A 23-year Navy veteran and first-time Select Board candidate, Paul Whitmarsh wants North Yarmouth's residents to guide its future.
For 15 days each month, Paul Whitmarsh flies across the Atlantic Ocean dozens of times, landing in European cities, and leading and working with crew members from around the world to ensure safe and comfortable travel for hundreds of passengers.
And then he returns to North Yarmouth. He settles into his two story-home on 3.5 acres carved out of the woods on a Deer Brook tributary. Chickadee’s dart through the white pines. Pileated woodpeckers rattle the birch trees.
Whitmarsh is running for one of two open, three-year terms on the North Yarmouth Select Board. The election is June 14.
“We moved here for this,” says Whitmarsh as he looks across his patio to his patch of newly-sprung green lawn and fading daffodils. The sun is finally shining bright enough for a person to need shade or sunscreen. Whitmarsh has lived here with his wife and three children for the past 12 years.
Preserving this type of rural retreat for all North Yarmouth residents is essential for the uniqueness of the town.
“I was surprised by the rapid pace of development within the town,” he said. “It is not what we were expecting for this rural town, at least not at this pace.”
For the past few years, Whitmarsh has become more involved in town government and issues. He has looked up and read the Town Charter and Land Use Ordinance. He attends and participates at Select Board meetings and Town Meeting. He helped champion a successful referendum in March that limits growth in Village Center. (Village Center now reaches to his back yard on Wild Turkey Lane, which is more than two miles from the geographical town center. This change also spurred Whitmarsh’s engagement with town issues.)
Town polities in recent years are projecting North Yarmouth on a path to urbanization, he said.
“Before we continue to accelerate the process towards the inevitable, we need to carefully consider what we are losing forever.”
If elected Whitmarsh would work toward:
Creating a sound fiscal strategic plan including evaluating the impact of the TIF to better balance the amount in the TIF fund and setting a target mil rate
Reviewing town governing documents to ensure they reflect residents' needs and goals and align with state law and regulations
Assessing the number and purpose of committees to use what Whitmarsh call’s “North Yarmouth’s greatest asset –its people.”
North Yarmouth’s policies should reflect what residents want for their community. Communication with and participation from resident are essential to the process. More people vote in elections than participate in meetings or on committees or at town meeting. If the town leaders want to get a true reflection of community desires, Whitmarsh said, more issues should go to a town vote, rather than a town meeting.
Other select board candidates cite the hiring of “experts” as important for the town. Whitmarsh says experts can provide useful advice, to be sure, but the hiring of experts should be done judiciously.
Most important, town leaders should not neglect or overlook the expertise of its own residents – from those whose families have lived here for generations to those who moved in yesterday.
“I believe North Yarmouth residents are the ones best qualified to set the direction of our town’s future,” said Whitmarsh. “Residents need to want to be engaged, which means they need to trust and believe that they will be listened to.”
The town recently underwent a financial audit. The auditor provided the select board with useful advice and recommendations that Whitmarsh said was worthwhile for the town to follow and essential in the long-term development of a sound strategic financial plan.
However, many “expert” city planners, for example, aren’t experts at keeping a rural town rural. Their experience is in making blighted urban areas feel more rural and creating green space.
North Yarmouth already has green space, Whitmarsh said, that green space needs preserved not manipulated.
As a select board member, Whitmarsh said he would educate himself on the history, the details and consequences of proposals. Being thoughtful and thorough and acting for the best interest for the entire town are essential.
For example, many residents talk about wanting the town to have affordable housing, and affordable senior housing but in exploring the nuts and bolts of the issue, Whitmarsh said, North Yarmouth does not have infrastructure in place or even on the horizon for the state to consider funding such projects.
And the town attorney recently reported that based on North Yarmouth’s Land Use Ordinance, a home listed at $510,000 legally qualifies as affordable.
Whitmarsh further addressed the challenges of affordable housing on his blog. He concluded:
“Providing affordable housing has been a stated goal of not only this town, but the entire state as is evident by LD2003 which was recently signed into law by Governor Mills,” Whitmarsh wrote: “The unfortunate truth is, there is not a lot of influence a select board can have to make affordable housing. One possibility that could deliver a positive impact is redefining the income level that would be considered for affordable housing. Amending our LUO could incentivize developers to find ways to build those houses. I wish that I could provide a more upbeat assessment on affordable housing and the actions that can be taken, but I’d rather provide you with the truth.”
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