SHUTESBURY — Though only one candidate for a three-year seat on the Select Board is on the ballot for Saturday’s town election, the town’s tree warden is running a write-in campaign with support from residents opposed to large-scale solar development in Shutesbury’s woodlands.
A three-way race for two seats on the Board of Health is the only other contested election Shutesbury residents will decide at the polls, which will be open from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Town Hall. Annual Town Meeting will be held outside the same location starting at 9 a.m.
Eric Stocker of New Boston Road, a longtime Finance Committee member and chairman who also served on the Select Board in 2009, is on the ballot to replace Select Board member J. April Stein, who has served two stints on the panel and is not running for reelection.
Stocker, a resident since 1976 and former co-owner and manager of Squash Trucking until his retirement in 2019, acknowledges the commercial solar construction on his campaign website. “It is essential to proceed with that in a thoughtful, transparent, and cautious manner,” he writes.
Other issues for the board include the annual budget and the tax burden for residents, the possibility of a new library building, the need to replace longtime town employees who may be retiring and focusing on how the Amherst-Pelham regional schools budget is calculated.
Don Wakoluk of Leverett Road, the tree warden, is calling for “inclusive leadership” in running as a write-in candidate.
He argues that he was denied an appointment to the Conservation Commission by the Select Board because he is considered anti-solar. But Wakoluk wants to see solar panels on roofs, not forests, as Amp Energy of Ontario, Canada, is proposing for 190 acres.
“I am against large clear-cuts, on land zoned as conservation forest, regardless of the purpose of this type of forest management,” Wakoluk wrote in a campaign statement.
Running for the health board are incumbent Arleen Read of Old Orchard Road, Mary E. David of Shore Drive and Wm Levine of Wendell Road.
Other candidates include incumbent Jennifer Malcolm-Brown of Wendell Road and Bethany Rose of Locks Pond Road for three-year terms on the School Committee, Nathan Murphy of West Pelham Road for a three-year position on the Planning Board, incumbent Kate Cell of Old Orchard Road and Timothy Logan of Town Farm Road for three-year positions as library trustees, Susan P. Millinger of Wendell Road and Dina Stander of Sandhill Road for three-year positions on the Cemetery Commission, and incumbent Stephen Schmidt of West Pelham Road and Graeme Sephton of Wendell Road for three-year terms on the Muncipal Light Plant Committee.
Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.
