By BOB MARTIN
Eagle Times Staff
CORNISH, N.H. — Almost half of the town of Cornish’s registered voters cast ballots at Town Meeting elections on Tuesday, where they voted in Keith Beardslee to the selectboard for a three-year term, and passed all three zoning amendments.
Beardslee is a retired businessman who spent most of his childhood in Africa as the son of missionaries. He was also stationed as a Peace Corps volunteer, and later moved to New Hampshire in 1976, and then Cornish three years later, according to information from the Connect Cornish newsletter from a previous election.
“I appreciate that a majority of the voters have entrusted me with the responsibility of working with the other town officers to conduct town business,” Beardslee told The Eagle Times on Thursday. “I’m looking forward to working with the other officers to maintain continuity and improve efficiency and transparency where it’s needed.”
The only other contested race was for trustees of the library, with Kathryn Patterson defeating Alicia Simino 327-235.
Other seats included Paula Harthan with 525 votes for town clerk; Heidi Jaarsma with 501 votes for town treasurer; Jeffrey Proehl with 487 votes for trust funds; Reigh Sweetser with 518 votes for tax collector; Michael Monette with 513 votes for sexton; Marie De Rusha with 494 votes for office of welfare.
Two amendments to the Cornish zoning ordinance were proposed by the planning board pertaining to home-based childcare, and both of them passed overwhelmingly.
Amendment 1 passed 479-61 and proposed to comply with recent changes in state law that “home-based child care is allowed as an accessory use to any primary residential use by right if all such requirements for such programs adopted in the rules of the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services are met.”
Amendment 2 amends the zoning ordinance to allow by special exception a child care agency to operate as principal use. The amendment passed 436-83.
Amendment 3 was pursuant to HB 400, which became law in August 2024, where towns must comply with certain requirements with off-street parking spaces for residential developments. The amendment says that towns can’t require more than one-and-a-half residential off-street spaces for studio and one-bedroom units under 1,000 square-feet that meet the requirements of workforce housing under state law. Like the previous amendments, it passed by a landslide, 445-76.
This year, 566 of the town’s 1,208 voters casted ballots, which made for a 47% turnout rate.
On March 8, the Cornish School District held its annual meeting and approved all of their warrant articles including the budget of $5,476,294.
Another notable approval was the cost items included in the collective bargaining agreement reached between the Cornish School Board and Cornish Educators Association for raises. The article asked for a Fiscal Year 26 estimated increase of $117,716, and then $73,484 and $74,045 in the next two years.
The town also voted to raise and appropriate $100,000 for the Special Education and Tuition Expendable Trust Fund, and $50,000 for the School Facilities Expendable Trust Fund.
Jesse Cloutier and Matthew Dunn were voted into the school board with 88 and 81 votes, respectively. Dale Lawrence had 166 votes to win the unopposed treasurer race, and Shelly Foston had 166 votes for clerk.
The business section of Cornish Town Meeting, where voters will decide on Articles 5 through 29, takes place on Saturday at 10 a.m. at Cornish Elementary School. This is where residents will hear presentations of the articles, discuss them and act upon them. New voters may not register at the meeting and voters must be present when votes are taken.
