As The Valley Reporter goes to press on May 21 the Warren Select Board is interviewing a fourth possible candidate to serve on the board until Town Meeting in March 2026. Joel Taplin has thrown his hat into the ring to serve on the board.
The board emerged from Town Meeting 2025 with two vacant seats. Earlier this spring the board interviewed three potential candidates to fill those seats but has not yet appointed any candidate. Those three candidates were Gene Bifano, Harvey Blake, and Michael McGuirk.
Taplin grew up in Warren and attended the Rhode Island School of Design where he majored in industrial design. He is current self-employed as an artist/designer. He’s been living in Warren full time since 2014. He lives in Prickly Mountain with his family and close to his father Randy Taplin.
“I make sculpture, furniture and build out interiors/kitchens. I have worked on many projects with local architects and builders. I teach woodworking and design principles at Yestermorrow,” he told the board in his letter of interest.
He has been a paid and volunteer ski patroller at Sugarbush for the past five years and was a development partner in converting a 63,000-square-foot mill built in 1866 into live/work apartments in Providence, Rhode Island. He also co-founded Tellart (www.tellart.com) which offers new ways to communicate using design craft and emerging technology.He currently teaches part-time at Yestermorrow where he teaches design principles. In 2024 he completed a death doula program at the University of Vermont.
“This community is important to me and would like the opportunity to give back to it with my time. Though I do not have direct experience being on a municipal board, I do have experience working on large projects with other people,” Taplin told the board.
