Paul Harsch is facing off with planning board member Stephanie Boyd and incumbent Andy Hogeland for the two open seats on the five-member body.
Harsch says he’s running on his 60 years of experience as a Williamstown resident, substantially longer than anyone else running for the select board.
“I have the longest history and perspective on the community, and I think that has value," he told WAMC. "I am not going to take a position passionately pursuing some agenda item as as others might. And so, I'd like to think that my perspective- And there are a couple of other relatively new members on the select board who are also relatively newer into town. The one thing I think I would, how I would differentiate myself, is my longer term relationship with the community, longer perspective. And I would tend to be relatively unemotional, unpassionate about agenda things and pursue more objectively and from a longer-term perspective.”
WAMC asked Harsch to identify what he sees as the critical questions in the election.
“Well, you know, it's always budgetary," he said. "How to accomplish as much as what is wanted to be done, roads. The town has gone through some major, three major commitments involving substantial financial obligations, starting with the new high school, and then the new police station, and most recently, the proposed new fire station. I was very involved in the effort to get the to gain the approval by the town to acquire the land for the new fire station. And as a result of that, I was asked to become the moderator of the fire district, which I happily accepted. And then I served as the moderator at the most recent fire district town meeting where the vote was taken to approve or not the plan for building the new fire station. And so I was the moderator for that town meeting, and we were, it was successful. The decision was obtained almost- I mean, it was overwhelmingly positive, which is pretty remarkable, because that's the third on the top of the other two major capital commitments that the town voters have made.”
Harsch says he’s opposed to a measure on this year’s town meeting warrant put forward by the planning board.
“There is proposal to reduce the dimensional requirements in town to allow for some additional infill, which by itself sounds like a good idea," he told WAMC. "But then they wanted to permit the introduction of mobile homes, which are euphemistically called manufactured homes today. It sort of, you know, the term mobile home is, carries certain connotations, so the industry has changed down to manufactured home so it doesn't sound as negative, shall we say. I think that introducing mobile homes to the town, which had been disallowed ever since zoning was introduced except for the two mobile home parks- Mobile homes are like a car, like a vehicle, like a camper. They depreciate with time. Conventional real estate on a full foundation, stick-built house, or even modular house, those inevitably appreciate year after a year whereas a mobile home is a depreciating asset. So to me, it is a it's committing a property owner, a mobile home owner, manufactured home owner, to losing money over the length of their ownership, rather than- Now, perhaps their site would appreciate modestly, but the house, the structure itself, manufactured house, is a depreciating asset. So I think it is a poor concept for helping people who are struggling to get their first home. I think it's a very poor choice to assist people with affordable housing.”
Boyd was part of the planning board’s unanimous support for the measure. Similarly, Hogeland joined his select board colleagues in unanimously endorsing the move.
Williamstown’s annual town election is May 9th.
