LEBANON — Residents will decide multiple contests for City Council and School Board during Lebanon’s municipal election next week.
Six seats on the council are up for grabs this year, with a mix of incumbents and newcomers vying for four spots.
City Councilors George Sykes and Karen Zook are unopposed for reelection.
Meanwhile, five people with varying views on infrastructure spending are running for three seats on the School Board.
Three people — Mayor Tim McNamara, City Councilor Erling Heistad and Zoning Board member Al Patterson — are running for two at-large council seats representing the entire city.
All three names will appear together on the ballot, with the top two vote-getters obtaining seats.
McNamara, a West Lebanon native, has worked at Dartmouth College for the past 19 years and now serves as the college’s associate director of facilities, operations and management. He also spent more than 20 years in the U.S. Navy Reserve, retiring in 2006 as a commander.
McNamara previously served on the City Council in the mid-1990s and was on the Planning Board from 2008-15 before returning to the council a year later. His colleagues elected him mayor last year, succeeding Sue Prentiss.
“My family settled in Lebanon in the mid-1800s,” he said via email. “Lebanon has been good to us, and I feel an obligation to give back to the community.”
McNamara said he is seeking another term to help maintain and improve residents’ quality of life, keep utility fees and taxes “within reason,” and assist in planning for the future — from promoting workforce housing to extending the life of the Lebanon landfill.
Heistad also is a Lebanon native whose mother’s family helped settle the city in 1761. His father, a Norwegian immigrant also named Erling Heistad, founded the Lebanon Outing Club in 1923.
Heistad is retired, having previously taught at Dartmouth College, where he built the jewelry and pottery studios, but spends time teaching ski jumping as a volunteer with the Outing Club.
“I have enjoyed the work of serving on the City Council and, as a lifelong resident of Lebanon, wish to give back to the community that has done so much for me and my family,” he wrote in an email.
Heistad said he also is running to maintain the residents’ quality of life “within our budgetary restraints.”
“We only have so many resources, and it is an intricate problem to establish priorities for the city,” he said.
They’re being challenged by Patterson, a retired Hanover police officer and Navy veteran who has lived in Lebanon for more than 40 years. Patterson currently works as an investigator for the Naval Criminal Investigative Service.
He previously served on Lebanon’s School Board, is a member of the city’s Zoning Board and is chairman of the Carter Community Building Association’s facilities committee.
“The reason why I decided to run is I feel like the generational families that have been here for years … I feel like their voice has not been heard and is kind of forgotten,” he said.
If elected, Patterson said he would work to improve the city’s infrastructure while also exploring ways to increase revenue from big businesses.
“I believe that we need someone on the council that’s willing to be a voice for the people,” he said.
All three have differing views on a “Welcoming Lebanon” ordinance that will also be on this year’s ballot. The measure seeks to bar Lebanon police from working alongside or sharing immigration-related information with federal immigration authorities.
Heistad said he’s in favor of the “basic principle” of the proposal but wants voters to weigh in.
“It is a complex issue with legal, moral and ethical components, all of which need to be carefully considered for the long-term health of the city,” he said.
Meanwhile, McNamara said he has “significant issues with it as proposed.”
McNamara pointed to a specific clause stating municipal employees aware of federal immigration activities would be required to warn residents, saying Lebanon’s attorney found such a provision would violate federal law.
“If the proposal is adopted by the voters, the council will need to work with the petitioners in creating an ordinance that both passes legal muster and which can be implemented in an effective way,” he said.
Patterson said the ordinance is unnecessary. Lebanon police already have measures in place to prevent biased policing, he said, adding the proposal could put future grant opportunities in jeopardy.
“I’ve lived here all my life. This is a welcoming community already,” said Patterson, who said as a black man he has never felt discrimination in the city.
City Councilor Jim Winny is being challenged by Raymond Downs for a two-year term representing Ward 1, or West Lebanon, on the Council.
Winny, a social worker at Alice Peck Day Memorial Hospital, has lived in Lebanon since 2002.
“I like being active in my community, and I feel the work is important,” he said. I find it both challenging and rewarding.”
If elected, Winny said, he plans to continue working toward cleaning up the historic Westboro Rail Yard and supporting “responsible development” in the city.
Downs, a lifelong Lebanon resident, is a contractor who has owned the West Lebanon-based Downs Building Construction since 1996.
“I have been interested in city politics for many years. I feel it’s time give a voice to Ward 1,” he said.
