KSC hosts local candidates forum

The Keene State College Debate Club hosted a public forum with candidates for the District 2 Cheshire County Commissioner on Sept. 4, in the Lloyd P. Young Student Center.

The forum gave a small crowd of students and the public a chance to learn what the responsibilities of the county commissioner are, as well as each of the candidates’ specific goals if elected.

Charles F. Weed, Terry M. Clark and Phillip Dale Pregent were the three candidates that were in attendance; Christopher C. Coates was unable to make it.

Weed began the forum by explaining the county commissioner’s responsibilities to create a budget for the county and to oversee county departments and buildings such as the Cheshire County Courthouse, the Cheshire County Correctional Facility and the Maplewood Nursing Home.

After each candidate gave a brief introduction, conversation quickly shifted to plans to relocate the Maplewood Nursing Home, the biggest issue facing the commission.

One of the potential plans for the home is to build a small campus of homes for the elderly in Keene, which Clark said he believed it could have a positive impact on KSC.

“We have a new nursing program here at the college that could probably get a lot of internships [at Maplewood],” Clark said.

Clark said if Maplewood were to move to Keene from its current Westmoreland location, a payment in lieu of taxes would need to be arranged because it would not pay a property tax. Clark explained that Keene is also the focal point of the county and bears the burden of providing most of the social services already.

Weed, who is a member of the Maplewood Task Force which is trying to relocate the home to Keene, said it could benefit the college down the road. Weed said that if enrollment in the homes drops they could sell the buildings to the college to use as dormitories.

According to the Maplewood Task Force minutes, the task force wants to build a campus of homes rather than one large building.

Weed and Clark both said the presence of young adults is extremely uplifting to the elderly and urged students to volunteer at a local nursing home.

Phillip Bergeron / Graphics Editor

Creating more revenue for the county was another important topic of the night and each candidate had a different solution to the lack of revenue created by Cheshire County. The candidates expressed that as of now the main source of revenue for the county comes from property taxes, which isn’t enough. Clark proposed that Cheshire County should house one of the four medical-marijuana dispensaries set to be built in N.H. under the Medical Marijuana bill passed in the Fall of 2013. “There’s a lot of money in that,” Clark said, “You know, the state of New Hampshire has been making money on booze and cigarettes for years—lottery, gambling, all that sort of stuff; why not do that. We could actually have a source of revenue that could supplement or maybe even surpass what we need from property taxes.”

“It doesn’t make sense not to make it possible; legalize it, and I hope we will take advantage of it,” Weed said after agreeing with Clark’s proposal.

Weed and Pregent both talked about the need to create new taxes in order to be able to provide quality services to the county.

Weed expressed his frustration with the Democratic and Republican parties at the state level for not discussing taxes to fulfill government responsibilities. “We have the fifth-highest median income in the country,” Weed said, “We are about forty-third in terms of tax effort. We can pay taxes, but there’s nobody who is willing to bring it up at the state level and that’s one of the reasons I wanted to come back to where I trust the people at a county level.”

Pregent said it is a difficult situation, calling upon Governor Maggie Hassan’s current campaign in which Hassan said she will veto any tax no matter what it is.

“She won’t even consider a graduated tax, or an income tax, or a sales tax whatever it may be, and I would like to see those considered,” Pregent said. He continued, “As a county commissioner, we may be able to lobby the delegation, which are all the members from the county to do this and to see if we could get something built or at least started.”

If Gov. Hassan is re-elected, Pregent noted that Hassan would veto the proposal but at least it would put the idea in motion.

Pregent said that if elected he wants an open-door policy between the commission and local newspapers to have coverage on the commission board’s meetings, same as the coverage of city council meetings now.

“We need transparency, and the public being able to have some input into the county commissioners job,” Pregent said .

“This is really fun to be in a campaign with people that are positive. Whoever wins this, whether it be Terry, Dale, or Chris; they’re going to be good for the city of Keene,” Weed said.

Jesse Reynolds can be contacted at jreynolds@keene-equinox.com