Published in the March 3, 2016 edition
RICHARD WALLNER
By BOB TUROSZ
NORTH READING — Richard F. Wallner, 57 Lakeside Blvd., pulled nomination papers to run for the Board of Selectmen last week, shortly after incumbent member Michael Prisco announced he was withdrawing from the election. Wallner’s entry means there are now once again two candidates for the two positions up for renewal on the board avoiding the potential embarrassment of one seat going begging with just 12 days left to file nomination papers.
Wallner has lived in town since 1991 and he and his wife Joyce Davis have a sophomore at North Reading High School. “The town has been great, I love the town and plan to live here the rest of my life,” he said.
Wallner has experience volunteering for several boards and committees in town, including the Council on Aging, where he has been on the board for several years, helping to found the Senior Action Team. The town has done a great upgrading and investing in its schools but there’s a whole other demographic out there that needs attention also, he said — the seniors and empty nesters.
“You watch what’s going on and you realize there are people on the edge of falling off,” Wallner said. “Our goal should be to see to that. There are a lot of things we could be doing.” Seniors constitute 20 percent of the population now and in 15 years will be 40 percent, he stated. The town must also appeal to “empty nesters” before they pick up and leave town, giving them reasons to stay, he added.
Wallner said he’s a supporter of the planning department’s “downtown initiative” to create a more walkable, welcoming area on Route 28 with potentially more condensed housing for people who need the affordability, creating a nice community and giving the empty nesters reasons not to move away. “They want to have a vibrant downtown and we don’t have that, it’s something we need for quality of life.”
The empty nesters and seniors have to step up and participate more fully in the political process, he commented. “We can do so much more than we do now.”
Wallner is in full agreement the town needs an enhanced commercial tax base, one reason he’s chairman of the Economic Development Committee.
Wallner has worked with Prisco on the EDC and they share common goals. When Prisco decided not to run, he called Wallner and asked him to consider running for the seat.
One of the EDC’s prime areas of focus is developing the former JT Berry property, but there’s more to it than that. “There’s a long list of priorities we need to work on. Of course, the EDC is commercially based but if you integrate that with what the CPC is doing, it all ties in together.
In addition to chairing the EDC, Wallner is vice chairman of the Council on Aging, and a member of the Community Impact Team and founder of the Senior Action Team.
Wallner will be running for one of the two Selectmen’s seats up for renewal.
Incumbent Selectmen Chairman Robert Mauceri has already taken out papers for re–election to the other Selectmen’s seat.
