Catherine McMains (Selectboard)

Catherine McMains: Jericho’s institutional memory

Catherine McMains thought her fifth term on the Select Board, which was scheduled to end earlier this year, might be her last but she was talked into running again. With ARPA money coming in, she sees the opportunity for transformative change in Jericho and wants to be able to help with the process.

McMains began her municipal service with the Development Review Board around the year 2000. She served several years as chair and in 2007, while still holding that position, she was appointed to fill John Shullenberger’s seat on the Select Board when he retired. She won re-election in 2008, and every election since then, resigning from the DRB after the open seats had been filled.

During her DRB days, McMains served on an ad hoc committee of the Chittenden County Regional Planning Commission (CCRPC). When the Jericho representative to that body stepped down, McMains was appointed to fill the seat. When the CCRPC merged with the Chittenden County Metropolitan Planning Organization, the number of representatives from each town was reduced, but McMains remained Jericho’s representative. She spent two years as Vice Chair and two years as Chair, as well as serving as Chair of the Climate Action Committee. She now holds the position of Immediate Past Chair, so she still has a seat on the Executive Committee.

In 2009, McMains co-founded the Jericho Energy Task Force, and she currently serves as chair of that body, as well. The JETF has held several energy tours and Button Up events, sponsored a middle-school poster contest and an annual icicle contest, and hosts a popular winter movie/lecture series. The group has also sponsored electric vehicle presentations, worked with the CCRPC to create an enhanced energy plan for the town, and this fall will hold its first ever Repair Café.

McMains has a Master’s in biochemistry. She worked in labs in Oklahoma and Ohio before moving to Vermont in 1977 for a job at UVM with the Department of Psychiatry. A watershed moment came when McMains got a call that her daughter Casey was the only child who hadn’t been picked up from daycare. She was in the middle of an experiment and unable to leave. Sitting down with her husband Bill, the pair decided that one of them would need to give up their day job and since biochemists worked long hours for little pay, she decided to retire. As Casey grew older and began a career as a glassblower, McMains worked as her business manager.

McMains has seen a number of changes during her years on the Select Board. At the onset, she said it felt as though the staff was siloed and morale was low, so the town asked the Vermont League of Cities and Towns for assistance and eventually decided to switch to a town administrator model. The Select Board still has final approval of projects, so they maintain accountability to the public. For several years, the Select Board alternated chairs throughout the year but of late, they have decided to stick to one chair each year and McMains currently holds that position.

McMains decision to run once more this March was based, in part, on a desire to be part of the process for using the federal ARPA funds. “We were fortunate enough to come through Covid better than a lot of other towns,” she said. “We don’t need the money for the basic things in our budget so that money should be transformative.”

Although her background is in science, McMains is one of the people behind Art in Town Hall, a series of rotating exhibits which began in 2010. Every few months, a new prompt is sent out, resulting in paintings, mixed media, and photographs which grace the walls of the conference room and hallways. Additional artwork is evident in McMains’s garden. Her home has been on the Jericho Garden Tour and her husband is known for making patterns with his lettuce plantings.

For McMains, the positive feeling she gets from giving back to her community and having the opportunity to make a difference outweighs any negatives of public service. One area of frustration is that people who object to projects are more likely to voice their opinions than those who would like to see them through. “We know there are people who want to see things happen,” she said, “but they don’t necessarily come to meetings.”

McMains has lived in Jericho since 1991. “What we like about Jericho is that it still maintains an identity as a community,” she said. “People really do care about each other. We saw that with Covid with people shopping for their neighbors and with conversations about a food hub and food resiliency. That’s the heart and soul of a municipality.”