Copyright keenesentinel
Either way residents of Keene’s Ward 5 vote in Tuesday’s election, they’re poised to elect a councilor critical of the city’s upcoming downtown infrastructure project. Neither incumbent Councilor Phil Jones nor challenger Shane Brown is pleased with how plans for the project have progressed. Brown feels councilors have prioritized what they think is best for the city and not what constituents have asked for, and Jones is unhappy with how the design process unfolded. The winner of the race will join longtime Ward 5 Councilor Tom Powers, who has two years left of his term representing West Keene. Here’s a look at the candidates: Shane Brown The lifelong Keene resident said he decided to run for the City Council because he’s unhappy with the direction Keene is heading in. “It seems like our government is not fully transparent with what’s going on at City Hall,” he said. Brown, 45, said he’s interested in enhancing transparency across the board, and that he’s jarred by the “surprises” he said councilors reveal at meetings, forums and in public. “You’re always finding out something new,” he said. “And I think that’s very scary.” Citizens should be clued in on “the pros and cons of everything,” he said, and details should be better laid out for them. “Transparency goes beyond posting meeting minutes or budgets, it’s about providing the full picture,” he said in an email, adding, “people deserve to see not only what decisions are made, but why they’re made. That means outlining the benefits, costs, risks, and alternative options in plain language before a vote takes place.” He also has transparency concerns with the downtown infrastructure project, and cited changes in when the project will break ground; recent confusion between the engineering firm working on the project and a state agency; and the recommended hiring of a new firm for the project’s final phase. “Yet the public hasn’t been clearly shown the cost implications or how those delays affect taxpayers,” he said. “Construction inflation, rising material costs, and miscommunication all play a role and residents deserve to see that breakdown before new decisions are made.” Brown, an e-commerce manager at Polygroup North America, Inc., also said he thinks the city is “probably about five years behind the times in the digital world,” and that modernization would make it easier for people to engage. He hopes to bring forward ideas to make it simpler for constituents to civically participate, including updates to the city’s website. Brown said he’s heard from people that they have trouble navigating the website for meeting agendas and other city happenings. If elected, Brown said he’d like to pitch an electronic portal for each ward where residents could access information and materials relevant to them, including about citywide events as well as meeting agendas. As for the downtown project, Brown feels that in addition to councilors prioritizing their views instead of constituents’, the project hasn’t been “fully vetted.” As a councilor, he said he’d like to more thoroughly vet contractors for projects. He’s also interested in seeing new faces take a stab at addressing issues in Keene, and pointed to some councilors’ long tenures. “When you’ve been in a place over 20 years, it’s definitely time for change,” he said. “They had 20 years to do things correctly.” Asked if there was one decision the council made in the past year or so that he’d reverse, Brown said it would be the vote in September not to move forward with disciplinary action against Councilor Bobby Williams for his social media remarks criticizing conservative influencer Charlie Kirk. Williams made his comments in the aftermath of Kirk being shot to death at a university in Utah. Brown said he would have been in favor of disciplining Williams. “It definitely would have been a course of action,” he said. “I think in this day and age, you sort of got to come together instead of putting fuel in the fire.” While Brown thinks it’s time for some new faces on the council, 28-year Councilor Phil Jones said he feels his experience would help Keene through the difficult times he predicts are coming. Jones is also a state representative, elected in 2022. A self-described “fiscal conservative with a social conscience,” he said, “I truly believe we need to control the pocketbook issues while at the same time protecting our infrastructure, our safety, our quality of life, and our environment.” Jones, 70, has lived in Keene for just over three decades. The marketing and sales representative thinks rising costs are going to be a struggle in the years to come. “Just like everyone else with their household budget, we’re dealing with the rising cost of goods and services … we have to learn to control our spending,” he said, and said the city should look to share costs and purchases with other municipalities, the county and the college. Not everybody in Keene is able to afford tax increases, he said. “So we’ve got to do all we can to help limit it.” Jones feels Keene is doing well in terms of bond indebtedness, and said comparatively, Keene’s cost of living is not rising as fast and as much as other places. “And we have to continue to keep that going,” he said. One of his priorities is managing public safety concerns. He pointed specifically to driving-related dangers, including road rage, speeding, and people disregarding crosswalks, red lights and speed limits. He’s also concerned about e-bikes. “We’re going to have more and more safety issues,” he said, and feels officials should be proactive rather than reactive. But he said laws can’t be the only way the council looks to promote public safety. “Laws are only good if you have enough police to enforce them, which we obviously don’t. We have to find more deterrence,” he said. The Keene Police Department is currently experiencing a shortage of officers. Jones said measures to deter dangerous driving could include speed bumps, signs, speedometers and other infrastructure. In addition to public safety, he said if elected, he would also be focused on progress on the new West Keene Fire Station, a project that has been in the works for several years. As for the upcoming downtown work, Jones said the decades-old infrastructure needs to be replaced, but he’s always voted no on the project because of other elements of the plans. He has opposed adding protected bikes lanes, and in a recent interview said he thinks a marketing consultant should have been hired to work on the project.
