South Hadley Select Board candidates share their vision for town

SOUTH HADLEY — Just days before Tuesday’s town election election, the four candidates for Select Board are making their final bids for two open seats in hopes of helping to lead the town away from the fiscal cliff.

Andrea Miles is not running for her seat on the board, opening up a chance for a newcomer to help lead the town. Incumbent Nicole Casolari, a math teacher at South Hadley High School, hopes to keep her seat for another term. 

Three newcomers join Casolari on the ballot. Russel Police Chief Kevin Hennessey aims to leverage his municipal experience to streamline government. David King wants to apply his years of experience with multimillion dollar budgets for JCPenny to South Hadley’s operating budget. And real estate agent and mother Priscilla Marion remains determined to turn South Hadley into a business-supportive community.

For all four candidates, the $9 million and $11 million Proposition 2½ override questions also on Tuesday’s ballot weighs heavily on their minds, as does the budget crisis that drove the need to float the override. Some see the override as a necessity to support services, while others put a larger emphasis on other fiscal solutions. But all share a larger focus on government efficiency, fiscal responsibility and commercial growth.

Despite their different backgrounds, all four candidates see a bright future for South Hadley, one where the entire community helps pull the town out of its financial difficulties. 

Nicole Casolari

When Casolari looked around for her first teaching job, South Hadley High School offered her an opportunity no Boston area school could: a chance to give back to her alma mater. Now, at 30, she is proud to call South Hadley her home.

Casolari said she did not pull her papers without serious consideration, but she was persuaded by her experience gained during the previous three-year term and her ability to challenge proposals with difficult questions. These traits, she said, are invaluable to the town during these financial dilemmas.

“It takes a lot of time to figure out all that goes into municipal government,” she said. “I feel that I could really be a benefit as we make some changes and are growing and shifting in different ways.”

Casolari said she showed her strengths during the override discussion by pushing back on the timeline and cost of the proposal. She often brings her own questions and other residents’ inquiries to the table, and this was especially true during override conversations.

“I do think we ask the questions that are a little bit tougher,” she said. “It’s easy to ask for money and so me asking those questions … is really me not taking it lightly how much money is actually being asked for.”

Casolari is one of the three Select Board members who voted to put a $9 million and $11 million override on the ballot. This decision came from comments of support from Town Meeting members, she said, but she still believes any override amount requires fiscal responsibility to manage and further budget reviews.

The operating budget is only one issue Casolari hopes to tackle in the next three years. Capital requests in the face of the town’s aging infrastructure, such as the wastewater treatment plant, the Ledges Golf Club and the upcoming Mosier Elementary School Building proposal, will need a discerning eye to balance fiscal responsibility and town needs.

“People are paying attention,” she said, “and that means that we need to be held accountable to asking the hard questions and making difficult decisions about what would be the least (harmful) to all of our residents at all ages.”

Kevin Hennessey

Hennessey worked his way up from the bottom of the municipal job chain. As a teenager at South Hadley High School, Hennessey took his first summer job as a janitor at South Hadley Town Hall. As a civilian dispatcher in Holyoke, Hennessey became familiar with contract negotiations as a union member, then union president. At 56, he leads the Russell Police Department and the small hilltown’s public safety. 

“I’ve seen boths sides of governance being a worker and in the management side,” he said. “I have a feel for all aspects of the community.”

Over the past decade Hennessey said he began to notice a “downwards spiral” in his lifelong community, a decline that came to a head with the current fiscal situation. He is concerned that cuts to the senior center, lower-level employees and school activities are the wrong choices. Hennessey is running for Select Board with the goal of correcting some of these decisions and reviving the vibrant community he remembers.

“I believe right now we need to take a look at the government itself and have to look at where we stand as far as the structure of the town,” Hennessey said. “We have to stable the ship and cut unnecessary spending.”

If elected, Hennessey plans to take apart the budget line item by line item to find redundancies. He also wants to analyze job descriptions to consolidate administrative jobs to improve efficiency. 

“I believe in a fair wage, but I feel our wages are above those other towns of our size,” Hennessey said.

Hennessey is the candidate most outspoken against the override. The proposed number would devastate longtime community members and young families who struggle to make ends meet, he said. Instead, he wants to use the $5.4 million in free cash to pad the budget while residents come together to implement other solutions.

“I would appreciate the public’s trust in me to do the best for the residents of South Hadley,” Hennessey said. “I want to see the town be the town I grew up in, which is a great community.”

David King

King is the only candidate who did not grow up in South Hadley, but he instantly recognized the community’s magic when he moved to town 17 years ago. He became acquainted with the supportive nature of town during his eight years with the South Hadley Music Parents Association. Inspired to get more involved, he became a Town Meeting member and the chair of the Town Bylaw Review Committee.

Now King wants to do more for the town he’s fallen in love with. He feels his 30 years of management and budgetary experience at JCPenny will help him navigate the town through the difficult time as a Select Board member.

“I think that it’s similar to what happens in town government,” King said. “You have the same kind of issues. Budgets get tight. You have to work with what’s happening and find solutions to issues and do what will be good for the majority of the town.”

During his campaign, King met with municipal employees at Town Hall, the Department of Public Works and South Hadley Library to learn more about their positions and ways to support them. 

“Our leaders are really good people, really experts in their field, and they really want what’s best for South Hadley,” King said. “I’d like to continue working with those folks to make South Hadley the best it can be.”

As a steadfast supporter of the override proposals, King fears the consequences of a failed vote on town and school services. The current budgets are “bare bones,” he said. But even he does not view the vote as the single solution. More partnerships with nonprofits through a payment in leu of taxes program, regionalization services and new growth would also be necessary to bring in more revenue.

Priscilla Marion 

The scenic nature and the community spirit of South Hadley has inspired four generations of Marion’s family to put down roots in town, and she hopes her two children will be the fifth. 

“It’s truly a beautiful town, and the sense of community we’ve gotten here, I think for me personally, it’s one of a kind,” Marion said.

But to ensure her young kids have the same experiences she had, South Hadley needs to fill the empty storefronts throughout town with thriving businesses. Marion, 46, remembers when businesses and nonprofits would sponsor school events and contribute to booster club fundraisers, but she sees less of this as businesses continue to disappear. 

After seeing the town’s finances laid out, Marion decided to run for Select Board to bring back that same community-driven business spirit to the next generation of South Hadley. 

“When the town thrives, businesses thrive, and when businesses thrive it brings people in town,” she said.

If elected, she wants to regularly meet with existing businesses and nonprofits and have roundtable discussions. Marion also plans to form and work with an economic development committee that can analyze incentives for new businesses and the best marketing tools to attract new businesses.

Marion is not in favor of the $9 million or $11 million override, but she clarifies that she would support an override of a smaller amount. Her vision for the town’s financial future is  multifaceted. The override number should factor in some cuts to administrative roles, campaigns to the state legislature for more local aid, and growth of the commercial corridors. 

“That’s the only way that’s going to fix this,” Marion said, “By approaching it at all levels, and not just being short-sighted and saying we need an override to fix this.”

Despite the divide on the override, Marion feels inspired by the way the community united over the town’s future. While the solutions may be different, the spirit is the same.

“I think we all have the same goal, it’s just how we get there,” she said.