Politics & Government

Selectmen Say Goodbye to Robert Hensley

Hensley will still be involved with the town, but did not seek another term as a selectman.

Monday night’s board of selectmen’s meeting marked the last for Selectman Robert Hensley.

The Republican did not seek re-election, having served on the board for two terms, from 2007 to 2011.

Hensley choked up a bit when reflecting on his time on the board. He referenced a poem that has as its message it’s not the dates that matter on your gravestone but the dash between — what you did while you were alive. He applied that to his service on the board of selectmen.

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Hensley was active in several other committees, acting as chair of the personnel subcommittee and he was part of the gateway sign committee.

“It’s been a great dash,” Hensley said.

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Learning about the town and its people and then watching them all come together during the recent storm and power outage was “the most incredible thing to witness,” he said.

He said what people in town did for each other was a testimonial to what he has been seeing during the past four years he has been a selectman.

He finished by saying that his mother used to tell him instead of complaining he should make a difference, although she put it something like this “stop digging a deeper hole and try to start filing it.”

Hensley said that is what he leaves his fellow selectmen and the residents at large: “If there’s a hole there I suggest you help fill it.”

“We have been honored to have you here,” said First Selectman Mary Glassman.

After the election Nov. 8 the makeup of the board will remain the same, with three Republicans and three Democrats. All of the other selectmen — Democrats Glassman, Lisa Heavner, John Hampton, and Republicans Nancy Haase and Moira Wertheimer — were re-elected with Republican Sean Askham also elected to the board.


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