WOLFEBORO - Save for the time two summers ago that Mitt Romney and his sons used Jet Skis to rescue a family of sinking boaters, the Massachusetts governor and potential presidential candidate has generally kept a low profile when visiting his summer home, out at the end of Clark Point.

Romney's 11.74-acre estate has more than 760 feet of frontage on Lake Winnipesaukee, but it's invisible from the road - just a nondescript mailbox and a swiftly disappearing driveway at the end of Greenleaf Drive, a cul-de-sac otherwise fringed with typically suburban homes, an assortment of Capes and colonials without water views.

The governor travels with a discreet security detail, but many locals said they have never seen Romney himself, much less any signs of the Massachusetts State Police. Romney isn't known for strolling Main Street or sitting on the bridge that separates Wolfeboro Bay from Back Bay. But

he doesn't stay cloistered, either: He's a regular at a couple of local businesses and has been known to ride his bicycle to Bailey's Bubble for ice cream on Saturday nights.

"He doesn't jump out and say, 'Here I am, world,'" said Bob Hughes, the local real estate broker who sold Romney his house. "He very much fits into the community without raising a fuss. It's fun to see him in town."

That was about how most people put it in Wolfeboro, where everybody seems to have a celebrity-sighting story - offered, for the most part, in an oh-they're-just-people manner. Romney's presence isn't much of a topic for discussion, and neither is the fact that he's been traveling the country to support local candidates and build goodwill in what appears to be preparation for a 2008 presidential run - or that Romney plans to host a fundraiser in Wolfeboro Sept. 17, which will give Republican donors a glimpse of the waterfront estate.

Instead, coffee-shop conversation tends to run to the proposed speed limit for Winnipesaukee and to the townwide property revaluation - the first in several years -that caught up with the way lakefront properties have exploded in value since the late 1990s. It seems everyone has a story about someone who clung to a modest campsite for years until taxes forced them to sell. But if they begrudge those, like Romney, who can afford to buy, hold or build big on the lake in today's market, people keep it to themselves.

Romney, the son of former Michigan Gov. George Romney, bought his place in 1997, a couple of years after he ran a close second to Ted Kennedy in a race for the U.S. Senate and a couple of years before he ran the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. He bought five lots on Clark Point, for a total of nearly 11 acres, and paid less than $3 million, according to Wolfeboro town records. That was before the market really got hot, and the property had been listed for about a year, Hughes said. Last year, Romney (technically, the property is owned by his wife, Ann) bought another adjacent parcel, for about $85,000, to give himself some extra space.

The Romney spread is the fourth most valuable private residence in town, according to the assessing records. It is anchored by a 5,400-square-foot, six-bedroom contemporary dwelling and also boasts a 2,700-square-foot boathouse and a 2,600-square-foot stable, which has been outfitted with modern guest quarters. With ample frontage and a western view onto the lake, the property is worth more than $10 million today, said Hughes, president of Prudential Spencer-Hughes Real Estate. Romney bought the home from a fellow graduate of Brigham Young University: Butch Cash, a former Marriott executive and the current CEO of the La Quinta hotel chain.

Paul Skowron, the Wolfeboro town manager, lives up the block from Romney, in a Cape-style house on Greenleaf. "From my perspective, the family has been friendly, the family has been courteous," Skowron said. "When they first moved to the neighborhood, they took the opportunity to introduce themselves to as many people as they could."

Both Skowron and Police Chief Brian Black said the town runs as usual when Romney is visiting. Neither are worried that the feel of Wolfeboro would change dramatically around election time if Romney made a serious bid for the presidency. But if it came to that, Black said, "I'm sure we could draw on the experiences of Kennebunkport and try to learn from what they might've gone through."

For now, Romney slips into town with relative ease, since his home is a mile and a half from the center by car or bike and a more direct route by boat. He can be seen at Bradley's Hardware on Railroad Avenue once or twice a weekend, the employees said.

"He's a very, very friendly person," said Jim Savage, who works at Bradley's. "If you didn't know who he was, you wouldn't realize he was there. He comes in ratty jeans and a T-shirt and just blends with everybody else."

There was no Romney sighting at Bradley's yesterday, though the store did sell a Weber grill to Oscar-winning actress Estelle Parsons in the morning.

At Camelot, a longstanding Main Street shop that offers books, gifts and artisanal cheeses, owner Al Pierce has never seen Romney, though he did meet his kids once. Drew Barrymore and Bob Dole have also shopped at Camelot, and once, "Kurt Vonnegut was sitting out on a bench here sunbathing, waiting for me to get here so he could buy a Times,"Pierce said.

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