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Date: 11/15/2022
SOUTH HADLEY – Election Day 2022 saw a special election in South Hadley to fill the vacant seat on the Selectboard where resident Nicole Casolari was elected in an uncontested race to serve out the remainder of the term.
Sarah Etelman, a member of the Selectboard since 2013, passed away in June after a battle with cancer at the age of 53. Etelman’s passing created the vacancy on the board, and instead of leaving the seat open until its expiration in April 2023, the board chose to have a special election to replace the seat for the next half year.
Casolari, a lifetime South Hadley resident outside of her college years, saw the opening as an opportunity to get involved and make an impact in town government decision-making and to get experience in a limited capacity before running for a full-term next year.
“The town, the community, it really means a lot to me. To the point where I’ve been an employee of the town for a long time,” Casolari said.
Almost 6,000 of the 6,574 votes in the unofficial results went to Casolari as she ran unopposed. 199 votes were write-ins, and 423 voters did not vote or write-in.
Casolari has served in the Recreation Department, at Town Hall as an intern in the Selectboard’s office, in the clerk’s office for about four years and now as a math teacher at South Hadley High School for the last six years. She also served on the Board of Registrars, coached youth sports in town and has been a Town Meeting member.
Through being a Town Meeting member, Casolari made one of her goals to get more involved in how the town spends its money and how it takes care of residents with that money. Her experience in different town government capacities helped prepare her for a run on the Selectboard.
“What really pushed me to run for Selectboard was to get more involved in that way,” Casolari said. “I found that in town meeting it felt almost too late to make a difference, so I’ve been thinking about running for a little while and in terms of just time commitment this ended up working out nicely.”
Casolari said while the vacancy came up due to unfortunate circumstances, she also still felt the town is in some financial stress and she wanted to help in that work and take the seat so a whole Selectboard can work through these concerns together.
The two biggest priorities for Casolari on the board are making sure residents have buildings and facilities opened and being used for services offered as well as making sure these buildings are still in good shape. She added through discussions with residents when collecting signatures and campaigning, it was noted that there is “definitely some frustration about the state of our municipal buildings.”
“We have two school buildings in rough shape. You have DPW whose building is not in the best of shape as well,” Casolari said. “Then also the services as well, Town Hall is only opened 8:30 [a.m.] to 3:30 [p.m.] four days a week at this point. Residents are upset that they walk in and there’s still signs that say by appointment only. So, figuring out in terms of those services and facilities that we have and making sure that our budget is going towards taking care of our residents.”
Casolari was sworn into the Selectboard days after the election and will now serve the board as budget season approaches. She will be involved in the next Selectboard meeting as well as the Special Town Meeting at the end of the month.
According to Casolari, not only was running in the special election a good way to get some experience and time on the board before running for a full-term, it also gave her an opportunity to be on the ground floor in leading up to the annual Town Meeting next May.
“In my head I thought our Annual Town Meeting happens in May, I’m going to be jumping in right when these budget conversations are happening and that’s really what I’d like to get involved with right away,” Casolari said. “I am all about problem solving and figuring out where can we work together as a community within departments to take care of our young families, our lifelong residents.”
Starting on the board in November allows Casolari a rare opportunity to be involved in this process as opposed to running in a regular situation where she would be joining the board at the end of the process.
Casolari hopes to help the town through serving on the board and plans to run again in the spring.
“I’m really looking forward to serving the community and I’m looking forward to making sure we have the budget item on our list of things to do right away,” Casolari said. “And that everything I am working on I am being transparent.”