Election features challenger for Common Committee

By Jonathan Cook

Turley Publications Reporter

WEST BROOKFIELD – On Tuesday, May 4, voters will choose between Common Committee incumbent Bob Richard and his challenger, Jeremy MacLachlan in the only contested race of the year.

If it hadn’t been for the farmer’s market proposal, there may not have been any challengers at all.

But, because resident Amy Dugas was dissatisfied with the Common Committee’s handling of her proposal for a farmers market and she brought the issue to the Board of Selectmen, awareness of the committee spread. That’s how MacLachlan learned such a committee existed. Given his background as a certified landscape designer, he felt he that was the place for him to serve the town.

As for the incumbent, Richard defends his committee’s decision to direct the proposal to the Zoning Board of Appeals for a special permit.

Richard says his job on the Common Committee is to make sure that any event held on the common is approved legally. He says his committee’s intentions were always for the good of the town, adding that approval of the farmers market may have set a bad precedent. Instead, the committee leaned on the opinion of town counsel.

Richard has been a business owner for 25 years, he says. He has two children and has lived near the common for 15 years. He says serving as a volunteer on the committee is part of his civic duty.

Richard points to the committee’s accomplishments during his tenure, including, restoration of the baseball backstop, landscaping the Helen Shackley Bandstand and monument areas, implementing a long-term lawn care program, and removal of defective lights from the trees. 

His committee has also worked to remove dead or sick trees.

Richard also says his committee has initiated a project to install a monument in recognition of J. Irving England’s contributions to the town.

While MacLachlan gives credit to the Common Committee for their “impressive” maintenance of the town common, he says their handling of the farmers market disregarded the benefit a market would bring to the town. McLachlan says they should have considered public opinion rather than look for a reason to block the proposal. Since the common is for the town’s people to use, what they want is most important, he says.

He feels so strongly about it that he decided to contend for a post on the board. He said it was important to him that someone poses a challenge.

As one of only 400 or so Massachusetts Certified Landscape Professionals, MacLachlan thought that person might as well be himself.

MacLachlan is a father of three children under 10 and owner of his own landscaping company.