Marion voters chose John Waterman to fill the one-year seat on the Board of Selectmen on Friday, May 18, in a decisive vote garnering over half the total votes in a four-way race.
Waterman will resume the remaining one year term of former selectman Steve Gonsalves, who resigned on February 22 from the board after a brief period of open contention with the other two selectmen.
When asked why he thought he won the election, Waterman said, “Because I did my homework and I took a clean position on what I wanted to do.”
“But the hard work starts now,” said Waterman. “It’s a lot easier to talk about it than to get the work done.”
Waterman received 551 votes, Michelle Ouellette Smith 221, Joseph Zora 113, and Dale Jones 106.
Randy Parker, with 807 votes, won the uncontested three-year term left vacant by Jody Dickerson who chose not to run for reelection this year.
George “T.J.” Walker beat incumbent Ray Pickles for Assessor in another decisive vote, 658-268.
“I’m very pleased with the results,” said Walker, “and I look forward to working with my fellow assessors in an open and transparent fashion representing the entire town.”
For the other uncontested races: Moderator, Brad Gordon, 814 votes; Board of Health, John Howard, 784 votes; Planning Board (two seats), 597 votes for Andrew Daniel, 550 votes for Kristen Saint Don-Campbell; Marion School Committee (two seats), 585 for Michelle Ouellette Smith, 549 for April Rios; Open Space Acquisition Commission, Alan Harris, 774 votes.
Voter turnout was 25.5% with 1,023 of the 4,016 registered Marion voters casting ballots.
By Jean Perry