Tomorrow, Amherst residents will vote on a new town supervisor, who will succeed Democrat Brian Kulpa. Kulpa is leaving the position, having hit his term limit.
BTPM NPR’s Emyle Watkins spoke with both candidates in the race to hear more about the platform they’re running on. Here’s part of Watkins’ conversation with Shawn Lavin, currently Amherst’s deputy supervisor and a councilmember, who is running as a Democrat.
Emyle Watkins: I want to start with, kind of the big question is, why did you decide to run?
Shawn Lavin: That is a really good question. It's one I don't get asked that often, so it's a great question. So I'm very fortunate in my life. I've had a lot of help and organizations have kind of given me the opportunities to be in this position, right? So, I have been in in a world, in my upbringing, that certain state programs, like the SNAP that's currently being held from the federal [government] for the government shutdown, but Belmont, these organizations in place, help me get from a position of kind of the 'forgotten about,' to the middle class where I currently sit. So, I'm very fortunate in that way, and I've always believed in giving back. It's the reason I joined the military when I was 22 years old. It's the reason I ran for town board to begin with, and it's the reason I'm running for supervisor.
Emyle Watkins: Where do you see Amherst a few years from now? Like, what's your ideal Amherst?
Shawn Lavin: So, our ideal Amherst is... we had a lot of things to get over that hump in the last 10 years, and we're getting there, and we've gotten really far. I think Amherst is going to continue to be a very safe place to live, safe place to raise a family. It's going to be a great place to grow your business and your and start a business. And I believe that because we have some of the best public safety statistics and the police department are incredible in Amherst. Our school districts are amazing, right? A lot of businesses you're seeing right now in real time, are gravitating into Amherst. Costco opens up in the spring. The Boulevard Mall is being redeveloped. UBMD is looking to grow some indoor sports complex. And there's a reason for that. It's because we've invested in ourselves and we focused on what's important, and that is, you know, making sure that we have the infrastructure and the parts needed to build and grow this community.
Emyle Watkins: Tell me a little bit about how your platform is going to achieve that, like, what are some of your largest goals? Or, you know, some of the values that you're running on.
Shawn Lavin: So, the values I run on, I'm a big proponent of getting us up to the next step on a technology front, I think we have all these we provide great services and we provide great products to our residents, but we have to be better at showcasing how we're doing that. And what do I mean? All of our snowplows have a GPS in them. We can tell you at any moment where our snowplows are in Amherst, at any one time during a storm. The idea though is, I want to find a way to take those GPS coordinates, put them in real time on our website so people can see, 'holy smokes, we just had a plow come down our street two hours ago. I'm good to get I'm good to go to work. My driveway is going to get cleared out, but the plows coming again in an hour.' They can see what their tax dollars are doing. And I think we're not doing a good enough job at that.
Emyle Watkins: I want you to try and summarize your campaign in one sentence.
Shawn Lavin: I think doing the right thing with integrity would be it. We have to make the right decision and not the popular decision. And those are not always the same because we haven't focused enough. We're not looking into the future like we need to. A lot of people think about Friday or next week or the end of the year. We got to start thinking 10, 12, 14 years. What does that mean for our kids, grandkids? Does that mean green space and trees? Or does that mean, you know, kind of an eradication of our public safety based on budget cuts? I don't agree with that. That's why I'm in this race.
Emyle Watkins: Thank you so much, Shawn, I appreciate you joining me today.
Shawn Lavin: Thank you for having me.
You can listen to the entire conversation here:
