Franklin council candidates focused on revitalization, roads

FRANKLIN — Six candidates running for city council made their case to voters ahead of the Tuesday, Oct. 1, municipal elections.

The city has seen a lot of recent development, and the approach to continued development ultimately became the main topic of a nonpartisan candidate forum at the Elks Lodge Monday night hosted by Choose Franklin, an inclusive citizens group focused on success of the city, according to their website.

A crowd of nearly 100 audience members were encouraged to submit questions ahead of the start of the event. Candidate Delaney Carrier, running in Ward 1, is current chair of the school board.

“I'm not much of a shirt and tie guy, but I wanted to represent the schools today,” Carrier said as he turned around to show the back of his shirt with the school motto. “The motto of our schools is ‘Handle hard, better.’ And I feel this is going to be a good model for the city council as well, because we do have a lot of difficult decisions coming up.”

Bruce Marshall is running against Carrier in Ward 1, Thomas Boyce against Samuel Jacobson in Ward 2, and in Ward 3, Valerie Blake, who is running for reelection, is facing Al Warner. Incumbents Councilor George Dzjuna in Ward 1 and City Councilor Vincent Ribas in Ward 2 did not file for re-election.

Candidates differed on the correct approach to economic development in the city. Blake said the best way for the city to grow is expanding the tax base.

“Because when you have more taxes, more property, it will lower your taxes. That happened this year when our tax rate went down to $16.20-odd cents from $24 last year, and that was a direct result of our property values going over $1 billion for the first time ever,” Blake said. “That's economic development, and revitalization downtown.”

Warner was in favor of reducing restrictions to make it easier to conduct business in the city. He criticized recent endeavors by the heritage commission to restrict certain signage in the downtown historic district.

“If you reduce regulation and restriction in some areas, it'll encourage further development,” he said. “We might be spending a little too much time pursuing signage, and things like that.”

Marshall had a different response. He focused on reevaluating the planning and zoning efforts of the city. He also addressed the heritage commission.

“We need to look at all the available developer land in Franklin, and modify the zoning and planning to attract developers there. Developers look to see what's been going on in that municipality,” he said.

“And when they look and there's uncertainty about the tax and the tax cap and what can be done inside that, they get scared away because they don't want uncertainty. They want some kind of certainty to their future. So we need to address the zoning.”

Moderators Bob Lucas and Leah Cote questioned the candidates, including about each one's top funding priorities. Every candidate named funding roads as an immediate issue. Boyce is in favor of providing more funding for roads, but when asked about the impact of heavy trucks on roads, he said he hopes to redirect these trucks away from Franklin to save existing roads.

“We are the gateway to heavy construction vehicles. They have access, always, through the City of Franklin. I don't believe there's one sign out there that limits any heavy equipment trucks, whether it's Exit 23, Exit 20,” he said. “We are the bypass going to Andover, everything. Until we stop that, our roads are even going to get worse.”

Jacobson, along with Carrier, said the city needs to reorganize the process of asking for funding in the budget.

“What the council should be doing is setting its priorities and providing those to the city manager and the department heads at the start of the year. We can set a citizen’s agenda and say, 'We want to fund these three priorities.' Whether that's roads, whether that's fire, whether that's police, we can set those at the beginning of the year, and then the bones of our budget can meet those priorities,” Jacobson said. "Right now, the council gets the budget in May, and it's hard to squeeze water from the stone like that.”

Marshall addressed recent attention on his residency. After residing in Bow for three decades, and serving as chair of the selectboard there until 2023, he moved to Franklin this summer. His kids attend Bow schools, according to a recent piece in the Bow Times, and some residents are questioning his domicile and eligibility to run for Franklin City Council. In his opening statement, Marshall confirmed his wife and children live in Bow, and he now resides in Franklin after spending a lot of time in a home he purchased on Webster Lake in 2016. In his closing statement, he addressed how some Facebook posts have made himself and his wife feel unsafe.

“If you don't want to vote for me because I don't sleep every night at Webster Avenue, don't vote for me. But don't make my wife and kids feel unsafe to ride their bikes or pick up the garbage,” he said. “That’s not what we stand for.”

Carrier has positioned himself as Marshall's opposite, a long-time resident of the city.

“I've lived here for 20 years. I'm heavily invested in the community. I've put in many years of service, and I don't plan on stopping whichever way this election goes,” Carrier said. “My years of service have given me a vast knowledge of the city and the city government. I'd just like to continue my service to the city and the residents.”

Candidates emphasized the importance of voting in a municipal election.

“If you like what I've had to offer, vote. If you don't like what I've had to offer, go with someone else,” Warner said. “But this is what it's all about.”