BELCHERTOWN — With two seats on the Select Board up for grabs, voters will decide on Monday which of three candidates will hold decision-making power in town for the next three years.

Incumbent Jennifer Turner hopes to maintain her seat on the board for a third term to carry out the economic development plans she’s been forging over the past six years.

Newcomer Jonathan Ritter, a retired veteran and father who is a member of the Finance Committee, wants to continue to invigorate the community that has been his family’s home for generations.

Newcomer Angela Battle, a single working mother in recovery and co-chair of Belchertown Overcoming Adversity Together (BOAT), hopes to bring her resilience and fighting spirit to the board.

All three candidates support a nearly $2.9 million Proposition 2½ override that’s also on the ballot on Monday. At a recent Candidates Night on April 29, they each acknowledged grappling with the consequences of raising taxes higher than the 2.5% levy, but see it a necessity to keep town positions filled, schools supported and revenue growing.

The town election on Monday will take place from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. in the Belchertown High School gymnasium.

Jennifer Turner

Turner, 47, will become the most senior member of the Select Board if she wins reelection, a fact that she admits shocks her.

In her first two terms, Turner said her economic development priorities took a backseat to other issues, including a lack of human resource management and the town’s structural financial deficit. Then COVID hit, halting economic progress even further and forcing her back to the drawing board.

In her third term, Turner aims to ensure the groundwork she’s slowly laid for the town’s economic development will come to fruition.

“We’re in the middle of a lot of that work, like the branding initiative and the wayfinding project, and working on the next stages of it,” Turner said. “A lot of the people (currently) on the board don’t have the institutional experience I have with this work.”

A resident of 21 years, Turner began her involvement with the town in 2014 when she joined the Cultural Council. While on the council, she highlighted the town’s natural beauty, arts and cultural offerings to facilitate a vibrant economy and tourism, a goal she said she has continued while serving on the Select Board since 2019.

“We tried to listen to what the needs are of the community and try to creatively think outside of the box to market our community in a different way,” Turner said.

Turner said she “pinch hits” for the town’s economic development, a field she’s learned about through her decade of municipal experience. During her first term, she collaborated closely with Town Planner Doug Albertson to update the economic development section of the Master Plan, an area gone untouched since 2009, and she recently helped secure a Local Technical Assistance grant to help implement the initiatives outlined in the plan.

She’s advocated for the town to hire a creative economy coordinator, human resources director and grant manager to locate and organize economic opportunities for Belchertown. Turner helped leverage existing town infrastructure, like the old Tadgell School that recently received over $200,000 in funding for a feasibility study, to bring in small businesses.

“It all kinds of feeds into each other,” Turner said. “The more activity we can feed into Belchertown, the more investment will happen into our community and we can build on that. ... We want to use the history and focus it into what Belchertown is now, and how can we add infrastructure, support and help the community so we are not in a structural deficit.”

Jonathan Ritter

There is no other home for Ritter, 39, than the town he’s lived in his whole life.

“I want to make this a community that everyone loves and respects and wants to keep coming here for generations to come,” Ritter said. “I grew up here, my dad grew up here, my grandfather grew up here. I want that same community feeling for everybody, it’s a place called home.”

Ritter gained leadership and financial literacy skills while serving three tours in the U.S. Air Force medical evacuation unit. As he rose through the ranks, Ritter began managing multi-million dollar budgets for his unit and conducting financial audits. He has applied that knowledge to the Belchertown Finance Committee over the past four years.

“In the military, I was a leader,” Ritter said. “I did a lot of supervising and managed a lot of high-task, large-scale exercises. I have a lot of experience working with the Little League and the Finance Director, and I have a good working relationship with all of them. They respect me and I respect them, so I think I could get things done.”

Getting the town to “be financially stable” is a top priority for Ritter. The redevelopment of the Belchertown State School campus for businesses and industry is a key piece of the puzzle, he said, as is tapping into recreation opportunities, which he believes is an undeveloped area in town. Ritter explains that many of the kids in Belchertown sports often go to surrounding towns’ fields for practices and games, bringing their dollars with them for dinner and shopping afterward. By investing in Belchertown’s fields, a sports complex and recreational and arts programming, families from outside communities will travel into town, spending money in town businesses that sponsor these programs.

“I have two young kids so I know our children very well. They play soccer, football, baseball, and I manage a local baseball team,” Ritter said. “Our local businesses support these projects and run these programs. Without their support, these would fall apart and people wouldn’t be able to afford them.”

As a retired veteran, he is particularly passionate about keeping Belchertown affordable for seniors and veterans. Ritter said he wants to advocate for Town Meeting to adopt the HEROS Act so veterans can receive more benefits. He also supports development for veteran and senior housing, which will allow the elder population in town to live in smaller homes while new families can move into the newly-available bigger homes.

“The town is growing so fast, and the value is going up so much, they (seniors) cannot afford to stay in homes. We need to provide housing for these populations,” Ritter said.

Angela Battle

Battle, 45, is the newest to Belchertown and its municipal politics compared to the other two candidates, but her eagerness to listen and understand the various opinions within town is perhaps her greatest strength, she said.

“I think that probably my best attribute is not wanting at all to be the smartest person in the room,” Battle said. “I want to hear other voices besides by own, and I think it’s really important to stay open minded and not just be right all the time.”

A single working mom, Battle finds peace and satisfaction in giving back to her community, she said during Candidates Night. Besides her recent position as the co-chair of BOAT, she leads a local Girl Scout troop and serves on the Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness 2.0 Committee, which meets every other week.

With her laundry list of responsibilities, Battle was not initially focused on the open Select Board chair until she saw the need for more open dialogue and transparency in town.

“What has also become very clear is that we have two groups of people in Belchertown,” Battle said. “One group feels very unheard, feels a little unimportant, they feel the town doesn’t care. A town in general will never reach its full potential where there are two sides so incredibly divided. We need more opportunities for residents to have a seat at the table and for their voices to be heard.”

Battle acknowledges that financial stress for Belchertown families continues to grow as inflation increases and local, state, national and international economies teeter on instability. She plans to work with families to ease that financial stress and provide community support for those impacted by rising costs.

“There’s so much upheaval and inconsistency and chaos nationally, and people are feeling those effects right now,” Battle said. “I can only imagine that we could be feeling a more of them.”

Battle expressed her appreciation for the hard work of the town’s current leaders, specifically Turner and Town Manager Steve Williams, and their collaboration and innovation during tough times. She predicts Belchertown will “really blossom economically while retaining the charm and connection that its always had” in the near future, and hopes to be a part of that growth.

“What I’ve seen over time is that whenever there are people in Belchertown that are in need, this town sets up,” Battle said. “I really do believe that we will get back to that.”

Additional seats

In addition, there are three uncontested races and five positions on the ballot without a candidate.

The uncontested races include:

■ Jacob Hulseberg, principal of Wilbraham Middle School, is running for a vacant seat on the School Committee.

■Gail Gramarossa, a former 15-year Board of Health member, is running to rejoin the board.

■Michael Holfer is seeking reelection to the Planning Board.

Vacant seats include a three-year position on the Board of Assessors, a three-year position on the Board of Health, a five-year position on the Housing Authority and two, four-year members of the Housing Authority.

These positions will require write-in candidates. At Candidates Night, James Potter expressed interest joining the Board of Health.

Emilee Klein can be reached at eklein@gazettenet.com.