Rochester is a city in transition. Even its geographic location is transitional. Located midway between the tourist-friendly Seacoast and the Lakes Region, Rochester is caught between its agricultural and blue-collar heritage and the continued growth and urbanization of the rest of the area.

What remains constant is the particular fierceness with which Rochester residents embrace local politics. Though one of the more populous cities in the Seacoast, at 29,760 residents, politics are still extremely local, and the one thing this year’s crop of mayoral and City Council candidates all seem to agree on is that the folks in Rochester take very seriously how the town is run. The campaigns in Dover and Portsmouth seem like particularly restrained affairs compared to Rochester, where a minor flap has erupted over incumbent Mayor David Walker’s charges that the Police Union may have been involved in some dirty campaign tricks against him. Walker also faces competition from two other candidates: current City Councilor John Larochelle and Omer Oulette, a former city councilor and state represtentative.

It’s not just political struggles facing the Lilac City. Rochester is facing serious issues about growth and development. For the most part, the city escaped the surge in development and downtown revitalization efforts that changed the face of Portsmouth and Dover in the last decade. That’s changing, though, as more and more people move into the area, attracted by the low cost of housing, and the city looks at ways to increase its tax base. And as Rochester continues to grow, city officials are looking at ways to best embrace its future while preserving the heritage and characteristics that make it still feel authentic.
There are plenty of vacant buildings in downtown Rochester, something that’s impossible to find in Dover and Portsmouth. And almost everyone agrees that, with a few exceptions such as the Opera House, Artstream art gallery and studio, and Slim’s Tex Mex, downtown has very few destinations to draw in the crowds. 

One solution to that problem is the city’s proposed Riverwalk, an effort to develop the area around the Cochecho River where it flows through the city. But opinions among this year’s crop of candidates on how develop the Riverwalk are divided. Some want to see a partnership between the city and private industry to rejuvenate the area, while others would prefer private developers bear full responsibility for the project. Possible development ideas include turning the area into a pedestrian walkway, complete with new sidewalks and a footbridge, accompanied by a smattering of retail shops and restaurants, or a private boat slip for companies to give canoe tours of the river. There’s also talk of making Rochester more attractive to the artists and restaurants that have made Portsmouth and Dover so popular.
Other plans call for figuring out ways to bring, and keep, businesses in the downtown, which has been plagued with struggling businesses and absentee building owners. Some candidates want to see an increased variety in the city’s restaurant landscape, which they say, apart from a few exceptions, is filled to capacity with pizza joints and Chinese restaurants.

Having a vibrant downtown is only part of the strategy to bring more people to Rochester. Many of the candidates want to see more large businesses roll into town, as a way to bring in more jobs and more tax dollars. Others want to see the residential growth of the town more carefully managed, city roadways improved and open spaces preserved. To top it off, city manager Bob Steele is retiring this year, and it will be up to Steele and the council to find a new manager to steer Rochester into the future. 

MAYORAL RACE

John Larochelle

Age: 58

Occupation: retired/self-employed consultant

How long have you lived in Rochester? I was born and raised in Rochester and moved back in 2001.

What will you look for in hiring a city manager? Definitely management skills. The ability to get things done through people, the ability to generate a clear vision and communicate that vision to others. Obviously, he’d be working to generate that vision with us, the City Council. I’ve been a manager …(and I’m looking for is) the ability to delegate effectively, the ability to correct people when they get off course in a way that keeps them on board, the ability to build a team, generate enthusiasm and to provide all the people that report to him what they need to do their job. A good manager knows those things and would look for that kind of approach. Someone who can be firm but be people-oriented. … A good manager doesn’t go after people; a good manager looks for what’s wrong in the system … what is the barrier to that individual’s performance rather than judging the individual. If you’re working with a good manager, you don’t feel like you’re being judged, you feel like you’re being supported in abilities.

How should Rochester manage growth, downtown and elsewhere? I think I’d like to see the downtown really fixed up and made to look attractive. I think the downtown is the face of our city and if the face doesn’t look attractive, it’s not going to attract small businesses, it’s not going to attract large businesses, it’s not going to attract quality people who want to live here. I look forward to the thinking of people like CORE. I support CORE in their activities. We need to do all we can to spruce up downtown so it has a nice face so when people come in.

When I grew up here, had kind of a (Norman) Rockwell quality to it. I don’t know if you can go back to that … and now it really has eroded some. I support efforts by the private sector and anything we can do in the public sector to encourage (renewal).

I look at Dover, I look at Portsmouth and what’s been done there, there’s a model that we can look at that’s successful, and we ought to learn what Dover and Portsmouth have done, learn what their differences in implementing it and their successes … We don’t have to reinvent the wheel … I am an advocate of going out and seeing what other people have done and not having to  reinvent the wheel. I’d love for Rochester to undergo revival. I’d like Rochester be that kind of place, where people come to get a coffee, wander around and go to stores, go to the Opera House, and generally feel it’s a nice place to walk around…. You can’t go back to the old downtown … but you can bring it back as a place for people to walk and enjoy themselves and I think that will attract people, businesses large or small, who will see that face is growth and we have things under control and we’re building things up. To have Rochester look like it’s not growing, that is stagnation and that’s not good.

What do you want to see included in Rochester’s cultural plan? How would you implement it? I would defer to the experts on that. I’m not an expert on the cultural plan. My basic style of management is not to believe I have all the answers or even most of the answers. My role is one of organizing and empowering people, using process to achieve best decisions, using other people that have more knowledge other than I.

I feel that CORE is doing a good job and I have stood back watching what they do and try to be supportive of their effort.

