19 hours Ago
TO TIDE READERS over until the first meeting of the Board of Mayor and Aldermen in 2025, here are a few tidbits from our year-end conversation with Mayor Jay Ruais that ran earlier this week ( Dec. 26 ) in the Union Leader. With Governor-elect Kelly Ayotte preparing to take office, Ruais says he thinks Manchester will benefit from the connections he has established in Concord.
“Governor-elect Ayotte and I have been, I mean, we’ve known each other for nearly 20 years, since she was an attorney general, and I was in this office under then Mayor (Frank) Guinta, ” Ruais said. “So I’ve known her for a great deal of time. We spent an awful lot of time talking about what the city of Manchester needs, and I think one of the best things that she did on the campaign was she went door to door here in Manchester all the time.
She talked to our business leaders and business owners here in the downtown. She got a really good feel for what Manchester is looking for.” “Because I think we have a great relationship, her and I are going to work in tandem to push forward the things that the city of Manchester is looking for,” Ruais said.
“I am very much looking forward to working with her, and I think you’re seeing some of the results of that relationship as well. She asked me to join her task force on public safety, so that I’m very much looking forward to and bail reform is going to be a big item that I’m going to be pushing for again next year, and I know her and I are in sync on that. “How do we make it easier to bring more housing into the state of New Hampshire and the city of Manchester as well — so we’re going to be in sync on a lot of those issues, and I think our personal relationship is going to be really beneficial to the city of Manchester.
’ Ruais took office with an evenly-split Board of Mayor and Aldermen. The conservative faction includes Chris Morgan , Krissy Cantor , Ross Terrio , Ed Sapienza , Norm Vincent , Kelly Thomas and Joe Kelly Levasseur . The Democrats are Dan Goonan , Pat Long , Christine Fajardo , Tony Sapienza , Jim Burkush , Bill Barry and Dan O’Neil .
Ruais represents a conservative tie-breaking vote, when necessary. Assuming block voting, Republicans have a majority on the board for the first time since 1998. Alderman At Large Joe Kelly Levasseur was elected chairman at the first meeting of the newly sworn-in board.
Ruais voted in favor of Levasseur, breaking a 7-7 tie, but it was a vote on a followup motion that opened a window onto what the rest of 2024 — and possibly 2025 — could look like. The 7-7 vote fell along straight party lines. Once Ruais broke the tie, as is customary, a motion was made to make the vote unanimous to smooth over any hard feelings.
But that motion failed on a 7-7 vote, indicating how divided the board truly is — and how contentious the coming months would be. Ruais says the great part about working with the Board of Mayor and Alderman is that “every single one of them genuinely cares about the city of Manchester.” “I think every one of them comes from a really good place,” Ruais said.
“We may not arrive at the same conclusions on every single issue, but that’s human nature. But everybody wants to roll up their sleeves and work You mentioned the tie votes — you would think on a 7 to 7 board that, theoretically, the mayor would be breaking ties every single night. I’ve broken fewer than a handful of ties, and I’ve been really proud of that — one of the ties that I broke was a motion to adjourn — because that means that we’re finding areas of common ground .
” Even when both sides disagree and they’ve had to break a tie, the board has “come to a good resolution at the end,” Ruais said. “So what I would say is that, yes, there are going to be spirited, robust conversations at times on the board, but look at the work, look at the end result that we’ve gotten done — I think you can see it playing out, that we’ve gotten an awful lot accomplished in this first year.” The city’s Parks and Recreation staff sent out a notice this week detailing some of the highlights of the past year.
The Friends of Piscataquog River Park hosted many events centered around trail maintenance, vegetation removal, trash pickup, and other park improvement projects. Over the month of October alone, the group held a total of 16 volunteer days, attracting a total of 154 volunteers and generating 501 volunteer hours. The Livingston Park track reopened to the public after a complete surface replacement this fall.
Additional painting and finishing touches will be completed in spring of 2025 after the school track season wraps up. The facility serves as home for track teams from Central High School, Hillside Middle School, and Trinity High School. It also hosts activities from a wide range of recreational organizations.
This spring, Veterans Park welcomed a new statue honoring combat photographers. The five-foot tall, cast-bronze monument weighs over 700 pounds and includes an inscription that reads, “Since the Crimean War (1853-56), combat photographers have risked their lives to document through imagery the heroic moments, great sacrifices, awful destruction, and moral dilemmas of war.” Donated by former combat photographer Josh Denoncourt and the Broadside Foundation, city staff say the statue is a “long overdue tribute to these unsung heroes of war.
” “We look forward to this statue standing tall in the park for decades to come,” the Parks and Recreation Department said in a statement. Department staff, with help from Highway Division crews, completed major upgrades to drainage this spring at the Derryfield Country Club golf course, addressing issues at the 7th, 9th, 10th and 11th holes. This winter, the Parks and Rec tree crew rented special equipment and is in the process of removing around 30 dead trees from the course.
“We expect to continue culling selected trees over the next few years to improve playability, enhance aesthetics, and reduce maintenance complications,” department staff said in a statement. New children’s playgrounds were installed at Wolfe Park, Pine Island Park, Webster School, and Bakersville School in 2024. A new climbing feature was also added to the playground at Steven’s Park.
“In keeping with an initiative launched five years ago, the new playgrounds were planned with inclusivity in mind,” Parks and Recreation staff said in a statement. “Whenever resources have allowed, our designs have included both calming and sensory stimulation areas, equipment readily usable by those with physical limitations, and rubberized surfaces to increase accessibility.” At Pine Island Park, the new playground has a roller coaster feel to it, in a nod to the old Pine Island Park amusement area.
Wolfe Park’s playground matches the vibrant colors of the new basketball courts donated by Chris Brickley. The Webster and Bakersville school playgrounds are designed to appeal to a diversity of interests, and the equipment is dressed in school colors, staff said. In conjunction with the Nature Conservancy community meeting on the future of the Merrimack River, the Parks and Rec Urban Forestry section, Conservation Law Foundation, and BETA Inc.
made an introductory presentation on a grant-funded Urban Forest Equity Planning and Implementation project this month. The project includes a city-wide tree inventory and canopy assessment, which officials say is almost complete. Staff said the canopy assessment data will be used to identify areas of Manchester most likely to benefit from tree-planting.
Hundreds of trees are scheduled to be planted over the next four years. Funding for the project is provided by the federal Inflation Reduction Act and the USDA Forest Service. .
Paul Feely is the City Hall reporter for the New Hampshire Union Leader and Sunday News. Reach him at [email protected] .
.
