Herschlag: Our Mayor Is Not Seeking Another Term

Let me be perfectly clear, the mayor and I did not get along. We could be civil towards each other, but we had our differences. Having said that and without revisiting all the issues I had with our mayor, all the differences we had, and the concerns I had about how the sausage was being made, at the end of the day it would be hard to accuse the mayor of not doing what he thought was best for our city.

This isn’t about what I would have done or why I feel the mayor should have or could have comported himself differently, it is about what’s next.

Concord is at a crossroad. What are the responsibilities of city government and what do we expect from our elected officials and administrators? How do we meet the future needs of our city and how do we pay for it?

Police and Fire

Safety services are certainly at the top of the list. Fortunately we continue to have exceptional police and fire departments. But as was heard during the recent budget meetings the police department continues to have difficulties recruiting and filling positions and the fire department now finds themselves with limited applications.

The administration proposed and the city council approved a number of actions to alleviate this issue, but it comes at a cost. Both short term for salaries, training and benefits and long term costs associated with the state’s retirement system.

Additional costs for police and fire going forward are significant. A new police station and up dating or replacing our current fire stations (and possibly a fifth station). The cost of just one new ladder truck is now approaching two million dollars.

Infrastructure

Roads, water, sewer. We expect streets and sidewalks to be in good condition and plowed during the winter months. The city council continues to provide (and increase) funding for street paving, but even with an aggressive paving schedule, there are roads that won’t be paved over an extended period of time and roads that will be neglected and subjected to extensive degradation due to a lack of anticipated funding.

We learned at this years budget hearings that trash (solid waste) collection costs will more than double. We are looking at a very different model for how trash and recyclables are collected and paid for going forward. Will we continue with purple bags and higher bag prices or will we revert to adding trash collection to the property tax. Currently we pay zero for recyclables, but future costs are anticipated to be $100 per ton.

The water and sewer accounts have significant funding reserves. But anticipated future expenses will continue to increase your bill every year.

Similar to our safety departments, competitive wages and benefits along with retirement and equipment costs for public works will add to the costs of maintaining our city.

Housing

Our city is an attractive place to live, placing stress on our housing market (or lack of housing).

While there are significant numbers of new residential units approved, in the pipeline or being proposed, this presents its own set of issues. How do we pay for increases in city services (safety, recreation, schools, infrastructure, employees…) for an ever growing population that places greater demands on what is expected from the city? Will new businesses locate here to take advantage of a growing population or will we become a bedroom community that provides the work force for others?

We currently plan to spend tens of millions of dollars for new and updated recreation facilities. For parks, golf, bike and walking trails and new and updated athletic fields. Where will the money for these investments come from. Will it come from new development and new businesses moving to our city or will it mean higher property taxes for us?

And while the city council does not oversee the Concord school district, they are working on building a new middle school. All these expenses without new revenue to offset these costs will lead to higher taxes for you.

Welcoming New Residents

While our community continues to grow we have been welcoming people from many different backgrounds. There have been numerous meetings and suggestions on how best to assist new arrivals in being able to take advantage of all our city offers.

How do we best achieve this goal without alienating those who have lived here all their lives while ensuring community services are available to all city residents who need them?

How do we preserve the character and history of our city while accommodating growth? What do we preserve, what do we change? When I moved to Concord almost fifty years ago there were a little more than 34,000 people living here, today about 44,000.

The increase is approximately 33%, but traffic in our community has grown exponentially in relation to population growth. How do we achieve our goals of a walkable, bikeable, livable community while addressing issues of congestion that occurs on Loudon Road and other areas of our city?

Planning for the Future

With the potential for an additional 20,000 people moving to Concord how will this impact our city? Can we anticipate the changes that will occur? Is this amount of population growth sustainable? How do we know how much is too much and how much is just right?

We are now into the sixth year of the first phase of a zoning update that the city council was told would take one year, and a second phase to follow and be completed the following year.

It is urgently important to update our zoning codes and our master plan. The master plan outlines the goals of the community and zoning ordinances help to ensure those goals will be met when development occurs.

Our zoning codes should be clear and consistent, not open to interpretation depending on who the developer happens to be. And while zoning codes are here to ensure the goals of a community are met, they should also set a clear path for how development and developers projects are allowed to move forward. A process that allows development that meets our goals, while not adding unnecessary costs or delays for developers working to meet the needs of the community.

With development comes new costs. How do we ensure that new costs don’t exceed new revenues? How do we ensure that if and when special tax districts are created or tax abatements are granted to developers, the benefit isn’t one sided? How do we balance development that meets the needs of the city while keeping our city affordable for those living here and wanting to live here?

These are just a few of the issues we will have to contend with regardless of who the mayor is, who your city councilors are or who sits on city boards.

There is a difference between twenty twenty hindsight and missed opportunities. Hindsight is when you didn’t understand or anticipate what would occur until after it happened. A missed opportunity is just that. Knowing what the outcome will be but deciding to forego it.

When opportunities present themselves and have been carefully analyzed to determine if they meet our needs and they are affordable, we should find ways to take advantage of them.

What's Next

Concord is changing. Plans to modify an interstate that divides our city. New trails that hope to bring us together. More housing and more people. Protecting the character and history of our city. Providing the services we need and want while always remembering who is paying for them.

We should put to rest the question of who or what is Concord. Concord is the state’s capitol. We are a city that recently celebrated our 250th year and as a community we were here many years before that.

We are a city of neighborhoods each with their own character and a city of people from many different backgrounds, economic and educational levels. We are a city that strives to always be better. We aren’t perfect and we never will be. But recognizing this makes us all better.

Concord has a rich history and a special character. As we move forward let’s be sure we preserve and respect our history. Let’s remember we are who we are because of those who were here before us. And let’s work to ensure that those who come after us, will find what we left behind is also worthy of preserving.