The Races Are On

Now here's what you call an election.

The filing period for public office ended this afternoon with races for town council, school board, library trustee and treasurer.

Six candidates will vie for three town council seats. Tom Mahon and Tom Koenig seek to retain their seats on the council while Lon Woods, Nancy Harrington, Mike Malzone and Kevin Shea are hoping to step in to one of those two openings and fill the empty seat that will be vacated Dave Yakuboff who is not seeking re-election

Yakuboff stepped down as council vice chairman during the fall, citing health reasons, and decided he would step down from his seat altogether when his term came up this year.

In the wake of some contentious meetings with the leaders at the library, six people have put their names on the ballot to fill two seats. Barbara Tucker hopes to retain her seat as a trustee, but she will have to beat challengers Wendy Thomas, Anthony Richardson, Gary Gahan, Richard Barnes and Chip Underhill in order to do so.

Town Councilor Bill Boyd said seeing a race like this for library trustee pleases him.

"I am thrilled that people in the community listened to what the Town Council had to say about library budget,” Boyd said. “I'm happy people are stepping up and listening to Councilor (Dan) Dwyer's clarion call to serve and address this million dollar budget.”

Aditionally, Bruce Moreau and Marty Carrier will go head-to-head for the position of town treasurer.

Running unopposed will be: Margie Petrovic, supervisor of the check; Lynn Christensen, moderator; Diane Trippett, town clerk/tax collector; Tony Pellegrino, ethics committee; and Bill Wilkes, trustee of trust funds. A second seat remains available for ethics committee.

On the School Board side, Jody Vaillancourt and Jennifer Thornton whose terms came up this year, have each opted to step down from the board.

Thornton said Friday night that her reasons for stepping down are mainly personal. With three sons, all of whom are now in school, social and athletic calendars are becoming busier and busier for Thornton and her husband.

“I decided it was just going to be too much with all three of them being involved in things,” Thornton said.

She added that she felt like she'd done what she set out to do six years ago when she first ran for the seat, which was to help get spending and the tax rate under control.

“For six years I've been asking for a flat budget and I finally got one,” Thornton said.

Four people will now campaign against one another for these two seats. Gary Krupp, Andy Schneider, Joe Kearns and Davis Powell have all tossed their hats into the ring for these two, three-year terms.

Rich Hendricks will run unopposed for one of two seats on the planning and building committee and Valerie Pellegrino and Bill Cummings have put their names in for two of four three-year seats on the school budget committee. Two three-year seats on the budget committee remain available as do two two-year seats.