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Town elections yield few trends

By Staff | Mar 15, 2012

Local voters made some important decisions Tuesday during Town Meeting Day, giving thumbs up or thumbs down to candidates for public office, town and school budgets and big-ticket purchases, to name a few.

These are decisions that will have a direct impact on the bottom line of their tax bills later this year.

And while searching for some common themes is always an elusive exercise in town elections, here are some thoughts as we look back at Tuesday’s voting in Greater Nashua:

Incumbents: Voters appeared to be in no mood to adopt a “throw-the-bums-out” mentality in selectmen or school board races – the most prominent exception, of course, being the surprise ousting of longtime Hudson Selectman Shawn Jasper.

Jasper, who had served on the board for 16 of the past 28 years, finished third in a six-person race for two seats. Fellow incumbent Ben Nadeau (1,004) and newcomer Nancy Brucker (894) topped the field, while Jasper finished out of the money by 73 votes.

Jasper blamed a low turnout, longtime critics and union opposition for his defeat. It will be interesting to see if any of those factors carry over to his re-election bid for the House of Representatives, where he serves as deputy majority leader under House Speaker William O’Brien.

The only other selectman or school board member to lose a re-election bid was Litchfield School Board member Jason Guerrette, who finished a distant third in a four-way race for two seats.

SB2: Despite several pushes to either adopt the official ballot law or to revert back to a traditional town meeting format, all failed to achieve the necessary 60 percent majority.

The closest bid took place in Brookline and Hollis, where voters in the Hollis/Brookline Cooperative School District actually supported a switch to SB2, but the 1,127 to 972 vote fell about 120 votes short of the 60 percent mark.

Separately, Hollis voters rejected attempts to convert to an SB2 format in the town (711-586) and in the school district (667-587). Similar attempts fell short in Lyndeborough for the town (135-102) and in Wilton for the school district (237-202).

Conversely, Mont Vernon voters rejected a petition warrant article to repeal SB2 and return to a traditional town meeting for its school district (264-108).

Big-ticket items: Perhaps the most notable vote occurred in Milford, where voters approved a $2.2 million warrant article to build a four-bay ambulance facility, 1,120 to 667. Voters had rejected two previous attempts to build a more expensive fire/ambulance complex.

On the other hand, Amherst and Mont Vernon voters nixed a warrant article that called for a $2.9 million, 10-year bond to fund structural repairs to Souhegan High School. Amherst voters supported the proposal (1,225 to 1,048), Mont Vernon voters did not (205-227) and the combined vote in favor, 1,430 to 1,275, fell far short of the 60 percent threshold.

Operating budgets: Don’t bother trying to discern any particular trends here. Hudson and Milford voters approved their town and school budgets as proposed, Amherst rejected both, and Litchfield and Mont Vernon passed one (town) but not the other (school).

Speaking of Mont Vernon, we want to commend the town’s voters – well, at least some of them – for doing the right thing and voting, 104-33, to change the name of Jew Pond, an issue that attracted national attention.

Our only disappointment was that it wasn’t unanimous.

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