GRANBY — Jay Joyce, chairman of the town’s Energy Committee and a retired military defense contract manager, won the only contested seat for Select Board in the annual town election on Monday.
Thanking his opponent, School Committee member Jennifer Curran, Joyce said he looks forward to increasing revenue for the town, cutting expenses, and improving communication between town departments.
Joyce received 307 votes to Curran’s 244.
“It was very close,” Joyce said. “We both ran a completely clean campaign and we did not bad-mouth each other.”
Joyce, 65, will step down from his position on the Planning Board, but will retain his role as chairman of the town’s Energy Committee when he assumes the new role. He said he plans to reduce overhead costs through energy reduction projects, which he plans to finance by encouraging the town to apply for grants.
“I think Jay is the man for the job,” said Louis Barry, a retired Granby police chief. “Jay is the first one with some solid ideas about how to cut expenses without cutting staff.”
Both Joyce and Curran wanted to form committees of elected officials to meet regularly to answer questions from residents and promote transparency.
Joyce says he still plans on forming such a committee, as well as a similar committee dedicated to economic development.
Sue Silk, 66, said she voted for Curran, 45, because she was progressive and young, and supported her idea to use agro-tourism to bring more revenue to Granby.
“She’s got new ideas and I think she’d be good for the town,” Silk said.
Curran, who has one year left on the School Committee, congratulated Joyce.
“He ran a really great campaign and I look forward to working with him,” Curran said. “He had a lot of great ideas.”
Keith Preston voted for Joyce based of his opposition to commercial marijuana facilities in town. Preston worries about the consequences on youth and property values if it were to be introduced in town.
Foremost on voters minds is how to best to balance the town’s budget, and help a struggling school system pay for unfunded mandates by the state, officials said. Joyce said he will help the town apply for reimbursements to offset these costs and ease the strain on the school.
According to Town Clerk Kathy Kelly-Regan, 553 residents cast ballots Monday, just 12.2 percent of the 4,551 eligible voters. Kelly-Regan said this is just below last year’s turnout of 13 percent, representing small, if typical, voter participation rates for the town.
“Unfortunately that seems to be the norm for small towns,” Kelly-Regan said.
Lance Reed, 71, a retired Granby resident, said the many responsibilities held by elected officials in town keeps more people from running. He would like to see a more diverse ballot, but understands that many young people can be politically disengaged.
“The same people run all the time,” Reed said. “It’s hard for a small town, you don’t get a lot of people running for positions.”
Joyce said he was disappointed by the low voter turnout and the number of unopposed seats on this year’s ballot. Canvassing the town, he said he talked to people who only voted in national election years, or didn’t vote at all.
“I was not that happy with the ballot itself,” Joyce said. “We run an entire election, spend money for the town for one office, the rest of them are unopposed.”
Candidates who won positions unopposed were School Committee incumbent chairman Emre Evren and newcomer Jennifer Bartosz; Board of Health incumbent Lee Lalonde; Town Moderator Lynn Snopek Mercier; Town Collector Karen Stellato; Town Treasurer Steven R. Nally; and Planning Board member Robert Sheehan. Newcomer James Pietras also won a position on the Housing Authority unopposed.
Sarah Robertson can be reached at srobertson@gazettenet.com.