Editorial: Endorsements

(May 16, 2024) Nantucket’s Annual Town Election is Tuesday, May 21. The polls are open at Nantucket High School from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Below are our endorsements for five of the contested races. In coming to these conclusions, we have followed the actions of incumbents while in office and interviewed the candidates to discuss the issues.

Select Board – Dawn Hill Holdgate

With three three-year terms under her belt, Holdgate possesses the institutional knowledge and boots-on-the-ground experience to continue guiding the board through the challenging times ahead.

She has taken an active leadership role on the board, serving as chair four of her nine years in office, and embraced the heavy lifting of complex issues like the future of Our Island Home, erosion of the Sconset Bluff and the ever-present need for affordable housing.

She’s served her time in the trenches, knows the pros and cons of these issues and is best equipped to represent the diverse interests that make up the fabric of our community.

Planning Board – David Iverson

Perhaps no elected members of town government in recent years have faced more criticism in recent years than those who sit on the Planning Board. Iverson has handled the slings and arrows with diplomacy, keeping his focus on the task at hand – addressing the dozens of projects, large and small, up for review at the Planning Board – while tackling larger issues like serving on last year’s short-term rental work group.

A long-time small-business owner on the island, Iverson understands the challenges facing the year-round community, and voiced those concerns both at the board level and on the Nantucket Planning & Economic Development Commission. The learning curve is over. His five years of experience and understanding of the town’s zoning bylaw should not be discounted.

Historic District Commission – Angus MacLeod With longtime commissioner Diane Coombs choosing not to seek reelection, MacLeod represents a strong voice in favor of maintaining the fundamental tenets of the HDC’s bible, “Building with Nantucket in Mind.”

An ardent preservationist, MacLeod will be a steadying force on a commission too often in recent years inundated by requests to push the boundaries of our commitment to retaining the island’s historic integrity. He has a fundamental understanding of restoration, and while he might not have Coombs’ institutional knowledge, his commitment to the principles on which the HDC was created will serve the commission well.

School Committee – Laura Gallagher Byrne
and Esmeralda Martinez

Public schools nationwide have seen dramatic changes in the three years since Gallagher Byrne and Martinez were first elected to the School Committee, with COVID-19 impacting a generation of students.

Each of these candidates served during the time of remote learning, canceled sporting events and extracurricular activities and masks in the classroom, and understand the challenges still ahead for our students.

Martinez has been a voice for the island’s Hispanic community, which now represents about 30 percent of the school population. Gallagher Byrne, a performing arts educator, has long actively lobbied for a balanced education that includes emphasis on a broader learning platform than just reading, writing and arithmetic.

Both women are also advocates for increasing the schools’ vocational offerings to broaden the opportunities available to students who might not want to pursue the traditional liberal arts college education after graduation.

Land Bank Commission – John Bartlett

If elected, Bartlett would be the second generation of his family to serve on the Land Bank, following in the footsteps of his father Phil, an original member of the commission.

He offers both institutional knowledge of the island, having been born and raised here, and business and agricultural experience through his family’s Bartlett’s Ocean View Farm. That experience will be a valuable asset to a commission that in recent years has placed increasingly more emphasis on using a portion of its portfolio to encourage the reestablishment of small farming and sustainable agriculture.