Williamstown Candidate O'Connor Looking at Variety of Issues
The annual town election is Tuesday, May 12, from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. in the elementary school gymnasium.
There are four candidates vying for the open seat being vacated by Thomas Sheldon. This is one of four interviews with the candidates; the others are Alison O'Grady, Jack Nogueira and Martino Donati.
There are three candidates running for two open seats on the Elementary School Committee.
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — A couple of the candidates running in the four-way race for one Board of Selectmen seat are identified with a particular issue.
Perhaps none is more strongly identified with a cause than Anne O'Connor.
But O'Connor wants voters to know she is interested in more than just the environmental causes with which she is identified.
"I recognize that the select board will be a shift in focus for me because I have paid a lot of attention to environmental issues in the past year, and I recognize the select board has oversight over all town issues," O'Connor said this week. "I can't be a single-issue candidate.
"I'm looking forward to being involved in the town in all of its aspects — affordable housing, road repair, the needs of businesses."
That said, O'Connor's interest in running for the board was piqued through her work promoting a town meeting warrant article opposing the proposed Kinder Morgan gas pipeline, and she published a column in a local periodical advocating for a townwide ban on plastic bags and polystyrene. It is worth noting that her column suggests the town may want to delay such action and follow the path of study favored by the current Board of Selectmen.
O'Connor shared her thoughts on green issues, other issues and what motivated her to throw her hat into the ring.
Q: How is the campaign going?
A: It's going well. My first comment is that I'm really glad it is a contested race.
It's been a learning process for me. I've made up fliers and gone around distributing them. I've met more people who I didn't know lived in Williamstown.
Q: How have you been finding them?
A: I've been at events around town — the library book sale, Sheep to Shawl, the Humane Race, after school at the elementary school.
Q: Saturday was a busy day with the Humane Race and Sheep to Shawl back to back.
A: And I went to both of them. At Sheep to Shawl, I got distracted and spent half an hour watching the sheep dogs and sheep shearing. But I did talk to people there.
Q: What are you hearing? Are people bringing you information or questions?
A: A lot of people take the flier and thank me. ... It has some of these 'green' bullet points, emphasizing energy efficiency in terms of the Mount Greylock Building Project.
Q: How is the select board going to get involved in that process?
A: I think the select board would have an important role to play in terms of making sure the townspeople are educated about what needs to happen up there. Whatever the [district] chooses to do - from a basic repair to a new building — it will need the support of the townspeople. There's going to be voting on the budget.
Q: So you see the Selectman as being a distributor of information, but obviously it's the district that brings it to a vote.
A: It's the School Committee, the building committee and the state. But I think having a select board that supports those decisions and provides yet another forum for townspeople to talk about what they want to happen is important.
I imagine the select board would even be fielding questions now and then.
Just to show that we're all on the same page with it and trying to make something happen.
Q: What are some of your other bullet points?
A: I love biking, so I'm eager to see our bike path moving along, which I think it finally is.
Just having the town have a 'green' identity. As I said at the candidates' panel, I'd like to use our identity as a green town to attract more visitors, attract businesses.
Q: How do you see the select board playing a role in that? Obviously, there are other avenues for promoting a green agenda, like the COOL [Carbon Dioxide Lowering] Committee.
A: First of all, I want to say I recognize that the select board will be a shift in focus for me because I have paid a lot of attention to environmental issues in the past year, and I recognize the select board has oversight over all town issues. I can't be a single-issue candidate.
I'm looking forward to being involved in the town in all of its aspects — affordable housing, road repair, the needs of businesses.
The COOL Committee, they've done a lot. I think this is a critical time, though. We'll be getting a new town manager. I'm not sure how it will shift things, but I think it can. Obviously, we need someone who can manage. But I think a town manager with some vision could help with this identity of the town.
Also, the work that Andy Hogeland and Hugh Daley are doing with the Economic Development Committee — I see this idea of being a green community very much tying into that work. They'll be looking at ideas about marketing the town. I think a good selling point about the town is its green identity. That's something that would definitely appeal to new residents and visitors.
Q: Are you talking about the town's current green identity or do you think that needs to be enhanced?
A: My feeling is the identity is already latent. It's there. A lot of work has been done. We have municipal solar going in on the landfill. The COOL Committee has done a lot of work with the Solarize project and rooftop solar and light bulb replacement. Williamstown supported the expanded bottle [proposal last November] by the largest majority in the state.
But at the same time, just 5 percent of homes in Williamstown had a home energy assessment. That number could be improved on.
