PARTY AFFILIATION: Independent
PREVIOUS ELECTED EXPERIENCE: None
Why are you running for the board of selectmen?
I am running for the Board of Selectman because I feel that the current board does not fully represent all the opinions and views in the town. They have made several decisions lately that have been misinformed; like voting to support the destruction of the Frank J. Wood Bridge, the town’s most recognized and photographed icon, when it was premature to do so, based solely on a lack of information.
Another being the failure to do further study on the polystyrene foam ban. In essence the issue was too complicated for the board so they voted to do nothing. Luckily, a few citizens pushed it through so it will appear on the ballet with the bag fee.
What is the biggest challenge facing Topsham in the next three years and how should the town address it?
We need to pay close attention to costs. We have a new High School where decisions will be made that effect generations to come. Topsham must shine as a top educational town if we are to continue to attract new families. There must also be a balance in that we cannot out tax new and old families, new and old business. The last few budgets contained heavy borrowing. I am not a huge fan of borrowing on depreciating items like snowplows and police cars. I am not against snowplows but feel that with proper planning these are things that the municipality should save for.
In your opinion, what makes Topsham a good place to live and how would you work to improve that?
Topsham has opportunities. Our location, mixture of rural farm and woodland, shopping mall and Main Street, our close proximity to the the major cities in Maine, provide us with the perfect mix to see real growth in both families starting out and retires. A lot of great things have been done and are going on in town. We need to continue to invest in our schools and our library.
We can improve our walkability, and bike lanes fairly inexpensively, buy narrowing traffic lanes and getting our police to pay equal attention to walkers and bikers.
We need to encourage future development to be mixed use, where upper stories are added to contain apartments, keeping our population growing but not sprawling.
We need to treasure our history, fight to protect it because it is our identity, and our identity defines who we are and makes us Topsham— a place to be proud to call home.
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