Four-term First Selectman Matt Riiska will not seek another term in office this November. “I’m definitely not going to run again,” Riiska said this week. “This is my eighth year, but it seems longer.”
Riiska has seen the town through challenging times in his last term, starting with the catastrophic gas spill that occurred only days after his last election and continuing through blizzards, flash floods, major road projects and planning for a new firehouse.
The Democratic and Republican town committees have yet to caucus—that comes in July—but the changing political landscape is coming into focus. Democrat Henry Tirrell, now completing his first term on the board, has announced his candidacy for the top spot. He will be joined by Leo Colwell, a former selectman who has previously served several terms, as his running mate.
“Leo is the reason I got involved with the Democratic Town Committee and ran for the Board of Selectmen,” said Tirrell. “I am running out of a sense of duty—a real love and caring for a town that has given me a lot.”
Tirrell grew up in Norfolk, attended Botelle Elementary School and Northwestern Regional School District #7. He is currently employed as a brewer at Big Elm Brewery in Sheffield, Mass.
He and his wife, Robin, own a North Street home next door to his parents, Charles and Beatrice Tirrell, and grandmother, former selectman Ayreslea Denny. There they are happily raising their children, Charlie and Josie, in a multi-generational enclave.
Current Republican Selectman Sandy Evans has announced that she will also run for another term on the board. She said she was approached by the Republican Town Committee to run for first selectman but will not because she does not feel she can win in heavily Democratic Norfolk.
She said she had not yet heard of a challenger for Tirrell. “I think Henry will do a good job,” she said. “He is young, well-spoken and well-written—he can make the job what he wants it to be.”
Tirrell, who said he is “trying to soak up as much as I can” during the final months of Riiska’s tenure, comes to the selectmen’s office at least twice a week to confer about the state of the town’s affairs. “I’m not going to leave Henry, Leo and Sandy in the lurch,” promised Riiska. “I will be available to help if they need me.”