In Bow, long-time selectman Harry Judd ousted

By DAVID BROOKS

Monitor staff

Published: 03-10-2020 10:26 PM

In Bow, incumbent selectman Harry Judd was voted out of office after 18 years Tuesday, as former planning board member Bruce Marshall defeated him easily, 845-563.

With three candidates for two seats on the Bow School Board, Bryce Larrabee with 805 votes and Martin Osterloh with 697, edged out Johnathon Banks, with 685 votes.

In the high-profile select board race Marshall, a resident of Bow for 30 years, attributed the vote to a desire for change prompted by high taxes. In particular, he pointed to the effect of declining tax revenue from the Merrimack Station power plant.

“I think, based on comments I heard all day, the issue was that for the past 18-20 years, because we knew the power plant was going to be slowly faded out, we’ve been promised to make it possible for that commercial land along Route 3A to be developed,” he said. “What I heard most was, they wanted to see promises about making up for the lost tax revenue from the power plant picked up through other development and they hadn’t seen that happen.”

“I think people of Bow were ready for a change, but we appreciate everything Harry has done for the town in the past,” Marshall added.

The tax situation in Bow was complicated by a townwide property revaluation that heightened increases in some residents’ tax bills.

For his part, Judd congratulated Marshall.

“I think there was concern and misunderstanding about the recent reappraisal of property and resulting property taxes – other than that, I guess people wanted a change,” Judd said. “I did my best ... and if the townspeople think it’s time for someone else, then so be it.”

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“There’s always next year,” he added.

In the other contested town election, Kathryn Ess won the open seat for supervisor of the checklist with 536 votes over Marilee Nihan, 331 votes, and Dik Dagavarian, 227 votes.

All zoning changes passed easily.

(David Brooks can be reached at 369-3313 or   dbrooks@cmonitor.com.)]]>