Barbara Annis knew a traffic issue was brewing in the area of Exit 9 off Interstate 89 in Warner several years ago. Retail businesses were sprouting up, surrounding the Market Basket supermarket that opened there in the mid-1990s and began drawing more cars off the interstate.
Well-known in town for her decades of community volunteering and service on various boards and committees, Annis started to chip away at the issue first by convincing voters at a town meeting to set aside money for a future traffic study of the area. After the study was completed, she led the effort to stow away more funds to build the roundabout that is there today.
Annis, who first moved to Warner with her husband, Bill, in 1966, died in August at the age of 87 after a year-long battle with metastatic pancreatic cancer. When town officials decided they wanted to honor her life with a memorial, they looked to the roundabout – a visible place in town that exemplified her efforts.
“It just seemed like the natural thing to do,” said Clyde Carson, a selectman in Warner who also serves as a representative in the Legislature.
Carson and Rep. David Karrick, also of Warner, drafted a bill to officially name the roundabout in Annis’s memory. Gov. Chris Sununu signed the bill earlier this month and is expected to attend a naming ceremony when a marker will be placed in the center of the roundabout sometime this summer, Carson said.
Carson worked on town business for years alongside Annis, who was a member of the planning board from 1990 right up until her death. She was the chairwoman from 2003 to 2010. In 2017, she received the Citizen Planner of the Year award from the New Hampshire Planners Association.
Outside of town hall, Annis was also known for her decades of service mentoring children in 4-H programs and judging local and state horse shows. She was involved in the arts scene working in theatre productions and craft groups.
Carson said Annis’s name has appeared in every town report going back more than 50 years to when she first moved to Warner.
“It was just in her nature,” Carson said of Annis’s community involvement. “She liked Warner and wanted to make sure Warner fared well. She was one of those special individuals who helped define the town.”
(Nick Stoico can be reached at 369-3321, nstoico@cmonitor.com or on Twitter @NickStoico.)