What role should the city take in how the Riverwalk is developed? I’d like to see a partnership between the city and the private sector. If we could get the private sector to do the whole thing and save taxes, that would be great. Having a nice downtown will bring businesses to the community; it will bring professionals and people with useful skills to Rochester.

How serious is crime in Rochester? How will you reduce it? It’s not the town I grew up in. I’m a strong supporter of the safety services. We need to support our firefighters and our police. Let me just say that my way of dealing with crime is to work well in supporting the police and the police commission in their duties…. Part of the problem … is a lack of harmony between the City Council and police and police commission and I find that very disturbing and think we ought to be working well together. As mayor, I would try to build bridges with the Council … so we can work together effectively to put in the best programs we can to control crime. I also want to build a city that doesn’t attract the criminal element, a city that’s growing, vibrant and one that’s tough on crime and not on people and discourages the criminal element from moving here. (The police union has officially endorsed me). I’m very concerned about the high rate of turnover (on the police force). I’d like to do whatever we can to attract and retain police officers. That’s a real key to stability in the community and dealing with crime.

What are Rochester’s strengths? One of the strengths is its location. I think it’s a beautiful community. It’s got the Spaulding Turnpike…. I think it’s a nice place to live, I think it has a great education system.

What needs to be changed? I’d like to see this city come to together with the community … see treating each other with respect. The Council working, doing its job on TV, but I would like us to come together as a community where we treat each other with respect … the City Council would talk to school board, the City Council would talk to the police commission, the bodies would meet so we’re all working together on a clear vision where we want Rochester to go, breaking down the areas between bodies, avoiding ego-type opinions. Basically, try to get rid of the “us versus them” concept and bring people (together). We are all Rochester and we should all be working together in a respectful way with each other and with the employees of Rochester. Because sometimes city officials can be critical of some of our public employees and they do it in a public forum, which I totally disagree with.

MAYORAL RACE

Omer Ouellette

Age: 60

Occupation: toll attendant

How long have you lived in Rochester? 48 years

What will you look for in hiring a city manager? I was part of the Council that hired the first city manager this city had … and we had some disagreements when I was on Council, he was a very good manager, told us things that need to be done, … other than that, as far as hiring a city manager, I’m the wrong one to ask because I don’t believe we need a city manager form of government, when it was put in here back 20 years ago, only 14 percent of voters voted in a non-election year and only 9 percent voted for it, which was a very small amount of personnel registered; more people have registered over the last few years, and there are more people registered now .

I believe that we need a mayor-council form of government. The council I was part of put a mayoral veto in the charter, we also put in Council override over the mayor veto, and shortened the terms of four years overlapping to every two years where everyone gets elected at the same time. I’d rather see a mayor form of government, but I don’t want a mayor form of government where a person comes in to be mayor as his life’s work. Maybe the mayor gets paid a salary of $25,000 a year as a token, (he or she) should be a public servant that serves good of people at their will, earning a set wage that would pay for their time. $25,000 is a lot more than average median wage in Rochester. The mayor would have veto power over all departments, and the mayor himself could only get a raise in presidential election year, which would be only 2 percent and voted on people, that way you got somebody that’s going to follow the will of the people.

How should Rochester manage growth, downtown and elsewhere? I’m all for development, but it’s not being developed the way it was intended originally. Somersworth, they’ve got all kinds of development, it looks like a strip mall coming into Boston on Route 1, everything’s on the highway and all kinds of big box places. If all of the towns develop like Somersworth did, I don’t think it’s going to be very attractive to tourists per se. My other concern is they’re talking about building a bridge from Maine to Wakefield; considering the state of development in the rest of the Exit 12 area, we should have put a road up the railroad bed. I think development could have been done a lot more … I’m not one of these eco nuts, but it could’ve been done much nicer, cleaner and neater looking, but still give people the big boxes, things they want.

For the downtown, there’s been studies done repeatedly five and 10 years on how to revitalize heart of our town. When I was on Council 12 years ago, their idea was to abandon downtown back then. Some of these same people talking about developing downtown would have abandoned it 12 years ago.

After that ’81 study and article written in the Rochester Courier, the Green administration did renovate downtown, they redid the whole town, put in those fancy antique lanterns … facades, extensive work, that was just two decades ago, pointed out in meeting the other night, the Chamber of Commerce listing of Businesses in town in ’81, there are not ten businesses still there that were there then, so that with a combo of them having abandon downtown and taking everything out of it, it surprises me way they’re talking about trying to develop it. I don’t believe we need a Riverwalk, at least at this time. It’s not something that’s going to attract people here. What every study says is we need parking

I had talked about building a garage behind city hall at the time back then, and I still think we could do that do where the municipal parking is now.

I do believe there’s federal money and stuff for … innovative downtown work. We could have traffic in downtown come as far as Portland Street … and hang a right and go over to Columbus Avenue and come around behind city hall and that would be main road and turn downtown into a walking mall kind of area … a walkway and a mall area, with benches. It could be very nice, that kind of development might get people in. I don’t think building a Riverwalk is going to attract people here. Maybe find some businessmen (to develop) a section to make a boat launch and let people have canoe and rowboat rides around there … that might bring people into town. There’s a lot of little things you can do.

