Bock, Jonynas re-elected to Select Board; school budgets pass

A political newcomer failed to overtake incumbents Tom Bock and Arne Jonynas,  both of whom handily won re-election to one-year terms on the Chester Select Board in Tuesday’s vote. Tami Wilkins Ravlin, a lifelong Chester resident, did garner a respectable 225 votes compared to Jonynas’ 278 and Bock’s 288.

With only 496 voters going to the polls yesterday, the turnout was dismally small compared to last year, when 638 Chester residents voted.

Ravlin had run on a platform of bringing new business and new residents into town.

But the surprise of the entire election was the last minute write-in candidacy of Kelley Kehoe for Green Mountain Union High School director. On Facebook yesterday, Kehoe urged voters to write in her name. One hundred and four voters did, which also sent the vote counting past 9 p.m., more than two hours after polls closed. As a write-in, Kehoe had to have garnered at least 30 or so votes to be declared a winner.

The following races were uncontested or the number of candidates matched the open positions. The numbers are the vote totals.

• William Dakin, town moderator — 427
• William Dakin, Chester Town School District moderator — 423
• Deborah Trent, Lister —  363
• William Lindsay, Select Board member (3 years) — 353
• John DeBenedetti, Town Grand Juror — 378
• Jo-Anne DeBenedetti, Agent to Defend Suits  — 370
• Alison Deslauriers, Green Mountain Union High School director  — 387
• Kelley Kehoe, (write in) for Green Mountain Union High School director — 104
• Jacob Arace,  Chester-Andover Elementary School director (3 years) — 348
• Jeffrey Hance,   Chester-Andover Elementary School director (3 years)  — 384
• Marilyn Mahusky,  Chester-Andover Elementary School director (2 years) — 370
• Alison Deslauriers, Chester Town School director — 383
• Phyllis Jewett,  Auditor — 402
• Erron Carey, Trustee of Public Funds  — 407
• Mariette Bock,  Trustee of Whiting Library (3 years) — 390
• David Lord,  Trustee of Whiting Library  (3 years) — 364
• Kathy Pellett, Trustee of Whiting Library (1 year) —  393
• Mariette Bock, Budget Committee  — 393

Chester voters were handed a colorful packet of paper ballots on fiscal issues yesterday in addition to the familiar machine-readable form for the election of town officers. Between 9 a.m. and 7 p.m. they cast the following votes at Town Hall.

On the lilac ballot, the $2,812,062 budget for the River Valley Technical Center was approved 337 to 129.

The lime-colored article for funding the Chester-Andover Elementary Capital Improvement Fund by $25,000 from the 2012 General Fund surplus passed 375 to 155.*

A similar question on tangerine paper to appropriate $15,000 from the Green Mountain Union High School 2012 General Fund surplus to create a  Technology Equipment and Repair Reserve Fund also passed on a 581 to 196 vote.**

The budgets for CAES and GMUHS replete in canary and turquoise and totaling $3.6 million and $5.8 million respectively, passed by votes of  360 to 175* and 469 to 309.**

A measure  to issue up to $2 million in bonds to repair and upgrade the Windsor County Courthouse was a countywide ballot that came in stark white and will be counted today in Woodstock.

* includes totals for Chester and Andover.
**includes totals for Chester, Andover and Cavendish.

— Cynthia Prairie