Cast Your Ballot In the Danvers Annual Town Election On Saturday

DANVERS, MA — Danvers voters can get a head start on the annual town election by casting their ballot in early, in-person voting on Saturday.

Early voting will be available at Danvers Town Hall from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. ahead of the May 2 spring election.

Saturday at 5 p.m. is also the last day to register to vote for the annual town election.

This is the only day of early voting scheduled for this spring cycle.

While there are only a handful of contested races on this year's ballot — and none for townwide elected officials (only for town meeting members) — there is a ballot measure that would enroll Danvers residents in the Community Preservation Act.

The Community Preservation Act would create a tax surcharge used to fund projects such as the restoration and upkeep of open space, preserving historical documents, rehabilitation of playing fields or protection of water sources.

The funding source for these projects would come from a proposed 1 percent surcharge on annual property taxes, which is then matched, in part, with state funding from an annual trust fund.

Only communities that adopt the Community Preservation Act are eligible for CPA state funding.

A taxpayer receiving a regular property tax abatement or exemption will also receive a pro-rata reduction in a surcharge.

If adopted, a town by-law will be established that creates a Community Preservation Committee to study projects and applications for funding each year, then make recommendations for fund usage at the annual town meeting.

All expenditures under the act must be approved at a town meeting.

While some of the town meeting precincts have contested races on the May 2 ballot, that is not the case for any of the townwide offices.

Patricia Frazier is running unopposed for town moderator, Maureen Bernard is running unopposed for the one open seat on the Select Board, Eric Crane and Joshua Kepnes are the only two candidates on the ballot for the two open School Committee seats, Lisa Silva is the only candidate for the one open Housing Authority seat, and Irene Conte, Cory Ryan and Charles Desmond are the three candidates for the three open Library Trustees seats.

A full draft of the specimen ballot — which includes all eight precincts for town meeting members — can be found here.

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)