Three residents are vying for two seats on the Pembroke select board. Incumbents Bryan Christiansen and Sandy Goulet are both seeking re-election with Peter Gagyi, who served on the board last year, running again.

Goulet did not respond to an interview request.

Bryan Christiansen has lived in Pembroke for 17 years. He volunteered to fill a vacancy on the select board in 2024, and now, he’s running for a full three-year term.

To Christiansen, Pembroke is his adopted hometown — he raised his children and is raising his step-daughter in town, and before joining the select board, he served on the town planning board and capital improvements committee.

“I had been involved civically pretty much my entire life,” he said. “You can’t just sit back and complain, or you can, but I think it’s important to get involved and I have the time and that’s what I’m doing.”

If elected, Christiansen would like to continue his work on the town’s economic development committee, which fell dormant during the pandemic but was designed to attract businesses to Pembroke. He revamped the group after joining the board last year.

The committee is currently orchestrating an inventory of businesses in town and an accompanying survey with the end goal of bringing ideas forward about how to grow and maintain Pembroke’s local economy.

With school budgets driving local property taxes and a growing need to fund state road maintenance, Christiansen said the more state aid Pembroke can get the better.

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“I’ve spent a lot of time on sports sidelines in our theater audience,” he said. “These people which were just once neighbors are now friends. I think it’s the tight knit community that draws me in.”

Peter Gagyi previously served on the Pembroke select board, deciding not to run for another term in 2024. Now, after a year away, he wants back in.

“I really miss being a selectman,” he said.

Last year, Gagyi watched as voters at the Pembroke school meeting cut the budget by 10%, or $3 million, forcing the district to eliminate 20 jobs as a result.

He worries the school meeting will be dejavu for voters again this year, with a similar $33 million proposed budget. As a select board member, he hopes to convey to residents that he will work to keep the local portion of tax bills more sustainable.

While on the select board, Gagyi served as the representative to the budget committee.

In the 12 years he has lived in New Hampshire, Gagyi has also watched tension build over funding, more specifically adequacy grants, sent to local towns from the state to fund public education. To him, the funds should be rephrased as “a supplement.”

“It’s not about adequacy or anything like that,” he said. “It’s just money that we’re giving you to run your school system.”

For 47 years, Gagyi has been self employed. He is still working, which he believes would help him manage the town’s finances.

“I think I bring an experience of lasting 47 years in business,” he said. “I know how to budget.”

Beyond budgeting, Gagyi hopes to bring experience and a sense of dedication to the job. He knows what it’s like to represent the town to the public, and he wants to continue to guide his community.

“I love my town. I love this town and I want to give something back,” he said. “I bring to the table common sense. I’ll listen to anybody tell tell me anything, as a Selectmen, and then I make my decisions.”

WARRANT ARTICLES: Residents will also vote on a handful of zoning amendments to update definitions on town ballots.

At the town meeting, warrant articles ask residents if they would like the town to purchase machinery for the public works department and complete repairs to Memorial Park.

Residents will also consider proposals to fund services for Court Appoint Special Advocates and support for community based health care and wellness services from Granite VNA.

Pembroke is also one of a handful of towns that has a citizen petition asking the legislators to reject any expansion of Education Freedom Accounts. If passed, the petition requires the Pembroke Select Board to write to the governor and state legislature within 30 days expressing their opposition to using taxpayer dollars to fund private and religious education.

WHEN AND WHERE: Voting will take place on Tuesday, March 11 from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. in the gym at Pembroke Academy. Pembroke Town Meeting will be held at 9 a.m. on March 15 also at Pembroke Academy.