What do you want to see included in Rochester’s cultural plan? How would you implement it?  I’m not real familiar with it, I’ve been to some plays in my time but I’m not into it that much. Some people like sports … my wife and I what we do is watch TV and do things ourselves. I’ve got nothing against the Opera House, but it’s not what I foresaw as development for it, but if I want to see a play I’ll go to Boston, or Portsmouth … but the people are enjoying that, so I guess it’s okay. I saw better use of that when it was being developed … I did want to see it preserved for historical significance. This year is first year is the first year in the black, so maybe it will get better, I’m sorry we lost use of the Opera House as city type use, the way that the floor rises would have been excellent place for Council meetings or floor meetings … I’m not sure what people really want here, how many of them want that type of development I don’t know. If there’s enough (interest) that place will thrive and start to make money.

What role should the city take in how the Riverwalk is developed? I don’t think the river is enough of a river to merit a Riverwalk. It is now, because we have had some flooding (laughs). I don’t think we need a Riverwalk. I could see city asking if there’s some businesses want to develop a couple spots … they could maybe change some zoning to let some small business build a little boathouse and put in a bunch of canoes there … a footbridge … I think that would attract people.

Let businesses come in and develop it for, say, a minimal rent of the area, as long as the businesses try and do that on his own, that’s fine with me. I think the city should encourage businesses to do those things. If people want to see a scenic view, they’re going to want to go to Portsmouth … even Dover, not going through with all of their ideas (for their Riverwalk). And Dover has a much more scenic view, really.

How serious is crime in Rochester? How will you reduce it? Rochester’s a growing city, it’s always had crime, there may be a little more or little less now because of growth rates. We have an excellent police force … quite a lot more police officers than 12 years ago, who I think are doing excellent work and I think if we continue in the vein we’ve been going, that should be doing much to reduce it already.

What are Rochester’s strengths?

Mostly it’s people. We’ve got people that, if you look at our background, are pretty political here in Rochester, there’s a couple groups … then groups like myself that are total independents. We’ve always been a political city … that’s our biggest strength. Our people partake, our people invest in the city, our people are interested in our city and it’s shown by just ordinary citizens like myself, we do take an interest. It doesn’t mean we’re always active in things, but it doesn’t mean we’re not paying attention and watching.

We do get apathetic from time to time, especially about political issues …

What needs to be changed?

We need to go back to strong mayor-Council form of government, with a line-item veto to put power back in hands of people. That doesn’t mean the mayor would be the one that does all the budgets … I think need a business manager to do the budget for all the departments, I talked about that years ago for consolidating all the departments … very different under the charter, the way they’ve separated some of the departments. You have departments and commissions and these groups of things like conservation and things there where they’re buying land… it should be just the opposite, people should know the main body of government is at city hall and it runs this city and if they don’t like the way it’s running, they can throw them out when it’s time for election. The people you want to have in control should be in city hall, it should be the Councilors and the mayor, they should be ones.

(We need) one seat of control in the government and that’s what wrong with our politics … there is no centralized controls, it’s each department trying to control their own and tell the others what (to do).

MAYORAL RACE

David Walker (incumbent)

Age: 42

Occupation: engineer with Pratt & Whitney

How long have you lived in Rochester? 15 years

What will you look for in hiring a city manager? A person with good people skills, a person with a little engineering background, a person with a finance background and a strong economic development background.

How should Rochester manage growth, downtown and elsewhere? I think we already took the first step in getting the Riverwalk, we started to revitalize downtown. We’re working hard on economic development activities to attract more businesses to Rochester …we have to shift the burden from residential properties … to more toward commercial (properties). We need to control residential growth. It’s growing a little faster than we can handle at the moment.

What do you want to see included in Rochester’s cultural plan? How would you implement it? There’s a separate committee working on that, but I think the Opera House has to be a cornerstone of that. Artstream is a good start on that as well. (I’d like to see) some more studios, maybe some artist’s lofts….

What role should the city take in developing the Riverwalk? I think it has to be a public private mix. We can’t use taxpayer money to fund the Riverwalk. I want local businesses to step up and help make this thing happen and make it work, because it’s to their benefit, as well as the city’s benefit …  to make the project work. Rochester has a strong volunteerism and I think businesses would be more than happy to step forward and part in that project.

How serious is crime in Rochester? How will you reduce it? We have the same kind of crime issues as other cities in New Hampshire. I think (we could pay) more attention to law enforcement, as far as staffing levels and programs, but you have to balance that with the ability to fund them. It’s a balancing act, but I do think we have to take a hard look at the police department and make sure staffing levels are where they’re supposed to be for a city our size.

What are Rochester’s strengths? The strengths are we have a lot of available land. You don’t find that to our neighbors to the south. We have a lot of developable land and we have the workforce that can supply the labor. We are very scenic city, we have a large expanse of the Cochecho River that runs through our city that’s under development that we can take advantage of.

What needs to be changed? I’ve been professing all along that I think we need to continue looking at government and streamline and … be more efficient.

WARD 2, SEAT B

Sandra Keans

Age: 63

Occupation: state representative

How long have you lived in Rochester? lifetime resident

What will you look for in hiring a city manager? I certainly think you want one that has the educational background, but that’s kind of a regular thing. A guy who shows the experience of dealing in a community with a variety of issues … whether it be water or sewer issues, waste collection. It’s hard to transfer a guy from a community of 800 who might be nicest guy in world, but have to face some issues in a city are different … a guy that has a reputation for being straightforward, upfront and honest.

