Grow Hopes To Bring New Energy To Norwood Board Of Selectmen

NORWOOD, MA - Amanda Grow is running for the Board of Selectmen to bring renewed energy to the board after the unexpected death of Selectman David Hajjar last month.

In a recent interview at Byblos Restaurant, Grow talked about the knowledge she can contribute about issues like sustainability and cybersecurity.

Grow, who ran for the board last election, said she joined that contest because two vacancies opened due to the retirement of Selectmen Paul Bishop and Allan Howard, who is also now running for the open seat.

“I wanted to run at a time when people wouldn’t say that I was running because someone was doing a bad job,” she explained, “because that honestly was not the way I felt.”

She fell short by about 100 votes, which Grow considered an achievement in her fledgling run, particularly because campaigning was limited during the pandemic.

“I had to pivot from traditional campaigning to asking people if they needed to get food and talking to people who had lost their jobs,” she explained.

This time around, Grow said several residents encouraged her to join the race, prompting her not only to go for the current vacancy but to run in the upcoming regular election in April.

“The real tip-off for me was Halloween,” she said. “I’m passing out the candy, and there was a repetition of families asking if I was going to run again. It’s hard to say no to that.”

Grow has been active for several years in the community. She currently serves as the vice president of the Norwood League of Women Voters and is a member of the town’s Rules Committee. She and her husband have lived in Norwood since 2007, when Grow moved from southwest Ohio because her job at a video game company relocated.

“Growing up in Ohio, we were surrounded by stories about inventors,” she said, noting that may be how she developed the creative spirit that she carried into her industry. “The Wright brothers are from there. I grew up in an environment where people would invent their way around problems.”

Norwood also embodies that same spirit in some ways, Grow noted.

“What kind of place has a municipal power company and then also municipal internet?” she asked. “I thought, ‘This is an innovative place; this is where I want to be.’”

In a sense, Grow also is a pioneer. She began developing websites at age 16 before website development became an industry.

“I did that work before it even had a name,” she said, adding that she learned by creating codes on her own.

Grow is hoping to bring her ability to think outside of the box to the Board of Selectmen.

“People in the town are talking about where we are going as Norwood,” Grow said. “We have to do that in a way that lets people know that we aren’t going to bulldoze everything old here. We want to retain the things that make Norwood a cool place to be in the first place.

“But you also can’t get to where we’re not properly account for the things that are changing around us,” she continued. “We need to be ahead or at least stay at pace with the communities around us.”

One of the points she will advocate for is increased web security due to her 25-year career in web development.

“When you think about things like ransomware, I don’t want to say it happens through human error,” she explained. “But it happens in spots where people are vulnerable. It could be catastrophic if we lose people’s records.”

She explained that some people don’t realize that they can be victims of cyber-crime even if they don’t have an internet account once town records are breached.

“If the town is not defending itself well enough, your data can be sold on the black market,” she said. “And you wouldn’t even know.”

Climate change is another area where Grow can bring her knowledge. She noted that everyone should have an emergency home evacuation plan in case there are natural disasters, such as the flood that shut down Norwood Hospital last year.

“By thinking about those things ahead of time, you won’t freeze,” she said. “By practicing in your mind, your brain can execute on almost muscle memory. You can’t control what’s happening around you, but you can control your space.”

She used the flood as an example, noting how many cars she had observed that were stranded because they tried to drive in water that was too deep.

“If I had not been reading about it, I probably would have reacted in a different way,” she said. “We live very close to the sea, and we live in an area where we have streams and wetlands. So we need to think about if we are sufficiently equipped.”

She noted that part of Norwood is a heat island. Preserving and increasing the tree canopy is becoming more important. Energy consumption increases as the tree canopy declines because of the decrease in shade the trees provided.

“If we can bring that knowledge into public spaces, that’s where we’re going to see success rather than having people rediscover things over and over again,” said Grow. “We need to pool our knowledge together.”

She hopes to bring her expertise as a town light commissioner to add insights to policy regarding sustainable energy sources such as solar.

“A lot of people think of their energy bill as how many electrons they bought,” she said, noting that another component of the bill is the transmission lines that transmit the power. Power rate factors also escalate costs during peak periods.”

Grow also wants to increase the town’s accessibility and walkability.

“I am very passionate about confronting ableism,” she said. “I’ve spent a lot of time listening to people and realizing that some things are outrageously unfair.”

Assisting small businesses is another priority for Grow. She noted that several started in 2020, including a perfumery and a plant shop. Their success will help strengthen the local economy, she said.