By Nancy Arsenault
The State Primary Election, held on Tuesday in conjunction with the Annual Town Election, saw 1831 voters cast their ballots, according to the unofficial results from the Stow Town Clerk’s office. Stow’s two precincts, representing the north and south regions of town, cast nearly identical votes for all the candidates across the board.
The town’s choice for United States Senator mirrored the state’s choice with Democrat Edward Markey winning Stow with 495 votes and Gabriel Gomez earning the Stow Republican nod with 167 votes.
Stephen Lynch received 151 Stow Democrat votes. On the Republican ticket, Mike Sullivan garnered 94 and Dan Winslow was awarded 32 votes. Stow residents left the Senate category blank on 260 ballots.
Markey and Gomez, declared the state winners for their respective parties’ nominations, will face each other in June’s state Senate Election.
In the Town election, where there were no contested races, the residents re-elected Selectmen Charlie Kern and James Salvie, each to another three-year term, with Salvie gathering 753 votes and Kern 743.
Re-elected to the Planning Board was Ernie Dodd, who has served that Board for eleven years. The Town also re-elected Lynn Colletti to the Nashoba Regional School District School Committee. Dominic Pugliese will return to the Board of Assessors and Mary McDowell will join the Board of Health. Leading the Town Meeting will be David Walrath once again as Town Moderator. The Library Trustees will see Amante Coppes and Kathleen O’Brien return and Marianne Sharin will join the group.
Charlie Kern, currently serving as Chairman of the Board of Selectmen, said of the work that lies ahead for the town’s elected officials, “The town now owns Pompo and we need to find a reasonable way to use the building. At the same time the fire station is crowded and has structural problems. Similarly, the library has had roof problems for years and last year we learned that the structural problems with the library are larger than we thought. The clear message from the fall town meeting was that we have not yet found the right answer to these problems. The Selectmen have begun a process to revisit these capital projects. I ran for re-election so that I can be part of the process, as we put together a plan for addressing these capital projects.”
Ernie Dodd, a longtime member of the Planning Board sees similar challenges coming before his Board. “Stow’s future depends greatly on the town’s vision for Lower Village, Gleasondale and its historic mill, and on our golf courses. Lower Village and Gleasondale have a very dated or lack of infrastructure which presently limits development. The golf courses always have the potential for being sold and developed as residential communities. We need to have the infrastructure in place, with zoning bylaws and design guidelines to direct this future development of these areas,” he said. “Recently the Planning Board contracted a study of the Gleasondale village area with UMass. The result of this study will be a master plan for the area. It is expected that this plan will identify uses which will make the area economically viable and desirable.”
Dodd also said it is time to focus more intently on the Lower Village. The Planning Board is looking to improve the street design and help make a public water source a reality for the businesses there.
The Special State Election for Senator will be held June 25, 2013.
Stow’s Annual Town Meeting will begin on Monday, May 6 at 7:00pm at the Hale Middle School Auditorium.