Nogueira Stresses Experience in Williamstown Race
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 Anne O'Connor, Alison O'Grady and Martino Donati.
There are three candidates running for two open seats on the Elementary School Committee.
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — Jack Nogueira sees his service to the town as one of the reasons why voters on Tuesday, May 12, should pick him to serve as a member of the Board of Selectmen.
Nogueira has worked with the Williamstown Police Department, the Williams College Campus Safety Department and the Berkshire County sheriff's office. And for more than a decade, he has served on the town's Rent Control Board.
Still in all, he concedes that he is the only one of four select board candidates not born and raised in Williamstown.
"I'm trying to work and do what's best for this town," Nogueira said this week. "I enjoy living in this community. I've lived here for almost 25 years. I know I'm not a native. I understand that.
"But I probably know as many people as anyone. The other three candidates are all natives. They all grew up in Williamstown. They all know people.
"My platform is: I do have some knowledge about town government. I do have some ideas. I'm working for the betterment of the town."
Nogueira, who ran unsuccessfully for the board last spring, share his thoughts about the campaign and his vision for the town:
Q: At what point did you decide to run again and why are you running again?
A: I'm running because I do feel that I have something to offer to the town. I have some ideas.
I've received a few phone calls about the police department. I'm not saying that I'm going to be voted onto the board and right away we're going to build a new police station.
But that's something we need to look at. So is the fire department.
Some candidates have come in and said, 'We want a new school.' The Board of Selectmen doesn't have anything to do with that.
All the selectmen can do is give them some advice or whatever. The selectmen don't have any say in whether a new school gets built.
I just want to serve this community. I've been on the Rent Control Board for almost 16 years, and I enjoy it. I enjoy town government. I enjoy politics.
I value what our political system has to offer. I value the way things get done. It's not always right, and it's not always good, but we have the right to vote for the candidates we want to vote for, we have free speech, we can criticize anyone we want to in a respectful manner. I value that because I've seen what the other side has to offer.
I cherish that.
Q: As long as you bring up the police station, at the [Leauge of Women Voters] forum, you were pretty clear that is something that would be a priority.
A: It would be a priority because we're taking that for granted.
They're talking about economic development. They want this community to grow — how far and how fast, I don't know.
But a police department and a fire department are very important. They're an important part of the community, we need that.
The police station we have now — and I'm very familiar because I served the department — is not conducive to the job that these guys are supposed to be doing. It's not sanitary downstairs where they have the holding cells. It's like a third world police station.
This is Williamstown. We call ourselves Village Beautiful. We should have something where, in case something happens, we're not going to be ashamed to bring people in or afraid to bring people in.
Q: The town has a committee looking into this. Do you feel that there hasn't been enough progress?
A: There's a lack of movement.
We can select all the committees we want to. If we don't move forward, if we just sit around and talk about it, nothing gets accomplished. There has to be some momentum. You've got to stick with it, you've got to work on it.
I'm not saying that would be my only priority. I'm saying that's something I feel is needed and we should certainly look into.
Q: If it ends up being a joint police-fire station, who is the landlord and who is the tenant?
A: That's a problem.
Civilians don't understand it, but you put someone in uniform, and you mix them with two different uniforms, there's going to be a problem. Someone wants to be the top dog. It's just the way it is.
To me, a fire department and police department should be in two separate buildings. They can be in the same area, but two separate buildings. The fire department is responsible for the fire station, and the police department is responsible for the police station.
Don't bring them together because you're just going to create problems, in my opinion.
Q: Another option is to bring the fire department under the umbrella of town government. Do you think that's a long-term solution?
A: I don't see that happening in Williamstown because we're a volunteer fire department.
I think any time something has happened in town, the guys at the fire department have always been there. They're professional people. It's been a great department.
I don't see [bringing the fire department under the town]. If I was on the Board of Selectmen and that was brought to the board, I would certainly look at it and try to figure out if that would be the best thing for the town.
Q: What about that service on the Rent Control Board makes you a strong candidate?
A: I've dealt with the population of Williamstown. When we had the Spruces, it wasn't just me but me and the other members of the Rent Control Board — we dealt not only with the tenants but with the landlord. We faced some legal issues. We fought some legal issues.
I had a great board. I'm the chairman, but we had some great people serving on that board.
I've been lucky in that respect, serving on the Rent Control Board.
