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Date: 8/21/2015
AGAWAM – A familiar face in the Agawam Town Hall will leave his post in January but hopes to remain involved in the community with a bid for the Town Council.
Town Clerk Richard Theroux has served Agawam for 32 years, through elections and recounts, but has accepted an offer with Angelides Law Firm in Longmeadow to help with government relations.
“It’s the right position at the right time,” Theroux said. “It gives me an opportunity to spend more time with my wife as time goes by and certainly my children. At this point in time, change is good. However, because I’ve lived in the community all my life and I’ve been involved in government for so long, it’s really my wife that said I’m not going to be able to walk away from it.”
Theroux is no stranger to the Council, having served six terms beginning when he was 19 and even spending time as council president.
Though he will not be leaving his position as town clerk until after the November vote, Theroux said he has filed an ethics disclosure and will not be participating in the election from a work standpoint. He said he would be working for Angelides Law Firm by the time the council is sworn in, if he is elected.
One of the biggest issues Theroux has taken cause with is making sure that zoning laws are clear for the land owner, as well as neighbors surrounding potentially developed parcel.
He said his time in Town Hall would only help him be a more effective councilor than he was at the beginning of his career.
“I hope the people of the town who are voting still have the thought that I still have something to offer,” he said. “This is really the issue for me Agawam has been very good to me I’ve lived here all my life. My children had great educations, as I did, through the public school system. I still want to be involved.”
As Theroux prepares to enter the next part of his career, he said it will be hard to leave the Town Clerk’s Office for the last time but is proud how far everything has progressed since he began in 1983.
He said he was disappointed that the town has yet to implement same-day voter registration.
“I think it is something we should have. People should be able to go the polls, have the right identification, register there and vote. Our society’s much too mobile,” Theroux said. “We were able to work with the secretary to have online registrations. It’s the way of the future. It’s what we have to do. Sometimes government is slow to catch up. I’m pleased with what we have been able to do.”
Just as he has seen the change in the office, Theroux said he needed to make a switch in his life, as difficult as it is.
“It’s going to be hard not coming to this building every day as I have for a long, long time, but you know, change happens,” he said. “You know, I don’t like the fact that my children grew up but I couldn’t stop it. There’s a good marker. I wish that Mike was still in soccer and Kate was still in swimming. That’s life.”
Theroux said his coworkers were surprised by his decision, and though he may not be ready for full-on retirement, some people are just meant to keep their hands busy.
“The key is I’m never going to retire,” Theroux said. “My wife and I are workers. We are not leisure people and I don’t see either of us totally or completely retiring ever, and that’s just our make up.”