by Marcia Parnell
Most Becket full and part-time residents don’t attend Select Board meetings. Nor do they attend the Annual Town Meeting held each May. Select Board meetings generally draw a handful of folks and the recent Town Meeting recorded just 113 registered voters or about 10% of total registered voters. That means that the Select Board draws largely on their own work and life experience and sense of civic duty to manage the Town responsibly and to make decisions that affect all of us in some way or another.
The current Select Board – Bill Elovirta, Chris Swindlehurst and Jeff Piemont — each came to their post for different reasons. Elovirta explained that after years as Highway Superintendent and then Police Chief, he felt his knowledge of the Town and budgeting process would prove valuable. Swindlehurst started attending Select Board meetings after he sold his business in 2013. When Elovirta suggested he run, he felt compelled to do it to honor his late mother, Madeleine, who’d been active in Becket politics for many of her 93 years. Piemont, a self-defined “newbie,” who believes you can’t complain if you don’t participate, initially considered running for the Finance Committee. But when he put out some feelers, it was suggested that he’d be a good fit for the open Select Board position. Piemont explained his appreciation for people running departments and doing various jobs, but ultimately decided “Someone’s got to run the Town,” and so he ran for the position and joined the others.
None of the Board members receive much in the way of comments or inquiries from residents on a day-to-day basis. Said Elovirta, “I may get two or three calls a month.” Swindlehurst acknowledged that Town Administrator Kathe Warden and Administrative Assistant Beverly Gilbert tend to be the first points of contact for many residents and if Select Board input or action is needed, the issue will get on the Board meeting agenda.
As for top issues among constituents, they all agree it’s probably road conditions. They hear varying complaints – some residents feel the Town doesn’t do enough and others feel they do too much. Fred Snow Road seems to be the lightning rod – “pave” or “don’t pave, but fix the bumps.” Elovirta suspects that if surveyed today 50% would want the road paved and 50% would prefer to keep it gravel.
As for the Board’s major focus, it seems to be balancing the high costs of virtually everything the Town requires against a manageable property tax burden for homeowners. Becket’s second homeowners are viewed as an asset to the Town because they contribute significant revenue but don’t use the school system and place less of a demand on police, fire, ambulance services and amenities like the beach, playgrounds and other recreational facilities. Like many residents, Piemont started as a part-timer and settled here full time in 2019. “I’ve been on both sides, so I always ask myself, ‘Who is the intended beneficiary and who is going to suffer the burden of what we’re doing?’”
Having lost staff to the State and other towns for better pay, Becket has bumped wages to what the Board now considers competitive levels. And for costly items like highway equipment and fire trucks, they look to space acquisitions over time to smooth out costs. Looming large, however, is the need for a Town facility that incorporates the Fire and Ambulance teams, currently squeezed for space, and the Highway Department, which stores much of its equipment outdoors. The 106 acres of Town-owned property that incorporates Esau’s Heel Trail has been earmarked as the logical site for such a facility, but as Piemont says, the cost for such a facility is “hard to fathom.”
In light of that, Piemont, who worked as an attorney specializing in non-profit and municipal finance for 40 years, has broached the subject of debt financing with the Finance Committee and his Board colleagues as a way to level out costs over a longer term. Explains Swindlehurst, “I always believed if you had the money, you should pay your bills right now. Jeff brought the concept that if you pay for a fire truck this year because you have the money, you’re burdening this year’s taxpayer and the taxpayers of the next 20 years receive the benefit. To me it’s counter-intuitive but I appreciate the thinking.” The question of state-mandated regionalized services to spread costs across several towns drew little support. Elovirta sees it already happening on an informal basis and Swindlehurst rejected the notion of giving up voters’ rights to decide what to pay for.
Want to learn more or get involved? The Select Board meets the first and third Wednesday of each month at 7pm. You’ll find more details at townofbecket.org.
