Town Council Primary Candidates 2026: Krista Seanor

Educator and former Dover BOE President inspired to run for contested Ward 2 seat.

Krista Seanor says her work as an educator and board member prepared her for being a Town Council member. (Photo/Krista Seanor)

EDITOR'S NOTE: Carlos Noriega, a Democrat running against Seanor, did not respond to requests to answer the candidate questionnaire.

Krista Seanor has lived in Dover for more than 20 years and has always been active in the community. Find out what motivated her to run for the seat presently held by Geovani Estacio.

1. What led you to run for Council?

I am running largely due to my increasing frustration with the Council’s approval of large-scale residential PILOT agreements with developers, despite our community’s opposition.  Every single resident that I’ve spoken to while canvassing Ward 2 is similarly concerned about the impact of these projects, the latest being 640 (mostly luxury) units located across from our police and fire stations.  These PILOT agreements allow developers to pay a lower rate of taxes than current residents and send no money to our schools.  As this development has 2- and 3-bedroom units, it will certainly send many children into our schools with no accompanying tax dollars.  This then forces the school district to make a terrible choice:  cut programming or raise taxes.  Both of these choices negatively impact our residents.  No one that I’ve spoken to as I’ve canvassed Ward 2 is in favor of this development.   Our current council majority is not listening to its constituents and that absolutely needs to change.

2. What specifically qualifies you to serve your constituents?

My main qualification is the service I have engaged in during my 20+ years as a Dover resident. I served for five years on the Dover Library Board of Trustees, part of that time as Treasurer.  Additionally, I have served for nine years on the Dover Board of Education, including two years as Vice-President and one as President. As a long-time member of the BOE Facilities and Finance committee, I’ve worked closely with the School Business Administrator to oversee a budget larger than the town’s, prioritizing spending in alignment with our goals and carefully cutting wasteful or inefficient spending.  I understand how to collaborate with other board members to reach consensus and make sure that our decisions are made by looking at the needs of our community from many different perspectives.  Every decision should be made by looking at its short and long-term impacts, assessing whether it makes financial sense, and improves the quality of life for Dover residents.

3. What do you think is the most important issue for Second Ward residents?

As I speak to Ward 2 residents, the issue that constantly arises is the development that negatively impacts the town.  These developments impact many aspects of life in every ward.  Many Ward 2 residents take Route 10 to get to the east side of town because the traffic downtown turns a 1.5-mile trip into a 20-minute ordeal.  The parking ordinance, necessary in part because of a lack of parking as well as affordable housing in town, will require numerous Ward 2 residents to pay for a permit because they do not currently have a driveway to park in.  Dover’s rateables have not grown in the last five years, but general inflation, salaries, and the cost of benefits continue to rise.  This means that taxes have gone up for everyone, except the developers with 30-year PILOT agreements, as necessary services such as street paving go unmet due to this funding crunch.

4. What do you see your role as a Council member entailing?

I see my role as two-fold: communicating with my constituents and bringing their concerns to the council, and working with the rest of the council to address concerns and make the decisions that most benefit our town and its residents. As a nine-year member of the Dover BOE, I know that a functioning committee system allows a subset of hard-working committee members to dive deep into issues, do extensive research, and propose a solution to the rest of the board, while being able to justify that solution because of the research and discussion they’ve done. I’ve also worked on the policy committee, collaborating with other board members to craft policies that serve our school community and writing regulations to ensure that the enforcement of the policies is carried out correctly.

5. What is the most important trait or skill you will bring to Council?

The most important trait I will bring to the Council is a deep intellectual curiosity to everything I do, due to my research background and 25 years of teaching science.  I believe that it is my responsibility to understand all parts of any issue by asking questions and doing research.  When residents brought up the terrible traffic downtown, I learned that signal-timing is a way to possibly increase the flow of traffic.  Once information is gathered, I need to listen to constituents’ concerns and differing viewpoints and integrate all that information to make the best possible decision for Dover residents in collaboration with the rest of the council.