WHATELY — Twelve-year veteran member Paul Newlin is resigning, and there’s a contested race to fill his Select Board seat in this year’s election.
The election is Tuesday, June 13, from 10 a.m. and 7 p.m. Voting takes place at the town offices, 4 Sandy Lane.
“Whately, in my opinion, is very fortunate to have an excellent administrative staff. I can’t say enough about the commitment and competence of the staff I’ve witnessed in my dozen years on the board,” Newlin said in an email about his retirement.
“It’s not a glamorous job, and you don’t really have all that much power. It’s like most jobs, you don’t make a big difference, but sometimes you can make a small difference,” he continued. “And the accumulation of small differences add up to be all the difference. I encourage anybody to seriously consider public service in whatever capacity you feel appropriate. I’m glad I took my turn and hope I made a small difference.”
Running in his stead are electrical engineer Joyce Palmer-Fortune, a former board member, and Marine Corps veteran Justin Davis.
Palmer-Fortune, a 22-year Westbrook Road resident and experienced electrical engineer who now works as an educator at Smith College teaching physics, said she’s again running for a seat on the board to bring more green energy into town — an endeavor she helped spearhead from 2009 to 2015.
“As an electrical engineer I understand about solar, I’m also good with numbers,” she said.
Before becoming a contractor, Davis served in the Marines. He had a few deployments and served as a firefighter and intelligence officer. These days, he holds a master’s degree in business management and works at Community Enterprises in Greenfield helping people with disabilities find jobs.
Now, Davis is turning his attention to public service.
“I’m interested in helping figure out long-range capital planning and asset management principles to figure out how we can better use our assets,” Davis said.
Another project he’d like to tackle is the installation of a new manganese removal filtration system for the water district.