Select Board Candidate Brenda Eckstrom grew up in Brockton and moved to Wareham in 1995, just after getting married. 

Eckstrom previously served on the  Select Board from 2005 to 2011, as well as on the Board of Assessors, the Onset Board of Water Commissioners and on the School Council for the former Hammond School. 

“I got involved in the very beginning because of affordable housing — it’s a passion of mine,” she said. 

While on the Select Board, Eckstrom tried to get the state legislature to count mobile homes toward a town’s affordable housing requirements, and tried to promote local housing options such as “in-law apartments,” small apartments within existing homes. 

While neither initiative came to fruition while she was on the Select Board, Eckstrom got a series of affordable housing reforms passed in Wareham as a citizens petition in 2021, including allowing for in-law apartments. 

“We don’t do enough in this town until we’re forced because it’s shoved down our throats,” said Eckstrom regarding affordable housing. “I would like to have that be a priority.”

Eckstrom also calls for more collaboration on the Select Board. 

“You know the old saying, ‘There’s no I in team?’ Well, there’s also no I in Select Board,” Eckstrom said. 

She said when she was Select Board chair, she emphasized that she had no greater power than any other board member, and she thinks the town has gotten “really far” away from that state. 

In addition, she would like more transparency between the Select Board and the public. One way to address that, she said, would be for the Select Board to hold in-person meetings at different venues in town.

Overall, she wants to see more people participate in town governance. 

“What influenced me to run was I’m just really tired of people complaining but not stepping up. Or, when some people step up, they either get stepped on really badly, and step away, or become part of the problem,” she said.