Selectmen: "What a Relief"

With the news tonight of the recall's defeat, selectmen were overjoyed after an emotional and sometimes tiring election.

Selectman George Dixon said he's relieved at the news.

"I'm going to be 65 and I think if I had gotten beat today I'd find it very hard," he said. "I've had some health issues but I put that aside and came out and we held signs every day ... It was team effort. I always had faith in Chelmsford."

Dixon said the results show Chelmsfordians would make the right decision.

"I do hope that some of the hatred, and I did feel some out there today, some of it will go away because the town doesn't deserve that and we just have to go forward, we have so many good things to do in town," he said.

Getting people involved in town is really important moving forward, Dixon said.

"We had so many volunteers today, we had a ceremony starting contruction of both town halls ... We're very lucky to have the town manager that we do and we work well with him. I just want people to know I'm open to anyone to speak to me. I don't hold anything against anyone," he said.

Dixon was proud of the turnout, he said.

"I just hope the people who didn't get the decision they were looking for, they will rise above it and jump in and we'll all get what we want -- we'll get a better town," said Dixon.

Town Manager Paul Cohen said he's glad it's over.

"We withstood this attack and now we just look forward to fall Town Meeting and continuing to serve the residents. Hopefully (this) won't be repeated," Cohen said. 

"I think we've tried to be transparent, we've tried the info sessions, put everything out there ... it's an imperfect decision but I think at the end of the day people could see there's nothing amiss here that would warrant immediate removal of board from office," said Cohen.

Selectman Pat Wojtas said she never takes her seat for granted.

"I feel like this is a vote of confidence for the whole board ... I consider it overwhelming ... very positive and we'll get back tomorrow continuing the work of the town," she said.

Wojtas said she was always fairly confident the selectmen would keep their positions.

I think in election you can never be certain, so much depends on who comes out to vote .... there were so many absentee ballots and I'm hoping a lot of absentees were in favor of us but you never know," she said.