Hampton Select Board candidate Carleigh Beriont
Name: Carleigh Beriont
Education: B.A. Mount Holyoke College, M.T.S. Harvard Divinity School, Ph.D. Harvard University
Occupation: Mom; adjunct lecturer at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government; historian
Political or civic experience highlights: In addition to raising two young kids, I teach students who are preparing for careers in public service. We focus on the importance of understanding history, asking tough questions, and working together to address complex issues amid competing values and priorities. I want to put these experiences into action for Hampton.
What are your top three priorities if elected?: First, prioritize communication with our community and offer a new approach to connecting with voters about how and why our tax dollars are spent. When our town asks voters to approve a budget, we deserve to understand how that spending will make our lives better.
Second, support the families who currently call Hampton home and welcome new ones, making sure that everyone is represented in our town government. We are a community that deserves ways for people to gather and connect all year round.
Third, help the Select Board make sound and strategic investments in our town with an eye toward our ever-changing world. With a rail trail coming, great local businesses, and investors looking to build, the Select Board can take a more active role in planning for a future where we can all thrive.
What is the biggest challenge the town is facing and how would you address it?: As a working mom of two young kids, I will bring a different set of experiences, relationships, and questions to conversations about the challenges our community faces.
How do we want our community to change over time? How will we prioritize and implement our goals for five, ten, twenty years from now? The current members of the board have served as responsible stewards for our community; my candidacy offers voters a new way to think about the future and the choices we make as a community.
Hampton voters need clear communication about the issues we face so that we can make better decisions together about our town’s future. For example, rising sea levels and stronger storms threaten people, homes, businesses, and put our town’s most cherished resources at risk. We need to make regular and strategic investments in our infrastructure before they get outrageously expensive. In the past, our town has put these investments off and the cost for needed repairs has skyrocketed. To avoid this, we need to come together as a community and support necessary investments in our present and future.
As a selectwoman, I will work with the other members of the board to foster two-way communication that helps preserve what is working while listening and learning from you about what isn't.
What else should voters know about you?: My husband and I started our family here because Hampton has so many things we love: the ocean, a quiet and friendly neighborhood, great schools, a fun boardwalk, and a welcoming library. We’ve faced many of the same challenges young parents face around the country: the high cost of child care and the isolation that sometimes comes with raising young kids in the suburbs. Through it all, we’ve been glad to live in a town like Hampton.
My training as a historian and my experience as a mom has taught me to appreciate how and why Hampton has grown into the wonderful town that it is and to think every day about the future we are creating for our kids here.
I am running to be your voice on the Board of Selectmen. Whether you own your home or rent it, work at a business in town or make a long commute like me, pick your grandkids up from daycare or pack them into the minivan and drive them to soccer practice, you deserve a Select Board that leads with all of us in mind.
This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Hampton Select Board candidate Carleigh Beriont
