Cheney running for mayor

LACONIA — Bruce Cheney, who serves the city as councilor in Ward 1, announced his run for mayor at a press conference on the WinniDeck of T-BONES Great American Eatery on Thursday morning. 

He’s served as councilor in Ward 1 since 2018. His news comes about one week after Mayor Andrew Hosmer said he plans to resign his position to take the city manager job in Lebanon. When Hosmer officially tenders his resignation — he said he’d do that following the end of the city’s budget process — councilors will have 30 days to appoint an interim mayor.

“I’m not running for me — I know that sounds corny — but there are problems and issues in Laconia that need to be addressed, and I hope to be able to do that,” Cheney said. “Things like the homeless, crime on Main Street, crime in Lakeport and the Weirs. Those sorts of things I hope we can push to get those better. We need to support our businesses here in the city as they grow, but we also need to make sure we hang on to the character of the City of Laconia.”

Cheney brings decades of experience to the table, both at the state and local levels. He previously served as the city’s police chief, running the department for 13 years, capping off a 25-year career in law enforcement. He went on to create and manage New Hampshire’s 911 emergency communications system for 24 years, and retired in 2016.

Principal challenges facing the city, to Cheney’s mind, include the upcoming State School property development, which will require real effort in terms of navigating impacts to municipal infrastructure. He’s also concerned about Concord Hospital-Laconia and its future in the city, developing housing solutions sustainably, managing safety and crime concerns, and shoring up the maintenance of roads.

Cheney said Concord Hospital signed a contract to run LRGH for five years, and noted it expires next year in May. He said he wants the city to push harder to learn details, hold a meeting between the hospital and councilors, so city leaders know the future of the arrangement.

He also said, while he supports the development of the WOW Trail, he is strongly opposed to bonding the Opechee Loop section while roads and culverts require repair.

“Let’s bond those, whatever’s left, we can do nice things like that,” he said. “I’m hoping to push the city towards [doing] a better job of maintaining what we have.”

While everyone agrees there’s a shortage of housing, Cheney said, the State School development is set to bring more than 2,000 additional units to the north end. The city should wait and see what that project entails, concretely, he thinks, before making a major effort to develop housing in other areas of the city.

In reference to current controversies — the city’s $1 downtown parking garage sale — Cheney said divesting the city from the garage is “appropriate” and represents millions of dollars in savings down the line.

“I do think the person who bought it has some reasonable plans, from what I saw, and we have to hope for the best.”

Cheney also said he has regular conversations with Police Chief Matt Canfield about needing more police patrols downtown, to alleviate problems associated with the city’s population of people experiencing homelessness.

“Someone told me about a facility on Main Street that locked their doors because the homeless were using the bathrooms and making a mess of the place, leaving needles,” he said. “We just can’t have that downtown, or in any other large portion of the city, so I’m hoping to be able to push the commission — remember, the police chief works for an independent commission which is separately elected. I’d like to believe I can push the commission to improve on the effort to deal with the homeless and, frankly, a fairly significant number of criminals.”

He said making improvements for unhoused people would incentivize business to come to the city, and could boost commerce. State Rep. Charlie St. Clair (D-Laconia), who owns the Laconia Antique Center downtown, said Cheney’s work with the police department in recent years has improved the business environment.

“You were a big part of getting the beat back going downtown, and that’s made a huge difference for my business,” St. Clair said. “So I thank you for that, and I look forward to more of that when you’re mayor.”

While the mayor position in the city is largely ceremonial, Cheney noted the mayor can break ties, which he said is important.

“Maybe more important, the mayor can set a tone, he can talk to the press on a regular basis and say, ‘We need to look at this problem, or improve this over here,’” Cheney said. “The mayor has the ears that guys like me and [Bob Soucy] might not have, that I hope to be able to push if I’m elected.”

“For many years, since he came out of the Marine Corps, he’s always been there to serve the public: as a police officer in the Town of Tilton, the youngest chief for the Town of Gilford at 27 years old, and then 14 years as the chief of police at Laconia PD, where I served with him,” Ward 2 Councilor Bob Soucy, who is Cheney’s campaign manager, said Thursday morning. “It’s an honor, and I think it’s fantastic to have someone that’s been a servant to the public all his life — Bruce Cheney as our next mayor for the City of Laconia.”

The current mayoral term runs through 2025. The filing period for the upcoming November municipal election, which will decide the next mayor, is Aug. 6-15.