WILLIAMSBURG — Select Board Chairman David Mathers won a fifth term in Monday’s town election, while Kayla Solomon prevailed by three votes in the race for moderator.
According to unofficial results, Mathers beat challenger Patrick Sumner 198-106. “I’m happy with the outcome,” he said.
Mathers believes many people recognize that he’s been doing a good job, though he did say that he would take up one of the issues Sumner raised during the campaign and support changing the Select Board’s meetings from Thursday mornings to a more convenient time.
In the other contested race, Kayla Solomon defeated Karin McGowan for moderator by a vote of 130-127, according to unofficial results.
No candidates were on the ballot for the town’s two school committees — the Local School Committee and the Hampshire Regional School Committee — though residents Glenda Cresto and Kathy Emerson ran write-in campaigns for the two Local School Committee vacancies and won.
There were also two open seats for the Hampshire Regional committee, a three-year term in which Emerson got four write-in votes and a one-year term in which McGowan and Cresto got two votes each.
Town Clerk Brenda Lessard expressed confidence that Emerson would choose to serve on the Local School Committee, meaning the Select Board would have to appoint someone to serve on the Hampshire Regional committee until the next annual town election.
Because McGowan and Cresto tied for the one-year term, the Select Board will have to appoint someone to serve until the next annual town election.
In terms of turnout, 313 voters voted out of 2,052 eligible voters, according to unofficial results, representing a 15 percent turnout.
“It was a bigger election than last year,” Lessard said.
However, she said that a contested election tends to do that.
“I wish more people would come out to vote,” Lessard.
Bera Dunau can be reached at bdunau@gazettenet.com.