Marion Select Board candidate Diane Lopes Flaherty spent the first 20 years of her life in the town before moving to Boston. In 1999, Flaherty moved back into the house she was born in, and has resided in Marion since.

Flaherty, 77, is now eyeing a three-year seat on the Marion Select Board.

After a long career of social service and government work, that included being a neighborhood service coordinator in Boston, a victim and witness advocate for the Middlesex County District Attorney’s Office, a Boston Commissioner of Elder Affairs and a consumer specialist for the attorney general’s New Bedford office, Flaherty is running for office to “represent the community.”

She said she wants to “hopefully make a dent in any way that I can … I know that as a selectman, it is the entire town that you are looking to represent, and I most definitely am interested in doing that.”

Flaherty, who likes to spend her free time gardening or catching blue crabs, said she wants to make communication easier between the community and the Select Board.

“If Boston can personalize their interactions with the citizens of that city, why can’t it happen in such a small community?” said Flaherty. “Not once have I ever received a response from our town selectmen on any of the letters I have sent there.”

Flaherty said that some of her concerns with ongoings in Marion include cemetery restrictions, potential developments on Wareham Road and Point Road being treated “like a highway.”

“There are a lot of things I see happening,” said Flaherty. “I have been somewhat vocal about the cemetery in the past. I am very unhappy with how that has been operated.”

Flaherty said that she believes families should have the freedom to decorate the gravesites of their loved ones. She also has concerns with tree roots growing where some of her family members are set to be buried.

“We have an issue on Point Road — it has become a highway,” said Flaherty. “Those big 16 wheelers travel down the road while the speed limit is 25 miles per hour. I think we need to redefine the travel on that road.”

“I love everything about Marion,” said Flaherty. “I love the fact that this is where my grandparents settled when they migrated from Cape Verde.”

“I also really feel that the Cape Verdean Community needs representation. Who else? Who better?” she said. “Our government does not reflect the diversity of this town.”