| October 8th, 2009 Mayoral candidates state positions, don't trade barbs GOFFSTOWN – Manchester's two mayoral candidates, in their first head-to-head debate, argued this morning over the school budget and the mandate that new department heads live in the city and conceded some city streets may not be safe after dark. There were no fireworks, however, in the very civil, 45-minute exchange between Republican Ward 2 alderman Ted Gatsas and Democratic Ward 1 alderman Mark Roy held at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics at St. Anselm College. The city's school system and its funding drew the most attention. Gatsas, who is also a state senator, maintained throwing money at schools is not necessarily going to solve the district's problems. He pointed out that the total budget, when federal and stimulus funds are added in, is $174 million, or $28 million more than the $146 million the city allotted. He added the budget was approved by a bipartisan group of aldermen. Gatsas said parents need to get involved in their children's education, read to them, help them with their homework and stress the importance of an education. He added the city also must look to redistricting, particularly in areas of growth such as Currier Hill, off Wellington Road, and the Hackett Hill Road area; stop making social promotions, and work with the school superintendent to solve the problems. Roy maintained the $146.3 million budget was inadequate and devastating to schools. As for parental involvement, he said the reality today is sometimes it is hard to get children to even go to school when parents are working two and three jobs just to make ends meet. Some programs that could be used to help those particular children were cut out of the budget, he said, adding that advances made in the past decade to reduce class sizes were wiped out in the past two years because of budget constraints. When it came to this year's school budget, he said originally the school administration proposed a $156 million budget, which the school board reduced to $152 million and the Board of Mayor and Aldermen reduced further to $146 million. Roy felt the $152 million proposal was workable. The problems at Southside Middle School, where six school employees were injured over the past year by students in a self-contained classroom for the severely emotionally disabled, are not new, both candidates agreed, but Roy said the tight budget exacerbated them. Roy said what the district needs is a curriculum addressing modern-day children who should be receiving the same opportunities he and Gatsas had when they went to Memorial and Central high schools, respectively. The questions posed came from readers, reporters and editors. Roy thanked Fahey for asking his question - whether the school budget met the needs of the district - drawing laughter from the audience of more than 100. Other topics included: Crime: Asked if there were some streets in the city that were unsafe to walk after dark, both agreed there were. Gatsas told the more than 100 people in the audience that his 83-year-old mother asked him to pick up something at a Greek market on Spruce Street, because she was scared to go to the area. People coming into the city to go to dinner, the Verizon Wireless Arena or to see the Fisher Cats should not be accosted by panhandlers, he said. Roy said the realist in him says there are some streets in the city that are not safe after dark, but the optimist in him says the city's streets are safe. He is not scared to walk down any street, he said, although there are drugs and gangs in the city and the police department, which wanted funding for 270 officers, was told to leave vacancies unfilled. Mandatory residency for department heads: Gatsas voted for it, said it is constitutional and maintained anyone getting paid six figures should be required to live in the city. Roy opposed it, said it is unconstitutional and maintained no one should be hired based on his ZIP code. The affiliation of Catholic Medical Center and Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center: Both voiced concerns about it. Gatsas said there should be a guarantee health-care costs will not go through the roof, while Roy, who said the move was a merger, believes three health care facilities are better than two in the city and in the long run, the values that are CMC will be lost. The debate is being broadcast on Manchester Community Television (MCT) on Channel 16 beginning Friday, Oct. 9, at 4 a.m., noon and 7 p.m.; on Saturday, Oct. 10, at 3 a.m., 11 a.m. and 8 p.m.; on Sunday, Oct. 11, at 4 a.m., noon and 8:30 p.m. and again on Monday, Oct. 12, at 4:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. It also will be available for download on Friday from MCT's Web site, nhmanchtv Back To News |
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Paid for by Ted Gatsas for Mayor. B. Rivard, Fiscal Agent PO Box 6655, Manchester, NH 03108 603.623.0220
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