Meet Martin Gray candidate for mayor: He's focused on environment, new housing

As a student in high school, Martin Gray worked at several jobs, including in a hospital, at a restaurant, and even spent a few summers on a ranch in Wyoming.

But now, Gray is hoping to add a new title to his resume: mayor of Gardner.

“I am running for mayor because I walk around Gardner a lot and always see stuff that makes the city look bad and messy, and things are done in unethical ways,” Gray said.

On Oct. 10, voters will decide which two of the three mayoral candidates – Gray, incumbent Michael Nicholson and Kimberly Blake – will appear on the Nov. 7 ballot.

The city is not doing enough to protect the water around Crystal Lake, Gray explained. It’s a concern because he happens to live nearby on Woodland Avenue.

“The bike path always has dog messes, there’s a lot of trash where the water runs into the lake, (and) the college uses herbicide,” Gray said. “I have seen (herbicide) used near the trail to control poison oak.”

Election guide: What to know for the city and the state's preliminary election

Gray attended Ayer High School but dropped out to take a full-time job. Because he was 12 credits shy of receiving a diploma, he obtained a GED a few years later. He also enrolled in several trade courses.

“I have worked in the manufacturing of cable and rope most of my working career,” Gray said. “I’ve also worked in a machine shop and in human service for mentally challenged people."

Gray enjoys working in his garden, exercising, and restoring his old house as a way to balance life, work and family. He said he also likes to write, especially articles about what he sees as the government’s inefficient efforts to tackle the climate change crisis.

“Another reason I’m running for mayor is because I don’t see the city investing in the future like buying electric vehicles," Gray explained. "Also I would like to see more solar panels to help power them at the same time."

Gray said he intends to get his message out to voters by attending meetings, buying radio time, putting up signs, and anything else he can think of.

“My pitch is clean water, investment in an electric future, protecting conservation land, and if I can add one more thing: the city needs to do a better job of maintaining the buildings they do have,” Gray explained. “I walk by the middle school and going on three years now the gutter has been broken, and those are the things that can cause bigger issues later.”

Gray said investments in the future would help lower taxes and spur economic growth in the city.

“Plus, the open spaces we have will make it attractive for people to live here, but we must also be creative about new housing and figuring out how to develop idle areas in the city that are now sitting vacant,” he said.

This article originally appeared on Gardner News: Meet Martin Gray: Gardner mayor candidate in preliminary election 2023