SHUTESBURY — Both candidates running for a three-year seat on the Selectboard in Saturday’s town election are hoping to address the growing financial pressure on households and find ways to increase municipal revenue without compromising services.
Voters at the election, which runs from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. at Shutesbury Elementary School, will decide between James P. Walton Jr. and Thomas R. Siefert, who are vying for the position that has been held by Rita Farrell for the past six years. The rest of the ballot features a mix of incumbents and newcomers for uncontested positions.
Residents will also vote on the second step in making the town clerk’s position appointed, rather than elected. That was approved in an initial Special Town Meeting vote last fall.
Thomas R. Siefert
Siefert, who has lived in town for nearly nine years with his husband Frank, has served as an associate member of the Planning Board and brings a wide background in education, the biotech and pharmaceutical fields, and oversight of a nonprofit.
“I realize affordability is on everyone’s mind, and I see our town at a point where there are people who can’t afford [their taxes],” Siefert said. “They want a pledge to tackle affordability, and they see that I’m able to do it.”
Siefert said he intends to advocate on behalf of Shutesbury, in conjunction with other communities, specifically to ask legislators for more funds to support the schools.
“We’ve got to increase revenue and tighten spending that doesn’t compromise public services,” Siefert said.
One avenue for money is through the Quabbin Reservoir and the associated state legislation seeking better payments in lieu of taxes.
“We deserve better compensation,” Siefert said, adding that he will push for more money for protecting forestland, and also more representation of towns bordering the Quabbin on the Massachusetts Water Resource Authority board.
Siefert wants to ensure there is sufficient funding for roads, and to acknowledge and confront the climate issues that threaten the quality of life in town. For roads, Siefert said the town needs to make sure that gravel roads are holding up so that runoff doesn’t affect Lake Wyola and other sensitive areas.
While large-scale solar development has been seen by some as a way to bring money to the town, Siefert said revenue sources need to align with the town’s rural character.
Siefert works part-time as clerk to Wendell’s Board of Health and Planning Board, and for several years has been active in local initiatives for adult literacy and adult basic education, such as teaching English every Wednesday to employees at a hospital in Springfield and at a factory in Westfield through a workplace improvement program.
One of his pushes will be for a change to the town’s “cultural element,” and to bring back conversation, responsiveness and openness that has been lacking.
“I’m very confident, very comfortable, that I can be able to ask the tough questions,” Siefert said, adding that he wants full input and involvement from the community. “The past 10 to 15 years don’t feel as open to that, and that can lead to mistrust and decisions being made that are not as open as they could be.”
James P. Walton Jr.
Walton, who moved to Shutesbury with his partner Shelly 15 years ago, brings a professional background in management and has served on the Finance Committee for more than a decade, including two years as its chair.
Walton said he would bring to the Selectboard an appreciation of how revenues are not keeping up with costs, and the increasing residential tax burden.
“I’m running because I’ve had the experience with my career and knowledge with the Finance Committee to understand these kinds of problems, and understand what it means to address them,” Walton said. “We’ve got huge challenges, truly unprecedented challenges.”
Walton said it is also important to support the level of services residents expect. He sees the potential to advocate so the town can benefit financially from being a host community to the Quabbin Reservoir.
“We’ve been excellent stewards,” Walton said. “We need to get that value and we need to make sure that consumers in Boston understand that.”
Walton said he would model new revenue after how town leaders used their tenacity to get a state grant to help build the new library, and to get municipal broadband infrastructure in place. “We need to find types of economic development solutions,” Walton said.
Getting support from current volunteers is also essential.
“There are lot of good volunteers who are focused on what is good for the town,” he said.
Walton said he also understands long-term planning, capital requests and cash reserves.
As someone who has been the Finance Committee’s representative to the Personnel Board and the Capital Planning Committee, and served on hiring committees for both the police and fire chiefs, Walton would like to serve as a mentor to other town officials.
“The role of the Selectboard is to protect the community feel,” Walton said, whether that is for the school, Lake Wyola, the library or the Shutesbury Athletic Club. “We need to make sure all of them thrive.”
Fundraising for the Amherst A Better Chance program, being a treasurer for a foundation that supports disabled veterans education at Northeastern University and
supporting assimilation of a refugee family into the region, as well as being a 35-year-member of the Sierra Club, are among other work he’s involved in.
“I’ve moved a lot in my life,” Walton said. “Shutesbury is the first place I’ve felt a sense of community, and has open space that is also close to cultural types of activity.”
Other candidates
Incumbents seeking reelection are Anna Cederberg Heard for a three-year term on the School Committee; Steven H. Bressler and Michael Joseph DeChiara, both for three-year terms on the Planning Board; Garrett W. Simonsen for a three-year seat on the Board of Health; Elizabeth India Murphy for a three-year term as library trustee; and Walter Robert Tibbetts for a three-year term on the Cemetery Commission.
Newcomers on the ballot are Claire R. Pless for a three-year seat on the Board of Health; Anne Hartwell Graham for a three-year term as a library trustee; and Andrew James Reagan for a three-year term on the Municipal Light Plant Board.
