DeVoy seeks re-election to County Commission

By RICK GREEN, THE LACONIA DAILY SUN

LACONIA — Belknap County Commissioner Dave DeVoy has a personal stake in the success of a program providing treatment and recovery services to people at risk of incarceration because of substance abuse.

His brother and two cousins had drug related deaths.

“I’m very familiar with addiction,” DeVoy said. “I know these people need help.”

He said his brother had appeared to kick a substance abuse problem, but 18 years after becoming clean and sober, he was prescribed opioids following an injury.

“Two weeks later, he was dead,” DeVoy said. DeVoy is seeking re-election and will be on the ballot in a three-candidate Republican primary on Sept. 11. No Democrats are in the race.

“When I have visited the jail, I even see people who used to work for me,” he said.

“People don’t understand the personal struggles of other people. We all come up with different upbringings and have different ways of handling it. Some people just get off to a really bad start and they need to have some incentive in the right direction.”

He is a strong defender of the county’s CORE program, which stands for Corrections Opportunity for Recovery and Education.

Last summer, the county opened a new Community Corrections Center, an 18,000-squarefoot facility for treatment, counseling and education of people who are at high risk for substance misuse and are in danger of reoffending.

Courts can place offenders into the program, which includes a 3-month treatment plan, work release, and electronic monitoring before re-entry back to the community.

“I’m really worried that, if I don’t get re-elected, the CORE program is going to end,” he said. “There has been some discussion in the County Delegation of making the program part-time. I believe it should be full-time.”

The recidivism rate for those who complete such programs is 20 percent, compared to 70 percent for those who don’t participate, he said.

“It saves taxpayer money and we’re changing lives,” DeVoy said.

Belknap County is the lowest-taxed and loweststaffed county in the state, but it has seen its budget proposals trimmed by the County Delegation, he said.

DeVoy is running for re-election to the commission in District 1, which takes in Laconia, New Hampton and Sanbornton.

He is opposed by former State Rep. Brian Gallagher and former Laconia Mayor Tom Tardif. DeVoy, who owns gas station/convenience stores in Gilford and Barnstead, was elected to a four-year term in 2014. He became commission chairman in March 2015.

He said the county has come a long way since he was elected.

“We inherited a dangerously overcrowded jail in need of major repairs,” he said in a letter to the editor. “Although the vast majority of inmates were incarcerated because of drug use, the Corrections Department had no drug program and a recidivism rate of more than 70 percent.

“Our county had one of the highest per capita death rates from opioid overdoses in the state.

“The Belknap County jail was repaired and updated and a new Community Corrections Center was added for $7.3 million, approximately $35 million less than the previous proposal.”

Another priority for DeVoy is care for senior citizens. “The state has allocated most of the financial responsibility to the counties,” he said. “I am committed to working on strong programs to keep seniors safely in their homes longer, thus reducing the need for more expensive nursing home care.”