By Nicholas Brown
Staff Writer

Hooksett town officials have completed a restructuring of the town's six voting districts for the first time since the town's charter went into effect in 1989.

Though town officials agree that the redistricting is long overdue, some feel it's less than ideal, as information from the 2000 census was the sole data employed to determine the new lines. The restructuring is even causing some to consider revising the town's charter.

"I've been telling councilors for years that it's going to be ugly; and it's ugly," said Bryan Williams, chairman of the Supervisors of the Checklist, the governing agency in charge of the redistricting.

Williams said he has repeatedly pleaded to the town council for the past two years to reestablish a means of collecting voter information locally, since the census data creates large blocks that make districting from neighborhood to neighborhood difficult. The town charter, however, requires that districts be drawn from the census.

The census tracts were drawn in the mid 1980s, Williams said, and "just shuffled around some in the '90s."

With a town that's grown as rapidly as Hooksett, added Williams, the census blocks, which tend to be determined by prominent geographical markers, prevent a true representation of the town's neighborhoods.

Williams said all but District III, which spans a large area west of the Merrimack River, will change substantially when the new districts take effect in the next election cycle. The most heavily impacted district will be District VI, which saw a dramatic population increase with the expansion of Southern New Hampshire University.

The new lines reflect a condition in the charter that allows only a 10 percent deviation from the largest district to the smallest.

Though Williams sees many "unavoidable" flaws with the new districts, he said he is proud that they do not take into account where any particular resident lives.

"The way they were originally drawn was a piece of modern art," he said, pointing out that there was a small bubble of District IV, completely surrounded by District II. He said this allowed a councilor to represent a district, though that councilor was geographically removed from the vast majority of his/her electorate.

When the new districts take effect, four town councilors - Chairman Michael DiBitetto, Pat Rueppel, Stuart Werksman and Phil Fitanides - will fall under District I. The town charter allows a maximum of two town councilors to represent any given district, though councilors may carry out their terms in the district in which they were elected.

"There will be some natural attrition there," said DiBitetto.

The new lines were originally proposed in March, but town councilors asked to postpone the move until they could devise a way to get a more accurate count of the voting population.

"They didn't get more data," said Williams. "I'm not sure what happened there."

DiBitetto said simple inventory questionnaires were sent out with a council newsletter earlier this year, but only about 50 percent of the population responded.

"That information provided little help," he said. Town Administrator David Jodoin said Hooksett's is one of only 36 of the more than 230 New Hampshire municipalities that does not employ the PA-28, a New Hampshire Department of Revenue Administration form that surveys taxable properties.

"It's a good tracking mechanism when you're looking at population data," he said.

For years, Hooksett utilized the inventory form, but several town officials said the PA-28 was put to rest some time in the 1990s.

Jodoin said the forms were a fixture in the 1970s and 1980s before municipalities had building inspectors, adding that their recent popularity is a result of the growth that many of New Hampshire's cities and towns have been experiencing.

Jodoin said he's begun discussions with the council as to the potential cost and ramifications of reinstating the form. He said he also is attempting to contact other New Hampshire municipalities that have a council form of government, including Derry and Londonderry, to learn how they track population data. Williams said he believes the cost of reinstating the PA-28 forms would be outweighed by the benefits.

"A lot of good information comes out of those forms," he said. "I don't see any reason not to bring them back."

DiBitetto said the council is prepared to address concerns voiced by the Supervisors of the Checklist, its three members, he said, put, "a lot of blood, sweat and tears" into the redistricting.

"I think there may be some potential changes to the charter that could be discussed," he said.