Alton's new selectman hits the ground running

Robert “Loring” Carr once says he got interested in “this thing called politics” because his parents used to drag him to the annual Town and School District Meetings when he was a child.

Now after more than 10 years of serving the community — and a brief two-year respite — Carr is back involved with the community’s leadership.

The lifelong Alton resident was chosen by the Board of Selectmen to fill out the year term of member Bill Curtin after Curtin recently quit. Curtin’s sudden resignation came after the required time to register to run for office so the five-member board — already down a member after former Chairman Alan Sherwood’s resignation became effective Dec. 31 — had to quickly choose a replacement or be in danger of not being able to gather a legally required quorum.

Seven people submitted letters of interest and Carr was the board’s unanimous choice. He was sworn in later that same day, Tuesday, Feb. 11.

Selectman Pat Fuller said the selection made sense because Carr served several years on the town’s Budget Committee. “He knows the budget process,” she said, implying that is important as the community goes into the stretch run of its annual budget-building season.

Many residents may be more familiar with Carr’s work on the Alton School Board where he served three three-year terms. But during five of those nine years he said he was the board’s representative to the Budget Committee five times — and he served a three-year term as a committee member before that.

Two years ago Carr surprised many residents when he decided not to run for reelection — although he may have had a last-minute change of heart. There was a report of him handing out “Write-In Carr” pencils at the polls that Election Day.

Still when this year’s political races began shaping up Carr consistently maintained that the only seat he was looking for was a “La-Z-Boy.”

But when he saw the selectmen’s recent predicament he decided to apply for the seat — and now he says he’s happy he did.

“I’m glad I can have the chance to work on some issue in town,” he said. “And I think I have some background that will help.”

When asked which issues he would focus on, the new selectman said the state of the national economy and how it impacts the town is of primary interest. “I think everyone realizes what’s going on,” he said. “Here in Alton you have people who are being laid off. A lot of people don’t have work.”

In addition, it doesn’t look like the seasonal businesses that are an important part of Alton’s economy will be looking to hire to the same extent as they have in previous years, he noted.

“Maybe the town can do something in that direction, I don’t know,” he said. “But I do know we have to do something to hold the taxes wherever we can.”

Carr attended the candidates forum at the Alton Central School last week where some of the people seeking office spoke about the impact of some recent town issues including the possible rehiring of ex-police lieutenant Ed Correia (who was dismissed by the Selectboard in 2007), the town’s ongoing legal dispute with a company about cell phone service facilities, and the School Board’s warrant article asking for $500,000 to purchase 10-acres of village land now owned by the Edna M. Twombly Revocable Trust.

Carr said he thought it wasn’t appropriate to talk about the Correia situation since the former officer is appealing his dismissal to the New Hampshire Supreme Court.

And he said selectmen candidates who spoke about the cell tower controversy might not understand that it’s the town’s Planning Board and Zoning Board of Adjustment who deal with the telecommunications company, not the Selectboard.

“The Planning Board made the decision (not to permit a cell phone tower at a particular site) and it’s not the selectmen’s job to come in and say, you’re going to change your mind,” he said. “The Planning Board is elected to do that job and the selectmen can’t say we’re going to override you… Perhaps it could have acted as some kind of mediator but that’s all.”

Carr has some questions about the School District’s proposal to buy the property in the village for athletic fields.

At Thursday’s forum, David St. Cyr, who is chairman of the construction subcommittee working under the School Board’s Buildings & Grounds Committee, tried to discourage talk about possible future uses of the land — “We’re just talking about athletic fields at this time,” he said — but it was impossible to keep some people from conjecturing about what school buildings might someday be put there.

Carr said he was concerned about the issue as well. “It’s limited in what the possibilities are for it,” he said. “Can they build a K-3 school there? We don’t know. The first thing they should have done is the (relevant) site testing.”

When Carr was reminded that the board didn’t win support for a warrant article last year that would have given it money it wanted for such a project — and that the $500,000 warrant article includes $25,000 for such testing, after which the board can walk away from its tentative purchase-and-sales agreement — he still expressed concerns.

“So let’s say they find some wetland there. Are they going to buy it if it’s 50-percent wetlands? If it’s 10-percent wetlands? They haven’t set any perimeters on what’s acceptable and what’s not acceptable,” he said. “And I don’t understand why they didn’t get three appraisals (as occurred when the board considered another land purchase several years ago). Those are issues that have nor really been resolved.”

Carr also spoke about the $475,000 price tag to buy the land, which is currently assessed by the town for only $320,300.

District officials say the land would be worth much more if it had access onto Route 28 — and the selectmen have promised to grant such access to the district if voters approve the buy. (The town has a railroad easement onto the state road.)

“This is sort of like if I had the only recipe for cake — if I do does that mean I have to pay extra for the flour and eggs?” Carr asked rhetorically. “Why is it that because we have access that we’re paying extra?”

And he has questions about the district’s immediate plans to use the land for athletic fields for after-school programs. “I still don’t see how they (school officials) are going to use that property that far away from the school,” he said. (The land is about a quarter-mile from the current central school campus.) “I think transportation is going to be an issue. How are you going to get the kids there?”

Carr plans to attend a public forum about the land purchase the district is presenting Friday, March 5 to find out more about the proposal. (The hearing will be held in two sessions, one at 9:30 a.m. at the Gilman Library and another at 6:30 p.m. in the Alton Central School’s music room.)

He said he hopes his concerns are satisfied and he can support the land purchase. “It is a nice piece of prime property,” he said of the Twombly land located behind the Police Department.