Inspirational day with Smith College and Niki Tsongas!

Yesterday I went to a Smith College alumnae event at Nancy's Airfield Cafe. I had the privilege to meet Niki Tsongas and ask her if she had any advice for me as I enter into local politics. One thing has stuck with me: she said as women, we tend to think we need to know everything before we try and we won't know everything we need to until we start and actually get into the job. I know there is a lot to learn with the responsibility of being Board of Selectman and that I don't know everything I need to know yet, but I know, if elected, I will put all of skills to the task and do all I can for our town!

Voter's Guide

Here is the final write-up the Beacon Villager does for candidates. They sent a series of questions and very strict word answer limits for each. A challenge for sure! But a fun one.

http://maynard.wickedlocal.com/news/20170428/maynard-voters-guide-alannah-gustavson-candidate-for-selectman

Candidate's Statement

The Beacon Villager gave each Candidate 500 words for a Candidate Statement this week.
Here's mine!

http://maynard.wickedlocal.com/news/20170417/candidate-statement-alannah-gustavson-candidate-for-maynard-selectman

Candidates Night Video

WAVM once again came through with great coverage of Candidates Night! Thank you so much to the talented WAVM crew. See the video here:

https://youtu.be/ujO-1WxHXf4

Fire Station update from BOS meeting

At Tuesday's BOS meeting Ron Calabria, the Chair of the Fire Station Building Committee presented an update on their progress. You can review the PDF version of his slide presentation here:

http://www.townofmaynard-ma.gov/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/fsbc-bos-presentation-20170404.pdf

And their Annual Report is here:
http://www.townofmaynard-ma.gov/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/fsbc-annual-report-20161231.pdf

Currently, the location they are pursuing is at Mill and Main. The town would purchase land from them before construction. This is a centrally located option and should work well, but they first have to do soil stability testing and appraise the land before going into any sort of purchase negotiations. They have considered 16 possible sites, and narrowed down to a top 5 to work from. The other 4 that people may have heard they were checking on were Crowe Park, Jimmy's Garage, redoing the existing station, and Rockland Ave. Crowe park wasn't a popular idea due to it's proximity to the schools and the fact it would take away playing field space, which we would then probably need to replace elsewhere in town. Jimmy's Garage owner does not want to sell. Redoing the existing station involves making the building earthquake proof, which is now required, so it is a huge undertaking and requires we create a temporary fire station elsewhere because that kind of construction can't be done with our firefighters still working within the site. It is also too small a space, and requires purchasing some adjacent lots. Rockland Avenue, as explained by the fire chief at the meeting, isn't the best location due to the immediate intersections and the new addition of the Rail Trail. The reason Rockland was ever considered had to do with a specific Federal Grant that was available in 2007, which required a "shovel ready" site that the town already owned in order to be eligible. That grant is now gone, so the site is not longer a top option.

The Committee has chosen DAEDULUS Projects Incorporated to be the OPM (Owner Project Manager) for this project. The Committee is asking for $125,000 at Town Meeting for initial OPM costs, schematic designs, construction estimating, site survey, and other engineering/legal costs to get them through this initial phase of the project.

This is a necessary project for our fire department. This is not a "wishlist" project. We currently own a fire engine that doesn't fit in our facility and need to have a temporary housing built for it until a permanent solution can be found. This project will be expensive, but with the right project management and smart decision making, I think we can be happy with the result without a serious impact on our citizens (i.e. raising taxes).

Please come to Town Meeting on Monday May 15th for voting on this!

Beacon Villager Interview

I'm so excited to have the interviews and videos for all the candidates up on the Beacon Villager! Please check mine out here:

http://maynard.wickedlocal.com/news/20170404/alannah-gustavson-candidate-for-maynard-selectman-wants-citizens-involved

Presentation at Saturday's meeting

Here is the presentation I made at the Library this Saturday. I had a great time meeting other candidates running in other towns and what they are doing for their campaigns. I learned a lot and feel fired up to take that knowledge with me the rest of my campaign.

Action Together Metrowest Meeting Saturday!

