Voter voices on election day: Housing, middle school and safety cited as concerns

Thinking outside the box on homelessness, education

Other than a few years here and there, Mary Mayo has lived in Concord, specifically in Ward 4, for her entire life.

Mayo is among the many who see homelessness as the greatest challenge facing the city – and she’s not happy with what local leaders have done in recent years.

“Every day I drive past the Friendly Kitchen,” she said. “My heart goes out to people who don’t have a roof over their head.”

Mayo retired from her job with the state’s Department of Education a few years back and agrees that the state has pushed far too much of its costs and responsibilities onto local communities. Concord, as the capital and the center of Merrimack county, bears the brunt.

It’s not easy for the city to create change, she said, but she believes some local leaders aren’t pushing hard or thinking creatively enough.

“The city, our resources can only do so much,” she said. “So having minds that think outside the box is what is needed.”

After reading up about the candidates online, including a close study of a survey by the Chamber of Commerce, Mayo backed Kate West in the mayor’s race. She did the same two years ago.

“I wasn’t happy with the current mayor’s plans moving forward,” she said.

To Mayo, incumbent Byron Champlin’s disposition felt too “status quo.”

“And we can’t do that,” she said.

New election laws in effect

Even by the standards of municipal election, turnout in Ward 10 was low. Inside the gymnasium at the Broken Ground School, with its walls painted in red, white and blue stripes, there were as many non-partisan election observers as there were voters.

That didn’t surprise moderator Jae Whitelaw. What weighed on her mind was one voter.

A veteran had come to Broken Ground Tuesday morning and tried to use his military I.D. to register to vote. Most voters passed through to the ballot box smoothly, but Whitelaw had to turn the veteran away.

Under a new state law, a military I.D. is not proof of citizenship and isn’t sufficient to register to vote. Whitelaw wasn’t happy about it.

“It upsets me that people who serve in the military, who are willing to give their lives for this country, can’t use the identification they get for having done that to vote,” she said.

The veteran said he would go home and come back, Whitelaw said. A few hours later, though, he still hadn’t turned up.

Reining in city spending

Dale Fifield’s property taxes have nearly doubled in the 10 years he’s owned his home in Concord Heights. When city council candidates Andrew Georgevits, Jeanne Chase and Robert Washburn campaigned on putting city spending under scrutiny, their messaging earned Fifield’s vote.

“Like we’re New York, we’re spending money,” he said. “It’s crazy.”

Donna Peno, who was with Fifield, agreed. She questioned some of the projects and upgrades under the council’s consideration, including the police station, Memorial Field and city parks.

“There was quite a list of projects that they want to do,” Peno said, “things that don’t necessarily need to be done at this point in time, when people are trying to be able to afford groceries and they want to be able to live in their home. They’re going to tax people right out of their homes.”

The couple said they’re looking for fiscal responsibility but aren’t opposed to social projects.

Concord’s unaffordability is pushing people into homelessness, Fifield said, and he’d like to see some form of sanctioned encampment in Concord. An area equipped with electricity, a bathroom, a kitchen and some sort of shelter could help people stay safe while transitioning into permanent housing, he said.

He’s not sure if Concord residents can shoulder the cost of setting that up, but he looked for candidates that he thought could straddle taxpayers’ concerns and people’s needs.

“When you got a budget at home, you want to help your neighbor if you can, but if your kids aren’t eating, you don’t give your neighbor money,” Fifield said. “And that’s where we’re at. So, you know, basically we want the government to run like you would run your house.”

Better at direction than destination

When asked what was on his mind in the voting booth on Tuesday, Steve Saltzman could sum up his answer in one word.

“Housing,” he said.

Though there’s more to it than that, he said.

“If we want Concord to thrive, young people need opportunities to be able to buy a home that they can afford, they need jobs that can help them make a life here,” he said. “We need to create a community that’s thriving for young people.”

Saltzman has spent time over the last few weeks going to candidate events, talking to neighbors and asking questions directly of candidates. He declined to share who he voted for, but didn’t express a strong dissatisfaction with the efforts of current city leadership: He said he hasn’t heard of any solutions that Concord isn’t already considering.

“I think we’re much better at direction than we are at destination,” Saltzman said. “I think people are asking the right questions. The fact that they don’t have the answers is OK.”

A question of affordability

Kaitlin Pidgeon has lived in Concord for almost five years, working at the local hospital as an occupational therapist.

