At-Large Concord City Councilor Coen Won't Run For Re-Election

CONCORD, NH — One of the city's at-large councilors, who is up for re-election in November, has decided not to run. Mark Coen, who lives in Ward 5 in the West End, will not be a candidate in the fall. The president and CEO of Page Belting in Boscawen, and fixture within the city's business community for many years, said it was time to allow other people the opportunity to run and move the city into the future.

Coen said that when he first decided to run for the special election held in 2006, he was in his mid-50s and told himself when he got to be 70, he would step down. That happened earlier this year, he said.

"There are people on the council that, I think, I'm confident, could be on the council for many, many years," he said. "Personally, to me, (any decision) is based individually."

The 2006 special election was held after the resignation of long-time councilor Jim McGonigle, who was the police chief in Allenstown, until he was arrested and indicted on theft charges, for skimming thousands of dollars from accounts run by the department.

Coen easily bested five other candidates, and ran again in 2007, 2011, and 2015, and easily won re-election.

In looking at 13 years working on the council, Coen said he was most proud of the city's action to stave off detrimental effects of the Great Recession not long after he became councilor. Those moves – being proactive and frugal with finances, maneuvering expenses, and creating a solid foundation on how to move forward – led to many of the "good news" developments that have happened in the last decade or so, he said.

"There are people who don't remember that," he said. "The city was very cautious with (its) finances (but) it led to a high bond rating and solid budgets."

What followed – a revitalized downtown, a multi-generational community center, and a new Sewalls Falls Road Bridge – probably wouldn't have been constructed otherwise.

"I'm very, very pleased that all that happened when I was on the council," he said.

There were also some "little touches" that no one probably noticed but were still important, Coen added. Things like the new chairs in the Council chambers, "getting rid of those 1960s plastic chairs with something that was more comfortable so people were sitting for four hours in them," and changing the tax bill text so people weren't confused by their bills. Work on the parking committee, too, making recommendations and seeing both the financials and management "turnaround" while also increasing meter enforcement, even though the jobs are hard to fill due to the booming economy, were also positives, Coen said.

One thing that caught the council and the city complete off-guard was the opioid and, later, methamphetamine crisis.

"I think we did OK," he said. "It just exploded in a very short period of time … we were trying to get our head around not only what caused it but how to move forward, along with the state and federal level. Instead of trying to reinvent the wheel … and jump in saying, 'We are going to do this or that,' that didn't make sense to me; it was better to see what other cities and states were doing to dealing with (it)."

Coen was one of six councilors who voted last week to sweeten the Employment Security building development deal with millions of dollars of incentives for a Massachusetts developer that, ultimately, failed to pass the council, which he found disappointing. At the same time, not everything he has backed has been approved.

"You have 14 councilors and a mayor voting on this," he said. "There truly isn't a right or wrong answer on these things."

But even with him gone, he's confident good work will still get done.

"I'm sure that the city council will continue to make strides for the city, especially under the leadership of (Mayor) Jim Bouley," Coen said.

Coen said he will still be working at Page Belting although admitted he would be taking some time off to play golf and do other things. He is lucky, he said, to have "a tremendous staff here, taking on more and more responsibilities of the day-to-day operations, which is great."

Coen added, "I want to continue for another 152 years."

The next municipal election will be held on Nov. 5. Candidates interested in running for mayor, at-large city council, or ward city council can file between Sept. 6, and Sept. 16, for a $5 fee, or by signature petition until Sept. 20.

For more information, visit the Concord City Clerk's Election Page.

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