Conway Daily Sun
2005-03-10

Tamworth elects Roberts selectman by 14 votes, Farnum calls for recount

Noise ordinance passes overwhelmingly at town meeting

Nate Giarnese

TAMWORTH — Willie Farnum called for a recount Tuesday, moments after losing the selectman's race by 14 votes to former, 15-year Selectman John Roberts. Roberts' narrow win set the stage for Wednesday's town meeting vote, where Tamworth overwhelmingly approved a sound ordinance, 261-142, that could throw a wrench into developers' plans to build a 251-acre motorsports park on Mount Whittier.

"The track has been a source of great tension in this town," said Steven Gaal, a member of Focus: Tamworth, a citizens group.

Some completely favor the track, and some favor it as long as its regulated, he added. "CMI has engaged in a campaign of fear, uncertainty and intimidation, claiming this ordinance is illegal, unfair and unconstitutional. And they've threatened to sue the town."

Town Attorney Rick Sager told the meeting before the vote on the noise ordinance that "It's clear to me, given the political climate in town, there's going to be a lawsuit if it passes." He also said he had other concerns about the article which he didn't want to air in public, but that he had shared privately with selectmen.

Roberts, the town's health officer, and a planning board member, several years ago stepped away from the selectmen's board. He has said in news reports that he has missed the seat, he held previously for 15 years, and identified the town's biggest issue as tax control. Roberts could not be reached for comment before or after the election.

Selectman Mariette Ross said Roberts' election couldn't be called a predictor of Wednesday's sound ordinance vote. Supporters of the article, she said, would come out in force at town meeting, and that while 421 Roberts supporters elected him, she didn't know who they were. "All the people who want the sound ordinance will be there tonight," Ross said Wednesday. "I don't know who elected John, and that's the God's honest truth."

Spokesman for track developer, Club Motorsports Inc., Scott Tranchemontagne agreed, and said often voters who turn out to elect officers by secret ballot, are soured or intimidated by heated town meeting debate, and may opt to stay home. "Its a different dynamic, voting at the polls versus town meeting format," he said. "Lengthy and heated rhetoric, especially on contentious issues, sometimes turns them off, and can be intimidating. People like to walk in and cast their ballots."

"I don't think (Robert's election) can be an accurate predictor," Tranchemontagne said.

CMI placed political ads in local papers against Farnum's candidacy last week, and said Wednesday that the people of Tamworth picked an able selectman.

Newly-appointed Selectman David Haskell told legislators in Concord last month, that he and Ross represent a majority in Tamworth, who support the multimillion dollar driving park, and called opponents of the Club Motorsports Inc. project, a special interest group. "(We) represent the majority of voters who think that what we need is a good neighbor," Haskell said.

Haskell went on to say that had Tamworth been an SB-2 town, when a racetrack ordinance to regulate the park came up for vote last year, greater numbers would have turned out, and would have cast a majority of ballots against it. CMI called the ordinance far too restrictive, and after its passage, lobbied state senators to pass a new state law, RSA 287 G, defining theirs as a "practice" track, and exempting it from town "racetrack" laws.

This year's sound ordinance rejuvenated one of 22 parts of the town's now moot racetrack ordinance — limiting noise levels at "any private driving instructional exhibition facility."

Farnum called Haskell's Concord announcement — the first break in the board's long-standing neutrality on the town's most divisive issue- and his assertions about SB-2, "appalling" and "disrespectful." "For the board of selectmen, without the vote of the people, or any discussion at a selectmen's meeting, to take off and go to Concord and testify that the town wants CMI, that's appalling," Farnum said.

And Haskell's suggestion that an SB-2 ballot vote would have better gauged town opinion than town meeting, where the ordinance passed by 84 percent, "shows a great deal of disrespect for people who come to town meeting."

SB-2 narrowly failed in balloting Tuesday to get a needed 60 percent majority. 432, or 55.8 percent voted in favor, to 342 against.

Farnum said he ran for selectman to try to heal broken communications across town divides. "There needs to be good conversation, back and forth," Farnum said. "As a selectman you need to explain your vote and why you've voted that way. We should ask that of all out reps, local and state offices — in all of government. Without that government is a dictatorship."

"I was right in the room, so I stood up, walked over and filed the papers," Farnum said after the first count came back 421-407 in favor of Roberts. "It's worth the $20 fee to answer the question," he said. "I doubt it will change the outcome of the election," he said. "I did have 50 percent of voters who wanted me in."

"It was in that light, that's what I was hoping to do in the selectmen's office, to look at what's best for everybody on any issue," he said. "I am disappointed that I didn't win. Whichever way the recount comes out, I hope we can all work together for the betterment of the community."

Farnum has been an outspoken critic of RSA 287-G, and has been associated with Focus: Tamworth, the citizens group fighting to return control of the track to Tamworth, and said to be petitioners of the sound-regulating warrant article. While Tamworth selectmen and CMI officials have dubbed Focus an "opposition group," "out to kill to the project," Farnum said the sound ordinance does not single out the track. "It's not targeted at CMI," he said. "It applies to any business."

CMI disagrees, and under the ordinance, Tranchemontagne said, "We couldn't even mow our lawn, never mind drive a car."

Tranchemontagne wouldn't speculate Wednesday, before the ordinance passed at town meeting, on whether CMI would sue in the wake of its passage. A CMI lawyer told legislators in February, that the company pushed the state law that exempted it from the town racetrack ordinance, to avoid suing Tamworth. "We'll take a look at it, we will certainly be interested in what the town's own legal counsel has to say, on whether it is legal or not," Tranchemontagne said.

2005-03-11

Correction

— Thursday’s story about the Tamworth election incorrectly stated that Club Motorsports Inc. placed political ads in local papers against Willie Farnum's candidacy. The company’s ads were in opposition Article 10, the Tamworth Sound Ordinance.