Thomas joins Levasseur, Infantine during Aldermanic filing

MANCHESTER, N.H. – Earlier this week, former Ward 12 Board of School Committee Member Kelly Thomas filed to run for the Ward 12 seat on the Board of Mayor and Aldermen (BMA).

Joined by At-Large Aldermanic Candidates Joseph Kelly Levasseur and Will Infantine filing shortly afterward, Thomas seeks to provide another conservative voice on the BMA and uphold the city’s tax cap.

“I’d like to see a huge change in Manchester and I think a lot of residents would like to see that as well,” she said. “There are a lot of new people running as well, which I think would be very good for the board. I hope we can bring those changes to Manchester.”

Thomas says that the primary issues she’s hearing from neighbors in Ward 12 is homelessness and crime.

“There’s stuff that’s really in your face, day and night,” she said. “There are shootings even during daytime hours now, which is scary for kids heading to daycares or even people going home or to their businesses.”

Levasseur, who has served on the BMA since 2000, praised the filing of Thomas and several other candidates, specifically Thomas, Chris Morgan (Ward 1 Alderman), Mark Flanders (Ward 4 Alderman), Jay Ruais (Mayor) and Bob Baines (Ward 9 Board of School Committee). Sharing similar views to Thomas, Levasseur is optimistic about this fall.

“There’s a real good group of people who have some name recognition that have run before and have some base, they understand what it takes to get in there,” he said. “We have a couple of new people as well jumping in, that is very exciting. Hopefully by the end of the filing period we’ll have a strong team.”

In addition to currently serving as a state representative, Infantine served on the recent School Charter Commission. He was glad that the BMA recently decided to stop a charter referendum from heading to the ballot this fall that would have given budgetary autonomy to the Manchester School District. Like Thomas, he also says he will uphold the tax cap if elected to the BMA to help encourage new business in the city.

“For a business to come in and spend $25 million on something, they will want a uniform tax rate, they don’t want up and down and all around, that’s not good for their business,” he said. “As soon as you start making changes that diminishes the ability of something to come in and invest money. I don’t think some of the people on the board understand that.”

Infantine also hopes to help downtown business as well.

“Businesses are closing, people are afraid to come downtown,” he said. “The homeless and drug addicts have taken over downtown. You can take a blind eye to it, but it’s real and it’s going on and you have got to get to the heart of it or it will ruin downtown for good.”

Filing for this fall’s municipal election concludes on Friday, with a primary on Sept. 19 before the general election in November.