Marion Select Board candidate profile: Sean Sweeney

MARION — After 25 years of building career experience in management and civil engineering at MIT and several consulting firms, Marion Select Board candidate Sean Sweeney is now looking to bring his diverse skillset to the position if elected on Friday, May 16.

“I’m somebody who has not been in the political fray in Marion at all. I represent someone who has new ideas I can bring to Marion in an impactful way,” said Sweeney.

He currently works as a director at CHA Consulting, an engineering firm that focuses on project and construction management.

“With all the communities I help at my full time job, I see what their struggles are, I see how their Select Boards work, I see how their communities work and I see best practice day in and day out. I want to bring that knowledge to Marion,” said Sweeney.

For Sweeney, some of the most pressing issues in Marion deal with infrastructure, including the wastewater treatment plant.”

“Less than half of the single family homes in Marion aren’t even on the system, so you have half of the residents paying for the entire wastewater treatment plant, which also reflects their water bill rate, so that’s something we need to fix,” said Sweeney.

Due to his background in civil engineering, he said he has a strong understanding of the issue and intends to establish a “long term capital plan to increase the number of homes that are on the system.”

In addition to fixing the wastewater treatment system, Sweeney stated that it’s important that the town focuses on the $3.7 million Town House renovations as soon as possible due to rising costs of construction.

“It really comes down to do we want to make the investment today at a known cost and be able to have future options or do we want to wait and deal with the variability of finding temporary space and escalating costs?” said Sweeney.

Regarding the proposal to create a historic District in Marion, he said, “I think it’s fantastic the amount of work that the volunteer group has done to raise the issue and to actually help the community understand the historic value of the village.”

While he supports the potential district, Sweeney also commented that “it’s difficult to ask for 5% of the residents to put additional restrictions on their homes.”

He suggested a “quid pro quo” plan in which residents agree to the implementation of the district and Marion officials focus on repairing sidewalks and roads in the area.

When discussing potential regulations on short term rentals and accessory dwelling units, he said that it’s “generally a good idea.”

“I think the biggest concern is they don’t want to have properties that are rented out that aren’t well policed,” said Sweeney.

He added that it would be beneficial to have a system to manage the accessory dwelling units to maintain a specific standard of quality.

Sweeney holds a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from UMass Lowell, a master's degree in business administration from Babson College and a law degree from Suffolk College.

“[With] my skill set and my knowledge of how towns work — how they govern, how they build their projects, how they deal with aging infrastructure — I really have skills that can help Marion in a big way,” said Sweeney.