'Let's go to work': Dover Mayor Bob Carrier calls for unity, community pride

DOVER — Lifelong Garrison City resident Bob Carrier is urging Dover citizens to unify and take pride in their community as he embarks on his last term as mayor.

Sworn in for his third term, Carrier, his eight fellow council representatives and members of the Dover School Board took their oath of office from City Attorney Joshua Wyatt at City Hall Tuesday night. The inauguration kicked off the start of each elected official’s two-year term that will last through the end of 2025.

Carrier commended the partnership between the City Council and School Board and how the groups maintain decorum during difficult discussions.

“This is what we want to portray what this city is all about, to work together and make it a great city,” Carrier said. “This is why we all live here. We love this city. It’s a very safe city. There’s an awful lot of turmoil going on in the country, in the world, and I think we just have to stand together. We have to be proud with where we live and (think of) how we can make a difference.”

Housing and homelessness a challenge in Dover

The mayor noted ongoing challenges that need to be addressed in Dover, including homelessness and housing, mental health struggles and drug addiction. But in his 15-year tenure on the City Council, Dover has made great strides, Carrier added.

Such achievements include renovations to existing schools and City Hall, the construction of the new Dover High School, water and sewer upgrades, a new police station, community services headquarters, skatepark and parking garage, commercial growth and the long-awaited Cochecho River waterfront development groundbreaking, to name a few.

The mayor's speech follows the city's yearlong 400th anniversary celebrations held throughout 2023, which included parades, fireworks, a block party, New Year's festivities, and the beginning of work on a sculpture that will be erected in a public park along the revamped waterfront.

“The message from this is for citizens to engage and speak out and help guide us with our decisions,” Carrier said. “There is no ‘I’ with these tasks, but it is ‘we.’ Let us continue to work together to make this a progressive, great city.”

The November election saw Carrier run unopposed for his final mayoral term after he spent more than a decade on the City Council. Dover voters re-elected six other council members — councilors Dennis Shanahan, Robert Warach, Debra Hackett and Fergus Cullen, and at-large members Linnea Nemeth and Lindsey Williams — and elected two new faces to the body, Anthony Retrosi and April Richer.

Retrosi, a former city ethics commission member and Atlantic Gymnastics Training Centers owner, takes over in Ward 3 after former Councilor Deborah Thibodeaux opted not to run for reelection. The same occurred in Ward 1, where Richer, a UPS package handler, is replacing previous Councilor Michelle Muffett-Lipinski.

Carrier reiterated he has decided he will move on from the council at the end of next year, allowing a new mayor to come into the fold.

“Let’s go to work,” he said Tuesday.

The fall 2023 vote marked the second straight city election in which Carrier ran unopposed. In 2019, he won his first term after winning all six wards to bump then-Mayor Karen Weston from the top spot.

Dennis Shanahan to serve as deputy mayor

Serving as the second-in-command for the second straight term is Shanahan as the city’s deputy mayor. In a closed-door meeting before the inauguration, Shanahan was nominated by his peers to serve in the role.

Shanahan feels he and Carrier “make a great team” and that the city needs an affordable fiscal year 2025 budget that supports city services. The deputy mayor said the city needs to keep advancing the major mixed-use waterfront development, a public-private partnership with Boston-based Cathartes, and support county commissioners’ efforts to create a new nursing home in Dover and establish transitional housing.

“This is going into my ninth and tenth years (on the council),” he said. “We have learned how to disagree when we need to and how to disagree constructively. Ninety percent of the time, we’re unanimous in our decisions, which means people are doing their homework, people are finding out what the real issues are, and getting their decisions worked on. I think that really stands out.”

Four of the six city voting wards featured contested City Council races in the November election. Four candidates ran for the two at-large City Council seats, though the incumbents, Nemeth and Williams, prevailed.

Robin Trefethen to chair Dover School Board

The Dover School Board contest was also unopposed in November, with candidates for the ward seats and a single at-large position running alone on the ballot. Two new members, Craig Flynn and Elizabeth Goldman, were voted onto the board while five incumbents — Michelle Clancy, Micaela Demeter, Maggie Fogarty, Carolyn Mebert and Robin Trefethen — won reelection.

The seven-member School Board named a new chairperson and vice chairperson prior to Tuesday’s inauguration. Trefethen, the former Ward 2 representative who pivoted to the at-large seat this fall while Goldman assumed the ward position, will take over as head of the board.

Trefethen’s swearing-in marked the start of her second term on the board, which is in the midst of forming its fiscal year 2025 budget.

“I enjoy being able to make a difference in our small slice of the world here in New Hampshire. I look forward to continuing doing the work over the next two years to ensure that we have the best schools for our children and our future,” said Trefethen, a Dover Middle School parent, in her remarks. “I look forward to the opportunity to lead our current School Board.”

Trefethen’s speech included a note of gratitude to Mebert, the former chairperson with 16 total years of service on the board. Before the inauguration, the School Board chose Mebert to be the group’s new vice chairperson.

“I know she’s going to do a great job,” Mebert said of Trefethen.

This article originally appeared on Fosters Daily Democrat: Dover NH Mayor Carrier calls for unity, community pride in final term