Election 2007 News
Dorrian, Gregg vie for three-year term on Board of Selectmen
By Jennifer L. Saunders
YORK - Incumbent Selectman Len Dorrian and longtime local resident Kinley Gregg are vying for a three-year term on the Board of Selectmen.
Len Dorrian
Len Dorrian, who spent 26 years in the Coast Guard and has held senior management positions at an array of companies including Raytheon and Cigna, said he is running again because he believes York needs the strong leadership and consensus that is characteristic of the current Board of Selectmen.
"I want to continue to contribute to that team and serve the citizens of York," Dorrian said of his decision to seek another term.
The current board members do not always agree, Dorrian said, but they respect each other.
"The government is functioning effectively where it wasn't before," he said.
Prior to his election to the Board of Selectmen in 2005, Dorrian began serving on the Tax Task Force in 2003. He has also served on the Capital Committee.
"We have infrastructure needs that are over 30 years old," he said. "We need a new Town Hall, a public safety facility, to initiate major storm drainage remediation, to build a new senior center, to repair the town dock... Our approach must be financially prudent and not an oppressive burden to taxpayers."
Dorrian is a strong supporter of the proposed Town Hall.
"I think there are people who are against it because of the arts wing, and there are people who don't want change," he said. "If voters commit to the concept, there will be ample time for public input. This is the right thing at the right time in the right place, and voters should approve the project."
He noted there is a five-year capital plan now in place to address the town's needs.
"The reason we should do it now is because we were smart enough, and I'm really proud of it, to get the operational expenses under control," he said, adding the impact on taxpayers was going up "double-digits" before the Tax Task Force came into place. "... Without the skies falling, we brought the budget under control."
Dorrian said he will aggressively fight the state's school consolidation plan, which he said he believes is one of the most serious issues facing the town.
"The governor's school consolidation is the biggest thing that's happened in York in 50 years," he said. "That, coupled with the growth ordinance, has basically usurped York's local authority. ... Our whole charter will go out the window if this happens."
Another key issue, Dorrian said, is the significant demographic changes occurring in York, where the population is aging and school enrollment is dropping
With the assistance of school officials, he said, he has analyzed the property sales in town for the last two years and the implications for the School Department.
"It now takes four new homes to put one child in the school system," he said of the people moving into York, and for existing homes the ratio is one child for every three and a half.
Dorrian said the town must address providing additional resources to meet the needs of an aging population.
"All those changes, when you look at them," he said, "... tell you that we have to start reorienting our resources to the element of the community that is most growing."
Looking to the future, Dorrian said he would like to continue the work of the board.
"I will make an ironclad commitment that I will only serve three more years if elected. I want to stay with it now, where I think we've reached a point that we can do significantly more. ... I'm very satisfied with what's happen over the last two years on the board," he said. "I think we have a first-rate, professional town manager who has had a significantly positive impact on both the attitude and the performance of the town government. All you have to do is walk around Town Hall."
And, he said, he would like to contribute to a board that has been able to think rationally rather than emotionally.
"In a nutshell, that's why I want to run," he said. "I don't have any social agenda."
Kinley Gregg
Kinley Gregg's only agenda in running for the Board of Selectmen is her desire to serve her community and to provide the voters with a choice.
In November, she sought a term as York's state representative, and was narrowly defeated by Windol Weaver.
"I have spent the four or five months since the November election telling anyone who asked they would never see my name on a ballot again," she said, smiling.
However, when it looked like it would be an uncontested race for the one three-year term on the Board of Selectmen, she changed her mind.
"That was not democracy in action," she said.
Gregg moved to York with her parents when she was a small child, and has lived alternately here and in the surrounding Seacoast area ever since, except for time spent away at college.
"I don't come with an agenda," she said, but she does see some key issues for the board - and the town - to face in the future.
First and foremost, she said, is the state's school consolidation plan and growth ordinance.
"Right now the biggest issue is the state's encroachment on local control. In fact encroachment is too mild a word," she said.
So far, that has come in the form of a mandate that forces York to increase the number of residences allowed under its growth ordinance and in a pending plan to force school district consolidation.
"Next year, what are they going to think of?" she said. "That is the big issue."
As for the school consolidation plan, Gregg said the details are so sketchy it has been difficult for local officials to come up with a plan to fight it.
"No one knows," she said, "but it needs to be fought and I will stand shoulder-to-shoulder to do that."
Although Gregg would be a newcomer to the Board of Selectmen, she is not a stranger to serving the community. She served on the Historic District Commission from 1994 to 1996 and from 1998 to 2004, with year and a half off to return to college in the middle.
Gregg said she would describe herself as someone who is fair-minded and judicious.
"If I see something that needs to be addressed, I'm not going to beat around the bush," she said.
Gregg said she recognizes that a new Town Hall is a "desperate need," but does not feel she can support the current proposal.
"I voted for the land acquisition for Town Hall last year with some trepidation due to its proximity to a highly-stressed intersection," she said.
She agrees with the proposed location., but said the project has been hurried and she believes more study of the site, traffic impact and design needs to happen first.
The intersection of concern, she said, is the center island in York Village, which was labeled in the Comprehensive Plan as a need that must be addressed.
"The Comprehensive Plan also, in a passage unamended since 1999, has said that intersection needs to be realigned," she said, adding the new Town Hall will only make that area more difficult to navigate.
Gregg, who is an historical architect, said she also has concerns about the juxtaposition of the current design of the Town Hall project with the historic Coventry Hall.
"I will work toward building on that parcel, but I think whatever goes there needs to honor the surroundings, and not be a thought-free franchise design," she said.
Gregg said there is no question that there has been a lot of "planning procrastination" in the town of York in terms of needs. She said she would like to see public meetings, whether or not Article 73 passes, to involve the public in the Town Hall, Police Department and other building needs.
"I think we need a much broader process to get these things moving forward," she said, calling the current process a "trust us" approach to government. "I'm pained to advocate for delaying, but I want it to be done right."
Gregg supports the work on drainage remediation, but added the process must also include a look at areas that should be deemed inappropriate for new construction or expansion.
"If you keep building in unbuildable locations, the problems are not going away. In a sense we're contributing to the problems we're trying to solve," she said.
Gregg also supports the effort to address York's need for affordable housing, and would consider such ideas as broadening the use of accessory dwelling units to provide options beyond traditional single-family dwellings.
"It won't solve the problem, but it's a step," she said, adding that residents concerned about energy conservation and infrastructure demands should consider that "people who work here have to commute impossible distances, and that's not ‘green'."