How should Rochester manage growth, downtown and elsewhere? For Rochester, we need to not manage it, we need to get some growth in downtown … We need to go out and solicit work on getting some unique, kind of unusual shops to come to Rochester, something you don’t find on every street corner and something you don’t find in the malls. I think we probably need to also look at a couple different varieties of restaurants. We are a little overloaded on pizza shops and Asian varieties. Between Thai and Chinese, some different variety would be good, because I think that draws people down … having a restaurant next door is not a negative, it’s a positive. Elsewhere, I think we we’re working on a complete rezoning and think we’re coming along quite good on that. We’ve done some things in the past to protect wetlands over and above state requirements … and I think that’s the direction we’re going and we’re making sure the natural resources are protected and in that respect, you find the kinds of companies that come to town that you want coming because they believe in those as well. I’m not into any more big boxes like the Wal-mart scenario that just want to pave over whole community. I also believe we ought to be soliciting small companies … that produce widgets in variety, having 50-100 employees. It’s better to have 10 companies with 50 employees than one company with 1,000 employees. We experienced that with Cabletron….

What do you want to see included in Rochester’s cultural plan? How would you implement it? I think we need to continue to focus on the Opera House. I think Arts Rochester is doing a nice job, and I think the downtown studio is doing a nice job. What I do think we need a bigger variety of performances. I still think there’s part of the folks that we’re not hitting. I suspect we need a little more country western, a little more Canadian type things. I don’t think we focus on that. Everybody loves Shakespeare now and then, everybody loves pop … but we have a large French heritage here and think we ought to bring more of those people into the Opera House.

What role should the city take in developing the Riverwalk? I think we need to be absolutely 100 percent supportive of that. Clearly, we need to go seek out some funds and Judd Gregg has been very nice about supporting the ones in Dover and in Portsmouth … and I think we need to do that as well, but I believe the city has to be 100 percent behind the Riverwalk. It’s just good for our people, if it doesn’t bring people downtown, it doesn’t matter, it’s just good four our people here.

How serious is crime in Rochester? How will you reduce it? I am not sure we have a high crime rate in Rochester. I’ve never seen any particular evidence of that, I know the statistics of nationwide and statewide (crime) are dropping … but I don’t think the average crime rate in Rochester is any higher than anywhere else. I do know we have some new equipment, so we’re doing a great job of reporting it now. I don’t think the real numbers are there.

What are Rochester’s strengths?

We have a great community, in terms of volunteerism, we have so many volunteers and they cover a variety of areas, in arts, very heavily in sports area … I think the community involvement, on a variety of levels, is probably our best feature. We have, because of the slowdown at GE and couple of other areas … we have a very highly skilled workforce, so I think those are our two best features.

What needs to be changed? We clearly need to increase our commercial base. We need to do that, because of the way the federal government is cutting back on their funding that goes to local levels, because of revenue sharing and the cost of schools. We have a very large school population, about 5,000 kids, it’s one of the highest in the state in numbers. We clearly need to increase our commercial and industrial base to offset some of those costs.

WARD 2, SEAT B

James McManus

Age: 60

Occupation: owner of Rochester Stove Co.

How long have you lived in Rochester? lifetime resident

What will you look for in hiring a city manager? When we get narrowed down to the final seven or 12 or final three, I’d like to do the background check, see if he’s been a city manager in a place for only two or three years. I’m looking for where he’s been, longevity. I want to go into local community, check out his background…. He should have good writing skills. To me, a good city manager should have good counting skills, maybe an engineering background if possible. He can’t get buffaloed. Good management skills, good people skills. You have to be the ambassador. You’re the city manager, but you’re also ambassador for the city.

How should Rochester manage growth, downtown and elsewhere? In our downtown, our downtown core, it’s a little dilapidated, it’s a hit and miss thing going on right now. (The) problem we have in Rochester and can’t do much about it, there’s a lot of people who own buildings downtown, they’re just looking at dollar signs. Hopefully some of the (building) owners will sit down with economic development person and the new city manager and see if we can’t all work together. We’ve fixed up a few facades. We have applied twice and missed out on the Main Street program—with that, you get some federal money, state and local money, you hire a manger for downtown and they recruit different types of businesses to come in. We have a lot of people that live downtown in the mills, apartments.

What do you want to see included in Rochester’s cultural plan? How would you implement it? Cultural to me means like the Opera House, bringing some arts into the town. I think we already started that. We need a little more restaurants downtown to bring people to the Opera House and we need to build around the Opera House to bring some of that cultural stuff. We also need parking downtown, for the businesses and also for the Opera House and stuff. The Opera House started off very good, that’s going to bring in a lot of people, but now people don’t seem to have much fire.

What role should the city take in developing the Riverwalk? I think the city should take an aggressive role in the Riverwalk. That helps our culture, brings people downtown, make us have some nightlife downtown … possible new restaurants. That doesn’t mean a big Applebee’s and (those things), but places you can go in with your wife, sit down and have a nice quaint dinner. The city needs to watch it but at same time we don’t need to hold up the traffic. Some people suggested pedestrian mall, but … where we have the river situated, we can’t have any more bridges go across that river. We’ve got to make sure we don’t hurt the traffic that comes down because we need the traffic that comes down (there).

How serious is crime in Rochester? How will you reduce it? I think crime in Rochester is on the increase. Compared to Dover, Rochester a little more affordable than the (surrounding) communities, so we’re attracting a different type of people. (We need) more visibility of police in certain sections of the town, and have the police take more active roles in some of the neighborhoods.

What are Rochester’s strengths?

Rochester’s strength is we have a lot of infrastructure in the ground, we have a good workforce here, so if somebody wants to come into the city, I think we could supply them … we have a good workforce and dedicated people.

What needs to be changed?

A parking garage, adequate parking, we need adequate traffic to move the people and also we need a possible parking garage, and of course everyone wants a GE, a Westinghouse … of course we all want more industry, but we probably eventually could get that. We have workers, we just need somebody to come here.

