ORANGE — The Selectboard’s newest member is stepping down from his position and his final meeting will be the one scheduled for Feb. 18.
Mike Bates announced his impending resignation at the Feb. 4 meeting and said the job requires someone who can dedicate more time to it.
“It was just too much,” he said in an interview on Tuesday.
A special election will be held on May 4 to fill the seats vacated by Bates and Selectboard member Andrew Smith, who recently resigned to become assistant town clerk. The two positions will not be on the ballot for the annual town election scheduled for March 2.
Bates, 50, is a veterinary technician at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and he and his wife, Fran, own Over The Top Bakery. He said they are in the process of selling their other business, Bates Down Under and Flea Market.
Bates said he found his Selectboard work fulfilling but he does not have the time necessary.
“I’ve really enjoyed being part of this. It’s completely opened my eyes,” he said. “It’s in the best interest of the town to free up the space. Staying would have been selfish.”
Bates was elected to the Selectboard in March 2025, when his write-in campaign defeated incumbent Patricia Lussier, 161-68. He told the Greenfield Recorder he decided to run with a goal of restoring the Selectboard’s reputation and productivity, as Lussier had walked out of meetings in protest twice in as many years and once used foul language in a heated discussion following a report filed by the Lake Mattawa Docks Subcommittee.
“There was a lot of animosity going on,” Bates recounted.
At the time of his election, Bates said he wasn’t coming in with a particular agenda, but that he wanted to be “a positive influence, honestly, on the future of Orange.”
“I love the town of Orange and I just want to give back to … the people who have been so good to us,” he said in March 2025.
Bates mentioned he will remain a member of the Mahar Regional School District Agreement Ad Hoc Committee.