What makes me different from everyone else is I look at the whole picture. I don't just look at one thing. I look at the whole picture. I try to see what's going to happen on the horizon, what is this going to create? Is this beneficial to the town?
Q: You mentioned that you don't want to be seen as a single issue candidate. What are some other things that you've seen the selectmen dealing with?
A: I think the affordable housing is something we've talked about before. It's been put on the back burner right now, but it's something we should stay in touch with and try to develop.
We talk about economic development and bringing people into this community, and I'm all for that. I've said it before and I'll say it again: How much are we going to be able to develop this town? It's a small community. There's not much space to develop.
I think we should also worry about the residents we have here now. We should try to maintain them, try to keep them here.
The people we lost at the Spruces — they all moved out of town. We lost citizens. And we should worry about the people living here now and then try to bring other people into the community.
Q: What can town government do to hold onto that population?
A: We talk about the Spruces, that was an act of nature. ... We start talking about building affordable housing, there were a couple of contractors who came to town who wanted to build affordable housing, and I think the ball was dropped. We haven't heard anything since.
Q: Part of that is the fact that the Photech property's rights belong to Berkshire Housing, which is busy developing a project near Proprietors Field.
A: But the Photech property needs to be cleaned. I'm sure there is federal and state money available to get that done. There are so many things that property could be used for. It's a piece of property that is just sitting there right now because it needs to be cleaned.
And there's a cost involved to doing that. I get that. But the thing I also think is by keeping that piece of property empty, you're not creating tax money. Something could come in there that could generate tax money.
It's going to cost money to clean it up, but you have to spend money to make money. You can't just wait around and wait for it to come to you. Let's go to the federal government, let's go to the state government and see what's available to help clean this property up ... and see who else comes in to develop it.
Q: Speaking of spending money to make money, at the [League of Women Voters] Forum when the topic of economic development came up, you talked about marketing the town and its physical attributes, and you talked in the last campaign about promoting those things. Should the town be looking at an actual marketing plan, which costs money?
A: The thing is, if you spend money, you bring people in. They come to shop. They come to spend the weekend here. You're going to create money. You're going to start developing the economy of the town.
People come in and people talk and tell other people, and they come in. Take Northampton. I remember Northampton in the '80s, it was totally empty. It was dead. And somebody came in and had a dream, and one after the other people came in. And now Northampton is doing quite well.
I don't think we're going to go that route with Williamstown, but there are a lot of things for people to come and see. They don't realize that. They don't realize how easy it is to go to Mount Greylock from Williamstown. They think you have to go in from Lanesborough or Adams. There are two ways to get into Mount Greylock from here in Williamstown.
It's the whole idea that we can't just create committees and just talk about it. We have to keep going. It's the old saying: Talk is cheap. You can talk all you want and nothing gets done.
We do need to spend money to make money. It's just the way the economy works. You can't just go in the Berkshire Eagle and say, 'Williamstown is beautiful. Come and visit' and that's it. You need to tell people from out of town what we have to offer. Come visit us, visit our shops, go around the campus of Williams College, see the Clark Art Institute, come to the theater. Spend the night, spend a weekend with us. We have enough hotels to take care of these people.
We need a marketing strategy to put Williamstown on the map and get people to want to come to Williamstown.
Q: Another issue facing town voters this spring is the proposed bylaw banning plastic bags and polystyrene containers. It's the sort of issue that comes up before the Board of Selectmen from time to time. Do you have any thoughts on it?
A: I really haven't been paying much attention to it. It's an environmental thing, and I think it's good. But we have recycling already in the town. It's not like people leave their garbage outside.
I'm not for or against [the bylaws]. I like the way things are now. I think right now the system is working. People are neat in Williamstown. They bring their stuff to the dump, and they recycle it.
Q: It's been a little bit different campaign this time around. You're not seeing the lawn signs and that kind of thing like you did last year. Are you seeing the same level of interest from voters?
A: To be honest with you, that's a good question.
I have signs to put up because I used them last year. I thought of putting them up, but I said I'm not going to do that because I didn't want to be the first one to put them up. I'll follow the lead.
Signs have never really been part of a political campaign in Williamstown, so I restrained myself from putting them out. I was waiting to see if anyone else did it. I didn't want to be the lead guy.
If the voters in Williamstown don't know me by now, there's nothing I can do about that. I may not be a native of Williamstown, but I'm not a stranger to Williamstown.
Tags: election 2015, Selectmen, town elections, Williamstown,
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