The deadline for candidates to file papers for the May 20 Mattapoisett Annual Election passed Monday, March 31, and now the finalized list of candidates reveals that only one race will be contested.
Catherine Louise Heuberger and Erika Osetkowski are both running for town clerk; another potential candidate, Sherri Panek, pulled papers back on January 8, but never returned to file them.
The majority of the other candidates running unopposed are incumbents; however, a couple of new names have joined other unopposed races, like Harry Hunt III, who filed for the one-year term on the ORR School Committee that was previously vacant. Mattapoisett School Committee member Nicholas Decas is not running for re-election and Peter LeBraun is now running unopposed for the seat. The vacant two-year seat on the ORR School Committee has only one candidate, Cynthia Johnson.
Current Board of Selectmen Chairman R. Tyler Macallister is running unopposed for re-election, and incumbent Assessor Raymond Andrews is also running again, uncontested.
Moderator John Eklund, Water/Sewer Commissioner Daniel Chase, and the incumbent for the Board of Health, Carmelo Nicolosi, are all running unopposed for re-election. There is only one candidate for Planning Board, incumbent Thomas Matthew Tucker.
The two candidates for the two slots on the Trustees of Public Library are both current members, Ruth Oliver Jolliffee and Virginia Callery Beams. The Community Preservation Committee will also retain its status quo with its two current members, Jodi Lynn Bauer and John DeCosta Jr., running unopposed.
Two seats on the Mattapoisett Housing Committee remain vacant at this time, with no candidates appearing on the ballot.
By Jean Perry
