 Hi, I'm Steve Braun, and I'm running for Town Council in District 3. That's a combination of precincts 4 and 10. I'm running as an independent. I'm not affiliated with any political action committee or any other group in town. Although I have friends and I who I deeply respect on all sides of the issues of charter issue and the schools issue and on the issue of What kind of development we want in our town? I just don't think I should be pledging allegiance to any particular group at this point I've always been an independent thinker. I intend to continue to be an independent thinker thinker on the board and on the council So I think we do have an opportunity now with the new council to Make progress on issues in a way that's less divisive and less polarizing than then we've seen in the past and I'd like to work Towards that goal. I'm a good listener and I Can think clearly in a way that I I think if we bring people to the table We can find solutions and find new ideas that will in the end Result in in much more satisfying solutions that attract more than 51% of the voters so I have a lot of thoughts on Issues in the town which I expand on on my website. So I hope you can check that out right here. I just want to give you a quick Little bit of background about myself. I've lived here 18 years both my girls went through Wildwood and Wildwood elementary school and middle school and high school and They they had some fabulous teachers very inspiring teachers and I'm big therefore supporter of the schools and want to do everything we can in cooperation with the school board to make sure we keep our schools strong and And viable so I've also been actively involved in town government for at least a decade I've been vice chairman of the finance committee and chairman of the public works committee and on the joint capital planning committee and on town meeting not all at the same time Of course So I really have a good sense of how the government works and I have a deep understanding of the the financial Machinery that makes the town run and I'm ready to hit the ground running the day one When the new council is seated to explore options for funding Very badly needed capital projects. Of course we need to find a solution to the Fort River and Wildwood elementary schools and I think we've got some good ideas for that for Fort River building committee is already working on on Exploring options for that school and I'm hopeful that we can quickly Generate a new proposal and I'm open to all sorts of ideas for that, but we also need Desperately a new fire station the downtown fire station is in bad shape and needs to be replaced meanwhile We also need a new DPW facility We need to upgrade the Jones library and we also need to pay attention to our continue to make progress on repairing and maintaining our roads and sidewalks So and I believe we can actually do all this I've looked at the the financial dynamics looked at ways of structuring our bonds and Sequencing the projects and I know that we can afford this We have to control the costs of the projects themselves We have to be smart about how we sequence them and we need to Generate new revenues in town and that's that could be marijuana sales, but it could also it should be new development The development just needs to be contextual as to respect the existing fabric of the architecture and scale around it and it needs to include enough parking and And other amenities to be viable. I know we can do this the North Amherst Development is a great example. I think of the kind of development we need so anyway, I believe that I have the experience and the temperament needed to really Forge forward with the new council in a way that's sensitive to the the whole range of values and opinions in this in this town and In a way that that lives up to the promise of the charter itself. Thanks