SOUTH HADLEY — Two incumbents and one challenger are vying for two Select Board seats in South Hadley’s town election, which will be held in conjunction with the town’s fire district and presidential primary elections on Tuesday.
The Select Board candidate pool includes incumbents Sarah Etelman and Andrea Miles and former School Committee chairman John Kelly.
Voting for all elections will take place at South Hadley High School from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Residents may also participate in early voting, which is being held at the Town Clerk’s office at 116 Main St. weekdays from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., except on Thursday, when early voting hours will be 7 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Etelman, 51, is the longest-serving Select Board member, having served on the board for seven years, and cited her experience as an important asset to the board. This experience is particularly important, she said, considering that the town will need to replace outgoing Town Administrator Mike Sullivan, who is set to retire in June 2021, and when handling the town’s finances.
Etelman said she also wants to encourage a reciprocal relationship between town government and residents.
“What I’m most interested in is making government more accessible and transparent for residents,” Etelman said, with a goal of attracting a diverse group of volunteers for town committees.
Etelman is running a joint campaign with Miles, who she said has been “an important and valuable member of the Select Board” and, together with Etelman, helps to add diverse viewpoints to the board.
“I think it’s important to have that diversity of gender on the board,” Etelman said. “We are the only two women on the board, and for two years, I was the only woman on the board, and I think that it’s very important that we have not only men’s voices but women’s voices as well.”
Etelman is the development director of Girls Inc. of the Valley in Holyoke and has previously served on the Hampshire Council of Governments, the Youth Commission, the South Hadley Falls Neighborhood Association and various other neighborhood groups, and was chairwoman of the Democratic Town Committee for five years out of a 16-year membership.
Miles, 36, was elected to the Select Board in 2017 and is the current chairwoman. If re-elected, Miles said that she will focus on the search process for a new town administrator; budget constraints; and recruiting diverse candidates to serve on town boards and committees.
“The next few years really hold a lot of change for the town,” Miles said. “Next year our town administrator will be retiring, so we are starting the search process for that, and we are facing changes state and nationwide in regards to solid waste and recycling, and South Hadley is working diligently to be on the forefront of that.”
These issues “require that you have a board that works creatively and collaboratively and cooperatively together,” Miles said. “We have that with our board right now, and it’s a great decision-making team that I would like to continue to be a part of.”
Miles’ collaboration with Etelman’s campaign is “a representation of the cooperation and collaboration that our board represents,” she said.
Miles has also participated in the town’s Democratic Town Committee, South Hadley Falls Neighborhood Association, and was previously president of the Mosier Elementary School Parent Teacher Organization. She is a stay-at-home mom and a graduate student.
Kelly, 61, said that he will draw from his six years on the South Hadley School Committee to address financial issues such as the school district’s budget shortfall.
“Seniors are worried about higher taxes and parents of young children are worried about the quality of education,” Kelly said.
To mitigate the budget deficit, Kelly said that he plans to encourage greater collaboration between departments.
To accomplish this goal, “I think we need to look at some of the duplication of efforts within the town, in terms of duplication between the town administration and the school department administration,” Kelly said, citing “an opportunity to eliminate some inefficiency and possibly generate some savings that will be used to cover some of the deficits.”
Kelly said he also hopes to encourage more collaboration between departments and to look further ahead in budgetary matters.
In addition to his time on the School Committee, Kelly, a certified public accountant, also served on the Capital Planning Committee for six years.
In Precinct D, the Town Meeting members race is also contested, with nine candidates in the running for eight seats. All other town election races are uncontested.
Uncontested races include Planning Board, School Committee, Board of Health, the Municipal Light Board, Board of Assessors, Housing Authority and Library Trustee elections.
Specimen ballots can be viewed on the South Hadley website.
In Fire District 1, two candidates — Christine Curtis and Terie Brin Fleury — are running for clerk/treasurer. Ira Brezinsky, who currently holds the position, is not running for re-election.
Fire District 1 also has uncontested water commissioner, moderator and prudential committee positions on the ballot. No races are contested in the Fire District 2 election, where moderator, prudential committee, and water commissioner positions are on the ballot.
Jacquelyn Voghel can be reached at jvoghel@gazettenet.com.