Cara Winslow, of Peaceful Lane, said that Wareham needs to make a decision.

"We're stuck. We need to figure out as a community what our identity is," Winslow said citing Carver's identity as an agricultural community that stresses education, and Plymouth's slogan of 'Live, Work and Play,' as examples of positive, community branding. "Wareham doesn't have that - a perceived polarization among the community has prevented this."

But she thinks a Wareham identity is absolutely possible... and much more than a public-relations exercise.

"We have beautiful outdoor space, festivals, beautiful beaches," Winslow said. "There's so much stuff going on, and Wareham's filled with such wonderful people. To me, all this negativity is sad."

The Raynham native "fell in love" with Wareham when a teenager visiting her aunt and her step-mothers' family. After graduating from Stonehill College with a degree in criminal justice and sociology, Winslow applied to the Border Patrol. She broke her ankle during training school in 2004, however, and returned to Wareham to recuperate. While in town, she ran into her future husband. Her daughter was born in 2006.

"I want this to be the best place in the world." Winslow said. "Everybody wants a better place for us to live."

Winslow believes this common goal can unite the community, and she said that she is willing to work with everybody to find a way that the town can best use its limited tax resources to maintain and restore the services that are important to Wareham residents.

She plans to accomplish this by drawing on her experience as a chief negotiator for contracts with Council 93 of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME).

"I work with many different communities, and [my job] has given me insight on how to get every last penny out of tax dollars."

Winslow says there's "absolutely room for this" fiscal discipline in Wareham. She cited the nearly $60,000 computer audit - "individuals need to be called to task, not the entire workforce," she said - and a high legal budget as the biggest and most inefficient expenditures. She also suggested investigating whether the roles of assistant town adminstrator could include more grant writing, whether the Community and Economic Development Authority can assume some of the roles of a town planner, and looking for energy-savings programs that are available to municipalities through the Stimulus Act.

These issues have only become more urgent since she ran for a seat on the board last year.

"Last year, people understood there were, and are, difficult decisions to be made," Winslow said. "Citizens want leadership and direction, but they are seeing more layoffs, sports cut at the schools, no result from the computer audit... They want to get something back for their tax dollars."

She is particularly interested on focusing tax dollars on affordable housing by working with Wareham's State representatives to secure funding to fix up Agawam Village, trying to entice developers to construct smaller projects, perhaps at Tremont Nail, for instance, and collaborating with Habitat for Humanity.

Winslow acknowledges that there's not one easy answer for all of the issues. But she said that her ideas on how to "stretch every tax dollar," her experience as a negotiator, and her willingness to work and communicate with the community would enable her to represent Wareham just as she represents her union workers.

"My job is finding solutions to tough fiscal problems," Winslow said. "I have to be somebody that people I represent trust, and it's really important that I do the right thing."