WHATELY — Lifelong Whately resident Bradley Bean will be joining the Selectboard on July 1 after winning at the polls on Tuesday.
With 43 voters writing in his name as a candidate, Bean earned nearly double the votes of his closest competitor, fellow write-in candidate Joshua Harris, who earned 21 votes. The other two candidates, Justin Davis and Lynn Sibley, both write-ins, received five votes.
Bean will take current Selectboard Chair Joyce Palmer-Fortune’s seat on the Selectboard.
After a total of 15 years on the Selectboard, broken up in two separate stints, Palmer-Fortune decided to step down to clear a place for a new voice at the table.
“Fifteen years is enough for one person. It was time to let someone else have a seat,” she said. “It serves our town better to have new people in these roles over time.”
Although Bean will be a new name on the Selectboard’s roster, he is not a stranger to Palmer-Fortune.
The longtime Whately resident first met Bean at Whately Elementary School’s open house for incoming kindergartners. Her son and Bean shared a classroom at the school for many years. Looking back to her son’s time at the elementary school, she remembered Bean’s knack for numbers and science, and his friendly air from an early age.
“I was happily surprised to hear about his write-in for Selectboard,” Palmer-Fortune said.
As someone who grew up in Whately and now works at Triple B Blasting LLC in town, Bean is a familiar face to many other residents.
“Pretty much everybody in Whately is a good person and good to get along with. I’ve come to know a lot of people,” Bean said. “I couldn’t imagine living anywhere else.”
When a few residents encouraged him to run for Selectboard and said they planned on writing his name on the ballot, Bean decided to follow in the footsteps of his father, former Selectboard member Harlan Bean, and represent the community he has called home for many years.
“Talking to some people in town, there’s people with certain opinions but maybe they don’t want to go into town government, and they were looking for someone who could speak for them,” Bean said. “Now that I’m an adult, I have a house, I pay taxes. It does matter to me what’s going on in town. … I figured, what better way than to be a part of it, to make sure everyone’s needs are being met and everybody gets listened to.”
With a seat at Selectboard meetings, Bean plans to not only ensure the town is meeting the needs of its residents, but also using funds “sensibly” and alleviating the tax burden on residents when possible.
Although discussing town matters is a far cry from blasting stone for asphalt, pavement and other crushed stone products, Bean believes his experience interacting with customers and managing employees’ day-to-day work as the supervisor at Triple B Blasting LLC will help him build relationships in the town offices.
As a 33-year-old father and newcomer to town government, Bean said he “can bring a fresh perspective” to the Selectboard as “someone who’s been on the outside looking in.”
“I’m brand new, I have a lot to learn,” Bean said. “I’m eager to get started and immerse myself in town government and how everything works, so I can hit the ground running.”
Other election results
According to election results from Town Clerk Amy Lavallee, 165 voters took to the polls on Tuesday, electing the following candidates:
- Whately Elementary School Committee, three-year term — David Theoharides, 132 votes, incumbent.
- Whately Elementary School Committee, three-year term — failure to elect.
- Assessor, three-year term — Michael Husted, 142 votes, incumbent.
- Board of Health, three-year term — Rebecca Jones, 139 votes, incumbent.
- Library trustees, two seats with three-year terms — Debra Carney, 144 votes and George Colt, 139 votes, both incumbents.
- Water commissioner, three-year term — Georgeann Dufault, 139 votes, incumbent.
- Cemetery commissioner, three-year term — failure to elect.
- Town moderator, one-year term — Joyce Palmer-Fortune, 113 votes (write-in candidate Paul Antaya earned five votes).
- Elector Under the Oliver Smith Will, one-year term — Keith Bardwell, 148 votes, incumbent.
