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SPENCER – Incumbent Selectman Jared Grigg retained his seat on the Selectboard after a challenge from Finance Committee member Jonathan Viner in Tuesday’s annual town election.
With just over 15 percent of the town’s 7,852 registered voters turning out, Grigg staved off the challenge from Viner, winning with 667 votes to Viner’s 544, a difference of 123 votes.
The Selectboard seat was the only contested race on the ballot though there were no candidates for a park commissioner’s seat which was won by Anthony Toscano who had 21 write-in votes, Town Clerk Sandra Fritze said.
Write-in votes were also used to fill a seat on the Board of Health which was won by Danielle Gebo who had 5 votes.
The following unchallenged candidates and their vote totals are:
Town Clerk – Sandra Fritze – 1,108
Assessor – Nancy Herholz – 1,043
Spencer East Brookfield School Committee (2 Spencer representatives) – Jeffrey Savageau – 849, Melinda O’Connor – 802
Spencer East Brookfield School Committee (East Brookfield representative) – Heather Messier – 1,030
Water Commissioner Eben Butler – 1,058
Library Trustee – Marie Norica – 1,032
Sewer Commissioners – Francis White – 999
Housing Authority – Richard Leveillee
Fritze said the turnout was slightly higher than in recent municipal elections. About 650 ballots were cast by mail but whether the town will continue to allow that as an option remains to be seen.
The cost per mailed ballot is 88 cents but that doesn’t include staff time in preparing the ballots which requires extra hours for election workers, she explained.
Initially, about 1,300 residents sought to vote by mail and Fritze said she’d have liked to receive more than half of those returned by mail in order to justify the cost.
Mail in ballots are different from absentee ballots which would be available even if a town opted out of providing mail-in ballots.
