MASHPEE — For Mashpee town voters, the May 7 annual election will feature three contested races and one ballot question regarding the discharge of radioactive water into Cape Cod Bay.

Polls will be open from 8:30 a.m. to 8 p.m., Saturday, May 7.

Voters will decide on contested races including for the Planning Board, which has two available seats and three candidates including Paul Thurston, Karen Faulkner and Michael Richardson. Here are thoughts about Mashpee from each candidate, listed in alphabetical order:

When speaking about her bid for a seat on the Mashpee Planning Board, Faulkner addressed the updated local comprehensive plan, saying the process overall has been effective. Faulkner said she was happy with community input.

"We have to really do careful reading of the existing LCP, take out what is no longer relevant and keep what's good and figure out what our vision is," Faulkner said. "We need to continue to answer where we are, where do we want to be, and how do we get there."

Although Faulkner said she supports the Sewer Commission and the Mashpee Clean Waters sewer system initiative, she said she wants to do more to solve environmental problems that are impacting the quality of life in Mashpee.  

"We should not be building beyond the capacity of the the environment," Faulkner said. "We built too many houses (in the past two decades) and we only had the one septic system, so we are looking at terrible polluted waters."

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Faulkner also spoke on plans for further development of Mashpee Commons. As a part of the group Envision Mashpee, Faulkner said she was against the original plan to expand Mashpee Commons. 

"It (Mashpee Commons expansion) was not a good fit for the town — it was too dense, too tall and too big. We need to preserve our unique character and this would not have preserved it," she said. "They also proposed a potential street wall on Route 28 up to the rotary and that would have just destroyed the character of Mashpee."

Despite her opposition to the potential project, Faulkner said she would be open to reviewing revised plans for the project's expansion because of the need for affordable housing. But Faulkner also wants to look closely at renovation possibilities for already existing buildings.

"I support ideas for smart growth and redevelopment that fits our town and rural character," she said.

Richardson, a former Select Board and Finance Committee member, is also running for Planning Board and said he's frustrated that many issues on the original local comprehensive plan have not been addressed.

"It's long overdue to be updated. You can't continue to kick the can down the road," he said. "There will be some disagreements, but the process of updating will get done. I'm looking forward to it being completed as soon as possible."

Although expanded plans for Mashpee Commons fell through, Richardson also sees possibilities for future development — including affordable housing — but said environmental concerns need to be addressed first.

"I use the word smart growth. We should be able to grow a little bit — with a mindset that we can't do it without making sure that everything is taken care of from the environmental perspective," he said. "We should be able to find some way to build some housing for people that need it."

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Although there are intense issues like water quality and sewering, Richardson said, town leaders and the community need to find tolerance and patience while working on the future vision of the town.

"We are (at) the point in Mashpee where people are being escorted out of meetings because they're yelling at the chairman of the Select Board. It can be a smoother process, it can be a less intense process," he said. "We've got to work harder. We've got to work smarter. But we also need to be tolerant of someone else's ideas."  

Although the third candidate, Thurston, has never been involved in town politics before, after retiring to Cape Cod roughly four years ago, he hopes to use his 30 years of experience in real estate and construction to contribute to the Planning Board.

With a host of initiatives that the Planning Board is currently working on, he said there’s a lot at stake for the town — especially with the updated local comprehensive plan. While he finds valid data points within the plan, he said he is looking for a report card from an outside agency or consulting firm to answer community questions.

“I do think a lot of this stuff (in the original local comprehensive plan) is still current, but I also believe strongly that there are new issues in front of people that should also be added,” he said. “It's really important to get people to go online and answer a questionnaire so we can get a realistic snapshot from everybody’s understanding — what their thoughts and goals and concepts are for the future.” 

Thurston also weighed in on the Mashpee Common expansion and said, if elected to the Planning Board, he will bring expertise to help steer the project for what the town wants to see in the future. From his understanding, he said the property owner also has certain rights and entitlements. 

"I think it's a perfect opportunity at this time to meet with the property owner and speak in good faith," he said. "And maybe try to get some conservation area, try to get some affordable housing in areas that are not part of retail and make a win-win for both the town, the personal property owner, and the people in our community."

Thurston said he doesn't see Mashpee as overdeveloped. He pointed to old and dilapidated houses and cottages that are filled with asbestos, mold, and lead paint. Some of the septic systems, he said, are sitting in the groundwater. 

"These houses are great during the summer with all the windows open and everyone thinks there's no problems," he said. "If our environment is important to us, we've got to bring them up to code. I don't believe we're overbuilt. I think we need to put a complete 100% effort into cleaning up all areas of Mashpee."