Meet the Lakeville Select Board candidate Evagelia ‘Lia’ Fabian

LAKEVILLE — Longtime Lakeville resident Evagelia ‘Lia’ Fabian has served two terms on the Select Board, and is running this year to use her taxation know-how and business background to help Lakeville grow.

The Brockton native moved to Lakeville in 1993 after opening a dry cleaning business in town with her husband. Fabian attended Simmons College, where she obtained degrees in communications and economics. She previously served on the Select Board from 2019 to 2025, and served on-and-off as chair for about three years.

If voters approve the recently proposed operational tax override, she said the next few years will be important for Lakeville to begin growing economically, a major motivation for Fabian to pursue a board seat this year.

“We're asking folks to keep paying more. We have to help that at some point,” she said. “At the end of the day, we need more revenue.”

She ran for reelection last year, and is running again to “dust off” her previous growth goals, which she said were sidelined by navigating the Covid pandemic.

“When Covid started, there I was with nine months of the Select Board under my belt and being the chair during a pandemic,” Fabian said.

She said serving during the Covid pandemic showed her the importance of strong communication and using a web of department heads to find answers to resident questions.

As a business owner herself, Fabian said she knows first-hand what makes a town more welcoming for business owners.

An important part of her economic growth plans is expanding the commercial and industrial tax base to a point where the town can tax them more than homeowners. As it stands, she said Lakeville has a single level tax rate — so businesses can’t be taxed more than homeowners.

“The only way to change that equation is to increase commercial and industrial development. That comes with its own list of pros and cons,” she said.

Fabian said her four years on the Board of Assessors gave her important insight on how the town generates revenue through taxation. 

She ran her dry-cleaning business with her husband for 25 years. As business owners, they sponsored area youth baseball teams and church fundraisers. She sold the business after she was injured in a car accident and is now semi-retired.

One of her proudest achievements on the Select Board was spearheading the Lakeville Senior Center’s food pantry addition. 

She said after fielding million-dollar project proposals from developers to revamp the entire center — which were financially unrealistic — she found the center’s greatest need laid in food assistance. 

The food pantry was completed last year, and Fabian said the project supported a vulnerable population in Lakeville. She said she’s missed being able to help people in town.

“You can't always help every single person, but sometimes decisions can help either a certain population or can help the most people,” she said.

She said one of things she does best is answering the phone when residents call to ask questions.

“The phone kept ringing, even though I wasn't a Select Board member anymore, and I appreciate it so much when folks ask questions. I want to keep doing that,” Fabian said.