ORANGE — Ryan W. Mailloux feels the town is moving in a positive direction and a jolt of youth could help facilitate that progress.
“I do … believe that bringing in a different generation’s mind will help it get in that direction a little faster,” he said. “I truly believe that the town is ready for a different hand to be in the mix and not necessarily the same hands that have kind of been running the town for years.”
Mailloux turned 24 years old on Oct. 21, making him 34 years younger than Richard Kwiatkowski and 40 years younger than Robert Stack, his opponents in the race for a vacant seat on the Orange Board of Selectmen. The town has scheduled a special election for Tuesday to replace Walter Herk, who resigned on Aug. 31.
Mailloux said he admires and respects the experience offered by his opponents and the current selectmen, but he believes the board needs new blood.
“Right now, there just seems to be a big shuffle between the same people over and over again and we definitely need to change that,” he said while sitting at the picnic table outside Wheeler Memorial Library recently. “It’s the last thing I think the town needs, is more of the same.”
Mailloux said Orange is blessed to be paired so closely with Athol, though he would oppose any attempt to commercialize the way Athol has, most notably with the big-box stores in North Quabbin Commons. He said he wants to see Orange develop more of a small-business village concept, with the Millers River serving as a major draw.
However, he said he sees no reason why Orange can’t bring a large manufacturer to town.
Mailloux said he graduated from Ralph C. Mahar Regional School (where he served as Key Club lieutenant governor) in 2011 and went on to earn an associate’s degree in fashion merchandising from Bay State College in Boston. He said he now works for a bank, though he declined to name which one.
Mailloux said many of his high school friends left the area for college and never came back, due to lack of appeal and opportunity.
“We need to make people of my generation want to live here, want to buy property here. I mean, that’s the American dream, that’s how society works — people buying property and paying taxes on the property,” he said. “That’s how this whole thing works.”