Goodbye, Jim Bouley. Hello, Byron Champlin.

Concord’s most recent election presented voters with more contested races than usual with two incumbent city councilors losing their seats. Besides the change in the mayor’s seat as Bouley stepped aside after 26 years in city government and voters chose Champlin as his replacement, the council will have its first Black member in Ali Sekou, representing Ward 8. Sekou is the first New American to serve on the council, having immigrated to New Hampshire from Niger in 2012, and the first Muslim representative in the city’s 289-year history.

Weeks after the November election, city leaders took on multiple major issues that will have implications for years to come.

On the school side, a contentious decision was made in December to build a new middle school on the east side of the Merrimack River on raw land next to the Broken Ground and Mill Brook schools.

Faced with a nearly unified audience wearing “Rebuild at Rundlett” stickers, the majority of the Concord School Board was unswayed by the line of speakers who lobbied to keep the middle school on South Street. Instead, by a 6-3 vote, the board chose to build a new school at a new location in the city.

Concerns were expressed about both sites, including cutting down eight acres of trees and relocating existing hiking trails at the new site, and the smaller lot size of the current parcel, which would require a new building to be constructed just feet away from the existing one.

One thing that wasn’t settled on was the cost. Estimates showed construction of each school would be $175 million, but no detailed analysis was done for each proposed structure at the different sites.

In fact, the audience was told more than once the Rundlett site would cost an additional $5.5 million mostly due to demolition costs. The Broken Ground location appeared to have no additional costs associated with it, even though it required additional infrastructure such as more transportation, new sidewalks, and extension of the water and sewer systems to the new school — all of which come with hefty price tags.

“What does the project website tell us? All the benefits of Broken Ground and the scant mention of benefits of Rundlett,” said resident Bert Cooper.

Construction of the new school is expected to begin in 2025. A vote on the bond to pay for the school will occur at another time.

Days later it was the Concord City Council’s turn to sit on the hot seat as residents gave hours of testimony about a $10.3 million plan to build a brand new clubhouse at Beaver Meadow Golf Course three times bigger than the existing one.

In a two-hour marathon hearing, many criticized the current proposal for its cost and said the city should have been more transparent with the public about the growing price tag.

“This is a wildly inequitable allocation of scant taxpayer dollars, which benefits largely, honestly, privileged white people, at the expense of failing to meet the needs and wants for the greater public good,” said resident Lisa Beaudoin.

A few supported the new clubhouse as an investment into a historic community asset.

Ultimately, Bouley and the council delayed the decision, pushing it to the next City Council to decide.

But with all the furor caused by the golf course clubhouse, Bouley was able to get the council to approve buying the old Concord Group Insurance building facing North State Street for $4.1 million to be the site of a future police station. While the item was smaller in cost than the clubhouse, it will be more expensive in the long run.

The city estimated design and construction of a new police station could be $27.5 million, but even that could be a lowball estimate. The town of Bedford, which is about half the size of Concord, is building a new police and fire complex for a cost of $36.5 million.

Concord’s proposed police station received less opposition than the clubhouse, but it still faced pushback from weary taxpayers.

“What is the guarantee to the people in Concord that this is going to be a good deal?” said resident Tracy Nabstedt. “Concord taxpayers are just going to keep paying and paying and paying, and personally, I just don’t see the value in it.”