget planning. For example, as the need to eventually replace the town’s fire station builds, Wood suggested that the town look at funding a multi-service building that also serves the emergency-medical department.

Beaudry, a lifelong resident and local business owner, is a former selectman and has served on both the town and school budgeting committees.

Beaudry said that the town is not going to turn around its challenges “overnight”, pointing out that its present situation results from “not listening” to years of warnings about the state’s education funding and recommendations to prepare.

“We depend a lot on state aid from the schools and we’re losing that,” Beaudry said, referring to the one-time state aid in the current state budget that restored the full amount in stabilization grant money.

In 2016, the state began incrementally phasing out these stabilization grants, at an annual rate of approximately four percent, to reduce them to zero in 25 years. The state gave these grants to communities like Charlestown who have a higher percentage of students with additional needs.

The 2020-2022 budget allocated money to restore these grants to their pre-2016 levels, but there is no certainty the funding-restoration will continue after next fiscal year.

Charlestown voters will head to the polls on Tuesday, March 10, 2020, from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. at the Charlestown Senior Center.