Orange Election 2011: Business manager ready to lead town

Written by Bettina Thiel
Wednesday, 26 October 2011 14:05

Kevin McNabola is a candidate for public service who brings experience in both the public sector and the private sector.

The Orange school district business manager is running for first selectman on the Democratic ticket. He has chaired the Board of Finance for eight years and comes with corporate experience from Bayer and GE.

The 43- year-old is active in many areas in town. Apart from serving the school system, he is also a member of the Rotary Club. He is a volunteer fireman. His true passion, though, is sports. He coaches Little League and youth hockey, loves to play golf and “really all sports.”

Economic Development is his biggest theme as far as an election platform is concerned. He said the Orange Economic Development Corporation is doing a good job promoting Orange within Orange, but what McNabola would like to add is to promote Orange more outside of its town line, in particular the Boston Post Road corridor as a business location.

People are very concerned about empty store fronts, he said.

“I know these are difficult, challenging times,” he said. “But we have to work that much harder to get businesses to come to the Boston Post Road,” he added.

A bigger commercial tax base could help make some tax relief possible for the seniors in town.

McNabola has a record of doing that for the cash-strapped school district, he said. Since he joined the district two years ago he has systematically reviewed all existing contracts, for a savings of over $200,000. These savings were then applied back into the classroom, where they paid for electronics, such as smartboards and new computers, etc.

McNabola has been going door to door to campaign, and has talked to residents at the transfer station on weekends. He said the response he’s been getting was very positive.

He said one of the issues that came up was people who had hoped to have more access to the open space parcels the town acquired in the past few years, including the Ewing Farm and the Hubbell property.

“We bought a lot of open space in the past ten years, but the public doesn’t get to use it,” he said.

McNabola grew up in West Haven and graduated high school from Notre Dame. He moved to Orange in 1999, where is lives with his wife, Angela, and two children.