Freetown Selectman Lee Baumgartner, the current board chairman, said in an interview that he will not to run for reelection in April.
He said he is 72, and although he retired from his full-time job in 2008, he never really retired, because he served on the town’s Finance Committee before becoming a selectman in 2013 and volunteered with the Coast Guard Auxiliary.
He has a “bucket list” of things he wants to do in retirement, and so far “I haven’t reach in there once,” he said.
He ran for selectman because when he was on the Finance Committee, he was displeased with how the town was spending its money. Since then, the self-described conservative said the Board of Selectmen has put good people in place, and the town is holding down taxes.
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Plus, three businesses are planning to open: Amazon, with a distribution center; Republic Services, a waste disposal and recycling company; and medical marijuana company AmeriCann.
Freetown has “zero controversy” right now, and its bond rating is up, Baumgartner said, adding, “If you’re going to leave, don’t you leave at the top of your game?”