Either way, Norm Hills was walking away from the polling station a winner on Friday, May 12, having his name appear twice on the ballot – once in the race for the Board of Selectmen and also as one of two candidates vying for three open seats on the Planning Board. To Hills’ delight, the townspeople chose him twice, even if his selectmen win was only by 21 votes.
Hills received 269 of the votes for Board of Selectman, with Christine Winters in second place garnering 248. Matthew Vander Pol received 206 votes, Michelle Ouellette Smith 173, and Dale Jones collected 108.
He was surprised, said Hills, pleasantly of course, because “it was not a sure thing,” as he put it. There are only so many people in Marion with 3,900 registered voters and five candidates vying for the seat, he pointed out. “It’s not a lot of votes to go around,” said Hills.
He credited his team of support for the win. “That’s probably the best thing, I can say,” he said.
Hills vowed to resign from his appointed positions on the Marion Conservation Commission and the Energy Management Committee.
For the Planning Board, Hills received 529 votes, and incumbent Eileen Marum was re-elected with 473 votes. Write-in candidate Chris Collings received 98 write-in votes and won the third open seat on the Planning Board.
Town Clerk Ray Pickles will keep his position as town clerk with Pickles’ 612 votes to Frank J. Ryder’s 272 votes. Ryder previously withdrew from the election, however, citing serious health issues.
The other uncontested races resulted as follows: Assessor, Patricia DeCosta, 780 votes; Moderator, Brad Gordon, 771 votes; Board of Health, Elizabeth Dunn, 796 votes; Tree Warder, Steve Gonsalves, 768 votes; Marion School Committee (two seats) Kate Houdelette, 699 votes, and Ronal Gerhart, 483 votes; ORR School Committee, Paul Goulet, Jr., 714 votes; Open Space Acquisition Commission (two seats) JKeffrey Oakes, 643 votes, and Amanda Chace, 558 votes.
Voter turnout was 1,011 voters, or almost 26%.
By Jean Perry