GREENFIELD — Drawing on her experience as an elected union leader and staff sergeant in the military, Greenfield resident Sheila Gilmour is making a run for Precinct 6 town councilor.
Gilmour, 35, works as a clerk in the Registrar’s Office at the University of Massachusetts and has lived in Greenfield for the past five years. Formerly a Russian linguist in the military, Gilmour also has a master’s degree in Public Policy and Administration from UMass.
Gilmour is running against Russell Johnson in the Nov. 7 election.
She decided to run for election several years ago after seeing the low number of candidates in Greenfield’s last town election.
“I was surprised to see that so few people actually had an opponent,” she said. “I just felt like we have to have more options, otherwise what’s the point if only one person runs? So I decided a few years ago that I was going to do that.”
Gilmour said because things happen so quickly in Greenfield, she’s always learning something new. Currently, she’s researching needle exchanges in an effort to better understand the issue.
“I think it’s important to reach out and take their knowledge and expertise and translate that into a policy here in Greenfield,” she said, adding she hopes to apply that to other policies in town, as well.
Gilmour is the communications officer for the University Staff Association, as well as a delegate to the Massachusetts Democratic Convention, the Massachusetts Teachers Association Annual Meeting and the Franklin-Hampshire Central Labor Council.
“You don’t think of a (non-commissioned officer) and a union leader being the same kind of person, and I think that shows we’re a complex sort of a town and I think we need people with complex backgrounds to understand all these nice issues that come up,” Gilmour said.
She sees the proposed new public library is one of the of the biggest issues Greenfield will face in the near future.
“I’m a big supporter for the library, because it’s an important part of our community,” she said, adding it’s important to make the $20.96 million investment now, while the town has a $9.3 million state matching grant. “In the future, without those resources I would be concerned it would be more expensive.”
Gilmour expects a discussion about whether to make Greenfield a “safe city” for undocumented immigrants to come up again — an idea she previously spoke in favor of, but which was defeated recently.
She said she also hopes to advocate for the town’s public schools and foster a safe community where all residents feel respected.