The single biggest thing on her mind as she approached the Christa McAuliffe School, her polling location as a Ward 5 resident, was affordability.

“I’m trying to buy my first home, and I still have not been able to afford it,” said the 40-year-old.

Pidgeon said sensible spending decisions are what she was looking for in candidates. She also supported women and candidates of color on the ballot.

“I want to see more of a diverse set of people representing us,” she said.

She wasn’t sure who she’d vote for going into the day but said she feels a deep sense of purpose in voting anytime she has a chance.

Mulling over the middle school

Phoebe Story spread her arms wide and crouched, steering her three young kids like a snowplow into the voting center at the Christa McAuliffe School. 

As she filled out her ballot, they huddled in the booth together, a pair of blue and gray Nike sneakers, gold Mary Janes and glittered pink Uggs toe to toe to toe. 

Story is of two minds when it comes to plans for Concord’s new middle school project. 

“I always look at the money of it. I work in finance,” Story said, as one of her daughters asked nicely to visit the playground. “But I also want someone that believes in the education here and wants to better the education system.” 

To her, that candidate was Cara Meeker. 

On the one hand, Story is worried about the cost of living, about her tax bill, she said. But she also badly wanted to see a resolution to the long-fought battle over Concord’s new middle school. 

Loudon Road safety hits close to home

As a renter on Loudon Road, Joana Bonilla is no stranger to the car crashes that frequently occur in Concord’s commercial strip. But when she received a piece of mail from a city council candidate, informing her of two pedestrian deaths on Loudon Road in just the past couple of months, it hit closer to home. 

That, she said, is “just sad.”

“My kids take the bus, and the bus stop, it stops there right on Loudon Road,” Bonilla said, “so I totally was like, ‘I’m on for it,’ because it’s safety for everybody.”

Aside from safety, housing and affordability are also top of mind. Bonilla said she’s seen rent increases over the five years she’s lived in Concord and wants the voices of low-income residents to be heard.

Bonilla brought her kids with her to vote early Tuesday morning, hoping to teach them about civic responsibility.

“As a mom, as a citizen also of this city, I teach my kids: It’s time to vote, we go and vote,” Bonilla said. “Every year they’re like, ‘I don’t like going with you,’ but I’m like, ‘It’s important to go out to vote because voting is like our voice, basically.”

Voter calls for new leadership

From Sally Kelly’s perspective, it’s time for a changing of the guard in Concord.

Walking out of Christ the King church in Ward 6, the retired nurse declined to say who she voted for but said she’s dissatisfied with the way things are going.

“I think we need new people in office. The old ones are not doing what they should be doing,” said Kelly, who’s lived in Concord since 1975. “They’ve been there forever and nothing’s really being done. Our taxes keep going up, and … they’re doing things without really consulting us.”

One such example is the new police station — a “stupid buy,” as Kelly put it, now that the city must spend more money to revamp the site.

She also wishes city leaders would put more money into the library rather than the Beaver Meadow Golf Course facilities — one is used much more by the public than the other, she said.

Where to vote

WARD ONE

Merrimack Valley High School Gymnasium, 106 Village Street. Park in the high school student parking lot.

WARD TWO

The Barn at Bull Meadow, 63 Bog Road.

WARD THREE
Beaver Meadow School, 40 Sewalls Falls Road.

WARD FOUR

Green Street Community Center, 39 Green Street.

WARD FIVE

Christa McAuliffe Elementary School, 17 North Spring Street. Use the Rumford Street/gymnasium entrance.

WARD SIX
Christ the King Parish Hall, 72 South Main Street. Use the Thorndike Street entrance.

WARD SEVEN

Abbot-Downing School, 152 South Street.

WARD EIGHT

Bektash Temple, 189 Pembroke Road.

WARD NINE

Citywide Community Center, 14 Canterbury Road.

WARD TEN

Broken Ground School, 51 South Curtisville Road.

If you don’t know what ward you live in, start by checking a map of voting districts at https://www.concordnh.gov/DocumentCenter/View/69/Ward-Map. Zoom in at the link to see your exact street.

Another way to find out your ward is to enter your address into the New Hampshire Secretary of State’s polling location search at https://app.sos.nh.gov/pollingplacesampleballot. This will tell you the address of your voting location.

Check back for more updates throughout the day.