Waterford ― Republican First Selectman Robert Brule, Democratic Selectman Greg Attanasio and Republican Richard Muckle are running unopposed for four-year terms on the Board of Selectmen.

Brule has been the town’s first selectman since 2019, when he defeated Democrat Beth Sabilia by securing 56 percent of the votes cast.

Attanasio and Muckle both filled vacancies on the board early this year.

Muckle succeeded the late Jody Nazarchyk, who died in February. Attanasio filled in for Sabilia, who resigned her position in March after being named director of the Center for Housing Equity and Opportunity, Eastern Connecticut.

Brule, 55, is the former chief operating officer of A.B.I. Resources, a company that provides services to individuals recovering from strokes and traumatic brain injuries. He’s a former Waterford High School girls’ soccer coach and a lifelong Waterford resident, and serves as vice chairman of the Southeastern Connecticut Council of Governments.

Brule said his platform is about keeping property values high and making the town a place where people want to live. He identified seven focus areas: providing a reasonable tax rate; increasing public safety; improving the town’s school system; supporting small businesses; improving infrastructure; offering more programs for youth and seniors; and continuing to push “open space” projects like those involving Waterford Beach and the Civic Triangle Park.

He wants to make residents safer by increasing fire and police staffing; improving the town’s emergency operations center; making sure all firefighters, paid or volunteer, are properly trained; and building new quarters for the Oswegatchie Fire Co., one of Waterford’s five privately owned fire departments, which operates in an 80-year-old structure.

The majority of property at Crystal Mall, one of the town’s 10 largest taxpayers, was purchased in May of this year by Long Island-based developer Namdar Realty Group, a company that owns more than 60 malls nationwide.

Brule said he would continue to reach out to Namdar and the other two owners of Crystal Mall properties in hopes of “working together and communicating ideas and a vision for the mall and property.

“There’s not a lot of places for families to go with their kids around here,” Brule said. “And I see the future of the Crystal Mall as an important part of that.”

He said he hopes for the property to be developed as a mixed-use facility that might incorporate a hotel, a pharmacy, a grocery, retail, condominiums and green space.

Asked how he would lead the town through the process of NE Edge’s proposed data center on the site of Millstone Power Station, Brule said the only official action taken on behalf of the town was signing a host fee agreement, which set a $231 million payment plan and raised the possibility of it hosting the center.

“There’s a regulatory process that hasn’t even begun yet,” Brule said, adding that the town will be “televising the whole thing,” or otherwise keeping the public informed.

“I want to reassure people that once there is a project, it will go through the proper procedure,” he said.

Muckle, 82, retired after working 44 years at Electric Boat, where he was a materials management specialist and project manager. His long political history includes seven terms on the Representative Town Meeting and two on the Retirement Commission. He currently serves as chairman of the School Building Committee, the Oswegatchie Fire Station Building Committee and the Conservation Commission.

“When you have a good community, you want to contribute to the success of that community,” Muckle said.

He said he wants to focus on education, public safety and economic development in his upcoming term, but that his primary agenda is to support the actions of the first selectman.

Attanasio, 38, is an account manager at Airgas. He has served on the RTM, the Economic Development Commission and the the Long Range Fiscal Planning Committee, and is a current member of the Fire Services Review Special Committee.

He said he wants to increase “preventative maintenance” of the town’s infrastructure ― spending small amounts of money to keep up infrastructure as opposed to waiting until something major happens that requires costly repairs.

Attanasio also said he would like to address staffing vacancies in Town Hall, hiring an economic development specialist and offering diverse education programs to set students up for success.

“I think there’s a lot of work to be done in housing,” he added. “There’s a lot to be done across the country.”

Attanasio said the data center might be a potential way to keep Dominion, Waterford’s largest taxpayer, in town. He said he “distantly supports” the project provided it doesn’t add to the noise level in the community.

d.drainville@theday.com