I am very excited to be speaking at the ATMW meeting here in Maynard at the Library on Saturday. Here is their agenda:

Theme: The future of our environment with POTUS45... and what we can do about it.

Agenda:
2-2:30 (optional) - Meet and Chat - come and catch up with folks, do some planning, super laid back half an hour!
2:30-2:35 - Intro and Welcome, Recap of events, Review Agenda
2:35-2:40 - ATMW running for office! - Alannah Gustavson for Maynard Selectman
2:40-2:45 - Q&A

2:45-3:30 - Task Force break out groups, Sign making for April rallies

3:30-4:30 - **STATE SENATOR JAMIE ELDRIDGE: Topic: The top Environmental Legislations in MA You Need To Know**

One Maynard Moving Forward

 Maynard is small in square mileage and huge on heart. While our border hasn’t changed, we have gone through a ton of growth in recent decades. Maynard is a wonderfully simple and beautifully complex place. We are black, brown, white, asian, latinx, and indigenous Maynardians. We are CIS gendered heterosexual Maynardians and LGBTQIA Maynardians. Those that celebrate religion do so in churches, synagogues, temples, and mosques. We are life-long citizens and those that are just now putting down roots. We are all of these things, and we are all Maynardians. I am running for Board of Selectman because I believe we are One Maynard Moving Forward.

I am formulating my specific action plan to help you understand what I mean by One Maynard Moving Forward. I will publish that as soon as I have it completed.

Maynard Cultural Council Awards Night

Last night the Maynard and Stow Cultural Councils joined together for an Awards Night at Fine Arts Theater Place in Maynard. It was a wonderful celebration for all of this year's grant winners. I learned so much about all the grantees and their amazing work in our communities. Programs that received grants included music, dance, fine arts, and more.  If you are unfamiliar with the work the Maynard Cultural Council does, I encourage you to check them out! Thank you Maynard Cultural Council!

http://www.townofmaynard-ma.gov/gov/committees/cultural-council/

Kate Hogan's St. Patrick's Day Party for the Boys and Girls Club

Rep. Hogan's fundraiser for the Boys and Girls Club was a great success and a very fun event! I'm so glad my boy and I were able to go and share in this wonderful evening for a great cause. The Beacon Villager has a great article about it. http://maynard.wickedlocal.com/news/20170313/st-patricks-day-event-brings-in-green-for-boys-amp-girls-club

Save the Date: Candidates' Night!

The Assabet Valley Chamber of Commerce is putting on a Candidates' Night at Maynard High School on Wednesday, April 12th at 7:00pm. Admission is free and the forum will include candidates for School Committee and Board of Selectman.
The event isn't yet listed on the Chamber's website http://www.assabetvalleychamber.org but I'm sure it will get updates soon. There is a Facebook event for it here https://www.facebook.com/events/1888849718066774/

I hope to see lots of Maynardians there to learn about the candidates!

International Women's Day

I observed International Women's Day wearing red and exercising my First Amendment rights in our great capital city of Boston.

BOS Meeting Tonight

At the Board of Selectman Meeting tonight it was explained that the 1-year term position to fill the vacancy due to Tim Egan's resignation could not be voted on during the regular town election due to a procedural error. There will be a separate town election for that vacancy, and those who pulled nomination papers for it will have to re-file. I am sorry for those who collected signatures for that position. I sympathize greatly with having to go through the nomination paper process twice. Hang in there and I hope to see you on the special election ballot!

Lawn Signs are in!

I just got my lawn signs delivered! It was so exciting to open the shipping box up and see my name on these :) Please let me know if you want to host one on your yard. Thank you for your support!

Maynard Education Foundation's Annual "The Taste"

MEF's Annual "The Taste" event is this Sunday! Please consider coming to this wonderful fundraiser. I am so sorry to have to miss it this year, but I've made my online donation instead. Please consider MEF in your charitable giving as well!
See their websites for details on the event or to donate:
http://www.maynardeducation.org/

Nomination Papers accepted!

