Longtime town finance committee member Jon Snyder is the newest member of the Tisbury board of selectmen after narrowly edging out town health agent and former selectman Tom Pachico in Tuesday’s town election. Mr. Snyder garnered 473 votes, while Mr. Pachico earned 426.

A total of 926 out of 2,930 residents, or just over 31 per cent of eligible voters, cast ballots in the election.

After the results were read at the American Legion Hall in Vineyard Haven, Mr. Snyder shook Mr. Pachico’s hand and thanked him for a hard fought election.

“It was a close race and both of us had a lot of support,” Mr. Snyder said at the polls. “My race was run on fiscal responsibility and I think people responded to that.” Mr. Pachico, having campaigned all day, left the polling station soon after.

Though Mr. Snyder took a position at the Oak Bluffs branch of Sovereign Bank just two and a half weeks ago, he told the Gazette on Wednesday that his roots on the Vineyard go back to the early 1970s, when his parents bought a house on the Island. It’s where he would spend most of his summers before moving here permanently seven years ago.

He has served on the town finance committee for six years, and the all-Island finance committee for four.

Mr. Snyder originally hails from Connecticut, and like the Vineyard Mr. Snyder’s hometown has changed dramatically over the decades.

“I grew up in Greenwich, but I grew up in a Greenwich that doesn’t exist anymore,” he said. “The biggest store in town was the Woolworth’s Five and Ten when I was a kid. But that’s not the image people have now and rightly. It’s totally changed.”

Mr. Snyder graduated from Williams College in 1978 and earned an MBA from the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School in 1983 before embarking on a career in financial management in Boston. Mr. Snyder is married and has a daughter and stepson.

In his spare time, when he isn’t rowing his racing shell on Lake Tashmoo, Mr. Snyder enjoys reading mostly fiction but occasionally delves into mathematics texts.

“It’s just the way my brain works I guess,” he said. Now he says he is eager to delve into a new area study.

“My first goal is just to learn as much as I can about what the role of selectman is,” he said. “I have a lot to learn.”

Mr. Snyder will take over for board chairman Geoghan Coogan, who did not seek reelection after one term. He joins selectmen Tristan Israel and Jeffrey Kristal.

The selectman’s race was the only contested race on the ballot.

Voters also took up three ballot questions on Tuesday, all of which were defeated. Tisbury residents overwhelmingly voiced their disapproval of a proposed roundabout at the blinker light intersection in Oak Bluffs, with 215 people voting in favor of the roundabout and 686 against it, and voted 492 to 384 against building a $3 million connector road between Edgartown-Vineyard Haven and State roads.

Finally, residents voted 458 to 430 against assessing an additional $90,000 in real estate and personal property taxes to fund a new step on the wage scale for town employees.

“I think the selectmen thought it was a fair agreement, but the process is that the voters need to approve it and if it’s not approved we’ll go back,” said town administrator John Bugbee after the question’s defeat. “The union president, Laura Barbera, is very fair. She understands the issues as well as anyone, so we’ll have to sit down and decide what to do next.”

Also elected Tuesday without contest were: Mark Campos, town constable, 627; Remo Fullin, town constable, 693; David Dandridge, board of assessors, 694; Malcolm Boyd, board of health, 701; Robert Tankard, school committee, 733; Roland Miller, water commissioner, 652; Jeffry Edward Thompson, planning board, 660; George Balco, library trustee, 637; Pamela Street, library trustee, 639; Jo Weinberg, library trustee, 623; Ian Aitchison, library trustee, 644; John Thayer, public works commissioner, 671; Darren Welch, 627, public works commissioner; Melinda Loberg, finance committee, 694.