Aaron Hayden: Neighbors help guide best course in town life

Published on October 24, 2008

In 1987, we chose Amherst as the place to raise our family. We were attracted by the great school system, the beautiful open spaces, opportunities for recreation and the vibrancy of a college town. My son Owen graduated from ARHS in 2007 and my daughter Elinor is now a junior there.

My parents' activism as I was growing up instilled in me a strong sense of community service. In Amherst, I have been the chairman of the Planning Board, trustee of the Munson Library, member of the board at the Hitchcock Center for the Environment, charter member of the town's Energy Conservation Task Force, and member and secretary of the Amherst Comprehensive Planning Committee. Last spring, I was elected to the Amherst Redevelopment Authority. I have also served for seven years as a call firefighter.

As chairman of the Planning Board, I have been very successful at bringing diverse people and opinions together into our work: zoning articles written with this collaboration were overwhelmingly endorsed in Town Meeting. As a member of the Climate Action Task Force, I played a part in the creation of the Climate Action Plan. As an environmental activist with the Hitchcock Center for the Environment, I helped raise money for town conservation initiatives.

In my service to the town, I have learned much from neighbors who work in many areas of state government protecting the environment, the homeless, the less fortunate and children. I have worked with friends who organize citizens across the state, across an industry and right here in town. I have worked with neighbors who design efficient buildings, solve the riddle of the gypsy moth, and attempt to invent the next best computer application, plastic or fertilizer. I have worked with traffic engineers and entrepreneurs.

These collaborations have been constructive in helping to improve the tax base, protect neighborhoods and preserve open space.

Communities are more than the sum of their parts - and if any part is missing, we are all diminished. Our friends and neighbors are young families and older families, they have heritages from different continents, are single people and married people, young families, and older families: We work in the colleges and we attend them. We work in town, and we commute. We are mechanics, environmental activists, firefighters, renters, homeowners, homeless, farmers, business people, lawyers, developers, naturalists, teachers, people working out of their home, writers, artists, politicians and police officers.

Any answer to the budget crisis must include all of these people - our neighbors. We need to protect our wild spaces and provide food and shelter. We need to foster business and neighborhood-building if we are to create an equitable community.

Today our town faces difficult financial challenges. The Select Board needs to take an active leadership role to bring the resources to bear on constructive solutions to the financial issues facing us. If elected, I will work to ensure that we keep as many of our town services as possible. In doing so, however, I will also put my full energies into ensuring that no resident is taxed out of Amherst.

Given the challenges facing Amherst, even the five most brilliant people on the Select Board could not do it alone. We are fortunate to live in a town that has hundreds of citizens who are engaged in helping to find the solutions. They work on formally constituted committees, they work on ad hoc citizens' panels, they are Town Meeting members debating, and they work individually petitioning town staff and officials directly.

As you consider your choices to fill the empty seat on the Select Board, reflect on the records of the candidates. Look for a record of resolving contentious and difficult issues by building effective collaborations among groups with major differences. However, most importantly, look for someone with proven and effective leadership in resolving difficult problems.

Aaron Hayden works at Amherst College as its utilities manager, and is a candidate for Select Board.