I'm not a homeowner, but my parents own a house in town. They had the home energy audit as part of doing rooftop solar. And for just a few hundred dollars of their own money, they received funding to insulate their attic space and save a lot on their heating bill.
A latent identity, but one that could be sold in a way. I don't to be emphasizing the marketing so much, but an identity that could be brought to the fore and expanded.
Q: What are some of the other areas where you think the town could be working?
A: I live in affordable housing myself. I do think there needs to be more affordable housing. I wonder sometimes if people have a fear about what kind of people affordable housing would bring to town.
In the building where I live, every single person is contributing to the town.
There's a group working on a co-housing project. They're looking at some land in the Blackinton district. I would encourage people to consider co-housing.
I know it's a bit of a learning curve, but I tend to think in terms of community, and co-housing is just a slightly tighter community where you're sharing the same laundry and common rooms. I think what makes a small town work is community.
One of the things that's heartened me about the campaign and being out talking to people is I've felt that. I've felt that Williamstown is a pretty tightly knit community.
I'm not saying it's not opinionated. There are a lot of smart people here and people with their own ideas, but it's a small, tight-knit community.
Q: The co-housing project you mention would be in North Adams.
A: Yes. I see that at this stage as being just an idea to go talk to the Affordable Housing Committee about. I know they're looking at buying single family houses and modifying them. ... If you're putting a two-family unit into a single house, how much of the household needs could be made communal and shared within that household? Could a neighborhood become an informal co-housing community?
These are sort of vision statements. I don't have any concrete details to share. But I definitely feel we should expand affordable housing in town. We should not be afraid of that.
I'd like to see more socio-economic diversity in town. I'd like that a lot of the people we encounter in the schools or the businesses, the restaurants also be town residents. Many of them are not. Many of the teachers at the school can't afford to live in Williamstown.
And they have the additional burden that they have to travel to their jobs, even in the winter. They're the ones who have to do a 40-minute commute just to get to their jobs in town.
Q: You mention communal living. Are there opportunities that you see for the town to create new affordable housing — whether on the Water Street lot or some other parcel?
A: We have the Photech lot that is happening. Cable Mills will have some affordable units. I do see the town garage site as a residential possibility, possibly with some commercial space on the ground floor.
At the same time, I think it would be good to move toward a transparent dialogue with the college. ... Does the college want to do something with that spot?
Q: Do you think there is generally a good relationship between the town and the college?
A: My feeling is Williamstown is blessed to have the college because when you look at what rural poverty is in folks that don't have a Williams College or a Clark Art Institute or even an industry, clearly the town has benefited. And the college is not going to ship its jobs overseas. It's really here to stay, and it really takes a benevolent interest in the town.
That's why the word I use is transparency. I feel sometimes it would be beneficial to have a process of town input on projects of theirs that will impact the town. When they want to see a vibrant Sping Street for the benefit of their students, we also want their vision to mesh with what Williamstown residents want to see as a vibrant street. Largely, those visions do overlap. But the process should be one of dialogue.
By saying that, I'm not saying it isn't. That dialogue is probably happening. But by being on the select board, that would put me in the position of participating in those discussions.
Q: As do other committees like Planning Board and Zoning Board — which leads to another question: Why start your service at the select board level? Did you have any hesitation about jumping into town governance at that level?
A: No. Possibly I'm being naive. And it's an interesting panel of candidates this year in that three of us are jumping right in to that ringleader's seat, if that's what it is. I have to say, I think a lot of the real nuts and bolts work happens at the committee level.
I thought before now that to be on the Planning Board, I had to have a background in urban planning of some kind, or to be on the Zoning Board, it would be good to be a lawyer.
To be on the select board, it's good to be someone who can work with other people, someone who can listen, someone who can make decisions and recognize when compromises need to be made.
I think while it's important for me to have my own ideas, it's just as important to realize the valuable input we can get from this talented pool of people in town.
I was struck by the Economic Development Committee's forum ... I went in thinking I needed to have a bunch a great ideas to tell everyone about. And it turns out I was just blown away by what came from all the tables.
Why did I pick the select board? ... Through some of the environmental activism I've done this year working to get the anti-pipeline resolution on the town meeting warrant and more recently working on the plastic bag and polystyrene articles — to me, it demystified the select board. I found myself in front of them and realized their job is one of looking at an issue, reading up on it, informing themselves and either making a decision themselves or taking it to the town.
I thought, 'Well, I don't have to be a lawyer to do that.'
Tags: election 2015, Selectmen, town elections,
