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Date: 7/5/2023
CHESTER — A special election on Saturday, July 8, will pick a new Chester selectman for a one-year term, filling the vacancy left when Selectman Jason Forgue resigned this spring. The special election was called for by a citizen’s petition.
Polls will be open 8 a.m. to noon at Town Hall, 15 Middlefield Rd., Chester. The three candidates on the ballot are Avril Willemain of Route 20, Brian Forgue of Bromley Road and Craig Gauthier of Emery Street.
Willeman said she has lived in Chester off and on her whole life. Currently, she works for Shop Therapy in Northampton. She describes herself as “a single mom of three wonderful kids,” all of whom gained their roots in town attending the Gateway regional schools, with her oldest just having graduated.
She said when she was young, her mother was a town assessor, and her stepfather also did numerous jobs for the town. Asked why she is running, she said she is hearing negative comments from people in town.
“I’m watching my town turn into something us locals can’t recognize anymore,” she said.
Willeman said she wants to get people involved, such as having kids help with the elderly, and bringing potlucks back to town. “There is so much, especially with the elderly in the town, that needs to be taken care of,” she said.
One of her suggestions is to restart a garden club: “There are so many spots where we could be planting flowers, and encouraging natural life in our town.”
“I’m just hoping for a really great outcome,” Willeman said, hoping “that our registered voters do come out and cast their votes. Without the votes, we’ve got nothing.”
Brian Forgue, who is studying political science at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, said he has lived in Chester for 16 of his 20 years. He said he did a lot of signature-gathering to make the special election happen, getting 100 signatures for the citizen’s petition.
“Primarily, I want to run because Chester is my home,” Forgue said, adding that working in government to help his neighbors and his community is what he wants to spend the rest of his life accomplishing.
“Every single person I talk to always says how frustrating, personality-driven, and agenda-driven Town Hall is, and how difficult it is to get things done,” he said. “I want to continue advocating for the town of Chester to the state, with the ultimate goal to get more rural aid, more from PILOT [payments in lieu of taxes] ... and our fair share of Chapter 70 and Chapter 90, and get those formulas to work for us,” he said.
“If we can get the money, then I believe we can lower the tax burden on residents while keeping up the quality of services,” he added, which he said is the only legitimate strategy without fiddling with the tax rate while the burden remains the same for taxpaying residents.
Forgue also served as student representative to the School Committee during two years of high school at Gateway, and recently accepted the position again as a write-in candidate for the School Committee in the last election.
He said he wants to serve as the connector between the selectmen and the School Committee, “to make sure the town remains aware and is supportive, and generally in the know,” he said.
The Pennysaver also reached out to the third resident on the ballot, Craig Gauthier, who declined to make a statement to the newspaper.
Whichever candidate is elected will serve a one-year term, at the end of which the position will be up for election again for a full three-year term on the Board of Selectmen.