Longtime Marion resident Randy Parker is the only candidate for the three-year selectman term that Jody Dickerson will complete this month.

Parker grew up in Wareham but has lived in Marion since 1983. He’s a member of the Marion Open Space Acquisition Committee, having served around 14 years on the board.

Parker said that he decided to run for selectman because he thinks it’s necessary that the town departments all work together for a common goal.

“I think one of the most important things is bringing the town departments together,” he said. “It would be nice to pull together in the same direction.”

His love of Marion also played a factor in the decision.

“It’s like no other town,” he said. “…It just stays Marion. I just hope I have an opportunity to serve.”

Parker says the town needs to focus on upgrading the town's wastewater treatment plant and sewer system before it even thinks about the potential to regionalize with Wareham.

The town, he said, needs to conform to the requirements set by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), when the agency, in 2017, issued Marion's treatment plant with an approval permit to operate.

Among other things, the town was given 42 months to bring phosphorus pollution down to acceptable levels. As the town has already signed the agreement with the EPA, Parker said, the time to get to work on meeting the requirements is now.

Marion has just under two years left to meet the EPA's requirements.

It's also time to get going on the Town House, Parker said at Candidate's Night. "Everything we're discussing, we've been talking about for five years. It's time to take action on this."

Parker has said that he feels selectmen should not sit on too many other boards, to stop the possible appearance of a conflict. At Marion's Candidates Night on May 3, he said that upon being sworn in as a selectman, he would step down from the Open Space Committee immediately.