Meet the Candidates: Tim Bishop for Ridgefield's Inland Wetlands Board

Editor's note: HamletHub believes in democracy and we recently invited all Town of Ridgefield candidates to answer five questions, giving residents an opportunity to learn more about their candidacy, Town involvement, and reasons for seeking office. If you will be on the ballot on November 5, we'd love to hear from you! Please see the information on the bottom of this post regarding this Q&A opportunity.

Meet Tim Bishop, candidate for Ridgefield's Inland Wetlands Board

What office are you running for and why?

I am running for a seat on the new Inland Wetlands Board because I feel my education and professional experience can be a real asset to the Board and people of Ridgefield.  I hold a B.S. and M.S. in environmental science, have almost 17 years of environmental consulting experience and am a Board certified environmental professional.  A majority of my consulting experience deals with managing property investigations and remediations, but I also work in the natural resources sector delineating wetland boundaries on potential development projects.

What do you hope to accomplish should you be elected?

If elected, I would like to work with the other members of the Board and the community to keep development (and local economy) moving forward at a reasonable rate, but not at the expense of our Town's natural resources.  I hope to offer my knowledge and perspective to applicant's projects while providing a decision based on the facts and technical merit.

Current involvement in Town?

When my family and I moved to Town at the end of 2015, I was eager to volunteer my time and get involved in our new community.  I was lucky enough to get a seat on the Conservation Commission.  As of June this year, I resigned from the Commission after serving 3 1/2 years with a great group of people.  I did this to make room for Commission candidates looking to take a seat, knowing that I would be running for the newly formed Inland Wetlands Board.  For now, I volunteer my time with my children's sports, school and other activities.

The biggest crisis facing our town?

I don't think that Ridgefield is facing a crisis. That word invokes a sudden sense of urgency and looming disaster, but I understand where the question is pointing. As an environmental professional, I would say the greatest concern facing our Town is it becoming too big and crowded from over-development and losing the charm and identity of the place we all wanted to live since we moved here in the first place.  I feel with technical professionals being elected on the new IWB and some turnover on Planning & Zoning Commission, the two groups can work together to strike that balance between economic progress and the environment.

The person I look up to the most is my stepfather, who raised me since I was 7 years old.  He's one of those success stories people from the last generation talk about. He grew up quite poor in Bristol, paid his own way through UCONN and then a MBA at UMASS. When he was done, he taught finance courses at Dartmouth and was a sergeant in the U.S. Army teaching again, only this time it was chemical weapons during the Vietnam War.  He ended up in banking and as he advanced himself and his career, he climbed the ladder to Chairman and CEO of several Connecticut banks where he would finish his working career. He taught me a lot about life, about working hard to get where you want to be and that absolutely nothing comes easy.  He was a genuine people person and worked as hard as any, but volunteered his time to local organizations too.  He was a great mentor, an even better man and my best friend.