Adams and Cheshire See Low Voter Turnout

Voter turnout was low at the Adams town election with the Parks Commission having the only contested seats.

ADAMS, Mass. — Only 7 percent of registered voters came out to the polls Monday in Adams for the annual town election.

At 3 p.m., only 272 voters had passed through the polls. Unofficial numbers showed by the end of the day that out of 5,624 voters, only 412 cast ballots.

Out of the 10 open seats, including two selectman positions, most incumbents ran unchallenged and most newcomers ran unopposed.

The only actual race was for three seats on the Parks Commission: incumbents James Fassell and Todd Shafer were re-elected along with newcomer Jason Sniezek; challenger Michael Meczywor was defeated.

However, the race was close with a vote spread of only 22 between the highest and lowest vote-getters. Fassell received the most with 275 votes, followed by Shafer with 267; Sniezek  was close behind with 261, and Meczywor earned 253.

Cheshire also saw low numbers with only 108 voters voting by 3 p.m

By the close of voting, only 159, or less than 7 percent, of the town's 2,247 voters bothered to cast ballots. Cheshire had no contested seats and all candidates were incumbents.

The question to change the moderator from a one-year term to a three-year term passed with 116 ayes, 38 nayes and five blanks. The changes will take place at the next annual election.

Peter Traub received 29 write-in votes for an open seat on the Planning Board.

In the annual kindergarten election, held as a civics lesson for the town's youngsters, the 28 children in Robin Poirot and Heather Emerson's classes cast their votes on a specialized ballot.

The winner was one of the popular minions from "Despicable Me" with 10 votes, followed by Baymax the robot from "Big Hero 6" with eight votes; Olaf the reindeer and Tinker Bell tied with five votes each.

Adams Welcomes New Officer; Appoints Housing Authority Board Member

By Tammy DanielsiBerkshires Staff
05:44AM / Friday, April 19, 2024

Officer Cole Desroches recently graduated from the Police Academy. 

ADAMS, Mass. — The Selectmen welcomed the newest member of the Adams Police Department, Officer Cole Desroches, on Wednesday evening. 

 

Desroches graduated from the Police Academy on March 22 in the top tier in his class. He's currently in the field training program and assigned to Sgt. Curtis Crane. He attended Hoosac Valley High School and Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts. 

 

"He's going to serve and protect the town of Adams very well," said Crane, who with Sgts. Matthew Wright and Gregory Onorato stepped in to introduce the new officer while Chief R. Scott Kelley was on vacation. 

 

"We don't often get an opportunity to kind of talk about, frankly, some of the positive things that are happening in town and one of the many things that I feel are positive with are the Adams Police Department," said Town Administrator Jay Green. "We are right now at full staff. We have a full complement of officers. We have a chief who just resigned a three-year contract. ... We have four very capable sergeants (including Donna Malloy)."

 

The force consists of the chief, the four sergeants, a full-time detective and 11 patrol officers. It also has a new position in Cpl. Joshua Baker who is responsible for training and keeping staff equipped. 

 

"We're on the cutting edge of ensuring that we have proper training in a very changing environment with law enforcement," continued Green. "And we have a nice complement of officers and we have a well-respected detective who handles some very complicated cases."

 

He called out the half-dozen officers who attended the meeting for the work they're doing as well as the K9 unit.