Ward 5 Newsletter - Spring 2026

*The City Manager's Evaluation is due this month*

He is the sole employee of the City Council and there is no established method to evaluate him. In calendar year 2025, he received $243,371. City Charter info on the Manager begins at #21. Charter Please provide input! You can send observations to me and also to the entire City Council by emailing the City Clerk (cityclerk@concordnh.gov).

Capital Reserves

As your City Councilor, I am committed to transparency and protecting your hard-earned tax dollars. Per RSA 34:10, capital reserve funds function as protected savings accounts for designated capital projects and specific purposes, not general spending.

My questions on capital reserves led directly to the Finance Director's report during our March 2026 City Council meeting about the Recreation Reserve - a capital reserve fund established for future projects related to the City-Wide Community Center, CIP#443. His report stated $2.87 Million was withdrawn from the Recreation Reserve and none of it was for CIP #443. Report.

As you may have heard, I received a letter of admonishment from the Mayor.

This was my response:

The Economic Development Reserve was created in 1995 for investment in an office park, industrial park or a civic center. Since 2014, over $3 Million has been withdrawn from this reserve. There has not been a report on these withdrawals or vouchers documenting them. Over the last three years, $450,000 has been withdrawn from this reserve to fund events determined by the City Manager - a Laconia coffeeshop has received $62,500 for organizing the coffee festival.

10-year plans & no competitive bids

Bleachers

During the April Council Meeting, $385,000 was appropriated to tear down the bleachers at Memorial Field. Removing the bleachers has been in Concord's budget plan for 10 years with the removal originally set for 2019. When asked why it was continually pushed out, the City Manager stated that other priorities came up.

Members of Merrimack Valley School District presented a petition with hundreds of signatures requesting a delay on the vote. They described their own 10-year plan and sacrifices made for well-maintained school facilities. The Concord School District is currently using facilities at other schools (including at MV). CSD is expecting the $31 Million Memorial Field Complex to go ahead, even though they recently borrowed $94.5 Million for HVAC (no competitive bids) and the first phase of a $168.77 Million middle school.

Memorial Field tree removal

The City removed over 255 Eastern White Pine trees from Memorial Field in late January. The destruction is devastating and disorienting. The logger took the wood and left the extensive debris for park staff to clean up. I am looking into this as it was not clearly communicated to residents, abutters, RPAC, or City Council that the City planned to clear cut healthy trees. The loss of these trees is equivalent to generational damage. The pine trees absorbed particulate pollution and hundreds of thousands of gallons of stormwater while providing shade and noise control for the entire community. Many were over 100 years old. I created this short video after seeing the damage.

There were no competitive bids. City staff felt bids weren't necessary since the tree cutting was done "at no cost".

Beaver Meadow Golf Course

In 2016 while the golf fund was consistently losing money and unable to pay the debt service for clubhouse renovations and expansion done in 2001, the City Manager, Finance Director, Mayor, RPAC and the Golf Advisory Committee came up with a 10-year plan for the golf course. It included a new, larger clubhouse, updated irrigation, new parking lot and transfer of costs to taxpayers.

In 2018, the Golf Advisory Committee had plans drawn to update the clubhouse by The Turner Group. It was determined to be too much money to put into an "old" building. There were no competitive bids.

The clubhouse, irrigation and parking lot are due to be done this year. Taxpayers will be paying for golf course projects until 2046 - over $11 Million for irrigation and the clubhouse.

I stumbled upon this fascinating plan for Beaver Meadow before it was a golf course. This map from 1894 shows 232 different house lots with lots of room to expand.

I may not be on the committees I once was, but I'm as active as ever!

Outstanding tour of the Win-Waste Facility off Exit 17. I feel so much better having gone and learned about the people working there and the facility we can all be proud of. Many thanks to Councilor Todd for making the connection! The diagram includes a person standing by the viewing hatch of the furnace where I am standing with Plant Manager Kevin Wing. You can see the window blazing above my hard hat. He agreed to burn our invasive bittersweet!

State House Inspiration & Collaboration

In celebration of Women's History Month, Concord students joined me for a tour of the State House and conversation with Ward 5 legends: Representative Mary Jane Wallner and Sergeant-at-Arms Nick Wallner.

Over lunch, these young leaders had an opportunity to listen to Rep Wallner and her Republican colleague on the Child & Family Committee about they work they do together.

Bipartisan Support for Empowerment

We testified on HB1633, a bipartisan bill to inform sexual assault victims of their existing rights with a palm card. A right kept secret isn't a right. Everyone should know their rights - please share! Victim's Rights. There is great power when people from different backgrounds come together for a common purpose.

We celebrated Esther's first time testifying under the portrait of Marilla Ricker, suffragist and NH's first female lawyer.

Let's Connect!

• April 22nd is Earth Day and April 24th is Arbor Day.

• April 23rd at Noon, Memorial Field lunch walk with Councilor Kalob and I. Join us!

• May 1st, 5-6pm, Free Tree Tour with me and Bob Pollock, Concord's first Landscape Architect, during Petals & Pedals - Intown's First Friday. Meet at Memorial Arch in front of the State House.

If you are downtown, make a point to smell the Merrill Magnolias that are blooming RIGHT NOW on the State House lawn - it is intoxicating!

Scenes from Ward 5: Marjory Swope Trail - one month apart.

Marjory Swope was the Ward 5 City Councilor for many years. Fiercely dedicated to land protection, she was widely known as the 'grandmother of local conservation commissions'.

"She always said what she meant, meant what she said and seemed to care little what others thought of her." (Concord Monitor, April 19, 2007)

Let's embody the spirit of Marjory Swope and fight to protect Concord's forests, trees, and wetlands that make our community a better place to be.

What I am reading now:

Counting: how we use numbers to decide what matters by Deborah Stone. Pairs perfectly with my Statistical Analysis Class! Available at the Concord Public Library.

Savage Inequities by Jonathan Kozol. Available at the Concord Public Library.

"The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don't have any".

-Alice Walker