HARTFORD โ The Selectboard appointed resident Tim Fariel to fill a board vacancy at a special meeting Tuesday night.
Fariel has lived in Hartford for 22 years and currently works as a facilities manager at Aris Solutions, a nonprofit White River Junction-based accounting firm. He has previously served on the Hartford School Board and on search committees for Hartford town manager and school superintendent.
Fariel will fill the seat vacated by Brandon Smith at the end of July until Town Meeting in March.
“I really hope to bring to the team the spirit of collaboration and focus on the challenges faced,” Fariel said in a Wednesday email. “All (Upper Valley) communities function best with meaningful engagement in the work.”
The board selected Fariel after soliciting applications from Hartford residents earlier this month and publicly interviewing four candidates at the Tuesday meeting, a process laid out by the town charter.
The board chose Fariel over former Selectboard member Lannie Collins and newcomers Kristen Deprizio-Pelletier and John Haffner. (A fifth candidate, Mike Eigenbrode, withdrew his application ahead of the meeting.)
After the board deliberated in a roughly 30-minute executive session Tuesday night, multiple board members noted the decision had not been an easy one.
Fariel’s past experience and references stood out to the board as well as his ability to answer questions with specific details and present possible solutions to the problems he identified, Selectboard Chairwoman Mary Erdei said Wednesday.
“We were looking for someone who wants to be engaged and can actually speak to specific details of engagement,” Erdei said.
The board identified two questions for each candidate to prepare for in advance: What priorities would they have in the fall budget-setting process and how would they engage citizens in town government.
As for the budget process, Fariel told the board he would focus on evaluating the town’s reserve funding and bonds. He also emphasized comparing how Hartford balances its budget with other nearby towns and doing some “reflection.”
“I think we face a significant challenge in finding the balance between operating the town and the economic stress our citizens are facing,” Fariel told the board. “I think we may see several years of balloon budgets and reduction of services,” adding that while he is hopeful that will not happen, it seems likely.
In terms of public engagement, Fariel, who regularly attends Hartford Selectboard meetings and offers public comment to the board, recommended holding occasional listening sessions in each village of Hartford.
He noted that meeting with residents during the town manager and superintendent search processes that he participated in “generated good will and an opportunity to strengthen relationships.”
He also suggested that the board use digital programs and other resources to consult residents on major issues such as a controversial May Selectboard decision to terminate the town’s curbside recycling program.
When asked by Selectboard Vice Chairman Mike Hoyt what he sees as the three biggest problems facing Hartford, Fariel deemphasized the issue of housing availability, noting that building more housing seems unlikely to address “affordability.”
“If you really look at the housing that Hartford has built in the last 10 or 15 years, it’s profound.”
Instead, Fariel said the top issues are the “scale of what the town does for its citizens relative to the cost,” issues with polychlorinated biphenyl, or PCB, contamination at Hartford High School and tech center, and addressing the town’s “economic wage gap.”
While not overseen by the town, Fariel noted the school district problem is a “huge issue” for him and emphasized throughout the process that he would like more collaboration between the school district and town government.
In his interview, Fariel noted that funding for both comes from the “same purse” and increased collaboration and planning could help to lower tax bills for residents.
As for the wage gap, Fariel said he worked at Listen Community Services for four years and saw “incredible poverty and I also saw incredible wealth.”
“I think that as a community we’re going to have to somehow come to terms with this real challenge in our community between people that really struggle check-to-check and people that are really wealthy and how we work together.”
The Selectboard’s next meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, Sept. 2. An agenda for the meeting is not yet available.
