WAYLAND, MA — Voters in Wayland will have a between three candidates for select board in the May 10 town election.

Select Board Chair Tom Fay is running to keep his seat against two challengers: Board of Public Works chair Clifford Lewis, and Human Rights, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee member Dovie King, who would be the first person of color to serve on the Wayland Select Board.

Wayland Patch sent each candidate a questionnaire ahead of the election to help voters get to know them better. Here's how Clifford Lewis responded:

Occupation: Chartered financial analyst and former business owner Experience as an elected official:Other Post Employment Benefits (OPEB) Advisory Committee chair; Board of Public Works chair.

What do you think is the biggest issue facing the town and what would you do about it?

There is a lack of communication, collaboration, and leadership at the Select Board. As a result, residents often feel ignored and employees feel unsupported. Town government is supposed to serve the needs of the community, maintain our physical and financial assets, and put programs in place to protect our health and safety. But, there has been no real effort by the Select Board to build and empower an effective, focused, organized management team to run operations. As a result, staff and boards feel isolated and are unable to start/finish long-awaited projects or accomplish long desired goals.

It is the role of the Select Board, as Wayland's chief executive officer, to set the course for how the government should function. Select Board members need to insist that Wayland develop a long-awaited, overall, comprehensive, strategic plan for the future that considers needs, priorities, timing and financial analysis to augment and underpin the annual budget. This planning effort would help to moderate our ever-increasing tax burden.

The Select Board needs to create an organization that operates efficiently and cooperatively from department to department, board to board, and with members of the community. I have built first-rate, successful organizations and have effectively demonstrated the open communications we need at all levels. Make a positive change for Wayland by making a change on the Select Board

A developer has proposed a new 40B project at the site of the former Whole Foods. What's your view on the proposal?

Under the current Select Board leadership, the lack of planning and the failure to develop solid working relationships with property owners has left the town unduly exposed to all manner of ill-fitting and vastly over scale projects masquerading as affordable housing.

This proposed project adds nothing to the needs of the town. It does not protect the nearby wetlands and sensitive resource areas as required by state and local laws. This proposal is in the floodplain, yet it does not consider the historic floods at the site and the inevitable future flooding of the area. It has no viable method of disposing of all the sanitary waste generated. It would have an overbearing impact on the character of our town and add significantly to Route 20 traffic which is already stressed to its limits on a good portion of each day.

It's a shame that the current leadership of the Select Board has been sitting on the sidelines for so many years without making an effective effort to plan a welcoming gateway to Wayland and one that affords the owners of the property an opportunity to realize the potential of their property investment.

Like many towns, Wayland has been dealing with high PFAS levels. The town has been working to install a filter system, but it's not online yet (as of this writing). What's the Select Board's role in reducing contamination, and how would you approach the problem? If you're an incumbent, what would you have changed or done differently?

By state statute, the care of Wayland's water supply is the purview of the elected Board of Public Works (BoPW) who serve as Wayland's Water Commissioners. This independent board reports directly to the town's electorate. The Select Board's role is to approve and issue contracts with vendors.

There are two phases to addressing the water contamination issue — short term and long term. The BoPW has been tackling both.

Short Term: Massachusetts adopted a 20 part per trillion (ppt) PFAS limit in November 2020 and the BoPW began proactively testing town water ahead of that regulatory requirement. The BoPW had also been studying remediation technologies in the event Town water triggered the limit. So, when the PFAS levels in the Happy Hollow wells exceeded 20 ppt in April 2021, the BoPW was ready to act. We had already prepared a project scope and identified an engineering firm, effectively giving us a four-month head start.

Shortly thereafter, project momentum stopped for approximately two months because the Town's procurement function did not heed BoPW's recommendation to secure an early firm commitment for the necessary ion exchange resin — a vital component that was in short supply nationally. Had I been a member of the Select Board, I would have carefully considered all recommendations of the BoPW Water Commissioners, understood the definite merit of the proposal for an early purchase commitment of the resin, and I would have overseen staff to make it happen. Nevertheless, the BoPW's overall proactive approach has resulted in a PFAS treatment system that is in place and has already been online for short periods of time as it is working through the final stages of start-up.

Long Term: The Board of Public Works began addressing the long-term issue three years ago when it commissioned a study to assess the feasibility of joining the MWRA water system. Kleinfelder Engineering a noted environmental engineering company was retained to help in the research and analysis of this complex matter. The research to date is quite favorable. The study is called "MWRA Connection Report" and copies are available on the town website under the Water Division of the Department of Public Works.

The state is planning a Route 20 repaving project this year. What upgrades do you think the road should get? Should Route 20 be made more friendly for pedestrians and bicyclists, or stay relatively the same?

Unfortunately, the complete lack of a comprehensive plan for the Route 20 corridor leaves us way behind the eight ball for implementing improvements there. Route 20 is a state-owned roadway and it is under the control of the MassDOT. We may wish for a user-friendly revision for curb cuts, bike lanes, full sidewalks, lawn aprons, etc., but we would have had to engage with the state and abutters years ago to be able to implement improvements now.

The lack of planning on the part of the Select Board leadership also leaves the town unable to take full advantage of the state's Complete Street's grant program which provides funds for sidewalks, crosswalk safety and bike lanes.

Our present plan is to scramble around in reaction mode, and this approach is clearly not working. We need new leadership on the Select Board with the capability of developing a community sanctioned, comprehensive plan for the corridor, so that when opportunities present themselves, we are ready to act.

If you could snap your fingers and make it happen, what's one thing you would change or fix in Wayland?

If I could snap my fingers and make it happen, I would be a member of the Select Board today taking a leadership role and developing a real organization capable of taking care of our physical and financial assets, working efficiently to lower our spending rates without reducing our services and, with your involvement, planning the community you deserve and would like to see. The alarm bells have been going off but the leadership on the Select Board is not responding to:

These things must be addressed and fixed. See: www.electcliffordlewis.com. Let's change the leadership of the Select Board to address and implement the solutions we need.

Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.