Voting Wards Taking Shape

City officials continued looking at the 2010 Census population shifts, mapping out new voting wards for the city of Concord.

The group, which has held a number of meetings in the last two months, first eyed a nine ward configuration on Aug. 1, that was put together by planning officials in order to try and fit all the Merrimack Valley School District students into one ward. In previous meetings, School Board President Kass Ardinger and others had mentioned the difficulty of having the MVSD students spread throughout two wards.

The nine ward plan would have increased the population per ward to a little less than 5,000 people, according to Assistant City Planner Steve Henninger.

After noodling with the data using a computer program, Henninger said he was still not able to fit all of the students into one ward, due to the limited amount of information from the Census and the school district lines which were drawn based on farmland, parcels which now are filled with houses.

“There would still be overlap, because of the way the blocks are drawn,” he said.

Henninger also experimented with a seven ward configuration, which was suggested by At-Large City Councilor Steve Shurtleff last week. With that configuration, about 6,100 people would be in each ward. However, Henninger said the seven ward plan “substantially changed” the look of the wards and representation. He said wards would also be split by the river in many locations, whereas the new plans had tried to build boundaries based on the two halves of the city.

“We can look at that but it will be a major difference from what we have today,” he said.

Ardinger noted that a change to seven or nine wards would affect the Concord School District Charter Commission proposal that is going to the voters in November that would change school board member elections from all at-large to a combination of at-large and district representation.

Mayor Jim Bouley said staying with 10 ward configuration was probably the best option because it would not require great changes to the boundaries and it wouldn’t affect the school board proposal.

Committee members then spent about 45 minutes moving Census blocks in and out of various wards, in an effort to find some compromise and synergy between neighborhoods, streets, and polling locations.

Most of the latest changes proposed shifting some of the areas of Ward 4, 5, and 6, around. The changes moved the Green Street Community Center – the current Ward 5 polling location – into Ward 4. Members debated where the Ward 5 polling location could be placed. One idea, Dewey School, where the Concord School District office now resides, was considered and later rejected. Other locations, like the many nursing homes along Pleasant Street or Concord High School, were also discussed. Later, the Census blocks around the new McAuliffe Elementary School, which is expected to open in the Fall of 2012, were put into Ward 5.

Since the voting ward changes go into effect immediately upon approval this November, a polling location for Ward 5 would need to be secured for the 2012 presidential primary and any special election that might need to occur. For the Congressional or legislative primaries and final 2012 election cycle, the McAuliffe could be used, assuming construction is completed.

Another major change was moving the area west of South Fruit Street, between Clinton Street and Redington Road, including the apartment buildings on the southern side of Pleasant Street, out of Ward 5 and into Ward 6.

The committee also had planning officials move Census blocks in Ward 2 and 3 in an effort to find synergy in the placement of the poll locations. According to Bouley, a number of Ward 3 residents have complained in the past that they drive right by a closer polling location – the Ward 2 polling location, at the West Concord Congregational Church on Hutchins Street. Ward 3 residents vote at the Beaver Meadow Gold Course, many city blocks north of the church. Henninger attempted to create a Ward 2 area configuration that would use the Beaver Meadow Golf Course and Ward 3 would switch to the church. However, after attempting a number of moves, the effort was abandoned due to the major shifts in populations between the wards.

The Redistricting Committee will meet again at 5:30 p.m. on Aug. 8 and the Concord City Council will hold its first public hearing on the issue during its meeting, which starts at 7 p.m.