Lovett retiring from Meredith Selectboard

Published Date Written by Michael Kitch

MEREDITH — With the retirement of Miller Lovett at least one new member the Board of Selectmen will be elected in March. Nate Torr is running for re-election but he will be joined on the ballot by at least two others, Lou Kahn and Jane Greemore. The two candidates with the highest vote totals will claim the two seats available.
Lovett, the current chairman of the board, has chosen not to seek re-election but to retire after serving seven years. He was first elected to a one-year term in 2006, when the board expanded from three to five members, and subsequently re-elected to consecutive three-year terms in 2007 and 2010.
"Seven years is enough," Lovett said yesterday. "I threw out the best ideas I could," he said, alluding to several memoranda he submitted to the board addressing long-term budget strategies and management of fund balance. "I've learned a lot," he remarked, noting "I think we have a good board that listens well."
Lovett is a retired college professor (management) and minister (United Methodist Church and United Church of Christ).
Nate Torr, a retired science teacher at Inter-Lakes High School, was elected to the board in 2010. He represented the selectmen on the Waukewan Watershed Advisory Committee and throughout his first term consistently championed the controversial public health regulation to tighten regulation of septic systems around the lake that the board adopted in December.
Jane Greemore, whose husband Bob represents Meredith and Gilford in the New Hampshire House of Representatives, said that she only began to consider seeking a seat on the Selectboard when she was approached by "some concerned citizens." She said that after giving it some thought and speaking with close friends "I decided I might as well jump into the fray instead of just complaining about things that bother me."
Greemore said that she is troubled by Granite State Future, the long-range planning initiative funded by the federal government and administered by the Lakes Region Planning Commission, which she fears will erode private property rights and local control. She also seeks "to keep spending to a minimum" and shares her husband's commitment to "fiscal responsibility." An active member of the Wicwas Grange and the Calvary Bible Church, Greemore partners with her husband in Bob's Sharp-All, where she said "our heart and soul is."
A longtime member of the Planning Board and former Town Moderator who currently serves as chairman of the Capital Improvement Program (CIP) Committee and a Trustee of the Trust Funds,, Kahn is making his first bid for selectman. "I am concerned that the progress we have made in this town should continue," he said, stressing the importance of prudent capital investment in infrastructure and equipment,. "You can stop capital spending and hold your breath," he remarked, "but eventually you'll turn blue."
Kahn, who spent three decades as a corporate attorney in New York, has rented and owned property in town since 1969 and considers Meredith home. He lives atop what he calls "the steepest hill in town" amid two town forests where he tends an apple orchard and keeps a pair of horses. "This is paradise for me," he declared. "The town has been on a really good path for some years and I want to keep it that way."
The filing period closes at the end of business on Friday.