Put Your Public Office Candidates to the Test

With 15 days to go until this year's town elections, this week is your opportunity to meet the candidates competing for seats in three contested races.

This year, six residents are running for two seats on the library's Board of Trustees, four are running for two seats on the School Board and six more are running for three seats on the Town Council

All three of these boards will see at least one new person in a seat as David Yakuboff is not running for Town Council, Jody Vaillancourt and Jennifer Thornton are stepping down from the School Board and Pamala Tinker is not seeking election after filling a vacated seat on the library's Board of Trustees.

Tonight, residents who attend a candidate forum at the Merrimack Town Hall Meeting Room will have the opportunity to learn more about the six candidates for the Board of Trustees. The forum is an opportunity for residents to ask questions of the candidates seeking to fill two open seats at the April 10 election.

The six candidates for the seats are incumbent Barbara Tucker, Wendy Thomas, Anthony Richardson, Gary Gahan, Richard Barnes and Chip Underhill.

Each candidate will have the opportunity to introduce themselves to the live audience and those watching from home before giving their answers to a series of questions posed by those in attendance.

The library became a hot topic for another year during the Town Council budget talks after the from the library's budget. Despite pleas from dozens of residents, library employees and trustees, the Town Council wouldn't reverse its decision and instead asked the library to come back to the board with a better look at a long-term plan for the library and reduce the amount of money it is spending on personnel.

State Rep. Dick Hinch agreed to moderate the event.

On Thursday, a second opportunity to meet the candidates in this year's election will be possible at a candidate forum for the four School Board and six Town Council candidates.

Thursday's candidate forum will also be held in the Town Hall meeting Room and will run in a similar format. There, the audience will be able to meet Gary Krupp, Andy Schneider, Joe Kearns and Davis Powell on the school board side of things and incumbents Tom Mahon and Tom Koenig on the Town Council, and their challengers: Nancy Harrington, Lon Woods, Mike Malzone and Kevin Shea.

The candidate night on the 29th will be hosted by the Merrimack Exchange Club.

Both candidate nights, tonight and Thursday, begin at 7 p.m. If you want to learn more about the candidates and the personal sides of their lives, check out David McCray's blog series where he chats with the candidate on an informal  basis. McCray's blogs and plenty of other town meeting 2012 information can be found here.