2 military veterans challenge incumbent for Laconia Police Commission seat

LACONIA — Three candidates with military experience are vying for one Laconia Police Commission seat in the city election on Tuesday, Nov. 4. Incumbent Frank Mello is looking to stay in the role he's held for the past eight years, challenged by Navy veteran Jim Lowell and David Roberge, who served in the U.S. Marine Corps.

Jim Lowell

Lowell said his time in the military shares similarities in the functions of a police force.

Lowell entered the U.S. Navy in 1972, where he spent six years before being honorably discharged in 1978. After obtaining a degree from Plymouth State College, he returned to the Navy in 1980, where he served until 1999, when he retired.

Lowell was a surface warfare officer, serving primarily on ships. He was a division officer, a department head, an executive officer, and shore command during his time in the Navy. Lowell then received a master’s degree in national security and strategic studies from the U.S. Naval War College, where he was asked to stay on as an administration department head for the Reserve Affairs Department.

After retiring from the military, Lowell became the operations manager for the NASWA Resort in Weirs Beach, until he completely retired in 2020.

Lowell is running for police commission because he has been a resident of the city for life, born and raised, and wants to be effective locally.

“I love to serve and can’t think of a department in the city where I would be more use than the police department as a commissioner,” Lowell said. “My skills will be best suited there.”

Laconia is a growing city, shown right with current construction projects, and he said the departments in the city will need to evolve and grow accordingly.

“My background leaves me well prepared to assist the police department in evolving over time, so over the next 10 years we will be able to meet the community’s commitments,” Lowell said. “Planning is needed, and that is where I come in.”

If elected, Lowell’s priorities will be to “listen and learn.” He is not a “status quo guy,” and said he always looks ahead to see what he can make better. He hopes to be someone who can bring in new ideas, notably about recruiting new officers to what is already a department working at a high level.

“I am very happy with what our department is doing, but I want that to continue,” Lowell said. “I will work with the other commissioners and the chief to plan out the future of what the police department should look like. I am not a guy who looks back, I look forward.”

Frank Mello

Mello has two terms under his belt as commissioner, and is proud of the police department he oversees.

Mello has experience as a police officer, as well as in emergency services. He worked as an American Red Cross disaster services coordinator, was the fire chief in Warren, and worked as one of three fire engineer for the Gilford Fire Department.

In 1953, Mello started his military experience with the Army National Guard. He received his high school diploma early, in January, as troops were being assigned for the Korean War. During the war he served internationally, including a stint in France. Mello then went to the Air Force and worked up to the rank of staff sergeant. In the Air Force, he was with the Airways and Air Communications Services as a teletype mechanic and head of mechanics for the weather detachment he was assigned to.

Mello later became a police officer with his hometown of Barnstable, Massachusetts, for a year, and eventually moved to Warren where he spent the next 28 years working for the state’s Bridge Department, ultimately becoming superintendent.

Mello was also a police officer, both full- and part-time, for the Town of Plymouth.

In 2000, Mello moved to Laconia, and he said he couldn’t be happier to work with the city’s police department.

“It’s been eight years, and I have never missed a meeting,” Mello said. “Since I retired, I have just enjoyed helping, and this also means helping the police department to get to where it is today.”

Mello spoke highly of the work of Chief Matt Canfield and his team of about 40 members. He said working with his commissioners to attain national recognition as one of the nation’s top departments says a lot about his work on the board.

“I am proud of our department,” he said. “It’s one of the best police departments in the country.”

Mello recognizes the population of the city is growing, whether it is full-time residents or seasonal, and the police department will have to grow with it. He asks residents to vote for him because he plans to continue the success the department has already shown while he has been on the commission.

“My heart and soul is in this,” Mello said. “I love this police department, and they do just a wonderful job, the most wonderful job I’ve seen a police department do.”

David Roberge

Roberge also has military experience, as he enlisted in the Marine Corps after graduating high school. Once he wrapped up, he became a police officer in the City of Dover, before leaving to come to Laconia to become a police officer.

“I absolutely love this department,” Roberge said.

Roberge worked for the Laconia Police Department for just under 14 years, but after being hit by a car while conducting a traffic stop, he sustained injuries that had him sidelined from work. He was eventually able to return, then sustained further injuries in a later incident, and was forced to retire. After moving away from the area to work construction on the Seacoast, he made his way back to Laconia, where he has lived for the past six years.

Roberge is running for the police commission at the request of city residents, who have expressed various concerns he said he will address if elected. He said he has a great relationship with Chief Canfield, and as a commissioner he will speak with them to make sure the concerns are founded. For the time being, he is keeping those concerns to himself.

“I don’t want to bash the department at all,” he said. “People keep asking me to run, so I will investigate some of those complaints about the department and how it operates, and hopefully correct it.”

A top priority for Roberge is to see the police more involved with the community. Whether this means charity softball games, a fair, or just meeting the public in a casual setting, Roberge has ideas. He said the goal is to forge a better relationship between officers and residents.

“People don’t have to like them, but I want them to respect them,” Roberge said. “It could put peoples’ minds at ease with openness with the public. The public can see that these men and women are normal people.”

Roberge said he has a “phenomenal amount of experience,” as well as knowledge of how the city operates. He hopes to bring new ideas to the commission and improve the department.

“My overall demeanor and personality are that I like to get things done, and keep things on a straight and narrow,” Roberge said. “I have the ability, by far, to make these things happen.”