All eight Proposition 2½ override questions passed in Chilmark’s annual election last night at the Chilmark Community Center, where 148 voters turned out. But passage of the eighth question, funding for the sheriff’s communication center, was moot because voters postponed it indefinitely at the annual town meeting two days earlier.
The Proposition 2½ overrides broke down as follows:
Question 1: $79,000 for Tri-Town Ambulance, 131 yes/14 no
Question 2: $35,000 for the Up-Island Regional School District, 120 yes/26 no
Question 3: $9,184 for the CORE program, 124 yes/24 no
Question 4: $5,453 for the Healthy Aging Task Force FIRST STOP, 116 yes/27 no
Question 5: $8,163 for Healthy Aging Task Force misc., 117 yes/28 no
Question 6: $5,740 for county substance abuse program, 119 yes/25 no
Question 7: $6,264 for county social services, 115 yes/28 no
Question 8: Sheriff’s communication center (moot), 83 yes/59 no
Selectmen chairman Bill Rossi ran unopposed, and was re-elected with 119 votes. Constable Marshall Carroll III also ran unopposed, and was re-elected with 135 votes.
After pursuing a write-in campaign, Don Leopold won an open seat on the finance advisory committee with 41 votes.
Despite not taking out papers, Julianna Flanders was re-elected as town fence viewer, with 35 votes.
Laurisa Rich was written in as a cemetery commissioner with 4 votes.
Keith Emin, who was re-elected as tree warden, also won the most write-in votes for two open seats as surveyor of wood, lumber, and bark — a three-year seat with 7 votes, and a one-year seat with 4 votes. Emin is already a surveyor of wood, lumber, and bark, with a term ending in 2020, according to town clerk Jennifer Christy. He came before Christy in town hall Thursday morning and announced his intention to accept the three-year seat.
When and if the victory for the three-year seat is formalized, Emin’s current surveyor’s seat will become vacant. The one-year seat he did not choose would then constitute a failure to elect, Christy said, because Chilmark bylaws have no provision to award a seat to the next highest vote-getter. For the three-year seat, Elisha Wiesner, whose term as a surveyor just ended, got the next most votes, at 5. Josh Scott got the next most votes for the one-year position, at 2. Christy said the selectmen can appoint someone as a surveyor of wood, lumber, and bark to fill the vacancy until next year’s election.
