By OWEN BOSS
Staff Writer
EASTHAMPTON — The four candidates vying for the mayor’s office came together Wednesday night in a moderated forum, during which each had a chance to weigh in on key issues, including improvements to the school system, how to attract new businesses to the city and the proposed expansion of the Northampton landfill.
The forum, sponsored by the city’s Democratic Committee, drew a capacity crowd of more than 250 residents to Williston Northampton School’s Phillips Stevens Chapel. Timed responses to questions from panelists and audience members alike allowed six-term mayoral incumbent Michael A. Tautznik and his challengers, Albert J. DiCarlo, James P. Kwiecinski and Margaret Prendergast, the opportunity to address the challenges facing the city and highlight the differences between their respective campaigns.
The candidates
DiCarlo, 62, of Campbell Drive, who sits on the Conservation Commission, said he has always been interested in city government, but his 40 years with the state police kept him from pursuing a political career. Throughout the debate, DiCarlo focused on ways to make the city a more attractive destination for larger, big-box businesses to alleviate the heavy tax burden on residential property owners.
Kwiecinski, 56, of Hannum Brook Drive, a three-term city councilor and real estate agent at Northampton agencies since 1983, said the skills he learned during his seven years as an administrator with the University of Massachusetts would translate well if he won the position of mayor.
Prendergast, 48, of Gaugh Street, who has served on the School Committee, is co-president of the Friends of Emily Williston Library and works at Easthampton Savings Bank and Big E’s Supermarket deli, said she is proud to not be “your average candidate,” and said her ability to network with area residents and business owners separates her from the competition.
Tautznik, 56, of Hendricks Street, who became the city’s first mayor in 1996 and has held the job ever since, pointed to his experience in the post and promised to continue advocating for the protection of the city’s environmental, historical and cultural resources.
School system improvements
One of the first questions posed at the forum asked candidates to consider how they would improve the city’s public school system in order to ensure that local students don’t opt out for school choice and to weigh on the proposed construction of a new $48 million high school.
All four candidates noted that the city was losing considerable money to school choice and that maintaining a high standard for teachers and paying them attractively would help promote the city’s school system.
Prendergast and Kwiecinski were critical of Tautznik’s decision not to build a new high school several years ago when construction costs would have been cheaper and said that if residents approved, they would support the new building.
Tautznik, who called the new high school a must-have for the future of the city, vowed that if elected he would keep the project within its $48 million budget. DiCarlo, while noting that “the mark of a good city is the school system,” was hesitant because of the current economic climate. “I’m not denying that we should have (a new high school), but the economic times are such that we could gravely suffer from saying yes right now,” he said.
Landfill expansion
While not one of the candidates openly supported the expansion of the Northampton sanitary landfill, which its opponents say could pollute a nearby aquifer, only Kwiecinski, Prendergast and DiCarlo stood adamantly opposed. Although Tautznik didn’t support the expansion, he said it was “a very complicated issue” and promoted a continued conversation about the city’s waste management system.
“I have never wavered or hesitated in my opposition to the Northampton landfill,” Kwiecinski said. “If the incumbent had taken the positions I had taken four years ago, I don’t think Northampton would be pursuing this landfill expansion. I have stated on numerous occasions that landfills and aquifers don’t mix.”
Prendergast added that she would demand a $100 million bond requiring Northampton to test the water on a regular basis. “I don’t understand why the city of Northampton was the only city in the state of Massachusetts allowed a waiver to spread out over an aquifer,” she said. “And I want to find out who said yes.”
Attracting new businesses
All four agreed that bringing new businesses to the city would be the key to lessening the current burden on residential taxpayers, but each had their own approach to promoting the city’s economic development.
Prendergast said she would aim to foster the arts by enticing new artists to open businesses in the city. DiCarlo reiterated his commitment to making Easthampton as attractive as possible to larger companies, and Kwiecinski said he would take a diversified approach, promoting the city’s cultural resources while looking to land larger retailers. Tautznik said he would focus on bringing in companies seeking to develop green technologies.
“We need to make value-added technological products, and I think that fits Easthampton very well ... we have wonderful old buildings that will support all kinds of activities,” he said.
Owen Boss can be reached at oboss@gazettenet.com.
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