Three candidates for Wilton Select Board weighed in on town growth, the need for a new highway garage and whether or not the town should switch to ballot voting for all issues during the annual Candidates’ Night on Tuesday.
The forum, hosted by the Wilton Lions Club, via Zoom, hosted 11 candidates for various positions, including all three candidates for Select Board: incumbent Kelly-Sue Boissonnault, former Selectman Bill Condra and current Budget Committee member and town Treasurer D.J. Garcia.
Boissonnault, who is the first woman elected to the board, said she has been very involved as representative of the board to various committees, including the Budget Committee, the town’s dispatch system and Wilton Ambulance, the Highway Department Building Committee and Public Safety Advisory Committee.
She said she hadn’t accomplished everything she wanted yet.
“All of these different things I have my hands in, and I don’t feel I’ve given my full share of input in making things move forward,” Boissonnault said.
Garcia, who owns the Wilton House of Pizza, and also redeveloped 15 Main St. as office space for four small businesses, has a degree in finance and said he would be an advocate for small businesses in town. His aims would be to create a welcoming environment for businesses and increasing community engagement.
“I care more about small businesses in town than any of my opponents,” Garcia said.
Condra is attempting to return to town politics after stepping away from municipal leadership in 2017. He has served as the town building inspector, one term as a water commissioner and has 10 years of experience on the Select Board, as well as a term as a member of the State House of Representatives representing District 4, which includes Wilton.
Condra said his main issue was a matter on the ballot this year – whether the town should maintain Town Meeting, or switch to Senate Bill 2, or SB2-style voting, where all issues appear on the ballot at the polls. Condra said he saw SB2 as a system that works best in larger towns or cities.
“I think for our town, that would be a mistake. I would really like to preserve Wilton’s Town Meeting form of government,” Condra said.
Garcia agreed, saying SB2 lacks a sense of community provided by the Town Meeting system.
Boissonnault brought the issue forward to be included in the warrant, and said it was due to requests from community members. She did not take a side in whether she supported it or not, and said she would abstain from voting on the issue, noting the important thing was to allow the voters to decide and have their say.
“I’m the voice of the people. It doesn’t hurt to hear other opinions,” Boissonnault said.
On the matter of the highway garage, for which the town is conducting a needs assessment in hopes of eventual replacement, all three candidates shared the stance that a replacement was needed. Boissonnault felt confident the town could bring forward a warrant article to replace the building as soon as 2023, though Garcia said financially, he doubted such a quick turnaround would be possible.
When asked about growing the tax base, and how to balance that with Wilton’s rural character, Garcia and Condra pointed to the Route 101 corridor as a place ripe for business growth, without impacting the town’s charms.
“I think Wilton could accept a substantial increase in business,” Condra said.
Garcia noted that while the area is zoned for business, it has not seen a lot of development, and said the town needed to look at its zoning or other ways to stimulate that zone.
“While it is zoned for business, it seems to be stagnating for some reason,” Garcia said. “There’s something that’s limiting it, I would like to find out what that is.”
Boissonnault said tax increases are a high concern, and that it was very hard to balance the issue of increasing commercial uses with retaining small-town charm. She said another issue for the town was the need for more young families, noting the cost per-student in Wilton was high, and the school could probably accommodate more children without significant class size increases.
Darlene Anzalone is the sole candidate for an at-large position on the Wilton-Lyndeborough School Board, and said her top issue is to see less technology and a return to more worksheets and physical textbooks, saying doing so would give more access to parents to see what their children are learning.
When asked, Anzalone said she had attended a training on local campaigning from the 603 Alliance, which on its webpage calls itself a conservative group with the goal of “restor[ing] Constitutional principles at all levels of our government” in New Hampshire.
Anzalone, who is currently a member of the district’s Budget Committee, was also asked about her stance on “divisive concepts” and whether teachers should have the freedom to choose their curriculum. She said she agreed with the stance that schools should not teach superiority of one race over the other, or frame any race as an “oppressor.”
“It’s not a matter of I don’t think our history needs to be taught,” Anzalone said. “The concern, I think comes down to for a lot of people, is that we don’t want want it to turn into where educators are basically pushing their personal beliefs on people. Parents want to preserve that right.”
Anzalone added that she didn’t think teachers should have to worry about being censored, and while she would strive to ensure curriculum around issues such as sex education were “age-appropriate,” she had also never had an issue with the curriculum as it has been taught to her children in the local schools.
Cynthia Diane Foss was the only other candidate in a contested race who attended. She and Patricia A. Anderson, who did not attend or submit a statement to be read, are running for supervisor of the checklist. Foss said it is more important than ever that people have faith in the security of their elections, and said she was an honest critical thinker, who could work with her team of supervisors to provide that security.
“I would take this position very seriously,” Foss said.
A full taping of the Candidates’ Night, as well as candidate profiles, is available on the Wilton town website at wiltonnh.gov.
Ashley Saari can be reached at 603-924-7172 ext. 244 or asaari@ledgertranscript.com. She’s on Twitter @AshleySaariMLT.