Edgartown has three new library trustees. In the annual town election Thursday voters elected Julie Lively, Deanna Ahearn Laird and Bob Avakian to the board, knocking out three incumbents in a year when building plans for a new library have occupied much public attention.
The total turnout was 515 voters, or 16.6 per cent of the town’s registered voters in an election that had few contests. Voting took place at the town hall on a sunny, spring-like day.
Mrs. Ahearn Laird received 250 votes and Mr. Avakian received 305 votes; both will serve three-year terms. Trustees Patricia Rose and Ann Tyra trailed with 181 and 218 votes respectively. Mrs. Lively received 285 votes over incumbent Ellen Kaplan’s 176 votes in the one-year library trustee slot.
“I’m thrilled we all won, we’re all surprised,” Mr. Avakian said Thursday night sitting alongside Mrs. Lively and Mrs. Ahearn Laird at Chesca’s Restaurant in Edgartown.
“I’m glad to see the town move forward with a new vision for a library and new leadership,” Mrs. Ahearn Laird said.
“It was a big deal for the library this week,” Mrs. Lively said.
In the only other contest on the ballot, Leslie J. Baynes was elected to the town finance committee with 303 votes and Donna Lowell-Bettencourt was re-elected with 341 votes. Bruce K. Stone trailed with 156 votes.
Longtime town moderator Philip J. Norton Jr. received the most votes — 456.
Voters approved all three ballot questions: $140,000 for resurfacing town streets, $55,000 for building and repairing town sidewalks and $98,000 to buy a backhoe for the highway department.
Margaret E. Serpa was reelected selectman with 402 votes.
Also elected without contest were: Alan C. Gowell, board of assessors, 439; Kathleen N. Case, board of health, 434; Jonathan M. Searle, constable, 438; Jane Varkonda, park commission, 420; Michael Jon McCourt, planning board, 379; Susan Mercier, school committee, 419; James K. Carter, wastewater treatment commission, 391; Robert L. Burnham, water commission, 411.
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