Earlier this month, the chairwoman of the Barnstead select board left a meeting in tears, distraught over what she saw as hostility toward her from a fellow board member.
On Tuesday, Priscilla Tiede followed up her emotional exit by reading her letter of resignation to a packed room at the town hall, during a meeting that did little to soften the hard feelings permeating through Barnstead in recent months.
Tiede left the meeting early, as she had the previous week, but not before saying in a prepared statement that the board’s Lori Mahar had become too confrontational for them to co-exist.
“I realized I could no longer stay on a board with a member that feels they have the right to be a ‘board of one’ and constantly starts arguments with anyone who does not agree with her,” Tiede said, referring to Mahar. “That interaction put me in a world of pain that took hours to calm down.”
For her part, Mahar fired back, saying a majority of the board had joined together to conspire against her, an idea that continued even after Tiede resigned because her replacement, Diane Beijer, also did not want to work with Mahar.
But that was only the start of friction in a town with outer beauty and inner conflict. Later, there were rumblings between residents and the select board during the two-hour and 15-minute meeting with some picking sides, others pleading for civility.
After Ed Tasker was named the new chairman, Beijer was chosen to fill out the five-person board, not Gary Madden, who had finished third on Election Day. Some residents said logic dictated that Madden, as next in line with respect to votes, should have been picked, not Beijer.
There was also confusion and tension related to a now-dead land deal in which the procedure had been public before officials discovered that a different statute, one that allowed the board to make decisions on the sale in private, was officially the regulation on the books.
This, along with the appointment of Beijer, fueled the town’s perception that the board they had put into power via the voting booth could not be trusted, and more transparency and discussions were needed.
All of which pushed more than one resident to plead with the town and the board to make peace with each other for the betterment of all.
“I just want order,” Tasker announced on his first day as chairman. “And you should too. We are all civilized, we are all citizens and, by God, we are all neighbors, too.”
Neighborly feelings, however, were hard to find, as battle lines crisscrossed with no distinct pattern. Conflicts were everywhere, pitting the public against the board and creating infighting within the board itself and residents as well.
Meanwhile, Mahar and Tiede had their own support systems. Their anger and passion escalated at both meetings, with Tiede saying before Tuesday’s session, “She accused us of not including her. She yelled across the table. I yelled back, which is not like me. Not at all.”
Their beef, while not clearly defined, became even more heated after Tiede left the first meeting crying, at which time board members Dunne and Rick Duane followed her into the parking lot to console her and offer to drive her home.
To Mahar, that was a clear example of three board members aligning themselves against her, a notion that didn’t change when Beijer was named the new member. Mahar claimed Dunne and Duane brought Beijer on board to force her out, adding that Beijer has attacked her through social media. Others at the meeting said Beijer’s comments on Facebook were rude and uncalled for.
“They voted her in purposefully to piss me off,” Mahar said. “They know she has hurt me and gone after me on Facebook. I want to help this town, but until these two (Duane, Dunne) stop treating me the way they do, it’s not going to happen.”
To which Dunne said later by phone that Mahar has a history of complaining, no matter which board she’s serving, and that he has never treated her disrespectfully.
“It’s unfortunate that Lori feels that way,” Dunne said. ” I feel that Lori feels that no matter what board she works with she is treated unfairly. I don’t know where she is coming from. I have no problem with working with her going toward the future.”
But Mahar wasn’t alone in her view that the board’s decision to add Beijer was unjust. Reached by phone, Roland LaBrecque, who’s 61 and a lifelong resident of Barnstead, said he expected Madden to join the board, adding that Beijer hadn’t even been on the ballot.
“I assumed the third-place vote getter would get some consideration,” LaBrecque said. “It seemed they skipped right over and did not give others consideration. They wanted someone who fits their agenda. They don’t want people like Lori Maher who asks questions. You need people like that.”
The board defended its decision, saying Beijer was recently named to the school board in a landslide and has experience dealing with budgets.
“We felt with town politics and people she knows and has worked with, she was a good selection,” Dunne said.
By the time the meeting ended, however, the overriding feeling amongst many residents was that the board needed to be more open and accountable as a way to build trust in the community.
“My personal observation is a pattern of inconsistencies with the right to know with this board and transparency of information to the public,” DeMars said.
Then she quickly moved to the board’s decision to appoint Beijer, saying, “You are completely within your authority, but just because you can, does not mean you should.”
(Ray Duckler can be reached at 369-3304 or rduckler@cmonitor.com or on Twitter @rayduckler.)