Two write-in candidates have emerged to vie for the soon-to-be empty Rindge School Board seat, after no one signed up to run for the position initially.

During a Candidates’ Night for Rindge positions hosted virtually on Monday night, Rindge residents Lisa Wiley and Shawn Marsh announced they were conducting write-in campaigns for the position, after no one filed for the seat soon to be vacated by Rindge representative Heidi Graff.

Wiley has held positions as Supervisor of the Checklist and Library Trustee in Rindge previously, and has also worked within the Jaffrey-Rindge School District as a library media specialist in the past. She currently works as the library media specialist in the Monadnock Regional School District. She has a master’s degree in education.

Wiley said her experience working in schools and her degree make her well-prepared for the issues she might face on the School Board.

“My background and education make me eminently suitable,” Wiley said.

Wiley said she would support a full-time return to school in the fall, when the majority of teachers would have access to the COVID-19 vaccine, saying that while teachers have been doing a great job with remote learning, there are children being left behind by the current system.

Marsh is a volunteer baseball coach for both youth and for Franklin Pierce University’s junior varsity team. He graduated from the district, and said he would like to continue to give back to the community. He has a professional background in biotechnology and pharmaceuticals, and said he has a deep understanding of some of the challenges posed by COVID-19. He said he would also support a full return in the fall.

“If you have the right precautions in place, you can go back to school. You can actually do a really good job,” Marsh said.

In other contested races this year, political newcomer Marybeth Quill is challenging sitting Selectwoman Roberta Oeser for the Select Board seat.

Oeser has served on the Select Board for the last nine years, and said she moved to the area seeking a better quality of life.

“I came here from California to find a better place to live, and I did,” Oeser said.

Quill has lived in Rindge for about 17 years and raised her four children here. A recent graduate of nursing school, Quill said she is at a point in her life she is able to give back through volunteerism.

“We need change and I think I’m the right person to achieve that change,” Quill said.

Quill said Rindge needs to be “be mindful in how and where we grow” and that she wanted to preserve the small town nature.

“I’ve really recently seen our town is moving very fast,” she said, referencing a “flurry” of large developments recently either approved or proposed. “What do we want our town to look like?”

Development was a key point for residents attending the Candidates’ Night when it came to the other contested races on the ballot – the Planning Board and Zoning Board. The Planning Board has a total of three candidates running for two available seats. 

Katelyn Smith is a current member of the board, and works as the director of marketing for Anderson & Kreiger, a law firm. She has a law degree from Suffolk Law School, and said her legal background, and familiarity with cases involving both land conservation and development gave her a “balanced approach.”

Smith said she’s well aware of the importance of land protection and that all residents of town subsist on well water and protecting that resource is vital, but said growth is not always a negative thing.

Julie Sementa, a 13-year resident of Rindge, is new to running for office, but is the Church Council President for the Advent Lutheran Church and is a member of the town’s Planned Unit Residential Development subcommittee, which has been focused on reworking those regulations.

Sementa said if elected it would be her goal to “move the town forward in a thoughtful way,” and that her employment background working for MedSafe Inc. helped her to create a skillset in creating connections and people skills.

Joel Aho is a native of Rindge who recently returned to the area from Arlington, Massachusetts. He is a commercial real estate broker and developer who works in Massachusetts. He said he has not worked on developments in New Hampshire in his career, and did not see any potential conflicts of interests from his career.

Residents Deni Dickler and Martin Kulla have both filed for a one-year seat on the Zoning Board of Adjustment. Dickler is a former broker who currently volunteers for the Audubon Society and has worked on lakefront restoration in Connecticut.

Dickler said she would not be a “rubber stamp for any specific point of view,” if elected.

Kulla is self-employed in excavation with a background in construction, and currently holds the seat up for election. Kulla was an alternate on the board for two years, and stepped into the position full-time five months ago.

“I would like to see our town protected,” Kulla said.

All other races on the ballot are uncontested, but a full list of candidate profiles is available on the Rindge town website.