For the third time in less than a year, Chichester finds itself without a town administrator.
Interim Town Administrator Charles Smith joined Chichester in mid-July. Last week, less than a month into his role, he submitted his resignation, ending a six-month contract and leaving for a position in Campton.
His departure thrust the town back into a familiar dilemma — how to operate without a head municipal employee at the helm — and resurrected simmering questions for longtime residents.
“I think we’re feeling a bit lost right now,” said Tom Jameson, who has lived in Chichester for 32 years. “The person came in. We were very excited. The person went out very shortly. So to me, that says maybe there’s some issues that we haven’t resolved.”
In recent months, Jameson has seen the town dissolve into disagreement, with residents rankled over municipal wages, increasing taxes and selectmen transparency.
“We just want to move forward,” he said. “We want to go back to civility. Go back to you disagree in a meeting, you shake hands, you move forward. That type of attitude is kind of what we want. And for a while, we didn’t really have that. We had a lot of, I think, very upset people.”
He sits on the Planning Board and the Parks & Recreation Commission. He has also previously served as a selectman.
During his time in town, he said he has never seen such “polarization.”
These divisions date back to December, when long-time town administrator Jodi Pinard resigned. Pinard was rehired in February with an annual salary $31,000 higher than her previous earnings.
Many residents, frustrated about the allocation of their tax dollars, issued calls for stronger transparency and communication from the Board of Selectmen.
Navigating concerns around rising taxes and the role of the town administrator, the town voted to zero out the executive section of the budget at the annual town meeting in March, effectively eliminating the town administrator role and that of the administrative assistant.
But at a second town meeting in April, voters moved to reinstate that section of the budget. As tensions continued, the Board decided to offer Pinard a new salary, lower than the one previously agreed upon in February.
Pinard declined to accept the salary reduction.
“I am not resigning from my position,” she wrote in a letter to the Board, dated July 7. “I have been told I will be terminated.”
The Board announced her departure a day later and brought on Smith as a temporary solution. Now, with Smith’s resignation, Chichester’s three selectmen are at once working to find short-term coverage, searching for the next person who will fill the role of administrator and fielding residents’ ongoing concerns.
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Donna Chagnon, who has called Chichester home for over five decades, believes something needs to be done.
“We’re in a mess,” she said. “We don’t know what’s happening.”
As part of the path forward, she hopes to see increased communication between the town’s elected officials and the people they represent.
“My concerns are that we can get back to the level that the residents have the confidence that the Select Board and the town administrator are addressing our concerns, whether they be financially or personnel. We don’t have that confidence,” she said.
Doug Hall, also a decades-long resident, has some thoughts about what stronger communication could look like. He previously advocated for live streaming town meetings, something Chichester began doing within the past month.
His other ideas include updating and revising the town website, creating an official town Facebook page to post notices, instituting monthly financial updates at meetings of the Board of Selectmen and launching mailers to welcome new residents and promote town events.
The Board has taken his ideas under advisement and made strides in planning for mailers and newsletters, posting town audits on the website and working to revive both a Capital Improvement Committee and a Road Advisory Committee.
Communication, though, has to be a mutual improvement between officials and residents, Hall said.
“When people don’t show up at meetings when things are being discussed and ideas are being debated, if they haven’t shown up at the meeting, they don’t know what went on, and then later they complain, but sometimes it’s too late,” he said.
Hall spent 17 years as town moderator and has also served on the School Board and other committees. Though he’s in the process of moving to Havenwood Heritage Heights in Concord after 50 years in Chichester, he said the town will always be a place he cares about and wants to see thrive.
“It was a wonderful experience living there and meeting some very fine people, and it’s a nice community,” he said. “It’s just going through a rough spot, which I don’t fully understand. I know that there are legitimate issues, as you’ll see in the suggestions for better communication. They’re legitimate issues, but underlying it seems to be something which is much more personal conflict that’s difficult to overcome.”
For Lori Jewett, who sits on the Budget Committee, the heated divisions represent “a microcosm of what’s happening in our country.” She said she feels “disheartened” and hopes that people will give the Board of Selectmen a chance to figure things out.
“Everybody needs to take a breath and give the community a chance to just heal without the continued ‘here’s what’s happening that’s wrong’ from certain people’s perspective,” Jewett said. “And then if that can just simmer down a little bit, then I think it gives the opportunity for us to move forward.”
Jameson, too, wants to see tensions calm. He described this period as one of “growing pains” for the town and said he believes people can come together for positive change.
“A lot of people love to criticize and get on Facebook, and we’re like, ‘Okay, come help. Come be the solution,'” he said.