There Will Be a Race for Town Council

Today is the final day for residents to file for public office and as of the close of business hours Thursday, there were already five candidates for town council on the town ballot.

Three seats are opening up this year and David Yakuboff, who stepped down as vice chairman of the council during the fall, citing medical issues, will not seek re-election.

Tom Mahon and Tom Koenig, whose terms are also up this year, have each filed to run to retain their seats for another three years. Additionally, Mike Malzone, Nancy Harrington and Lon Woods had filed as of Thursday afternoon.

The three seats available are each three year terms.

As of Thursday afternoon, the only other contested race on the town ballot was for treasurer. The three year seat is being sought by Bruce Moreau and Martin Carrier.

Other positions that have candidates right now are Trustee of Trust Funds (William Wilkes), Town Clerk/Tax Collector (Diane Trippett), Library Trustee (Barbara Tucker), Moderator (Lynn Christensen), Supervisor of the Checklist (Margaret Petrovic).

On the school side of the ballot, as of Thursday, Gary Krupp and Andy Schneider have each filed for the two open school board seats.  Rich Hendricks has tossed his hat in the ring for a seat on the planning and building committee. There is another seat available.

Residents have until 4:30 today to register for the town ballot at the Town Offices, 6 Baboosic Lake Road, and for the school ballot at the Superintedent's Office, 38 McElwain St.

The full list of open positions is below:

Town

• Three Town Councilors for three years
• Two ethics committee members for three years
• Two library trustees for three years
• One trustee of the trust funds for three years
• One treasurer for three years
• One town clerk/tax collector for three years
• One moderator for two years
• One supervisor of the checklist for six years

School

• Two members of the school board for three years.
• Two members of the planning and building committee for three years
• Four members of the school district budget committee for three years.
• Two members of the school district budget committee for one year.

Candidates must be registered voters and anyone who wants to run for Town Council must have lived in Merrimack for at least a year. Candidates for Town Council must also have lived in Merrimack for at least one year.

We will update this list at the close of the filing period this afternoon.