No New SAU Office For Merrimack

Merrimack voters spoke on Tuesday, passing all warrant articles on both the town and school ballots, with the exception of one, a proposed building to consolidate the special services and superintendent's offices into one space.

The two office buildings, located in 50-year-old ranch style houses adjacent to the high school, are cramped, lacked security and privacy and don't function well, according to school board, budget committee and planning and building committee members who mostly all agreed that a new $1.5 million building to be bonded over 10 years was the best way to address the needs.

Planning and Building Committee Chairman Rich Hendricks said Tuesday night that they will have to spend some time reaching out to voters for feedback on why they defeated the article and then regroup and figure out how to best approach this issues at the two houses.

"It's disappointing for the people who spent so much time working on this project and it's disappointing for the people who have to work in substandard conditions," Hendricks said. "They're the ones who who lose here."

The remaining articles on the school ballot, including the $63 million budget and the Merrimack Teachers Association contract all passed. Shannon Barnes and Chris Ortega each earned their spots back on the Merrimack School Board with 1,264 and 1,268 respectively. Gary Krupp lost his second bid in a row for a spot on the board, coming up short with 896 votes.

On the town side, all warrant articles, including five collective bargaining agreements and the $28.7 million budget all passed muster of the voting public. Dan Dwyer and Dave Yakuboff were both elected to the Town Council, with 1,353 and and 1,301 votes respectively. Dave McCray earned a write in spot on  the ethics committee with the majority of 203 write-in votes.

A total of 2,061 ballots were cast of approximately 18,000 registered voters.

Get the full ballot results for the town are available here and the school results are available here.

Patch will have more on reaction from Tuesday's election on Wednesday morning.