Three candidates vie for select board

West Tisbury candidates share views on issues.

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From left, James Klingensmith, Chris Lyons, and Jessica Miller are running for West Tisbury select board. -Eunki Seonwoo

West Tisbury will be holding its elections on April 14 at the town’s public safety building. Polls are open from 7 am to 8 pm. The only contested race is the seat left open by the death of select board member Kent Healy. Three West Tisbury residents are competing for the seat. The three candidates are retired private investigator James Klingensmith, Martha’s Vineyard Public Charter School kitchen assistant Jessica Miller, and Martha’s Vineyard Agricultural Society facilities manager Chris Lyons.

Klingensmith is running despite a recent charge of assault and battery that he believes will be dismissed.

Both Klingensmith and Miller were born and raised on Martha’s Vineyard, Edgartown and West Tisbury, respectively, while Lyons, originally from New Jersey, came to the Island in 1992 at the age of 21, and “fell in love with it.” 

“I met a girl, fell in love, and never went back,” Lyons said. “Unfortunately, the relationship didn’t work out, but I’m still here.”

Each of the candidates had their own experiences before deciding to run for the select board. Miller and Klingensmith made sojourns off-Island. Miller attended Amherst College and earned a bachelor’s degree in geology. She returned to the Island because of her love of it. Miller has done many types of jobs before entering the food industry, such as construction. She worked as a cheesemaker at Mermaid Farm in Chilmark before becoming the Charter School’s kitchen assistant. “I brought back my fancy-schmancy bachelor’s degree in geology and did that kind of [job] because I love the Island,” Miller said. 

Miller is also a member of the West Tisbury board of health. She is running for re-election unopposed. 

Klingensmith started as a firefighter in Edgartown, which he said was the beginning of his public service, finishing his career as a lieutenant and assistant emergency manager for the town. He lived in New York afterward for four years, as a security professional with 400 other security personnel working under him throughout the city’s five boroughs. Klingensmith also worked at Fort Myers, Fla., as a member of the city’s citizens police review board, and gave lectures about emergency management. Klingensmith later volunteered at the Lee County Emergency Management Operations Center in Florida, and looked over the center’s mitigation plans. “Home base is always Martha’s Vineyard,” Klingensmith said. 

When Klingensmith returned to the Island, he moved to Oak Bluffs and served as an associate county commissioner for elder affairs. After he moved to West Tisbury, Klingensmith served on the personnel board, affordable housing committee, and the Howes House feasibility study. 

Lyons worked as a house builder for various companies while he was on the Island. However, while Lyons liked the work, he could not help but become aware of what was being done. “There’re so many places on the Island that money can go to instead of people building second or third homes. It kind of crushed my soul,” Lyons said. 

Lyons joined Martha’s Vineyard Agricultural Society in 2020 as the fair carpenter, and now as the facilities manager. 

All three expressed a desire to protect West Tisbury’s rural character through development. “West Tisbury is a special town. It’s one of the few [towns] on the Island that has maintained its rural and agricultural integrity. It’s peaceful to live in,” Klingensmith said. “The main speed limit through town is 25 mph, even though a lot of people don’t adhere to it. That’s an example of the pace of life here.”

“I grew up in town, and I’ve received a lot from the town. I feel like I’m making an effort to serve back to my town,” Miller said, noting her great-grandfather and her grandfather were select board members. “I think I have a good perspective of the evolution of the town here, having grown up going to West Tisbury School during the ’70s, and seen several waves of economic booms and busts, and how our community has shifted.”

“The Island has changed immensely,” Lyons said. “It’s not going to stop, and we as an Island and specifically here in West Tisbury, we can let the change come … and take over us, and not be happy over how the town is changing constantly. Or, and this is a part of why I want to run for select board, I want to be a part of that change. We can make that change work for us as a town, and not get run over by it all.”

Each candidate shared why they believe residents should vote for them. 

Klingensmith, who has attended most of the select board meetings over the past year, said he will be someone West Tisbury residents can come to with their concerns. “I plan on listening. I plan on being approachable. I want to understand what the concerns of the West Tisbury voters are, and how I might try and help,” Klingensmith said. He also stated he wants to make a change to how town information is disbursed to residents, recognizing that not everyone has the internet or subscribes to an Island newspaper. 

“They should pick me because I am a very thoughtful and considerate person, and I care very deeply about the town and its people … and I’m invested in it. My family’s been here, my family will continue to be here, and that’s why they should pick me,” Miller said. “I actually like to sit with a group of people and have my mind changed, and I don’t want to pretend to know all of the answers. I want people to give me a lot of information and help me sort through it, and come to a positive solution.”

Lyons remembered a time he had a conversation with Martha’s Vineyard Agricultural Society president Brian Athearn about politics. “We did agree we weren’t going to change the world,” Lyons said. “The best we could do was affect the Island, and hopefully be able to affect our neighborhood and our town.” 

Lyons believes he can bring new ideas to the table and help make West Tisbury safer — in particular, during the summer seasons, when the on-Island population increases. 

“It’s a tough balance. It’s a really tough balance between keeping that rural charm and ‘big city feel,’ for lack of a better term. That Cape Cod feel. But we don’t want to turn into the strip of Cape Cod where we drive through Barnstable, you drive through Chatham. It’s nice, but it’s built up,” Lyons said.

Updated to correct the date of the town election.

5 COMMENTS

  1. The candidates are being interviewed tonight, Tuesday, by the league of women voters in a candidate forum at 7 PM. This can be viewed on MVTV live, or can be watched as a stream prior to the election.

  2. The League of Women Voters need an immediate conversation with the Cape and Islands District Attorney’s Office regarding the present Assault and Battery criminal charges — on a female victim — for one of these three candidates running for West Tisbury Selectman. The fact of that criminal charge is more than a bit incongruous for female voters.

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