Voters got a chance to hear from two of the candidates in the three-way race for the Rindge Select Board between incumbent Marybeth Quill, former Selectwoman Roberta Oeser and Thomas Coneys during a candidates night Tuesday hosted by the Rindge Woman’s Club and Rindge Chamber of Commerce.

Candidates in the contested cemetery trustee and School Board races also attended, as well as candidates in uncontested races.

Along with her previous service on the Select Board, Oeser currently serves as chair of the Planning Board and on the Budget Advisory Committee, both of which she would have to step down from if elected to the Select Board. She said if elected, she would encourage the board to research certain areas of the budget, including employee health insurance benefits, and compare to the private sector to ensure the town did not have a “Cadillac” plan and that employee contributions were in line with private standards.

“My record of fiscal responsibility is pretty clear,” Oeser said.

Oeser also said the town should also be looking into the cost of educating Rindge students, separate from the Jaffrey-Rindge cooperative district.

“We may need to look into other alternatives,” Oeser said when talking about the rising cost of maintaining the school district.

Coneys, also a member of the Budget Advisory Committee, said he would be a “green” member of the Select Board, and that he knows he would have a lot to learn. However, he said his previous experience heading a business would serve him well.

“I understand what it takes to run a business, and Rindge is a service-oriented business for its taxpayers and employees,” Coneys said.

Coneys said he prided himself on “individual thought,” and said divisiveness was not beneficial to the town. He said he would support measures to allow residents to be more informed about town business, praising the school district’s measures of filming and posting board meetings on its website.

“We’re behind the times,” Coneys said. “Towns smaller than Rindge are all online.”

Quill did not attend the candidates night. According to the biography submitted to the chamber and woman’s club, Quill has a Bachelor of Science in health science and a Bachelor of Science in nursing. She has been previously employed in the banking industry, and has also worked as a substitute teacher at Rindge Elementary School and volunteered in the school’s classrooms and sports teams.

The only other contested race on the town ballot this year is for cemetery trustee, where incumbent Douglas Hoyt is up against Michael Perrault.

Hoyt has experience as a cemetery trustee and a board member of the town historical society. He has previously been a police officer when it was an elected position in town. He has professional experience as a court bailiff, and for 30 years was one of Rindge’s rural mail carriers.

Perrault is a fairly recent transplant to Rindge, having lived in town for 14 months, but is a longtime New England resident and an active-duty sergeant major in the Marines, where he has served since 2004. Perrault said he intends to make Rindge his permanent home, and is seeking to become involved in the community. Since moving to Rindge, has become an incorporator at the Cathedral of the Pines and joined the Jaffrey-Rindge Rotary Club.

“I understand the respect and reverence cemeteries have,” Perrault said.

Two vie for School Board seat

Christopher Sendelbach is challenging incumbent Lisa Wiley for the three-year term as the Rindge representative to the Jaffrey-Rindge School Board.

Sendelbach said he has 6-year-old twins just starting in the district, and wanted to get involved in the community. He said there has to be some checks on spending, but that he was not looking to join the board to immediately make huge changes.

As an engineer and mechanic, Sendelbach said he values science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education, but also that the district should foster “curiosity.” He also acknowledged that every child is different and will have different interests, noting he has seen that even among his own children.

“I want to know what they’re doing is going to give them a job in the future. I want to inspire children to want to learn,” Sendelbach said.

He said he was concerned about the need for trade jobs, and the lack of fresh blood in professions such as plumbing and electricians and other trade work.

Wiley said schools should be a place of “pride” for their students, both in extracurriculars and in the quality of education, and that they should give children a “voice in the community.”

Speaking on the importance of career and technical education, Wiley said it was of high importance to the current School Board, and that the board was in the midst of pursuing a large grant that would allow the district to reconfigure space to add additional career and technical education programming. 

When asked what she was proudest of working on during her time on the board, she replied, “Policy.” As chair of the policy subcommittee, Wiley said the district has been working to update and modernize policies, which she said were the “spine” of how the district functions.

When asked about the budget, and whether there was anything the board could do to better control costs at a local level, Wiley said much of the budget was tied to costs mandated by the federal government, and that cuts that the board had control over often came down to “resources and people.”

Uncontested candidates have their say

A number of candidates who have no opponents on the ballot also spoke Tuesday night, though audience members did not have questions for these candidates.

Karla McLeod and Pat Paige are running for two seats for library trustee. McLeod is a current member of the trustees, and Paige is an alternate. McLeod said the library is at the center of Rindge’s quality of life, and praised current Library Director Donna Straitiff for her leadership. Paige has been an alternate for over a year, and said books and libraries are her “passion” and favorite places to go.

Kirk Stenersen is running for town moderator, and has been involved as a deputy moderator since 2016. Bob Schaumann is running for re-election as school district moderator. Both are unopposed.

On the Planning Board, there are two seats available for three-year terms. Running for the seats are Max Geesey, who did not attend candidates night and did not submit a biography, and Doug Seppala, who has a background in construction and management. Seppala said this would be his first time on a town board, and he would bring his experience in construction and plan-reading to the table, but has “really no agenda” in joining the board.

On the Budget Advisory Committee, James Burger and Casey Burrage have signed up for two available seats for three-year terms. Burrage, a full-time firefighter in Rindge, has worked on the board for the past three years after winning on a write-in ballot. He said he provided a “boots-on-the-ground” perspective as a town employee.

Burger did not attend candidates night. According to his biography, he has previously served on the Budget Advisory Committee as well as the Community Power Committee and has a degree in accounting and finance, and has 10 years of experience as an accountant and financial analyst for a Fortune 1,000 company.

There are two seats open for the Zoning Board of Adjustment, with George Carmichael and Phil Stenersen running for the positions, but neither attended candidates night. Both are members of the Zoning Board, with Carmichael currently serving as the board chair.

John Craig Clark Jr. is seeking re-election to Trustees of the Trust Funds for a three-year term.

Shana Eighner is seeking a two-year term as the town clerk, a position she has held in an appointed capacity for the last year following the retirement of the former town clerk.

Ashley Saari can be reached at 603-924-7172, Ext. 244, or asaari@ledgertranscript.com. She’s on X @AshleySaariMLT.