Downs said he would prioritize infrastructure if elected to the council, adding some projects have been pushed back for too long.
He said the proposed welcoming ordinance is “not for residents” but “for illegals.”
“I feel that as a taxpayer I want our police force to be able to keep our families safe,” Downs said. “This ordinance prevents them from keeping legal tax-paying, school funding residents safe.”
Winny said he cannot support the ordinance for separate reasons.
“As written, the City Clerk would not be able to ask certain questions which are required to register voters (and) the police could not track data which ensures they are policing without bias,” he said. “I’m sure it isn’t the intent of the proposed ordinance to limit those, and possibly other, functions, however, it appears that they do.”
City Councilor Bruce Bronner and resident Christopher Allan Roberge are both running for a one-year term representing Ward 2, the center of the city that runs from the western side of downtown to the Exit 19 interchange.
Bronner, who moved to Lebanon in 1983, is semi-retired from a career building and selling houses. If elected, he would serve his 13th year on the council.
“I was wrestling with the decision to run or not and one more year was/is the perfect compromise for me,” he said. “I will be 70 this year and ready to step aside.”
Bronner went on to say his experience benefits the city and he keeps an “open mind” on decisions.
Roberge is a community organizer and manager at The Karibbean coffee shop. He previously served as a history teacher in Port-Au -Prince, Haiti, and as an Americorps member.
Roberge said he’s running to ensure “constituents are heard and their concerns are valued.”
“It is important we keep an eye on the budget and make sure that we aren’t taxing residents out of their homes, here in Lebanon,” he said, adding the city should increase the “value of Lebanon without letting housing become unaffordable for the people who want to and have lived here.”
Roberge said he supports the welcoming ordinance, saying it was created by “passionate and caring activists and community members” working to settle a “gray area” between federal and local law.
Bronner, meanwhile, said he supports the ordinance except the clause requiring the city to alert residents of immigration officials’ presence.
“I am not in favor of the City Council telling our police to disobey the law,” he said. “Our immigration laws need to change and the way to get that done is through the ballot box and legislation.”
Five people, including two incumbents, are running for three seats on the Lebanon School Board this year.
Current School Board members Richard Milius and Aaron Mills are being challenged by Kristin O’Rourke, Christopher Allan Roberge and Patrick Gobeille.
School Board Vice Chairman Adam Nemeroff is not seeking reelection to the nine-member body.
Milius, chairman of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Norwich University, has lived in Lebanon for 14 years. His two youngest children are graduates of Lebanon High School.
Milius described himself as a fiscal conservative with a deep commitment to science, technology, engineering and mathematics and experience in budgeting and project management.
“We have an excellent track record in college admissions, but it’s also very important to give our kids who will enter the workforce the tools they need to succeed,” he said. “I want to see the Board spend more time supporting the efforts of our teachers, staff and administration to improve the education we provide to our kids.”
Mills, who served in the Navy and now works at The Timken Co., moved to Lebanon three years ago and has two children attending the Hanover Street School.
He was appointed in June to fill a board seat left vacant by Erin Madory.
Mills said he brings experience and is particularly knowledgeable with the “difficulties of maintaining an old, needy facility and trying to perform needed upkeep with financial restraints.”
“I think we should ensure our children are provided a physically and mentally safe environment where we cultivate a learning atmosphere for all students,” he said.
O’Rourke, a professor of art history at Dartmouth College, moved to Lebanon in 2004. She has three children at Lebanon Middle School and Lebanon High School.
If elected, O’Rourke said she would bring “extensive” classroom experience to the School Board and a “great respect for all teachers.”
“I am the product of a great public school education, from elementary through graduate school. I believe in public education and feel that schools are the backbone of any town,” she said. “Communities thrive when they provide a strong education for their kids and a support system for families.”
Meanwhile, Roberge said he hopes to bring diversity to the School Board.
“I have the capacity to elevate young people, especially young people of color, in being heard and represented,” he said. “Many issues facing POC (people of color) are swept under the rug or not regarded in positions such as school board.”
Roberge added that he also hopes to “focus on making more people-oriented” meetings that draw residents into important discussions.
Messages left for Gobeille, a culinary teacher at the Hartford Area Career and Technology Center, were not returned last week.
The Upper Valley Business Alliance will host a candidates night starting at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, March 3, at the SAU 88 Auditorium, inside the former Seminary Hill School. Elections take place March 10 from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Tim Camerato can be reached at tcamerato@vnews.com or 603-727-3223.