Young has municipal experience

ATHOL — Holly Young understands municipal government.

The lifelong Athol resident has worked as the assistant to the Templeton town administrator for four years and sits in on every Board of Selectmen meeting there. She hopes this will play in her favor when in Monday’s election in Athol.

Young is running for one of two available seats.

A former paralegal, Young became interested in politics when she started working in Templeton and decided to run for office due to her opposition to proposed 911 dispatch regionalization. The proposal was to consolidate Athol police and fire dispatch with Gardner’s and operate in a regional emergency communication center in the new Gardner police station. The agreement angered many residents who felt it was conceived in the shadows. Young circulated a petition to bring the issue to a special town meeting, where residents overwhelmingly adopted an article aimed at dismantling the intermunicipal agreement reached in March 2015. The selectmen voted last month to withdraw from the agreement given the required 18 months’ notice to terminate the plan.

Young said she hopes the regionalization issue is in the rear-view mirror.

If elected, she said she would like to focus on the town’s abandoned structures, which she would like rehabilitated or torn down.

“They shouldn’t just be sitting there. You live in a town, you want it to look decent,” she said, adding that dilapidated buildings reduce nearby property values and also pose a safety hazard. “I have pride in ownership in my home. I think anybody should.”