HOLYOKE – After almost a decade serving as the representative for the 5th Hampden District, former Rep. Aaron Vega is taking on a new role in the City of Holyoke.

Vega first announced he would not be seeking reelection to the position in January 2020, seven years after first being elected. In November of 2020 it was announced that Holyoke’s former Director of Planning and Economic Development, Marcos Marrero, would be resigning from his position after eight years and Vega would be stepping in to take his place.

Now, almost a month into his new role, Vega said a year ago he could not have imagined himself doing the job, as it was just one month before COVID-19 impacted Western Massachusetts when he announced his intention to not seek reelection. “So the outlook was much different, I didn’t picture myself in this position,” he said.

Vega said he was first made aware of the job, which is decided by mayoral appointment, when Marrero reached out to him. “He reached out to me directly to say he’d be leaving and was wondering if I’d be interested,” he explained.

Having had a working relationship with the office and its staff for years while working as a state representative, Vega said it felt like a “natural fit.”

“I was fighting at the state level for the tools this office uses, and now I’m using them,” he said.

He said while his role in the position of state representative ended at the end of December 2020 when Rep. Patricia Duffy was sworn in, he was able to take “a little bit of a break” as well as take the time to transition into his new role. “I set up a lot of meetings with different departments in the office. I was lucky to have that month to prepare,” he said. Vega said while he met with staff members in the office, he also met with people from areas of “development in the area” including “people from the cannabis industry.”

He compared taking on the position to “jumping onto a train that’s moving.” Vega said, “A number of projects are moving forward, I’m just ushering them in.”

While he’s in charge of ushering in projects that began before his time, he also has ideas for the office moving forward and new projects for the city. The first, Vega explained, was construction and getting people back to work. “It’s about construction, putting people back to work with construction projects. Construction, hopefully with new housing,” he said.

Additionally, he said while it was “hard to list any priorities,” there were “two big housing developments that we’re working on.” The first being the redevelopment of the South Holyoke and a partnership with the Holyoke Housing Authority. The second, he said, was a partnership with Wynn Development, who were in charge of the Ludlow Mills Project in downtown Holyoke for what he called  “a pretty big development.”

He also said he was hoping to continue the city’s focus on nurturing the growing cannabis industry. However, he said while the city had dozens of applications, Vega wants to focus on the agriculture side of the industry. “My focus is on the grow facilities, the grow and manufacturing is where we’re putting our efforts. They offer more jobs, more stable tax benefits for the city,” he said. “They’re either fixing up old buildings or doing new construction.”

Another aspect of the marijuana industry he said he’d like to focus on was the “ancillary businesses surrounding cannabis.” These businesses, Vega said, were those who created products for indoor growing, indoor farming and other aspects of the process.

Another project he’d like to focus on, he said, is community art projects and increasing historical tourism in Western Massachusetts, but specifically in Holyoke. “Holyoke has a lot to offer for historic tourism. History tourism, that is something this area can benefit from,” he said. “When someone comes to the city to visit the Wistariahurst Museums or latest Latina mural, they will visit restaurants.”

Vega’s appointment as director of Planning and Economic Development is for five years. In that time, he said he is “excited to work with partners not just in Holyoke, but in Western Massachusetts,” in general.