Hampden select board candidates present their vision for the town

Aug. 28, 2019 | Sarah Heinonen
sarah@thereminder.com

HAMPDEN – There is a four-way race to fill the Hampden Select Board seat left vacant by Norm Charest’s resignation in May.

Nancy Zebert, Austin McKeon, Mary Ellen Glover and Fred Frangie are all vying for the position. With a variety of ideas and backgrounds, Hampden residents will have a choice to make.

All of the candidates have been longtime residents of the town. Frangie has lived in Hampden since 1997, while the other three candidates have been residents since the 1970s.

Each of the candidates brings experience in different areas. Zebert was an original member of the Council on Aging and has a background in community education. She said that gives her the skills to work with people with different perspectives.

Glover has experience in several areas, including hospice and real estate, but most of her career has been spent in education, as an elementary school teacher and a guidance counselor. Glover was chair of the Hampden School Committee and chair of the Hampden-Wilbraham Regional (HWRSD) School Committee, after regionalization.

Frangie is a lawyer who has represented various towns, colleges, and, at one point, the Pioneer Valley Transit Authority. He was the chair of the Parks and Recreation Department for about five years until 2015. Before that, he was the president of the Recreation Association of Wilbraham. Frangie has a bachelor’s degree in political science and a master’s degree in public administration.

McKeon has, perhaps, the most direct experience, in that he is a former selectman for the town from 1999 to 2002. He also served on the Advisory Board for three years. McKeon has a bachelor’s degree in management. During his time as a selectman, he spearheaded the Green Meadows project and helped establish the use of the former dump as a cell tower site, among other initiatives.

McKeon is running, he said, because he wants to “use that experience at a time when it might come in handy.” He has kept active in community issues, appearing at various boards to keep up-to-date on issues including those surrounding the GreatHorse Country Club and solar installations.

Getting the town more involved in those issues is something Zebert feels suited to.

“I feel I can make a difference in encouraging town residents to show up,” and become more involved, Zebert said. She suggested creating a listening session to identify residents’ three biggest issues. Glover said she has a background in going into groups and helping them function better. She also said, “It’s important that we have someone on the board who understands the school issue.”

The ongoing lawsuit between Hampden and the HWRSD is an area Glover is passionate about. She resigned from the School Committee in protest of the agreement that the Hampden Select Board had made with the School Committee regarding the closure of Thorton W. Burgess Middle School (TWB).

“I took a moral stand on principle,” Glover said. “I felt I could do more good on the outside of that body.”

“It’s always difficult being the minority community in a relationship,” Glover said about the regional school district. She said Hampden kids are not fully accepted and Wilbraham, in general, has tried “to consume” Hampden into their culture.

McKeon, on the other hand, said it’s not an argument between towns. He said the towns have done a fairly good job of maintaining respect for each other’s cultures, and residents in both towns strongly support the schools, he said. Instead, McKeon thinks people are angry with the School Committee. Lots of programs proposed by the school district never come to fruition, he said.

Both of Frangie’s children went to TWB and Green Meadows, and he said that “as much as it hurts,” if there are not enough students, it doesn’t make sense to keep TWB open. That said, he would like to see Hampden come to some kind of arrangement with Wilbraham surrounding the use of the school.

When it comes to filling the Town Administrator position, “I think they have to analyze what happened last time,” said Zebert. She took the hardest stance, saying the Select Board, “didn’t know how to handle a town administrator,” and that they didn’t “sit down with her,” to discuss goals. She said there was a disconnect between the previous town administrator, Mary McNally, who came from Springfield, and the town.

“Larger towns and cities qualify for more money and have different attitudes,” Zebert said. McKeon also sees dysfunction in the previous administrator/town relationship.

“We’ve been fired by our town administrator,” he said. He agrees that it is up to the Selectmen to “set the parameters, what [the administrator] can do, what they can’t do.” McKeon said there needs to be rigorous oversight. The town administrator will be there long after there is a change in members of the Select Board, he said, and there should be reviews, quarterly perhaps, of how the administrator and the Selectmen are working.

Both Frangie and Glover emphasized the role of the town administrator as someone who should be accessible. Frangie said need to find someone who provides organization and guidance policies. He thinks they should be a resident of the town.

“What we need in our town is a team,” Glover said. She said the incoming town administrator needs to be somebody who “ builds respect, elicits confidence, is organized and perceptive, and builds teams.”

The one thing each of the candidates pinpointed as Hampden’s strength is its residents.

“It’s the spirit of the town it’s the culture. We prefer the church to the barroom.” On the other hand, the town’s greatest challenge is keeping that spirit alive and drawing more people into volunteering for the town.

“I think [the people are] genuine, concerned about others, and want their kids to be the same,” Glover said. Both she and Frangie think that the town could better take advantage of the residents’ skills.

Frangie said there are “professionals in the town that we don’t tap – we have great people that we don’t use.” Zebert also stated that there has been a decline in social capital.

“I don’t see that forward–thinking lately from the boards,” Zebert said of tapping the different people in town. She said follow through from the Select Board is “probably non-existent.”

“I don’t think that the meetings are productive. The actions aren’t taken,” Glover said. “A lot of people lose enthusiasm or resilience, I don’t lose that,” she said. Glover sets her eye to the future of the town. “We have to think beyond issues, to the repercussions of the issues.” She said the town needs to develop a plan that will meet the needs of today and tomorrow.

“We can preserve what we have and take some pride in the reasons we live here in the first place,” McKeon said. He believes the businesses that are in town are sufficient and said that the town can’t support many more. He called himself open but cautious about change in town. McKeon is not in favor of multi-unit buildings, saying Hampden has “never been a town of renters.”

Frangie said he likes that Hampden is a “sleepy little town,” but said it needs momentum going forward. He said there isn’t a proper balance of business and people and the town relies too much on Wilbraham.

“It’s a challenge growing, but not growing too much.” Frangie pointed to the empty businesses in the plaza. “To say we’ll lose character by bringing in another store or two is over the top,” Frangie said.

Glover also believes balance is key. She described her vision for the town as “value what we have and build on it.” She said she values history and she values services.

“I don’t like the direction the town is going,” Glover said. She says she doesn’t want the town to go too far down any one road. “I don’t think it’s so important that we develop,” she added.

Zebert said Hampden is well placed to be the best of both worlds.

“It has the distinction of being rural and that it’s a suburb of a large city,” she said.

Each candidate told Reminder Publishing they want to do what’s right for the town.

“I want to be a part of going forward,” Frangie said. Frangie said he’s running because he’s “not one of those people that criticizes and sits back.”

Frangie said he has the utmost respect for what the Selectmen have been doing. He called Donald Davenport “passionate” and said Flynn is a “pillar of the community.” Frangie also respects the other candidates and said they’re all invested in the town.

The four will appear at a candidate night on Sept. 7, at TWB, ahead of the Sept. 30 election. Sept. 10 is the last day to register to vote

 

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