2 Support Lewis For Wayland Select Board: Letters

The following letters to the editor do not reflect the views of Wayland Patch

Cliff Lewis is an exceptional leader in the way he takes on daunting tasks while quietly engaging the cooperation of others. He doesn’t have time for disrespecting others or playing a “blame game.” Instead, his record shows that he sees an objective that is worthy and needed in the community, focuses his analytical, engineering, financial, and people skills on it - and persistently and patiently moves ahead until the objective is accomplished. One such objective was OPEB funding — providing medical insurance to retired town employees. This started off in a very divisive way, but with Cliff as Chair of the OPEB Committee, the mission was harmoniously accomplished in one year! Another very difficult issue was PFAS remediation, and with Cliff as Chair of the Board of Public Works this was approached in a thorough and collaborative way (with Town boards, the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection and more). Again, within just one year a remediation solution was found!

Cliff will do much to encourage a collaborative approach to the large issues facing the Town if he is elected to the Select Board, as he did in his business and in his work on Town boards and committees. He will encourage the best in others – look to their skills, dedication, professional expertise – and then take the action needed to solve the looming Town issues with expediency.

—Margery Baston, Wayland

A recent town-wide email entitled PFAS Remediation Update leads with a quote from Select Board Chair Thomas Fay, who cites the work of “staff and volunteers” for the successful remediation effort to develop/implement the removal of elevated levels of PFAS from our drinking water at the Happy Hollow Wells.

What Fay, who is running for re-election, disingenuously failed to mention is that it was the Board of Public Works (BoPW), and in particular Board Chair Cliff Lewis, that skillfully led the effort to identify and evaluate remediation options and then implement the necessary improvements that have brought our Happy Hollow Wells back into compliance. Also worthy of note, this complicated remediation process—from evaluating options to installing the new system—took less than a year.

Cliff’s technical and problem-solving abilities, his engineering and legal expertise, his track record as a successful tech company founder and CEO, and his results-focused, consensus building record of leadership on BoPW make him the ideal candidate to move our Town forward on critical fronts.

These fronts include instituting and adhering to a smart, disciplined multi-year project planning and budgeting processes to ensure that important, costly projects are dovetailed over time to thoughtfully control tax rate increases in any given year. I am grateful to Cliff for his decision to run. I encourage readers to learn more about Cliff by visiting his website: www.electcliffordlewis.com.

—Susan Reed, Wayland