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Amelia Singer, home from Auburn University, in Alabama, for the summer, sat in the audience to watch her mother give up a seat she had held for five years. Her sister, Hailey Singer, working a shift at The Three Cod restaurant, could not be there. Most of Alexa Singer's last meeting on the Marblehead Select Board looked like any other — grant applications, outdoor dining, a beer and wine license, a roads contract — and she spent it doing the job.
Even at the end, Singer pressed for clarity. As the board weighed a working group on efficiencies and revenue, she asked members to define its purpose first — whether it would brainstorm, inform the board or issue directives — and how that would square with the board's role.
The recognition came from Erin Noonan, who arrived alongside Singer as a candidate in 2021. Two working mothers, they wanted Marblehead to plan for the future, modernize and stay a place where young families could put down roots. Noonan credited Singer with a pilot's composure under pressure, careful preparation and stubborn persistence, citing her push for a sustainability coordinator, her work on Green Marblehead and her hand in upgrading town communications, financial policies and hybrid meetings.
Singer traced her own arc to a pandemic campaign, when local government felt urgent and uncertain. Serving, she said, was one of the great privileges of her life. She recalled late nights, hard votes and sharp disagreements among reasonable people, and said she asked tough questions from the start, "not to be difficult, but because that is the job."
She pointed to work she counted as shared: new Human Resources and Community Development departments; a comprehensive roads and sidewalk plan; financial policies; public email addresses for board members; hybrid meeting access; and the town's first Charter Committee. Failed initiatives and overrides stung, she said, but the board kept showing up and returned with a three-year comprehensive plan.
Not all of it was hard votes. She remembered Memorial Day, Veterans Day, the 9/11 ceremony, Abbot Hall celebrations and the Police vs. Fire softball tournament, where she played for the Fire Department and lost. "The scoreboard was not our friend," she said.
What stayed with her, she said, was the company. "If you want to find true joy, find your people," she said. "I found mine." She thanked board members Moses Grader, Noonan, Dan Fox and Jim Zisson; town administrators Jason Silva, John McGinn and Thatcher Kezer; employees, department heads and residents; and Kyle, whom she called the hidden backbone of the town. The last thanks went to Amelia and Hailey, her whole world, for sharing her with Marblehead.
She left the next board a charge. "Never take the easy vote," she said, urging members to choose what they believe is right over what is popular.
Grader said it had been an honor, recalling how Singer and Noonan "came in super hot." Zisson said the town was better for her service. Fox called her amazing.
"I'll still be here cheering from the sidelines," Singer said. "And knowing Marblehead, the sidelines never stay quiet for long."
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