NEWPORT — A challenger is vying with two incumbent Selectboard members for two, three-year terms on the board in Tuesday’s election.

James Burroughs, the board’s current chairman and a former Newport Police chief, is running for his second term, while Jeff Kessler, elected in 2007, is seeking a seventh, three-term.

The third candidate, Doug Ring, owns a towing company and has run unsuccessfully for the board in the last three municipal elections. Ring declined a couple of requests to discuss his candidacy.

The incumbents said the new $9 million community center, which opened in March, was a major accomplishment for the board over the last three years, particularly in light of two failed bond votes for the center in 2019 and 2022.

“I was a big supporter of the community center and I kept pushing for it during the slow period when COVID hit and it was put aside,” Kessler, 71, said. “That has been on the wish list for a couple of decades and we pulled it off.”

Burroughs, 51, noted that no direct local tax dollars were required to build the center and the Selectboard and other boards worked “hard to make it happen.”

If reelected, Burroughs’ focus, he said, would be on ensuring quality personnel to lead municipal departments. As a lifelong Newport resident who served as police chief for 10 years, has been on the zoning board and, most recently, the town manager search committee, Burroughs said he has a solid perspective on the town’s needs and challenges as well as how it has evolved and changed.

“The thing I am most proud of was the national search to replace the town manager and hiring Kyle Harris,” said Burroughs, who retired as police chief five years ago. “I helped see the town through that transition and also the retirement of the finance director (Paul Brown) to ensure we have good high quality people.”

Newport hired Harris last year. He replaced Hunter Rieseberg, who resigned in 2023. Brown retired last summer after 32 years as Newport’s finance director.

Burroughs said he is a firm believer that hiring and retaining personnel in key departments helps the town become more efficient with its resources. He said Newport has always had consistency in its employees, but lost some of that consistency a few years ago, which it needs to rebuild.

“We need to create and foster a town employ environment that leads to long-term, tenured employees,” Burroughs said. “That is very important to me.”

Kessler, who works part-time for a medical device manufacturer in Lebanon, previously served on the Newport School Board and is the Selectboard representative on the Zoning Board.

“People see what I have done and how I feel about the town and how I approach issues,” Kessler said. “They know what they are getting with me.”

If reelected, Kessler said his priorities will be getting a new well in North Newport on line and replacing water lines from the town water source in Unity.

Kessler said the board is asking residents to support a warrant article on the ballot for $200,000 to pave streets and roads because the default budget the town is operating under this year did not include paving money.

“We need to rebuild that and get that (paving) back on track,” Kessler said.

Kessler and Burroughs acknowledge the challenges the board faces in providing town services while carefully watching taxes and both say they have been good stewards of the town’s limited resources.

“Some people here are doing well and really like the town but there are also some on fixed incomes.

“I’ve seen them struggling and have talked to them,” Kessler said, adding that Newport’s government has always had financial challenges as a former mill town. “But we understand what is needed to keep the town moving forward.”

Burroughs said the town is not a “bottomless pit” when it comes to paying people or funding projects so they always keep a close eye on the tax rate impact.

“It is a balancing act,” he said. “We need to do more but only can afford to do so much.”

Kessler hopes the board remains as is because he believes members work well together, even when they don’t agree.

“We can come to a consensus and move forward and people will continue to see steady progress,” Kessler said.

Patrick O’Grady can be reached at pogclmt@gmail.com.