Margo Parrot announces bid for seat on Athol Selectboard

ATHOL – Retired law professor Margo Parrot is running for one of two available seats on the Selectboard in the April Town Election.

One seat is held by Selectboard member Brian Dodge, who intends to run for re-election. The other is held by Selectboard Chair Rebecca Bialecki, who recently announced she would not run for re-election.

Other candidates who have taken out nomination papers include Jon Costa, Russell Raymond and Alex Blake, Jr.  Costa and Raymond both ran in the special election to fill the seat vacated by Andy Sujdak last year, which Bill Chiasson won.

The terms run for three years each. Parrot, a 13-year resident of the town, told the Athol Daily News she had considered mounting a campaign for several weeks but just recently decided to move forward.

“I’ve always believed that democracy begins at home,” she explained. “One of the things I’ve seen is that our local government is very well organized; they’re very responsive to the people, and I like that. Right now, people are frustrated with our federal government – even with the state government. So, the place they’re looking for help is local.”

Chief among the responsibilities of local officials, said Parrot, are “providing schools that prepare kids for the jobs of the future, properly maintaining the roads and town buildings, and providing for public safety and public health.”

Parrot, 77, said she spent her early years in Connecticut, but later moved to Massachusetts and graduated from high school in Concord. She has also lived in Maine, Amherst and West Tisbury, and resided locally in New Salem and Orange before settling in Athol.

“One of the things I’ve seen is that our local government is very well organized; they’re very responsive to the people, and I like that. Right now, people are frustrated with our federal government – even with the state government. So, the place they’re looking for help is local.”

Margo parrot

A release announcing her candidacy states, “After retiring from her law practice in estate planning and small business and moving to the North Quabbin region in 2011, she served for six years as commissioner on the Massachusetts Commission on the Status of Women, including one term as chair.”

She has also served on the board of the North Quabbin Community Co-Op, and is current co-chair of the Athol Democratic Town Committee. She retired from teaching elder law at Western New England University School of Law in 2024.

Her husband, Robert Osborne, is known locally as an artist and sculptor.

Parrot said she has “a fairly extensive background in budgeting. When I was in Amherst I served on the Finance Committee and the Capital Planning Committee. And when I was on the Women’s Commission I was on the Budget and Personnel Committee.

“I am very concerned about the budget this year,” Parrot continued, “because we’re going to be squeezed by inflation, by the state, by the federal government; so, I think it’s going to be a difficult process. I’m concerned about our taxpayers, but I’m also concerned that we get the services we need.”

She said it can often be necessary to borrow money for capital projects and purchases, “and as we retire the debt for one project, we can then take on another. That’s really how most towns have to do it, because we don’t want to have to go out for an override every time we need something. It’s just too hard on the taxpayers.”

Parrot said it’s also important the town do what it can to preserve its natural environs “as much as we can, while also making sure we have housing and that it’s affordable. There are so many competing interests when you’re in town government.”

Noting that Athol is home to many small businesses, Parrot added the town “has the capacity to be the engine for many more, thus increasing the tax base and providing for the jobs that will keep our young graduates in the community.”

Parrot added that, while she co-chairs the Town Democratic Committee, she said she is not running for Selectboard in order to promote a partisan agenda. She explained that as a member of the Women’s Commission, and in her position on other boards and committees, “we had people with a wide variety of ideas. The whole purpose was to work together, to be cooperative, to do the most good for the most people. The Selectboard is not the place for partisanship, it’s a place to work for the benefit of the residents and taxpayers.”

Candidates for Selectboard and other town offices have until Feb. 17 to return nomination papers with the names of 37 registered Athol voters to the Town Clerk’s office. School Committee candidates must gather 50 names. The Annual Town Election will take place on Monday, April 6. Voting will take place at Athol Town Hall from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.