WARD 1, SEAT B

Dana Hussey

Age: 56

Occupation: school bus driver, as well as finance officer for Rochester VFW

How long have you lived in Rochester? three years

What will you look for in hiring a city manager? I was hoping they could keep the one they have. I’d be looking for someone with his background, with a financial background that really understands what we’re looking for to make the city expand, which is to bring in more businesses to create a broader tax base. What we need to do is get more businesses here, to get more people to work here…. Also we need more restaurants, and we need someone with the expertise to address that.

How should Rochester manage growth, downtown and elsewhere? One of things I’ve noticed over the years is that frequently, the city goes into projects or they let people start projects but they don’t finish and what they end up with is a hole in the ground. … Now they’re starting to go address some of that; we need to use those spots, spots that have…trees have been gone and have been under construction for so many years, use those areas first, get something to attract people to downtown …we have seven or eight vacant stores in the downtown area and that needs to be addressed. It’s a good first step that the Ramada finally got approved, I know that was a hard thing for them to get approved … the Route 11 corridor I think is very key, I think it’s been ignored for far too long and I think we need to attract people there and the Route 125 area also.

What do you want to see included in Rochester’s cultural plan? How would you implement it? They have a good arts and entertainment plan at the moment, they’ve done a lot with the Opera House, so I’m not really sure how to add to what they’re doing. I think they have made good progress if they could just expand on that.

What role should the city have in how the Riverwalk is developed? I think it’s very important that it be done in such a way, of course, I’m sure it’s going to be attractive and beautiful and going to entice people to use it and live near it; people are going want to be in downtown area because it’s the place to be. If people are downtown more often, they’re going to see the stuff they’re missing by not being downtown. … I think city needs to have a role to make sure it melds with the rest (of the city)… I haven’t seen the 10-year plan … I think all that has to go together so that overall that’s going to work together, they can’t just go off on their own.

How serious is crime in Rochester? How will you reduce it? I don’t think the crime rate is as serious; it’s serious, but not as bad as most cities our size. I know they’re talking about reducing patrols, but I don’t think that’s necessarily the answer. I think maybe we need to talk more about other ways of patrolling, whether it be bicycles or motorcycles, something cheaper to run. I don’t believe reducing patrols is the answer unless it’s daytime, but maybe step up night-time patrols

What are Rochester’s strengths? It’s a very affordable city to live in, for example, frequently, I’ve talked to families that have moved here that did live in Massachusetts but they come here because the houses are half as expensive … people still want to work in Massachusetts but live here. I think people that want to live here and work here; to do that you need to attract more businesses to the city. We need people that want to live here, work here and raise family here.

What needs to be changed? We need to attract more bigger businesses, more jobs within the city, because a lot of people that live in the city now work outside the city. We have a few nice restaurants in the city, but a lot of people travel to Portsmouth or Dover if they want something different. We need to give them something different so they can eat here, shop here, live here and raise their kids here.

WARD 1, SEAT B
Fred Leonard

Declined to participate

WARD 1, SEAT B

Kevin Schultz

Age: 34

Occupation: realtor

How long have you lived in Rochester? seven years

What will you look for in hiring a city manager? A fiscally conservative manager, who has a strong background with managing either a large business or a multitude of departments. We need to get somebody in there who knows what they’re doing across all departments, that can balance budgets and institute some price cuts.

How should Rochester manage growth, downtown and elsewhere? I think we should consult an outside consultant for that, period. We can shoot numbers around and ideas, but until we hire a professional to give us a report on the cost of services that we provide people…. Obviously, we need more business in Rochester to hopefully, in the end, alleviate some of the tax burden residents are having now. I’d like to see a professional service give us some facts and figures on that before we go ahead and start instituting stuff just because we think so.

What do you want to see included in Rochester’s cultural plan? How would you implement it? Right now we have the Opera House, there is more of a push through CORE to try and bring about some more artists and maybe a small arts district or something like that. I’d like to see more support for cultural foods, compared to the basic Chinese food and pizza joints around town. We have a couple Thai restaurants in town that are excellent and I actually would enjoy seeing more resident support, more choice on food really, as well. The Opera House is there, that’s good, we’re really starting to try and get this art venue pushed through (member of CORE), some more choices in fine dining establishments would be nice.

What role should the city take in developing the Riverwalk? It should play a role if we’re looking at percentages. That comes down to how much funds they’re willing to allocate towards the Riverwalk. There need to be negotiations with CORE and the City Council about who’s going to have the final say and who’s running the project. CORE is running the project and the city is on board, so there’s kind of a flux on who’s having the final say. They should have an influence on it. Hopefully they’ll continue to fund it a little bit; raising funds privately, so it’s not 100 percent a town project. That needs to be negotiated out.

How serious is crime in Rochester? How will you reduce it? I think crime is serious. I don’t have the latest figures. I’ve spoken to some of my constituents and they have seen what appears to be an increase in crime, at least what’s reported in the papers, there have been more violent crimes it seems like. There’s a multitude of ways we can approach that, whether it’s a larger police force, whether it’s more patrolling, more downtown visibility of the police force on bicycles or motorcycles or what have you.

What are Rochester’s strengths?

We have a strong school system with an extremely strong athletic program, both in schools and through the Recreation Center … which offers people a lot of opportunity for children to participate in all types of sports. I’ve never been in a city that offers so much for children.

What needs to be changed? We need to seriously look at the spending, the budget. Our taxes have skyrocketed over last couple years, they’re going up again and that’s going to hurt the city. Spending needs to be changed and property taxes need to come down.

