Groton — Harry Watson has lived across the street from Keith Hedrick for so long that Watson knows the sound Hedrick’s truck makes when it comes down the road before it pulls in the driveway.

The two share vegetables from their gardens.

They don’t talk politics.

Now Watson, a Republican town councilor, is running for mayor of Groton City on May 1 against Hedrick, the city’s deputy mayor and a Democrat.

“What’s funny about it is the city’s a small community,” said Watson, who lives on Shennecossett Parkway. “I’m running against the guy across the street. Maybe we should swap signs once in a while.”

They’re not the only ones. On the same street, Republicans Emily Maher and Joshua Trask, who live across from each other, are running for City Council seats. Their homes are a short distance from Round Hill Road, where Democratic City Councilor Lawrence Gerrish, who is seeking re-election, lives.

“I know many of the opposing party people who are running,” Gerrish said. “As far as I know, they’re all good people. And hopefully if they get in, they’ll do a good job.”

Republicans Christopher M. Calkins Jr., who works for a virtual assistance business; William J. Robarge, an engineer and former town assistant director of public works; and Robert L. Zuliani, the Republican City Committee chairman, also are running for council seats.

Democratic incumbent City Councilors Conrad F. Heede, Stephen Sheffield and Jill Rusk are seeking re-election. The city Democratic Party also endorsed newcomers Rashaad Carter, a state trooper, and Jamal Beckford, an engineer at Electric Boat.

The campaign is just getting started, but Republicans are mounting a full slate to try to gain seats on the all-Democratic City Council, many of whose members ran unopposed in 2015.  

It's off to an amicable start.

“Really, everybody wants to do what’s best for the city,” said Trask, whose eldest son went trick-or-treating at Hedrick’s house and whose wife is one of City Mayor Marian Galbraith’s former students. “We just have different ways of looking at what that might be. ... I don’t see any reason to poison it by being negative.”

But some issues could prove contentious. The city and town have been divided for years over budgets and twice went to arbitration over town cuts to city highway funding. The city prevailed in both instances.

After one of the cuts in 2015, Groton City Council members proposed a resolution that would explore ways for the city to become financially independent from the town, including secession. City councilors at the time said they felt the town treated them unfairly. Town Council members, on the other hand, argued that the city was uncooperative about discussing ways to cut costs.

Gerrish said city and town leaders simply have different views at times. “I appreciate the town mayor and councilors over there, I know what their intent is,” he said Tuesday. “They’re trying to fund the affairs of all of the town as cost-effectively as they can. Unfortunately, we don’t always agree.”

Watson said he values city services; that's part of why he lives in the city. But local revenues and state support are declining and the town and city must work jointly to find savings to maintain services, he said.

“Communication and cooperation between the city and the town is just about as bad as it’s ever been and I’ve been around for 26 years. There’s never been a ‘let’s sit down and work together’ attitude,” Watson said. “It’s frustrating. Our funding is going to get hard for everybody with what’s going on in the state. We need to think about ways to maintain our services and cut the costs a little bit and learn from each other. That’s a two-way street.”

Hedrick painted a different picture.

“The councils could work better together to accomplish goals if they would get together and treat each other as equals,” he said. “What happens is the town dictates to the city what it’s going to do. We’re realistic. We come in there with level budgets and we still get cut. It takes two to cooperate. Cooperation by the city doesn’t mean submission to the town.”

The city, which includes Electric Boat and Pfizer Inc., provides 30 percent of the town’s tax base but asks for only 3 to 4 percent back for police and highways, Hedrick said.

“That’s all we ask for,” he said. “The town does not provide these services. They do not provide these services to us. The city is allowed to be its own municipality, and we deserve the services that we have in the city.”

Trask, a radiological control supervisor at Electric Boat, said he’s concerned about openness, citing the failed cable venture Thames Valley Communications. The city ended up with debt of $27.5 million.

“In the job I work in, we work with a government regulator,” Trask said. “So we have to be the first to raise our hand if we make a mistake. That’s something that’s been instilled in me: ‘Don’t cover up your mistakes.’ There was just a lot that was not released." 

Hedrick said the Thames Valley losses resulted from a business decision that didn’t work and were publicly discussed at City Council meetings. He was elected toward the end of the venture, and the only clear option was liquidating the company, he said. The city has begun paying off the debt, he added.

“That ship has sailed and what is done there is done there," he said. "And you can’t get it back.”

Republican Town Councilor Greg Grim, who is seeking a City Council seat, said he believes it would be helpful to the city to have someone who’d also served on the Town Council.

“In my mind, we’re all in the same boat,” he said. “There‘s just this sentiment of the city against the town, and I hope to alleviate some of that. Being on the Town Council and a city resident, I don’t feel that way.”

d.straszheim@theday.com