NORWICH — Three people are vying for one three-year term on the Selectboard in Norwich’s only contested race this year.

Selectboard Vice Chairwoman Mary Layton faces competition from residents Doug Wilberding and Chuck Tufankjian.

All three candidates share concerns about persistent staffing challenges in the police and public works departments and want to enhance Norwich’s resilience in the face of climate-related weather events.

Wilberding and Tufankjian are also focused on transparency and making the town’s municipal processes more efficient.

Layton, 69, a teacher at the Open Fields School in Thetford, has served three consecutive terms on the Selectboard. She became involved in local government by way of an interest in the planning process for Norwich’s public safety building. Attending a meeting about the project, she remembers having her concerns brushed off, “and that really irritated me,” she said in a recent interview, so she decided to run for a seat on the board against an incumbent, and won.

“Right from the beginning, I’ve been interested in infrastructure,” she said. After helping to guide the renovation of the public safety building, she’s hoping to be part of restoring Tracy Hall, with an eye toward making it as energy efficient as possible while also preserving his historical character.

Layton also is concerned with Norwich’s ability to withstand climate-related weather events, pointing to a 2017 flood, which caused over $3 million in damage to the town’s infrastructure, as an example of the town’s vulnerability.

“Climate change is catching up to us, and we have to respond to it,” she said.

Fully staffing municipal offices has been a challenge in recent years as well, especially for Norwich’s police force. Layton said the number of qualified applicants for law-enforcement positions is about 50% of what it was just five years ago. She wants the town to keep looking at creative ways to attract and retain police officers.

While all three candidates share similar areas of interest, Tufankjian and Wilberding would like the town to be more responsive to residents.

Tufankjian, 42, sees opportunities to streamline municipal processes that he believes are “unnecessarily time-consuming and detrimental to our town,” he said in a recent interview.

An equipment operator for Norwich’s Department of Public Works, Tufankjian grew up in St. Johnsbury, and he and his family have been living in Norwich for a decade now. This is his first foray into local government.

He said that he would bring to the board the perspective of someone with a labor background and a practical approach to problem-solving.

Tufankjian believes that there is a disconnect between residents and Selectboard members, and he wants to help restore trust and transparency.

“People bring issues to the board and they get sort of dismissed,” he said. He wants residents to know that their voices are valid and that the Selectboard will be receptive to them.

“What matters most to the voters are the issues that I would pursue with the most vigor,” he said.

Wilberding, 42, works in real estate private equity investing and thinks that Norwich’s Selectboard needs to “achieve more and talk less.”

The Selectboard relies too heavily, in his view, on third-party consultants and in-house counsel without enough forward progress. The town’s spending of roughly $100,000 fighting a recent Open Meeting Law complaint, for example, was a waste of money, he believes. “Most of the residents, if not all of them, did not want to see the town fight that,” he said in a recent interview.

A Norwich native who attended the Marion Cross School and Hanover High, Wilberding is no stranger to public office. He was a candidate for both the Norwich Selectboard and the state Senate in 2020, and though those campaigns were unsuccessful, he served as a lister from 2020 to 2022 and is currently a trustee of public funds.

Wilberding also is in favor of term limits and favors more diversity on the Selectboard.

“We need new voices, fresh faces. That all leads to positive change,” he said.

Meanwhile, Priscilla Vincent is running unopposed for a two-year seat on the Selectboard. Neil Odell is running unopposed for a three-year seat on the Norwich and Dresden school boards. Garrett Palm is unopposed for a two-year seat on the Norwich School Board.

Norwich’s Town Meeting Australian ballot voting will be held on March 5 at Tracy Memorial Hall between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. There will be an informational session on Monday, March 4, at 7 p.m. in Tracy Hall.

Christina Dolan can be reached at cdolan@vnews.com or 603-727-3208.