WARD 1, SEAT B

Jeff Winders

Age: 44

Occupation: retired disabled vet       

How long have you lived in Rochester? lifetime resident, except military time

What will you look for in hiring a city manager? We need somebody with the utmost integrity and honesty, somebody who has a record of this in their past jobs. We need an experienced leader because we’re a small city now, not a town … somebody who’s open to all the lines of communication, but we have to remember, he is the one that will be running the city, not the City Council.

How should Rochester manage growth, downtown and elsewhere? It would be nice to just keep it alive, never mind growing it, because of vacant buildings. I believe CORE is moving forward in a positive manner in trying to get a consensus among the landowners here on moving forward with different things. One of things I think we should explore more is the TIF program. I’ve read about and heard about it; it can be a money loser, but it can also be a plus for the community. A TIF (tax increment financing) district, I think we should look into. (Land preservation) is being looked into by the conservation commission, which has been the driving force on Gagne Farm (easements). That’s my project there and everything should be closed by the end of the year. I’ve also been able to acquire another $1 million grant for another farm in town (which can’t be named because funding is pending). I think PUDs (planned unit districts) are a good idea, but they’ve approved them in the wrong locations, having them on the outskirts of town promotes sprawl. We’re being overrun by development. Even though I’m the land preservation person, I’m not against residential growth. We need to find a balance that works. What we need to do is have impact fees on developers, which will help us pay on the infrastructure that needs to be built. It’s not a cure-all, it’s a management tool that can be used.

What do you want to see included in Rochester’s cultural plan? How would you implement it? I’ve been to a few of the productions at the Opera House and I think they’ve done a wonderful job, they have a new director … so that’s moving forward nicely, because that’s one thing that can help downtown. We ourselves have gone out to dinner the night we’ve gone out to a show… I also like the programs they have for children. Another place that’s instrumental to cultural aspect is Artstream gallery and also Arts Rochester in the Gonic Mill. They’ve been able to expand what they do there, and my daughter goes there for jazz and voice lessons. I think they present a great opportunity there for people to explore. There’s talk of people saying, the downtown needs to have unique stores and stuff, to attract people to downtown. Well if that’s one of the things, if you have one art gallery that’s successful, you want to bring in other stores that encourage them or support each other, so that they’ll feed off each other. You want to foster a network of things. Are we capable of having that downtown? I don’t know. I’m not a business man, I don’t know what’s surviving or what’s not downtown, all I know is a lot doesn’t stay there.

What role should the city take in developing the Riverwalk? I am in favor of the Riverwalk, I’m on the board of Cochecho watershed coalition (looking at water quality monitoring, etc.). There’s great potential for a Riverwalk, but it can’t be looked at as a cure-all of what downtown suffers. It can be a part of making a more viable downtown, but there’s several other projects that need to happen with that that I feel will work in conjunction to make it happen. There’s an empty lot across the river. If building units there are done properly and of high enough quality, it can be an enhancement. What drives downtown is commerce. It’s your local people living within walking distance. There’s a proposed plan on this project. If it has a footbridge across the river, for example, so people can access downtown, so it becomes more of a community friendly thing, these things need to happen together or in an orderly fashion because then they’ll all work. If different things are like this separate, then they won’t work. I have a folder waiting to present to whoever’s ready to do this. We can get substantial money to help us, but there are lots of issues that have to face if we do the Riverwalk—it needs to be adequately lighted, there needs to be law enforcement, etc.

How serious is crime in Rochester? How will you reduce it? I don’t have the statistics from the police department, all I’ve heard is their calls are going up tremendously. Obviously we need to have a fully staffed police force, now I hear to save gas we’re doubling up patrols. I’m not against the police commission, I support our police, I have been bitten by crime once when somebody stole my canoe. I’ve heard response time is slow, and I’m sure that’s because we don’t have enough people on the streets. When I have an older couple tells me its 45 minutes from an accident when a police officer shows up, that’s kind of rough. I know Chief Dubois is doing the best he can with what he’s been given.

What are Rochester’s strengths?

Many of our residents have been here for a very long time, there’s a strong French Canadian aspect of our community, our elderly residents worked hard in the mills, the shoe shops that no longer exist. The school system is good, there’s always issues in school system, but I think  … from people I work with that I do, everybody has a positive outlook. Rochester is perceived as a good community.

What needs to be changed? We’re losing connection to our cultural history. We at one time, if you look at our seal, there’s a picture of hayfield with hay, another one is an active woolen mill; we have no mills and we have one dairy farm left in town. What’s represented on our seal is almost obsolete now. We’ve lost the connection to the land that was all our family farms and things like that, and then we’ve lost our industrial base, the people who worked up at Farmington, GE, the mills. It’s gone to a service based industry, which are not higher paying jobs. The jobs created by the malls they’re not high paying jobs, maybe the management. jobs. It would be nice … getting a high-tech company back in here, to replace Cabletron. Once the bridges (in Portsmouth) are done and the turnpike is expanded, that will speed up the transportation and hopefully that will bring us on par with Pease when it comes to competition. We have the old Flextronics building that could be put to use.

WARD 4, SEAT A

Bob Goldstein

Age: 58

Occupation: professional engineer, retired, work part time in retail store

How long have you lived in Rochester? 17 years

What will you look for in hiring a city manager? What I’m going to look for, experience, and his track record, qualities of leadership … the expectation that he can direct those under him in an orderly fashion and have expectations of them. And somebody who really appreciates and knows the history of the area, that will certainly be helpful.

