Newcomer challenges Springfield incumbents for Select Board

George McNaughton moved to Springfield 20 years ago because Vermont looked like the rural part of Indiana where he grew up.
http://rutlandherald.com/article/20140228/NEWS02/702289939

Published February 28, 2014 in the Rutland Herald Newcomer challenges Springfield incumbents for Select Board By SUSAN SMALLHEER Staff Writer SPRINGFIELD — George McNaughton moved to Springfield 20 years ago because Vermont looked like the rural part of Indiana where he grew up. McNaughton, 61, a lawyer in the downtown Springfield law firm of Lamb & McNaughton, said the buildings of Springfield attracted him to the area; that and the sense of history. He was looking for a place to raise his large family of seven children. “We found a farm with a sugarbush. And I was intrigued by some of the buildings in town,” he said. He insists that the McNaughton in the new title of the firm is actually his son, Ethan, who also works for the firm and is active in town. Two other sons, Zach and Nathan, are teachers in town. While McNaughton may have a puckish sense of humor, he is very serious about what he says are needed changes in town government to address the serious problems facing Springfield. McNaughton is the challenger in the three-way race for two seats on the five-member Springfield Select Board. But he is not a newcomer to Springfield elective politics, having served a term on the board. McNaughton hopes to convince Springfield voters his is the voice of change as he challenges Board Chairman Kristi Morris and Select Board member Michael Knoras. Morris, 62, and Knoras, 80, are running for another term on the board. McNaughton has taken to YouTube and Facebook to promote his candidacy, as well as the traditional Letters to the Editor route. “Springfield needs a change of attitude,” McNaughton said. “We’ve had an awful lot of wet blankets.” In a humorous video produced by one of his video-savvy sons, McNaughton talks to a brick wall— which he said represents what most people in Springfield experience from town government. Leadership, he says, is lacking. The Select Board should have taken a stand, one way or the other, on the North Springfield biomass plant, which was turned down two weeks ago by the Public Service Board. McNaughton said he favored the project and added, “It’s a failure, they didn’t do anything.” McNaughton says the town needs to do something about Park Street School, the former elementary school that is now mostly vacant aside from housing the schools’ administration offices. He thinks it’s a beautiful building. Again, there’s been “grandstanding,” in McNaughton’s words, but no action. “It needs to be thrashed out in public,” he said of the building’s future. If McNaughton wants to be the voice of change, Morris is as local and homegrown as you can hope for. Morris was born and raised in Springfield, graduated from Springfield High School, and got an associate’s degree in mechanical engineering at Vermont Technical College. He returned to Springfield and is now manager of engineering at Lovejoy Tool Co., one of the remaining machine tool firms in Springfield, which, a generation ago, was one of the international centers of the industry. Lovejoy is a survivor, but Morris says business “needs to be better.” Morris says the same could be said about his hometown. He lists creating jobs and controlling taxes as his top priorities. Morris, who is also an EMT/firefighter with the Springfield Fire Department, is involved in many community organizations. Married, he is father to two grown daughters and seven grandchildren. He says he’s worked hard for the six years he’s been on the board to help Springfield transform its economy, control taxes and address the issue of crime that has been center stage since the downtown shooting in July 2012. It’s rare, he says, that he isn’t out at a meeting on town business in the evening. Morris said he supported the ill-fated biomass plant in North Springfield because it would have brought jobs to the area, economic activity and given a big jump in the town’s Grand List — a 12 percent increase. He rejects criticism that the town remained neutral on the biomass plant, in coming up with an agreement that would have created a new access road to the North Springfield Industrial Park. But he defended the board’s position, saying state law gave the decision-making to the Public Service Board, as well as the funds to hire experts to evaluate the project. “I can see both sides of the issue,” he said. Morris says he supports the proposed $10 million town budget, which for the first time in a long time includes proposed new town employees — a new firefighter and a new police officer. “Over the years, we’ve cut a few positions and reduced expenses. But we’re really at the bottom,” he said. Morris, who has been chairman of the board for the past four years, said that he’s tried hard to keep public dialogue open, and to get the board to act together for the good of the town. And, he said, he remains a “glass half full” kind of guy. It’s easy to be critical, he said, and he said he has stopped reading the anonymous comments on a local news blog. “You always hear the negatives, and complaints are free. Democracy is a messy thing,” he said. Knoras, 80, also a Springfield native, spent 50 years of his professional career in the machine-tool industry, first at Jones & Lamson Machine Tool, and finally with The Goldman Group, the company that, in the 1990s, owned all three major machine tool firms in town. When he retired about 12 years ago, he was head of purchasing, based at the Fellows Corp. in North Springfield. He has lived in Springfield his entire life, except for the four years he was in the U.S. Air Force, stationed in Texas during the Korean War. He returned to his hometown, married and is the father of four grown children (three in Springfield), six grandchildren and one great-grandchild. Since retirement, Knoras has devoted himself to community organizations, and is the chief cook and bottlewasher for Springfield’s Christmas and Thanksgiving community dinners. Last week, he was organizing a spaghetti supper to raise funds for Christmas jackets handed out by the Knights of Columbus. Knoras defended the town’s decision on the North Springfield Sustainable Energy Project. “The town didn’t have the expertise to evaluate air quality and water quality, all the scientific things,” he said. “I thought we were doing the right thing,” he said. While the project was initially viewed favorably, opposition grew. The agreement that the Board of Selectmen did reach with the developer about the new access road was never included in the formal record. The developer, he said, never signed it. “The hearing officer did an excellent job,” he said, referring to Jon Cotter of the Public Service Board, who issued the first decision turning down the project for a state permit. “The quality of life was still there.” Knoras wants to improve the board’s dialogue with the public. People are intimidated, he said, about coming to the meetings and participating. And, he said, the board should do more to pull various organizations in town together, and avoid what he says is duplication. “We’re not connected,” he said. The town only attempts to manage the drugs and crime problem in town. “We don’t correct it,” he said, adding he believed people who deal drugs should be charged with manslaughter. Knoras, who had earlier abstained on the proposed $10.7 million town budget, said he will vote for it next Tuesday, and will support it. He did oppose the decision to include $30,000 in the town budget for the Springfield Regional Development Corp., and $20,000 for Springfield On The Move. That money, Knoras and fellow board member David Yesman said, should be voted on as special articles since the town has no control over those two organizations. Yesman has said he will vote against the budget on that issue alone. “It would be foolish not to support the budget,” said Knoras. 2014TopNewStories