Board of Selectmen candidate Ellen Begley sees a lot of potential in Wareham.

“My vision for Wareham is that surrounding towns will look to us and say 'that’s what I want to have,'” Begley said.

She said she is running for a spot of the Board of Selectmen to promote progress and formulate goals the community can work together to achieve.

“We need a clearly defined goal,” she stated. “We need to come together and find a consensus to build a unified plan.”

As a Selectman she hopes to update the town’s Master Plan with issues the town is faced with in 2011.

The plan, written in 1998, sets forth a vision for Wareham’s future according to input gathered from a citizen survey, various meetings, and public workshops over the course of a two-year planning process and serves as a guide for planning and zoning strategy and decisions.

“Stop talking about what we don’t have and start talking about what we do have,” Begley said.

Begley noted that other towns are facing the same challenges, including tight budgets, and wants to see Wareham utilizing its resources better to solve its problems.

“I’m not an expert,” Begley said. “We have experts that we need to utilize. Volunteers [on town committees] who worked in the field.”

Begley said her nursing background has given her expertise in putting plans into action.

She is a graduate of the Children's Hospital School of Nursing in Boston, where she later spent 27 years as a pediatric nurse. Begley is currently a practicing nurse closer to home.

"Being a nurse, I take care of patients. I assess what they need, form a plan, and make it happen. I can transfer that to the town of Wareham," Begley explained.

The ability to achieve goals is the reason Begley said she is in favor of interim Police Chief Richard Stanley becoming Wareham’s full-time police chief.

“He is an example of effecting change. He listened to officers and the public. He has clearly communicated what he wanted to accomplish and he achieved the goals he set forth,” she said.

As for the process of hiring Stanely, “I’m not sure why it’s getting as much press as it has,” she said. “We have a Town Administrator who knows the budget. I’m at a loss about the controversy.”

Stanely has been in contract negotiations for more than a year with Town Administrator Mark Andrews.

Begley says she is satisfied with the performance Andrews performance, but he “hasn’t been given the opportunity to live up to his potential.” She said she agrees with a recent Board of Selectmen evaluation of his performance, noting he needs to improve on his time management skills, which Begley says she feels he will overcome by delegating workload to department heads.

Begley added that the Selectmen and the Finance Committee should remove themselves from day-to-day operations of the town business and pointed out that it is Andrews' responsibility.

This is Begley's first run for political office. Begley, 56, has lived in Wareham year-round since 1995 with her husband David and their three dogs: Lily, Jelly, and Jasper.

Both are active in the Wareham community. Begley's husband is the president of political action group Move Wareham Forward. Begley herself is a member of the Wareham Garden Club and the Onset Bay Association.

“I immediately got involved with the Onset Bay Association,” she said.

Begley help lead the the clean-up of Onset Village as the former chair of the Civic Beatification Committee. “We planted bulbs, cleaned streets,” she explained.

Despite the makeover the village has seen in recent years, she called the business situation “heart breaking,” pointing out Onset’s untapped potential as a cultural hub.

“Why don’t we have a farmer’s market?” she asked.

She see the same potential for Main Street in Wareham.

“I’m encouraged by plans for a unified look to storefronts on Main Street. I’d like to see a cohesive look, maybe a seaside, New England-styled facade.”

She said she believes that Wareham is in need of one-year, five-year, and ten-year business plans that will be anticipatory rather than reactive to business changes, specifically relating to the recent trend of businesses relocating from Cranberry Highway in East Wareham to West Wareham.

“I have heard people saying we want a Whole Foods, a Trader Joe’s, a Market Basket. Let’s get it on the plan so everyone knows what is expected,” Begley said.

By mapping out what businesses best serve Wareham in advance, she said she believes the town is more likely to have success bringing in stores all along Cranberry Highway.

Begley said she wants to leave behind a legacy of community action. In addition to volunteering in various activities around town, Begley regularly travels to locations such as Haiti, East Asia, and Louisiana, following Hurricane Katrina, to help people in-need.

“When I see something that needs to be done I ask 'what can I do,'” she said. “It’s like the famed JFK quote: ‘ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for you country,' that can be applied to neighborhoods and communities."

Begley said her favorite things about Wareham are the community members and the beaches.