How should Rochester manage growth, downtown and elsewhere? To manage growth is almost two approaches. One is residential growth, and we should be looking at what burden that puts on city, how is it going to affect city services and how they tax city services, where we are and where we’re going. Commercial growth is almost like, I’ll take almost anything because it definitely builds the tax base and provides jobs in the area. I’d like to see high-tech jobs, that would certainly be a boon to area … but everybody needs to work, even mothers who want to have part time jobs and children who want to work after school. Downtown, there’s a lot of things happening, the Riverwalk is certainly going to help bring people downtown. The Hanson Street project will make that a very visually aesthetic type thing. I don’t think anybody can compete with the Loews, Kohl’s, Wal-marts … what I think is the merchants have to have something interesting, different, family-orientated and tasty … this is the only place where we can get this product or enjoy this type of food. The other thing is, I think it’s time for the district court to look elsewhere. I don’t believe it enhances downtown particularly, in two fashions—the prisoners that come into the area during the day … and the parking spaces that are taken up by the various police departments that come into the area that park in the street and court officials.

What do you want to see included in Rochester’s cultural plan? How would you implement it? I believe the Opera House is the jewel in the crown of Rochester and the people that worked on that have done a fantastic job, so certainly maintain that … and maybe bring a little more diversity into the area. There’s an art studio on North Main street which I think is great, some of the dance studios around the area are quite good and help promote that and introduce young children into the arts. Basically if people want to bring more into the area, that certainly would suit me fine, I’d love to see that. Arts Rochester is doing a fantastic job in a broad scope, that’s just downtown in Gonic, and I definitely believe in promoting the arts. My wife is into that too.

What role should the city take in developing the Riverwalk? I think it should take a leadership role. It’s going to take a combination of a little bit of everybody. It will take some from the city, as far as little bit of funding, some from developers that commercially that will benefit from it, some from businesses and a lot of volunteer work. My special interest is the northern part of the walk because that’s more affiliated where I live … and I see that can be done by the public, existing walking paths now they just have to be cleaned up a little more, made a little more walkable, this could be volunteer type work to do that. Downtown, construction would have to come through the business community, CORE and the city.… A developer in Gagne Street, a footbridge over the river would definitely enhance that corridor. A combination of everybody pulling together to make this thing really great.

How serious is crime in Rochester? How will you reduce it? Any crime is a serious thing, particularly if you’re the recipient of it, so it doesn’t matter if there’s a lot or a little. Do we have crime? Absolutely, every city does. I couldn’t really answer that as magnitude relative to size of city. Some areas that do have a higher rate of crime than others and certainly we have to address this. Every little bit is serious.

What are Rochester’s strengths?

Rochester’s strength is it has very good people here. We are blue collar and all that means to me is we’re willing to roll up our sleeves and get our hands dirty and work together.… We have a tremendous amount of property in the area and the growth is coming up to Rochester, it’s gone beyond Portsmouth and through Dover into Rochester and is going beyond into Durham and Farmington as more and more people come moving up here from lower areas, and certainly that’s a strength, but again we have to manage it correctly so we don’t put ourselves in a bind.

What needs to be changed?

One of the things I guess, somebody wrote me an e-mail the other day, they’d like to see a little bit more volunteerism. That just means we have the potential and I think we have to look forward to the future, we can’t just look for what’s happening in the next minute but should look at the long term and certainly look at the growth.

WARD 4, SEAT A

Ray Lundborn

Age: 59

Occupation: realtor

How long have you lived in Rochester? 22 years

What will you look for in hiring a city manager? I’d like to have someone that works well with department heads and that is going to be a strong force in the city that communicates well with the public and works well with the mayor and Council. I’m not really looking for a referee.

How should Rochester manage growth, downtown and elsewhere? They have the Master Plan they’ve been working on. The downtown I believe, they have a lot of absentee owners in downtown buildings. We need to get them on board, it needs to be a cooperative effort, but we also have to watch what it actually costs the taxpayers and what the worth to taxpayer is versus what they’re spending. We are in a location that’s convenient to the oceans to the mountains and to Boston and we have open space available. We just need to be handle it well with the Master Plan, and I think it could work.

What do you want to see included in Rochester’s cultural plan? How would you implement it? I would like to see a cultural plan, I don’t know if one does exist or not. I think we have a traditional blue-collar city that’s becoming more of a bedroom community with people buying homes up here and commuting to Portsmouth and Boston. We have a diverse makeup and think we just need to get everybody to embrace that and bring the best out of all of us.

What role should the city take in developing the Riverwalk? The plan now is that, we’re going to use whatever land’s available to us. I don’t think the city ought to be buying any land, I don’t think city ought to be taking any land.… We should just work with what we have and between commercial, and the CORE group and the city, I think CORE would benefit from it, as well as local people that would be out for a nice walk. I just think we need to watch spending on that as well.

How serious is crime in Rochester? How will you reduce it? I don’t think crime in Rochester is any different than any other city in state, and I think the police force has a pretty good handle on that. When I get elected, I’ll look at the staffing and work with the police commission to listen to what their wants and needs are … and tweak whatever needs to be tweaked and add positions if we need to.

What are Rochester’s strengths?

Rochester’s strengths are the people. We have a good workforce, we have hardworking people, another strength in the city is our location.  It’s convenient to the mountains, the ocean and to Boston.

What needs to be changed?

I think overall we don’t need to change an awful lot. We need people to see that the city government can work cohesively with the city manager and departments heads and to have a very cohesive working government. I think that is the big thing. Our planning department has to be receptive to new businesses, to new thoughts. Rather than saying “no, that won’t work,” we need to say, “here’s what we have to do to make it work.”

