​​FROM: HENRY J. DANE, CANDIDATE FOR RE-ELECTION TO SELECT BOARD
​
TO: CONCORD BRIDGE
MARCH 15, 2024

​1. What aspects of your personal and/or professional experience most qualify you to
serve on the Select Board?

For the 3 years I have served on the Board, and especially this year as Chair, I have worked to make Town government better organized, more rational, better informed, effective and action-oriented. I see the number of candidates running this year as a mark of our success. A resident for over 50 years and a graduate of Harvard Law School, I served as attorney to the Concord School Committees and Concord Housing Authority and have extensive experience as a lawyer with municipal law, land use, planning and zoning and litigation. I have monitored the quality and cost of legal services to the Town. I have appeared before and served on numerous boards and committees including the Finance Committee for Concord’s 350 th Anniversary, the Concord 2025 Executive Committee and as President of the Concord250 Corporation. My knowledge, experience, judgment and leadership skills are my most important asset.

2. Going ahead, would you maintain, increase, decrease or eliminate the new 10%
residential tax exemption, and why?

I am an unequivocal advocate for the Residential Exemption. Over a year ago, I saw it as an innovative way to address the tax burden of the $110million Middle School on lower income, and in many cases, long-time residents. It was not a perfect solution, but there are few options available under state law. The major components of tax increases some have felt are not the RTE, but the Middle School debt and higher assessments, matters over which the Select Board has little control. 10% seemed like a fair estimate of the tax relief needed for the purpose, and I would not favor any increase.

​3. Of the potential options for redevelopment of the MCI-Concord property, what are
your top priorities, and why?

The options discussed include upgrades to the Rotary, conservation and recreation, housing (market and affordable), municipal use, retail and commercial development, and ownership of the on-site treatment plant. The Select Board, and I as Chair, have been working with the Lt. Governor, the Director of the Department of Capital Asset Management and our three state legislators to refine the process outlined in the State Budget and to form our own Advisory Committee to shape the process and to assure that it reflects the priorities and needs of the Town.

​It is likely that some will go to housing, some to realignment of Route 2 and that the Town will obtain control of the treatment plant. In addition, I think it essential that the ultimate uses provide the Town with the significant net revenue growth which, along with fiscal restraint, is needed to keep our taxes under control.