The Town of Wellesley depends on the active participation of its citizens in governance of the Town. Wellesley has 11 Boards and Committees on the ballot at the Annual Town election, held this year on Tuesday, March 2.
There are two candidates running for one open seat on the Board of Public Works. The BPW, acting through the Director and Managers of the Department of Public Works, helps provide multiple services to the Town such as: engineering and technical services as related to Town Facilities; highway services, including those for roads, sidewalks, and drainage systems; services to parks, recreation areas, trees, and open space; services related to the Recycling and Transfer Facility; services for the Town’s water and sewer systems; and practice sound fiscal practices related to all of the above.
The Board of Public Works candidates are John Bubeck and Scott Bender.
The Swellesley Report invited the candidates to answer a few questions about their qualifications and priorities for the Town of Wellesley. (Here’s a link to Bender’s Q & A.)
John Bubeck—candidate for Board of Public Works
The Swellesley Report: What is your background and what qualifies you for the position?
John Bubeck: I’ve worked as an engineer in IT for over 20 years – starting back in the 90’s with DEC. I am a veteran of the Army National Guard where I served as a reservist supervising personnel working with heavy infantry equipment. In addition I work in real estate focused on both sales and property management. My work and military service has given me broad experience with all types of infrastructure as well as project management. I think I bring both knowledge and experience with many aspects of the work of Public Works which enables me to understand various perspectives. I know what it is like to actually be the person doing the work and understand what the barriers can be and what supports are needed as well. I also understand the big picture from a project management perspective – particularly the importance of risk management.
More recently, I have served as a member of Wellesley’s Community Emergency Response Team (CERT).
TSR: What are the town’s most pressing needs in optimizing its infrastructure in the short term and the long term?
Bubeck: We are fortunate in Wellesley to have such a high level of services which is directly attributed to the people who provide the services. We want to ensure that we continue to retain and attract such dedicated and competent professionals. In order to develop plans to address issues and build on successes moving forward, it is important to engage the professionals in the various divisions in any strategic planning so we can be sure to solicit their ideas and feedback.
In the short term, we need to look at reducing expenses so that normal infrastructure maintenance on buildings and streets can still be performed regularly, thus preventing huge increases in future maintenance costs. We will need to look more closely at each project to ensure every item within a project is a necessity and not oversubscribed which could potentially save millions over all of our town’s planned projects.
In the long term, we will need to make tougher decisions about which projects are desirable options, and which projects are necessities. This will ensure that we continue to provide the services residents need and prevent the many department exclusions and overrides which are currently planned.
TSR: What are your ideas on how to increase the use of the RDF by residents?
My daughter was recently writing a persuasive essay in her Gr 4 class at Sprague and she wrote about why recycling should be taught in schools. I would like to build a stronger partnership between the School Department and the RDF so that we can collaborate to build knowledge and understanding about the environmental impact of our actions and sustainability practices.
I also think we can establish a formal process with the many real estate agents in town where they provide all new residents information about the Wellesley RDF that also highlights the town as a pioneer in recycling.
Additionally, in every residential electric bill we can include educational material that explains what materials get recycled, how much revenue is brought into the town by recycling and what the tax impacts savings are.
TSR: How can voters get in touch with you?
Bubeck: johnbubeckforbpw@gmail.com
