SHUTESBURY — Voters approved a $6.6 million operating budget and a 32-article warrant during Annual Town Meeting, and elected Rita Farrell to a three-year term on the Selectboard on Saturday.
A total of 545 votes were cast out of the town’s 1,228 registered voters — a 44 percent turnout — according to unofficial election results posted on the town’s website.
Town Clerk Susie Mosher said that voters passed every warrant article at the open-air Town Meeting held in the large field behind Town Hall, including a citizen’s petition to take $750,000 from free cash, the stabilization account or capital funds to pay down the $1.69 million in borrowing to pay for the town’s broadband network. One of the zoning bylaws was also amended, Mosher said.
Farrell beat out Jeffrey Lacy for a seat on the town’s Selectboard — the election’s only contested race — 353 to 184. The seat’s current holder, Elaine Puleo, did not run for re-election after being elected to a two-year position in 2018.
Farrell, who is co-chair of the Finance Committee, has also served on the School, Recreation and Community Preservation committees. She said in a phone interview Saturday that she was “thrilled” to have won a seat on the Selectboard.
“I think it’s an affirmation of my dedication to the town and my deep knowledge of town government administration, and that the people of Shutesbury support their local government and schools,” Farrell said.
Lacy, a member of the Planning Board for the past 25 years and the Zoning Board of Appeals for the last 10, said he thought the election was “a great experience,” even though he lost.
“It was a fair contest between two sides,” Lacy said. “We articulated our positions on things in different ways. … I think we had a very good message about affordable Shutesbury and I think they had a very good strategy.”
The remaining election results are:
■Board of Health, two seats with three-year terms — Norene Pease and Garrett Simonsen
■Cemetery Commission, three-year term — Walter Tibbetts
■Library trustees, two seats wth three-year terms — P. Savanna Ouellette and Melanie DeSilva
■Planning Board, three seats with three-year terms — Michael DeChiara, Steven Bressler and Deacon Bonnar
■School Committee, two seats with three-year terms — Daniel Hayes and Stephen Sullivan
■Town clerk, three-year term — Grace Bannasch