ERVING — As Selectboard member William Bembury prepares to call it quits, he holds confidence that newly elected Jim Loynd’s “fresh ideas and desire to listen” can maintain positive momentum in Erving.

Loynd was elected to a three-year Selectboard term in a write-in campaign during the May 1 annual Town Election, defeating ballot candidate Daniel Watson 77 to 56.

The 27-year Erving resident and former police officer replaces Bembury, a 12-year Selectboard member who “felt it was time” to retire.

“This is totally my last hurrah,” said Bembury, who first stepped down from the Selectboard after three years of service in 2003 before eventually returning in 2014. “I believe there should be term limits for all those kinds of positions and there comes a point where you’ve seen it every year … and it’s the same thing over and over again.”

Bembury, also a former police officer, said while he initially joined the three-member Selectboard in 2000 hoping to “make the community a better place to live,” he said he never wanted to be a professional politician or Selectboard member.

While the role is an important service, it has been a “hard job” that “feels like you’re kind of banging your head against the wall” sometimes, he explained.

“I guess everybody kind of comes into politics because they see some change that would be good for the town,” Bembury expressed. “It was a rude awakening — for me, anyway — that you find out that things that you want to do can’t happen quick enough or politics get involved.”

Although some key initiatives, like the French King Bridge safety barrier installation project, have brought Bembury fulfillment as they conclude, others, such as the ongoing effort to redevelop the former International Paper Mill property, have haunted him.

“There’s a lot on the plate, and how do we do all of those things?” Bembury questioned. “Something has to take priority over something else, and when you’ve been dealing with these things as long as I have … it feels like it’s never going to happen. But we need to find a way to get it done.”

Loynd, a Boston native who currently lives in Farley, said he initially considered running for a Selectboard seat over the winter, but was derailed by the unexpected death of his boss and needed to take on additional workload.

Since then, his work situation “stabilized,” and he made up his mind to run for office as a write-in candidate just the weekend before the election.

“Word spread, and apparently, enough people have the confidence that I’d serve the position well,” Loynd said. “Hopefully, I can live up to the confidence that they put in me.”

Loynd, who holds a bachelor’s degree in political science and a master’s degree in criminology, said he will bring “a strong skill set in facilitating initiatives,” a “different set of eyes” and “good deal of common sense” to the Selectboard.

He also said his experience as a police officer has taught him to make judgments based on “what is objectively reasonable.”

Notably, Loynd has received letters of commendation from the Erving Police Department for saving people looking to harm themselves at the French King Bridge, as well as saving State Police Trooper Mark Whitcomb’s life after he was stabbed by a carjacking suspect.

Some town issues of high priority to Loynd involve budgeting concerns that peaked in FY23, paying competitive wages to town employees, innovating new revenue streams and redeveloping blighted properties.

Regarding the former International Paper Mill property in particular, Loynd said he hopes a mixed-use building could still come to fruition, despite the town’s fruitless history procuring a developer.

“I know a lot of other towns are jumping on that and are reaping the benefits,” he said of the idea.

Loynd is slated to begin his Selectboard service on July 1.

In the meantime, he plans to continue attending Selectboard meetings frequently to stay up to speed with their business, as he has done for years, having “always been involved, at least from the gallery.”

Reach Julian Mendoza at 413-930-4231 or jmendoza@recorder.com.

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