Harvey Blake and Joel Taplin have been appointed to fill two seats on the Warren Select Board that were left empty after Town Meeting in March.
The board appointed its new members after a May 22 meeting during which Taplin was interviewed. Blake was interviewed for the board at a public forum on April 8 along with two other candidates Gene Bifano and Michael McGuirk.
After the conclusion of two board members’ terms at Town Meeting, two seats on the five-member select board remained vacant. The existing board, including chair Devin Klein Corrigan, vice chair Camilla Behn, and Kalee Whitehouse reached out to the community seeking candidates.
Taplin grew up in Warren and attended the Rhode Island School of Design where he majored in industrial design. He is currently 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.
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.
Blake moved to Warren in 2022 after a career in corporate finance and serves on the Warren Volunteer Fire Department. During his April interview he said his priorities include the Sugarbush Access Road pedestrian path project and the new town garage. He and his wife Tracy have two grown sons.
Blake continues to provide financial consulting and is a member of Fayston’s Boyce Hill Committee. He is also using regenerative farming techniques to rehabilitate a historic farm in Sudbury, Vermont. That project now includes establishing a community center and housing subdivision on the property. He graduated from Gettysburg College and holds a master’s degree in finance from Binghamton University and business from Columbia University. He is also a CPA.
Both new members were sworn in this week before the board’s May 27 meeting.
