NEWPORT — In Tuesday’s town meeting vote, incumbent Selectboard members Jeff North and Herb Tellor face three challengers in their bids for another three-year term on the board.
Newcomers Benjamin Bartlett and Anna O’Hara join Doug Ring — who has run unsuccessfully for the board the last four years — in looking to unseat Tellor and North.
Ben Bartlett
Bartlett works as project manager and estimator. He said he has been “encouraged” for a number of years by several people to run for the Selectboard and now with enough time, sees his first opportunity to consider public office.
“There are elements of discussion not taking place (at the board level) and I hope to promote those discussions to move the town forward,” Bartlett, 44, said in a phone interview about his main reason for running.
The biggest issue for Bartlett is housing and while he supports town efforts to increase the available housing, including rentals, he does not think the board’s approach, including granting developers the tax incentives under 79E, will help the town in the long run. The state law allows a town to freeze the assessment of qualifying structure, prior to rehabilitation, for several years, as incentive to redevelop older properties. The town has awarded 79E two redevelopment projects including the former Ruger Mill on Sunapee Street, which has been converted to apartments.
In Bartlett’s view, there is a cost to the rest of the town for the tax break.
“I’m concerned the resources we have now to expend to support these places are net negative in terms of taxes,” Bartlett said.
Newport is starting to see “burden” that the increase in housing is having on key services including police, fire and ambulance, he said.
“I believe everybody had the best of intentions in terms of encouraging this growth to ease housing needs,” Bartlett said. “But the tax incentives we extend in order to support these projects to come to Newport are of lesser value than the value of the services needed. I want to have discussions on this and those are not happening now.”
Also on Bartlett’s priority list is helping to address infrastructure needs of the town.
“The town is doing an admirable job trying to address the need but as with anything, it all comes down to funding and how you source it and the impacts of those sources of funding on residents,” he said.
Jeff North
North, 62, is finishing up his first term on the board. He co-owns the Newport Fitness Center with his wife, Heidi, and other businesses on Main Street.
When he joined the board, North said challenges included the post-COVID effects of inflation with increases in housing, fuel and other costs. Added to that was the need for a new town manager after the resignation of Hunter Rieseberg in July 2023.
North called the selection of Town Manager Kyle Harris in early 2024 a “good hire” and he believes the board has successfully worked with Harris as a “team” overseeing the operation of the town.
“Some say the Selectboard is the town manager’s boss, but I don’t see it that way. We work as a unit.”
Another part of being a Selectboard member, North said, is to advance other ideas and pursue a broader interest in serving the town.
“It inspires me to do other things for the community,” North said about being on the board.
North said he started the committee that will organize a town celebration of the country’s 250th anniversary this year and as a member of the Planning Board, worked on getting town ownership of a small piece of property behind Salt Hill Pub that will help extend the rail trail toward Sunapee. As chairman of the Main Street Parking Committee, North took the lead in developing a striping and crosswalk plan for the town’s main commercial strip that increased the number of spaces from 66 to 89. The Selectboard voted unanimously in support of the plan.
“Being on the Selectboard gives me a sense of purpose to do those things,” North said.
North serves as a Selectboard member on the Airport Advisory Committee, the Recreation Advisory Committee and the Planning Board.
“Those boards are equally important because they are part of understanding your community,” North said.
If elected to continue to serve, he hopes to provide needed town services and also support the cultural and historical aspects of Newport.
“I like things that make people feel like they live in a community,” North said. “It is about more than infrastructure and taxes. I want people to feel good about living in this community and I work hard at that.”
Anna O’Hara
O’Hara, 22, works in information technology and education. Though she ran unsuccessfully for the Newport School Board in March, she hopes her candidacy will at the very least inspire other young people to get more involved in their local and school governments.
If elected, O’Hara said housing will be on her list of priorities.
“I want to increase the housing supply or at least prioritize increasing it to a sustainable, incremental growth,” O’Hara said in a phone interview. “The lack of housing has driven up expenses for many residents and an increase in homelessness.”
She would like to focus on encouraging development, including businesses, in “Newport’s core,” she said.
O’Hara said she has heard complaints about property taxes, an issue she said is “hard to ignore in Newport” and will be sensitive to that burden if elected.
The safety of streets and sidewalks will be another priority for O’Hara.
“I have heard from people who walk around town there are concerns about getting from point A to point B,” O’Hara said. “So it ties back into maintaining our existing infrastructure in the downtown area.”
If elected, O’Hara wants to pursue changes in the way presentations are made to the public when the board discusses engineering plans for certain projects. She does not feel the presentations — on subjects such as a redesigned road — are made so those affected can easily understand or can make recommendations for changes that come from their “lived experience.”
“They are complicated, abstract and difficult for everyday people to understand,” O’Hara said. “I want to focus better on how we bring projects to the community and then get it in front of them in ways they understand.”
Doug Ring
The owner of a towing and landscaping business, Ring is making his fifth straight run for the board.
“I am still running for the same reasons,” Ring said in a phone interview. “My main thing is a difference of opinion on how to run the town.”
As an example, Ring does not like what he has said is an “a la carte” approach to the annual town meeting vote the last two years. After the defeat of the proposed budget two years ago, the Selectboard and town manager decided to remove some expenses from the budget and present them as separate warrant articles so voters can decide what they want to support.
“I was not happy with the (proposed) budget,” Ring said. “The (two) Fire Department positions should have been in the budget if the board really cared about it. I am very disappointed with that.”
The $210,000 for the firefighter positions is in a separate warrant article this year.
Ring also said the board is not getting information out to the public as well as it should and would like to see more money put into infrastructure improvements, including sidewalks and roads.
“We are not putting enough money aside,” he said. “We will never catch up spending $300,000 or $400,000 a year.”
Ring, who said he supports the town manager, also does not believe the board handled the new community center correctly. Twice voters defeated bonds for the center, but the board went ahead with the project when it received grants and donations to cover 100% of the cost.
“They did not have the town support on that,” Ring said, adding he predicts it will cost taxpayers more money to run the center.
“Whether they elect me or one of the other two (challengers) I think it will be a step in the right direction,” Ring said.
Herb Tellor
Tellor did not respond to messages requesting an interview.
