GEORGIA – Ahead of the March elections, the delivery boy asked Georgia residents what they wanted to hear from the candidates running for the selection board.
Messenger will publish a series of these interviews for each contested vote on the selection panel in the coming days.
Selector for 1 remaining year of a three-year term
Michelle Phelps
Candidate Bio – My name is Michelle Phelps, I was born and raised in New Jersey (lived there for the first 22 years of my life) and am of Portuguese descent. My husband and I moved to northern NY from Arizona in 2016 as we wanted to raise our family in a similar environment to where we grew up. I have traveled to many countries and enjoy learning about the culture each country has to offer. I hope that I can continue my travels around the world and give my children the same opportunity to appreciate new cultures too. I am fluent in Portuguese, Spanish and have a command of Italian. I love to cook and find myself cooking large meals for others whenever I get the chance.
What is your main motivation for running?
Of course it goes back to when I submitted my application to the Select Board to fill a vacancy.
Back then it was more about bringing a new perspective to the city of Georgia as it is a growing community with many new families coming to town as new homes are built every day.
Rather, it was about providing perspective on how we can continue to make Georgia the best place to live.
What do you think are Georgia’s main strengths and weaknesses?
The biggest thing is the community.
The reach of the community is amazing from what I see on the Facebook pages to what I see in the field. If someone needs something, it’s posted and a local resident responds within seconds.
You can drive down the street and everyone waves and you get to know each other, it’s definitely that small town community feel that’s amazing.
Your lawn mower breaks down, you just call your neighbor and they come and mow your lawn, no questions asked.
The weaknesses are, as you know, Georgia has so much potential and it’s all about making everyone’s voice heard, from the social media users to those reading the newspapers.
I think it’s all areas of life that we need to make sure are heard in order to keep the Georgia we know growing.
What are your thoughts on the current recreational opportunities for Georgia residents, and how would you like Georgia residents to access recreation in the future?
The goal would be for Georgia to eventually offer recreation.
Of course it’s not very close, but I believe that in the future of Georgia, hopefully one day it will be easily accessible.
Having young children of my own the opportunity to work with St Albans is amazing for paying the residents fee.
My own children take swimming lessons there, and one day they will play football and hockey.
So I think until Georgia is at the level where we can offer these activities it’s amazing that we can work with St Albans.
How do you feel about George’s current police presence? If you want to see change, how would you like it to change? What steps do you hope the board will take to make these changes?
Of course we had our problem in July when we lost coverage.
But Milton did everything it could to provide the coverage needed.
We’ve had so much great feedback from local residents regarding the presence that is now seen across Georgia and just the officers’ communications with local residents as well as the city office.
I would like to make sure that this continues to be the case, this sense of communication with our local law enforcement agencies. And hopefully we can continue to work with Milton.
Is there anything I didn’t ask a question about that you thought I should have, or is there anything else you’d like to add?
You know, the community is very important to me.
I know that I am very new to the community, which can be very scary for residents who have been here for years, especially those who grew up or have ancestors who grew up here and have continued this tradition.
I just want to make sure people know I’m a newbie. However, I am here to expand my family and ensure I continue to uphold Georgia’s core values.
Garry Wright
Candidate Bio – I would like to introduce myself for those of you who don’t know me. I have lived in Georgia with my wife Debbie since 1974 and we raised two children in this beautiful city and now our grandchildren are growing up here as well. I am a retired accountant who has decided that fully retiring is not for me. I have built several small businesses which I am still very actively involved in with my son. I enjoy being busy and helping others. I have decided to run for the selection committee seat this year in order to bring local government back to taxpayers while being accessible to the community. I want to hear everyone’s concerns and address them as respectfully as possible. We all need to hear and respect our suggestions/opinions at the same time, even if we have disagreements on the subject. Having served on the selection panel for three consecutive terms in the past and chaired one of those terms, I know how difficult it is to make decisions that affect our community while keeping our taxpayers’ best interests in mind. I also had the pleasure of serving on our school board for three years. I have enjoyed my time on these boards and want to contribute again as life has given me the time to do so. I have the experience and knowledge to create positive change. I’m open to conversations with anyone who has questions or just wants to be heard.
What is your main motivation for running?
I have served three terms on the Select Committee and I was the Chair for one of those terms. I was also on the school board.
I am a retired accountant. Retirement is grossly overrated. I’ve built small businesses and quite frankly enjoy it.
It is important that the city and the people are at least approachable. The city must be transparent.
People need to feel comfortable talking to people who represent them.
Everyone will have a different opinion. People have to respect different opinions.
The way the world is going, that’s going to be a real problem. And I see that even in the local communities.
I want to represent the city, give them the information they need and also get their ideas, and try to incorporate people’s ideas into what represents the city to the best of my ability.
What do you think are Georgia’s main strengths and weaknesses?
The strength is geographical. It’s an evolving community.
Demographics are changing and I don’t feel like the city is changing with demographics.
Georgia has a lot of power.
Your school system is very good but very expensive and you have to step back and say ‘okay, why is that?’
I know there are a lot of people who want to get along with school boards just because of this problem. Obviously the Selectboard, that’s a different environment.
So that gives you a little snapshot of what it is. I’m very business oriented. I have a full commercial background. I negotiated with the first company that came to Georgia Industrial Park.
I was the one who negotiated the tax implications of this.
So I’ve been in the business, I understand the business and I think it’s important that people don’t look at the business with the deal, ‘Oh, there’s a cash cow’.
Well, if you look at the state of Vermont, unfortunately they now say that we pay people to come to Vermont.
Before you do that, you need to look at why people are leaving. Before you try to buy a way out, let’s fix it.
What are your thoughts on the current recreational opportunities for Georgia residents, and how would you like Georgia residents to access recreation in the future?
There are options for Georgia now but I don’t think they maximize potential.
We have a definite opportunity to develop a very robust recreational activity in Georgia and it just isn’t being acted upon.
I think they’re trying to solve the problem by buying into other communities. Why do you have to do this? They already have the wherewithal here. So I think that it needs to be improved in the city and not bought in another city.
How do you feel about George’s current police presence? If you want to see change, how would you like it to change? What steps do you hope the board will take to make these changes?
I think the board fell short when they let a contract be broken and that caused confusion.
So I think the board was inadequate in that.
To be honest, there are several ways to complete a cover.
I don’t think we exercised all of these options appropriately, if at all.
You just can’t suddenly throw your hands up and say, ‘Oh, the fastest is the one we take. Well, that’s a little short-sighted.
Is there anything I didn’t ask a question about that you thought I should have, or is there anything else you’d like to add?
The first thing I saw this year worries me a lot. We no longer have town hall meetings.
I think that’s a very sad result from a cultural point of view.
Even when I was on the board before, I felt like I was at Town Meeting because demographic change has to change. Having it on the first Tuesday in March, which is a business day, is a bug.
A program failed.
But not doing anything about it is an even worse situation.
I think we should consider holding town meetings either at night or on a Saturday where people have the opportunity to attend without suffering financial loss. So that’s something I’m pretty strong for.
