Select Board Chair Dawn Hill-Holdgate To Seek Fourth Term

Select Board chair Dawn Hill-Holdgate will be seeking a fourth term on the island's lead policy-making body at the annual town election on May 21. So far, she is the only candidate to pull nomination papers for the one Select Board seat up for grabs in the election.

Hill-Holdgate told the Current that the board is in the midst of a series of important initiatives - including the planning for the new Our Island Home nursing facility, an indoor recreation complex, and alternative access to Baxter Road - all of which she would like to see through to conclusion while continuing to address the island's housing crisis. Most importantly, however, was a key endorsement she picked up that led to her pulling nomination papers to defend her seat.

"My daughter encouraged me to run," Hill-Holdgate said of her teenage daughter who attends Nantucket High School. "She feels good about seeing what I'm doing. For her to want me to continue to put my time into it, that was huge."

Hill-Holdgate said being able to help island residents solve problems in her role on the Select Board was another factor in her decision, even as she weighed it against some of the more contentious issues that make the job difficult.

"The hardest thing is the contention and lack of civility that seems to have gotten worse - the lack of mutual respect for differing opinions," Hill-Holdgate said. "But with the right demeanor on the board, we can help with that. The best thing is when people say 'thank you' and when someone reaches out with a problem and you can do something about it."

Beyond the lone three-year seat on the Select Board up for grabs in the May town election, the following seats on other town boards and commissions are open:

As of last Friday, the following candidates had pulled nomination papers from the town clerk's office:

• David Iverson, Planning Board
• Esmeralda Martinez, School Committee
• Andrew Lowell, II, HSAB
• Sarah Alger, Town Meeting Moderator
• John Stackpole, Land Bank
• Allen Reinhard, Water Commission
• Diane Coombs, Historic District Commission
• Laura Gallagher Byrne, School Committee
• John W. Bartlett, Land Bank
• Robert Benchley, Water Commission
• Angus MacLeod, Historic District Commission
• Kelly Steffen, Land Bank
• Katherine Murphy, Community Preservation Committee
• Bob DeCosta, HSAB
• Tim Soverino, Community Preservation Committee
• Joe Paul, Historic District Commission

The deadline for filing nomination papers with the town clerk is Wednesday, March 21st at 5 p.m.