Shrewsbury 2022 Candidate Profile: Michelle Conlin, Board Of Selectmen

SHREWSBURY, MA — In 2022, there are two Board of Selectmen seats up for election, and three candidates are running.

Board of Selectmen Chair John Samia is back in 2022 for a second term, but Vice Chair John Lebeaux is not running again. Town Meeting member Michelle Conlin and Rajesh Uppalapati are running to at least pick up Lebeaux's seat.

We asked each of the three candidates to answer a series of questions about why they're running to help voters get to know them better. Here's what Conlin had to say:

Name: Michelle Conlin
Age: 39
Occupation: Nonprofit president, volunteer
Experience as an elected official: Town Meeting member since 2018

Why are you running for the Shrewsbury Board of Selectmen in 2022?

I am running for selectman because I am passionate about ensuring that Shrewsbury remains a wonderful place for people to live, work, raise their families, and retire happily. If elected, my priorities will include:

• Government that is transparent, open, and accessible
• Advocating for compassionate services, including tax relief, for seniors, to better support those who choose to live in Shrewsbury in their retirement, and to modernize our town’s social services to meet contemporary needs for all.
• Growing our town’s economic base with responsible, sustainable development and removing roadblocks for small businesses to thrive in Shrewsbury, which in turn will relieve the tax burden on homeowners.
• Improving our infrastructure by investing in our water resources, roads, parks, trails, and open space, and reducing our town’s carbon footprint.
• Supporting strong schools and municipal services that are critical to maintaining the quality of life that we enjoy; careful planning is required to continue to provide high-quality services at a low cost to the taxpayer.

What do you think is the biggest issue facing Shrewsbury and what would you do about it?

Social services: There are many young people, families, and seniors in our community struggling with affording and accessing compassionate and modern social services, including affordable housing, reliable transportation, mental health services, and recreational, social, and cultural opportunities. Identifying and adopting tax relief for seniors, veterans, and those living with disabilities, and increasing the affordable housing stock is key. We must increase our Senior Circuit Breaker Tax Credit income threshold, work with our 55+ community to identify and fill gaps in services, modernize and invest in our town's social services, creatively use existing spaces to offer programs for both young people and seniors, invest in our public spaces to increase access, and increase cultural and recreational opportunities for all.

The Board of Selectmen recently approved a plan to develop the former Beal school. What's your opinion of the project?

Our town center has many treasured features, such as our beautiful library, town common, and historic properties, but falls short of living up to the expectation of an active New England town center. Town Meeting recently voted to create a Town Center Zoning District to create a walkable, mixed-use town center.

There are new investments and upgrades currently underway in the center, which will only serve to attract and inspire further investment. I applaud the efforts of the Town Center Association, which has been working with town departments, businesses, and building owners to revitalize properties, support small business owners, and bring cultural events to the center.

Specifically regarding the Beal property reuse: having followed the process for many years out of personal interest, while I do not love the number of apartments being built on the property, I am excited for the retail and restaurant opportunities, the parking that will be added for the center, and that the town retained the portion of the property with the softball field. This project will bring much needed tax revenue to support our municipal services and relieve some of the burden that falls largely on homeowners.

Do you think we're past the point of needing to take major precautions against coronavirus like mask mandates or vaccine passports? Why or why not?

Public health policies such as mask mandates are issues that fall outside of the purview of the Board of Selectmen, and since this is not my area of expertise I would defer to the Board of Health and other public health experts on these issues.

If you could snap your fingers and make it happen, what's one thing you would change or fix in Shrewsbury?

Affordability. Shrewsbury has a property tax rate below the state average, but that does not mean that the taxes are affordable for everyone. Without this magic switch, there are ways that we can improve on this issue. We can relieve that burden by expanding our town’s commercial tax base to bring relief to property owners who bear the vast majority of the tax burden for our town. We need to closely examine our zoning rules, work with landlords of existing, underutilized buildings, and have an open dialogue with business owners to identify and remove roadblocks for businesses to open and thrive here in our community. When COVID shut down restaurants in 2020, we saw hundreds of thousands of dollars in tax revenue lost, which exacerbated the deficit we were facing. Seeing the influence of the meal tax to our revenue stream highlights the importance of bringing more business to our community. Improving upon and communicating the tax relief options for seniors, veterans, and the disabled, along with careful long term planning for improvements and investments in our community is crucial to have minimal impact on taxpayers while still addressing community issues in a timely manner.