 Hi, my name is George Ryan, and I'm running for District 3 for Town Council, and I'm here to ask for your vote. I have lived with my wife for 31 years in Amherst. We came here in 1986 when she took a job at the university, and we have raised our two daughters here. They attended the Amherst public schools. Amherst has been very good to me, and I feel very strongly that I would like to give something back to a town that has served me so well for 31 years. I'm a teacher. I teach at Holyoke Community College. For the past 12 years, I have served on town meeting, and for 12 years before that, I worked as a member of the board of Pioneer Valley Habitat for Humanity, and I was involved in the issue of affordable housing. While I was on the board, I served as president and vice president, and I helped oversee some of the earliest habitat projects in Amherst, and also projects in North Hampton, Turner's Falls, and Orange. What I gained from that experience was, first of all, a sense of what it's like to work with a wide variety of people from varying and different backgrounds, and the importance of collaboration. We could not do what we did in Habitat unless we could work together, and so I took from that experience, first of all, a sense of the importance of collaboration. I also got very directly the experience of joy of actually making a difference, of doing something that brought change to someone's life and also to the community, and I would bring that same passion and that same commitment to Town Council. There are four issues briefly that I want to touch on for a moment that are of concern to me. One is the issue of physical responsibility. I think it's important that we in Amherst learn to live within our means. The burden on the Amherst taxpayer has been increasing over the years, and I think it's important that we pay attention to that and do something to help ease it. Secondly, we face four important capital projects. I think we have an obligation to do them. We have schools that need to be brought into the 21st century. We have a DPW building that very much needs to be replaced so that the people who are tasked with caring for our infrastructure have a safe and suitable place to work. We have a fire station in the center of Town that needs to be moved to South Amherst for the sake of public safety that I think needs to be done. And finally, the Jones Library, one of Amherst's true jewels, I think desperately needs to be brought into the internet age to serve an increasingly diverse and changing community. So how do we do these things? Well that brings me to my third issue, what I call smart growth. We need to diversify and strengthen the town's tax base. 93% of our property taxes today come from residential property. Only 7% come from commercial. We need to take steps over the next few years, and we started to move in this direction, but we need to continue in this direction to do what I call appropriate development or smart growth, particularly in the downtown and the village centers. And this will enable us to help pay for some of these projects that I think we have to do, and I also believe it will help ease to some degree the burden on the individual taxpayer. The fourth issue for me that's of importance is housing. There obviously my experience with Habitat has taught me a lot about affordable housing, and I think there Amherst has done a great deal. Still there's more to be done, but we have actually I think done a good job. But for me the issue of housing is across the board. There are people who live here, excuse me, who work here, who would like to live here but can't afford it. There are people who would like to retire here and can't find suitable housing. So for me the issue of housing is one that lies across the board and is one that needs to be given attention at every level. There are a lot of more issues that I could talk about. I only have five minutes. So I hope that if you're interested in me and my campaign, I would urge you to go to my website. It's georgeryanforamherst.org, georgeryanforamherst.org, all one string. And there you'll learn more about me, about the campaign, and about the issues that I'd like to talk about with you right now, but I can't. I'm asking for your vote on September 4th. Why do I promise you in return four things? I'll be accessible to you, always available, I will listen to you, I will make every effort to keep you informed about what the council is doing and why it's doing it, and I promise to do my homework. I work very hard on your behalf and on behalf of the town. Thank you for listening and I hope that I can count on your vote on September 4th.