Tell us a little about yourself. You can include your personal background, family, outside interests that are important to who you are as a person and a candidate.
Hi All! I am a New Englander, born in Providence, R.I. and grew up in Newton. My husband, Bernhard Metzger and I have lived in Lexington since 1988. All three of our children went through the Lexington Public Schools, graduating from LHS in 2002, 2004 and 2007, and all have gone on to colleges and successful careers. In my time in Lexington, I have been a volunteer in the public schools. At Harrington School (1989–2000), I was a library volunteer for 10 years, METCO Family Friend coordinator and PTA president. At Lexington High School, I was the PTO president for two years. I have been a Town Meeting Member since 1999, was the first coordinator of the Liberty Ride, and overhauled the Battle Green Guide program. I sat on the Tourism Committee for 15 years.
Outside of volunteer activities, my interests are my eight grandchildren, dog walking and meeting up with friends while dog walking, knitting and singing. I care deeply about this town: the schools, the conservation lands, and the character of the town.
Why are you running for Town Meeting?
This time, I am running to help make sure that a new Lexington High School is built. We have been kicking this can down the road for way too long. Our current high school is a disgrace, and ever since I have lived in Lexington, we have been shying away from the obvious solution–tear down the current high school and build a new one. But the price tag has been scaring everyone away even before the pandemic brought inflation to every aspect of the building process. I am also concerned about the how the new MBTA overlay districts and the speed of development will affect the town. Two years ago, we anticipated that the changes made would be gradual over a 5- to 10-year period, but the process seems to have accelerated and we may need to pause and take a breath.
How has your past experience — whether in your professional life, elected office, or as a community leader — prepared you for a role in Town Meeting?
Since I have already been a Town Meeting Member for about 30 years, I would assume that having been a Town Meeting Member for so long has prepared me to continue in this role. I originally ran to have a voice for the schools in Town Meeting since at that time, parents in the schools did not seem to be as engaged as those folks whose children had already been through the system. I current have two grandchildren in elementary school in Lexington and I am an almost-weekly volunteer in the school library. My involvement with the Liberty Ride and Lexington’s Revolutionary history has given me a deep understanding of tourism and how important tourism could be as an economic driver for Massachusetts and for Lexington in particular. We may be leaving a lot of money on the table by not investing more in tourism infrastructure.
Of course we hear from the loudest voices on the most controversial issues. I try to understand those whose views do not jive with mine, but I have never been shy about expressing my views, and I do vote my conscience. I listen and try to respond to these diverse opinions in my e-mail or in person.
What is the most important issue in this election to you personally, and what ideas do you have about how to address this issue?
As I said above, the most important issue to me in this election is to pass the Bloom design for the new Lexington High School and get the process going as quickly as possible so we can hopefully pass a debt exclusion later this hear and break ground, finally, on a 21st century building that we can all be proud of. Should we not be successful, I fear all of our property values could be negatively affected.
As stated above, I have lived in Lexington now for over 36 years, and have seen many changes in the town, specifically “mansionization.” I feel that the destruction of small, affordable homes being replaced with giant structures has negatively impacted the character of the town. We live in a medium sized cape, and hope to stay here for the forseeable future. Please vote for me on March 3rd, and I will work as hard as I can to keep Lexington the beautiful town that we all love.