Three Candidates Run for Selectman

Incumbent Selectman of six years Naida Parker will vie for reelection against two other candidates in the Town’s biggest contested race this year – the seat on the Rochester Board of Selectmen.

“I’ve been doing it for six years,” said Parker. “There are some things that we are working on that I’d like to continue to be part of.” At the top of her list, Parker said the alliance of the three towns taking a “firm position” regarding the Old Rochester Regional School District during this fiscal year 2016 budget season is one of such things.

Parker said budgets are tight in each of the three towns, limiting their ability to fund ORR’s “better schools” budget over a level-service budget for next year.

“We’re finally in a position where we’re united as a front,” Parker said. “As long as I’ve been in this town, it’s never happened.”

As the Town looks to fiscal year 2016 budgeting, Rochester is facing conservative estimates of its FY15 town revenue; there is not enough to cover the projected contribution Rochester is expected to make towards the ORR schools, as the town administrator reported to selectmen on February 11.

Candidate for selectman and current Town Moderator Greenwood “Woody” Hartley III said, in light of conservative estimates of revenue, he was disappointed that he heard no talk amongst selectmen of setting any goals to increase revenue in the future.

“We have no money,” said Hartley. “That’s the message that is going out to every department head.”

Hartley said that with the new year, the board should have started off with new goals for the Town, and he is disappointed.

“I’ve been let down as a citizen by the leadership of the board over the last few years,” said Hartley, which is why he said he is running for selectman.

Current Rochester Zoning Board of Appeals Chairman and former selectman Richard Cutler said there is so much the Town needs to get done that the current board’s habit of meeting every other week is not enough to get the work done.

“When I was a selectman, we would meet three, even four times a week,” said Cutler. “It’s obvious to me that there needs to be some changes at the top to get things moving again.”

Cutler said a significant issue that still needs resolution is the codification of the Town’s zoning and general bylaws, a project that Cutler has been addressing in a subcommittee formed to assess the bylaws and propose the changes in their format.

“They’re the Town leadership,” said Cutler. “They should be setting an example of that…. Spend time with the other boards.”

Parker emphasized that at the last selectmen’s meeting the board voted to meet weekly during the remainder of the budget season. She added that her role as town clerk, a position she has held since 1984, gives her an edge on town government and the inner workings of the Town.

“It gives me a general knowledge of town government. I think that gives me a different perspective,” said Parker. “There’s a degree of institutional memory that I bring to the Board of Selectmen.”

Hartley thinks the Town has been run pretty much the same over the past 50 years and many things need to be “evolving and moving forward.”

“My run is … less of a statement about Naida and more about the leadership of the board as a whole,” said Hartley, who added that part of his work in his career was “teaching people to work together … which is something the board can improve upon.”

Cutler thinks fostering change among the Board of Selectmen is not necessarily about one person.

“It’s the attitude as a whole,” said Cutler. “It’s probably time the selectmen took a break and let someone else have a chance.”

The Rochester Annual Election is April 8.

By Jean Perry

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