Good news this morning! I just received confirmation from the Clerk's office that my signatures have been verified and my nomination papers are accepted. I'm officially all set for the ballot!

I also want to share a link to the Beacon Villager's article on the Selectman meeting for February 21st. I have a mention in the article for speaking about the Water/Sewer pricing.
http://maynard.wickedlocal.com/news/20170223/maynard-selectmen-mull-plans-to-redesign-veterans-memorial-park

Water/Sewer Information

I attended the BOS meeting on Tuesday night and there was a Public Hearing section with regards to the water/sewer rates. The Board approved a rate increase for this year after a report from Toby Fedder, P.E. of Woodard & Curran and public comments. I posted on Facebook about this meeting and received a question regarding what benefits the town has seen after going with a private company to provide water/sewer services. I emailed Kevin Sweet about it and he provided this thorough answer, which I was given permission by him to share. I wanted to be sure to post here for those not on Facebook. I hope this helps shed some light on this utility. I certainly found it informative.

Hi Alannah,

Yes, thank you for joining us last night.  So this question has somewhat of a complex answer.  The decision to privatize something is not based solely on cost savings although that is usually a big factor.  The Town through a state stimulus grant and some local matching funds did a considerable upgrade to the plant resulting in modernization and electrical upgrades.  At that time about 7-years ago due to the complexity of this new investment the Town opted to hire a contracted “Plant Manager” and functioned under a hybrid of a contract plant manager and town employee operators.  This resulted in difficulties related to personnel management as a contractor could not properly supervise union town employees, etc.  In addition, there is a shortage of wastewater operators throughout the state and we were seeing turnover and extreme difficulty filling the position.  After we had an Operator go to a private company and another took a job in Concord we made the decision to privatize the entire operation and the one remaining employee was absorbed into an opening within the water/sewer division.  Due to the complexity of operating a WWTP this is often a privatized function of municipal government throughout the Country. 

The benefits for the Town:

-          Do not have to worry about hiring licensed operators and a plant manager

-          Overtime, vacation, sick coverage for a 24x7 operation are borne by the private company

-          Health insurance costs and retirement benefits are saved as well as Other Post Employment Benefit (OPEB) liability

-          Ongoing increased chemical costs are borne by private company

-          Daily sludge disposal and hauling increasing costs are borne by private company

-          Maintenance and replacement of 9,000 gallon tanker truck

-          Private company has bigger network of technical experts to call upon and regulatory insight

There is no doubt privatization of the WWTP has been a benefit to the Town and has saved us financially especially long-term.  One of the biggest benefits is we can predict our costs we know contractually through the duration of the Agreement what are expenses will be and can do forecast projections.  As a Town operation these costs are unknown due to employee Union agreement increases, disposal costs, chemical costs, etc.  Overall our budget for the WWTP operations was reduced and has been a cost savings.

Hope this helps!

Regards,

Kevin

Welcome to my Blog!

Hello Fellow Maynardians!

I hope this blog will be helpful in communicating with citizens about my campaign. I will post both here and on Facebook @GustavsonforSelectman, so please choose the method you prefer for keeping up to date with me and share with friends and neighbors in Maynard! I also welcome comments and emails.

To get things rolling, I thought I'd post a little about myself.

I am a lifetime Massachusetts resident, with no desire to leave. I graduated from Smith College with a BA and majored in Music. My husband and I met while I was still in high school and after getting married, bought our first house here in Maynard in 2004. I have worked in nonprofits and retail, moving quickly up to management positions in both, but decided to be a stay-at-home mom when my husband and I started our family in 2006. I have served as Webmaster and then Vice-President in the Maynard Family Association. I substitute taught in the Community School preschool. I have worked part time in food service and most recently as Dining Coordinator at Minuteman Senior Services, I love music and theater and have been active in local productions, including Stage Managing the Maynard High School production of Grease in 2006, and directing the Fowler School Play in 2016. Currently, I am Assistant Director for Opera 51's production of Die Fledermaus. I love to cook and host gatherings for family and friends.

Thank you for your interest in my campaign.