Concord Candidates Begin to File

Candidates running for city council, school board, and other races have begun the process of filing to run at both the city and school board clerks' offices.

The first candidate to file on Sept. 9, was Ward 8 City Councilor Dick Patten, who also serves as a state representative. He will be running for his third term on the council.

“I love it,” he said. “I enjoy it; I enjoy the interaction with people.”

Patten said he feels as if he is “the watchdog of the Heights,” since he has the largest portion of the area in his city council ward.

came in right behind Patten with his teenage son, Jackson, to file, saying he was “excited” about running again.

“It’s been a real honor to be able to serve the community for the past four years,” he said. “Never did I imagine that I would be in this position, years ago, but I’ve truly been very fortunate.”

Bouley said he thought the council functioned well as a team during the past two terms. If re-elected, he will focus on the budget and control spending while delivering “a high quality product,” he said. Bouley also noted that the credit rating agencies have taken the city off their watch lists, which means that the city pays a lower interest rate and saves hundreds of thousands of dollars on bonded projects. He said he expected that the next two years would be just as difficult as the last four since the economy did not seem to be turning around.

Later, after the Economic Development Advisory Council meeting ended, at-Large City Councilor and Ward 6 Councilor J. Allen Bennett filed.

Coen agreed with Bouley saying it was important to keep the costs of municipal government down while still preserving services. He would also like to continue focusing on rising pension and employee costs if he wins another term. Coen said he expects that there will be challengers for the at-large seats. He said that some candidates respect and admire their ward councilors but still want to run, to push specific issues into the public realm.

“I’d be more than surprised if there’s not more than three or four candidates running at-large,” he said. “I welcome it; it’s part of democracy and part of what makes Concord great.”

Bennett, who has been on the council since 2003, said he was running because there was still work that needed to get done, including analyzing the city’s labor costs. He recently compared labor figures from his budget book in 2003 and said it was “amazing” to see the increase in costs during eight years even though the city has fewer actual employees. However, he also suggested that it might be his last term on the council.

“Probably,” he said. “Never say never … 10 years, I think, is long enough, and then, turn it over to somebody else … we’ll see what happens, if I’m lucky enough to get re-elected.”

also filed paperwork to challenge Ward 1 City Councilor and County Commissioner Elizabeth Blanchard. , the Ward 2 councilor, has decided not to run for re-election. 

Also filing on Sept. 9, were At-Large City Councilor , Ward 4 Councilor Amanda Grady, and Ward 7 Councilor Keith Nyhan.

Candidates filing on Sept. 12, included Ward 5 Councilor Rob Werner, Ward 9 Councilor Candace Bouchard, and Ward 10 Councilor Fred Keach.

School board races

At the Concord School District clerk’s office, emerging candidates have been trickling in a bit slower.

Currently, only newcomers and Nick Metalious have filed to run for three seats. Jack Dunn, Kevin Fleming, and Eric Williams are the current incumbents. Dunn has said he would like to run again. Both Fleming and Williams were mixed about running earlier this month, with Fleming leaning against another run.

In an email Sept. 12, Williams said he had not come to a decision yet.

Higgins, a Concord High School track star as a kid and a former coach, literally ran over to the clerk’s office on Friday morning to file.

“As I contemplated the busy day ahead I decided to begin my official ‘run’ for school board on my actual morning run,” she noted. “This will be the most unique, challenging, and enjoyable ‘race’ in my career this far I am sure.”

The deadline for filing to run for either school or city offices is 5 p.m. on Monday, Sept. 19.