Meet Your New Selectman: Aaron Hutchins

Joining incumbent Dawn Rand to nab two of three seats on the Board of Selectmen in last month's election (beating Scott Mahoney), Aaron Hutchins began serving his post this week.

An attorney in Northborough since 2008, he runs a general practice firm that covers several areas of law, with a concentration on family issues and civil litigation. His parents moved to town in 1980, and since, Hutchins has spent all but ten years here, doing undergraduate work at Brigham Young University and graduate studies at New England Law - Boston.

Two catalysts prompted Hutchins to run for a seat this time around. First, his dad had pulled nomination papers in 2009, but after getting the required signatures, did not submit the papers. He said to his son, "I've done my duty to Northborough; it's your turn." And when Fran Bakstran announced in early 2011 that she would not be seeking reelection to the board, it opened an opportunity in Hutchins' mind.

"I probably wouldn't have run against her, given that my opinion of the town administration and the Board of Selectmen is that they have been doing a great job in the last few years."

Hutchins is a registered Republican, but says he treats politics more like an Independent, "looking for the candidate or political stance that I think would best serve the town, state or nation.

"Regardless of my political views, I think the national political scene has been broken for a long time. I believe that many of our state and national politicians are self-serving. A prime example would be the health care system the politicians have versus the health care system the rest of us have. If I had a magic button, I'd press it and make the politicians on every level face the same health care struggles that the rest of the country faces."

It's too early to speculate, he says, about what he hopes to accomplish, specifically, by serving on the board. "I'm obviously interested in helping the administration make the best financial and policy decisions for Northborough that I can," he said."I hope to be able to provide increased access and awareness to town governance."

Since getting elected, Hutchins has been speaking with town personnel about getting the board meetings streamed over the Internet, in addition to cable TV (which it already airs the meetings).He not only spent about a year serving on the Cable TV Committee, but also the Community Affairs Committee.

Sidewalks. That's what Hutchins says Northborough needs more of, and they need to be better maintained and promoted. For him, sidewalks represent intra-community activity, and he'd love to see "Northborough full of sidewalks and full of people."

When asked "What makes Northborough tick?" Hutchins replied, "My answer is the type of people who call Northborough home. They're family focused, working class, upstanding citizens."