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.