WARD 4, SEAT B

Larry Goelz

Age: 39

Occupation: automotive technician

How long have you lived in Rochester? A little over one year—“I’m the new guy on the block.”

What will you look for in hiring a city manager? Most of that is going to fall upon (current city manager) Bob Steele. As far as choosing who it’s going to be, we’ll review who he’s chosen … one of the things the mayor said is, we’re looking for somebody that’s kind of like Bob Steele. He’s done a good job, someone who has the same qualifications he does and someone with best interest in city … the knowledge of what the job requires and concern for the city.

How should Rochester manage growth, downtown and elsewhere? Downtown is kind of tough. We have an awful lot of buildings in downtown and a lot of vacant ones owned by absentee landlords. Traffic flow is a problem, as far as getting businesses to move into downtown. You can’t get a parking space … traffic needs to be changed the way it flows, the Riverwalk is going to do hopefully wonders for adding more space for businesses.

I would not like to see a parking garage put up. I don’t think it would add to the character of downtown. … As far as controlling growth, that’s a tough one. We have to look at what we can expand into that won’t tax (the city), especially our school system. If we allow development of 100 houses, you figure at least one child per house, that’s 100 children, and it costs more to put a child through school than you get back in taxes.

What do you want to see included in Rochester’s cultural plan? How would you implement it? We have the Opera House, the Opera House is a wonderful thing, there’s an awful lot of performers that have come there and are coming there. We have an awful lot of stuff right now, a museum would definitely be nice.… We have parades and we have events and we have the fair. I guess you really need to have more, maybe look at the sections of people we have in town … organize events based on people’s heritage, events like that bring people closer together.

What role should the city take in developing the Riverwalk? I think a mix of both (public and private development) would be a wonderful thing. The city is going by plan that’s been laid out. You’re going to have more parking, areas for people to walk, sit, different businesses in mill buildings…. A mix of both is good, getting the private sector along with city involved, working hand in hand real good way to make sure everything comes out and everybody’s happy, that everything works together for the community, which is what whole project is about.

How serious is crime in Rochester? How will you reduce it? In a city of 30,000 people, you’re going to have crime no matter what you do. Certain areas … are more prone to crime than others. There are areas that have drug problems in the city. We need to take a closer look at people out late at night for one. Obviously kids that are under 18, parents need to make sure they don’t end up on the streets at night time, lot of that younger crowd should take place at home to start with.

What are Rochester’s strengths?

The school system. We just underwent national testing and the high school came out at a  two-year low on math. We need take a look at what it takes to make sure our seniors … are fully prepared to head to off to college or whatever they want to do in life. We have a wonderful school system, a lot better than other districts. I’ve been very impressed with the grammar grade level. We have a lot of, the city itself as a whole, the people have a real care for the city and what goes on in the city. Volunteering, that makes a big difference. One of your single most important factors of getting anything done in city is making sure everyone works together.

What needs to be changed? Right now it’s very expensive (to live in Rochester), we need to find ways to make it easier on general public to live within the city. The tag and bag trash deal, I don’t agree with that. Right now people are complaining that people are dumping from other cities into our city. I think if you go to tag and bag, you’ll see an awful lot of people dumping in business dumpsters, holding trash, and that creates a bigger problem. Our streets are a little difficult to get through town, traffic flow is definitely a problem, the safety of people being able pull out in traffic is a problem on Route 11. The DPW is doing best they can to try and get things fixed, but they definitely need some help over there. … As far as the government we currently have, we have fine people in there doing a wonderful job, everyone is working to do best job they can, and that’s definitely a strength as well. We’re weak on the side of businesses being in town, larger businesses offering better wages.

WARD 4, SEAT B

Dick Groat

Age: 61

Occupation: retired, worked for the state as a toll supervisor

How long have you lived in Rochester? 21 years

What will you look for in hiring a city manager? I think experience, past experience. Experience if he’s been a past position or not before.

How should Rochester manage growth, downtown and elsewhere? I think it needs to be balanced. Downtown, what we need now most of all is to concentrate on revitalizing Main Street, we need to get business in here as well, we need a business tax base. I think the zoning board is working on that now (residential and open space), and I think we’re going to see in the very near future, by January, that the zoning has been changed around to reflect growth.

What do you want to see included in Rochester’s cultural plan? How would you implement it? I think we’ve done pretty well with the Opera House, which represents the music culture. All communities need to have that, but I think that’s pretty well in hand.

What role should the city take in developing the Riverwalk? I haven’t followed really closely, but my view is the Riverwalk and the revitalization of Main Street ought to go hand in hand. You can’t have the Riverwalk and walk into a dead Main Street, that doesn’t work. In our case, that has to be a packaged, both parts of that. I think I’d like to see a mix (of public/private), like to see a mix in that.

How serious is crime in Rochester? How will you reduce it? It’s more serious than what it has been in earlier years, but then again, we’ve got a lot of people moving in and when that happens, crimes comes with it. Then again, it’s not as bad as in other communities. We can keep crime down by having a police presence.

What are Rochester’s strengths?

I think our primary strength is our geographic location, because we are the perfect spot to have a Sheraton convention center or something like that. We’re only about an hour from the Lakes Region, 45 minutes from beaches, an hour and a half from ski resorts, I think that’s really Rochester’s strength for the future.

What needs to be changed?

I think we’ve got to get a business (tax) base, because what we have is primarily property owners as the base of taxation, and what we’ve got to do is a get a good solid business base in to take the load off of landowners. That’s when you’re going to see the city grow.