The following announcement was received from William Moonan, a candidate for re-election to the Board of Selectmen. The Town Election will be held on Saturday, March 9th, from 8 am to 6 pm.
“William Moonan of 18 Crescent Ave. formally announced his candidacy for re-election to a second term as a Bedford Selectman. A resident of Bedford for over 36 years, Moonan said he will continue working to protect Bedford’s historic and small-town character as well as to identify creative solutions to meet the Town’s future fiscal and planning challenges and obligations.
“Moonan is also committed to carrying on his efforts for greater transparency in Town government. His actions include establishing email contacts for each Selectman on the Town’s website so that residents can more effortlessly contact the Selectmen, and promoting and expediting the wiring of parts of the Town Hall for cable so that residents can watch meetings of the Selectmen and other town boards.
“Moonan has enjoyed his Selectman duties, which include serving as a Selectman-liaison to eight other Town entities, helping to coordinate those committees’ interests with those of the Town as a whole. His current liaison positions include the Capital Expenditure Committee, Fiscal Planning and Coordinating Committee, Cable Television Advisory Committee, Council on Aging, Historic District Commission, Depot Park Advisory Committee, Town Center Inc., and Bedford’s Chamber of Commerce. “I attend these committee meetings not only to listen and keep the Selectmen apprised of goings-on, but to participate and work outside the meetings in resolving problems,” he said.
“Moonan is not just the Selectmen’s liaison to the Historic District Commission (HDC); he has served on that committee through an official appointment for 23 years, the last 14 as Chairman. Similarly, he is not just the Selectmen’s liaison to Town Center, Inc. (TCI), but has been a member of that non-profit’s Board of Directors for 30 years, serving as its Chairman for 14 years.
“Moonan’s service on the TCI Board resulted from an idea he conceived 32 years ago — to save the closed and vandalized old Union School and convert it into a vibrant Town Center for use by community organizations. In 1981, he successfully convinced Town Meeting to appropriate funds to rehab the old school, whose yellow wooden structure was built in 1881, and then helped organize TCI to manage the building. Moonan also served on the design committee for the recent renovations and new addition to Town Center that added the entire back wing now used by the Council on Aging, hundreds of Bedford seniors, and other local organizations.
“Creating a Town Center out of the old Union School was not Moonan’s first foray into volunteer service for Bedford. For over 33 years, he has served on Bedford’s Housing Authority and as chairman of the Authority’s Board of Commissioners for 26 of those 33 years. In that capacity, Moonan has worked to ensure the proper maintenance and management of 114 units of state-subsidized low-income housing in Bedford (80 elderly units, 12 family units, and 22 units through the State’s mobile voucher program).
“’One of my proudest accomplishments, as Housing Authority Chairman, was successfully negotiating with the State Department of Mental Health (DMH) to re-design an assisted living facility for DMH clients that it wanted to build and operate in Bedford, so that the building would fit into the neighborhood and be consistent with Bedford’s small-town character,” Moonan said.
“As a condition of Moonan serving as both an elected Selectman and on the Bedford Housing Authority, he does not accept the annual $230 state stipend paid to Authority Commissioners.
“Moonan is a 1965 graduate of Yale University and a 1969 graduate of the Harvard Business School. He has served as financial officer for both large and small corporations and at one point in his career purchased and operated the nation’s oldest bird feeder company. Influenced by his love of architectural preservation, he bought, renovated, managed and sold over 250 units of housing and commercial space in the South End of Boston, carefully protecting the historic qualities of the buildings and the neighborhood. He is now semi-retired, pursuing only a modest amount of financial consulting each year.
“Moonan enjoys working on Town challenges, utilizing his business and finance expertise. This experience paid off during his first term as Selectman when he discovered an appropriated, but unspent, source of funds that could be used for road maintenance, saving Town Meeting from having to appropriate close to $1 million more for this expense.
“Moonan and his wife, former State Senator Carol Amick, have two grown children.”
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