DeVoy, Taylor seeking reelection to county commission
By Roger Amsden The Laconia Daily Sun
LACONIA — Belknap County Commissioners Dave DeVoy (R-Sanbornton) and Hunter Taylor (R-Alton) will seek reelection to the commission.
DeVoy, who is chairman of the three-member commission, represents District 1, which is made up of Laconia, Sanbornton and New Hampton. He will be running for a two-year term.
Taylor represents District 3, which is comprised of Alton, Center Harbor, Gilford and Meredith. He will be seeking a four-year term.
DeVoy, who was elected to a four-year term in 2014, has been chairman of the commission since March of 2015, when he replaced then-chairman Richard Burchell.
Taylor, who was appointed by a unanimous vote of the delegation in January of 2015 to fill the District 3 position created by the resignation of Steve Nedeau (R-Meredith) in December 2014, won election to a two-year term in 2016.
Both said that they are most proud of the new Belknap County Community Corrections Center, a $7.3 million project that was completed last year, and are running to ensure that programming aimed at substance abuse recovery and prevention of recidivism are continued at the facility.
“The CORE (Corrections Opportunity for Recovery and Education) program is very important to me. It’s why we built the new community corrections center in the first place,” said DeVoy.
He has been critical of cuts made by the county delegation in funding for the CORE program that he sees as a major part of the county’s effort to deal with the opioid crisis.
Taylor agrees and says that both he and DeVoy are the true conservatives in the county and are willing to spend funds today to prevent having to spend even more money in the future.
According to Taylor, the major issues facing Belknap County in the foreseeable future include not only substance abuse and related problems, but also the rapidly aging population of the county. In addition to the costs related to the operation of the Belknap County Nursing Home, the county now pays a little over $6 million annually (approximately 25 percent of the total annual expenditures of our county) for senior care to fund the non-federal share of Medicaid benefits for long term care of needy seniors who are Belknap County residents.
He said that the county needs to support programs that allow the elderly them to live in their homes longer.
“It’s a $6 million expense right now. It’s projected that it will double to $12 million within 10 years. We should be looking for ways to deal with the situation now, before we find ourselves in the middle of a
The three-member Board of Commissioners are part-time elected officials responsible for overall supervision, custody and care of all county departments, buildings and land, and have budgetary oversight of all county expenditures.
They are elected into staggered four and two-year terms by the voters of the districts each are assigned to. The annual county budget is prepared by the commissioners and department’s heads and submitted to the County Delegation, which is made up of legislators from all towns in the county and has the final say on appropriating funds.
District 2 Commissioner Glen Waring (R-Gilmanton) won a four-year term in 2016 and will hold that seat until 2020.