Clarksburg Has Full Select Board With Election of Norcross, Haskins
CLARKSBURG, Mass. — The town now has a full Select Board after Tuesday's election of Robert Norcross and Daniel Haskins.
The town's been without a board since late March, when then Chair Danielle Luchi resigned to apply for the vacant town treasurer's post. She was hired after the job was posted and 30 days after her resignation, as required by law. Prior to that, Luchi was the sole board member for more than a month until Jeffrey Levanos was elected in a special town election in December.
The lack of board members at various times over the last seven or eight months has prevented town government from operating normally. The new Select Board members are also the final pieces in getting the all positions in Town Hall filled -- over the past year or so there's been a churn in the offices of treasurer/tax collector, town clerk, town accountant and administrative assistant.
Norcross won the three-year seat against Luchi, who was able to run again for office once hired. It was a decisive victory of 177-54 for Norcross, who served on the board in the 1990s.
Haskins will complete the final year of a three-year term vacated by Allen Arnold, who resigned in October. He beat Scott Robert Smith by a vote of 198-23.
Town Clerk Marilyn Gomeau said Norcross and Haskins were sworn in Tuesday night as soon as their victories were affirmed. All those running for re-election were returned to office and a number of write-ins were made for several vacant seats.
Gomeau said Ronald Boucher confirmed he would accept the positions of town moderator and a two-year seat on the Planning Board. He won those on write-in votes of 15 and seven, respectively. Boucher was chairman when he resigned from the Select Board last September; he had been elected by affirmation as town moderator at the annual town meeting last year when no one ran but did not stand for re-election.
Jeffrey Williams accepted re-elected as tree warden with 12 votes. He had won the post for the first time last year but did not take out nomination papers this year.
Gomeau said she was waiting for answers from several other write-in winners to see if they would accept their posts, including write-ins for the three-year School Committee term and the five-year Planning Board seat.
She was pleased at the turnout of 235, about 19 percent of the town's registered voters.
"It was a really good election," she said. "It was steady most of the day and may younger people came in to vote with their children."
Looking back at records, Gomeau said most of the elections saw fewer than 200 voters. The former North Adams city clerk was appointed in Clarksburg last year and this was her first annual town election. She said it was much different than the ones she had overseen for many years in the city, which has five wards and had nearly 4,000 votes cast in her last election there.
Clarksburg will be getting a little more like the city in that Gomeau is ordering a new electronic voting machine, which is included in the fiscal 2023 budget. She said the election workers have been hesitant about giving up the historic wooden ballot box with its little bell but thinks they'll appreciate it once they see how fast the box tallies votes.
Overall, she said the election went well and she commended all the poll workers who helped things go so smoothly. "It was a really great experience," Gomeau said.
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