Williamstown Results: School Debt OK'd, Gold Wins Moderator

Unofficial Results

SELECTMEN (two elected)

	MODERATOR      (one  elected)
Mark Gold    1,102		Frederick Leber 320

Debt Exclusion for Remainder of the Roof Debt
for Mt. Greylock Regional High School

YES   1,020

NO      546

Debt Exclusion New Boiler and Repair of Locker Rooms
at Mt. Greylock Regional

YES  1,037

NO  528

Williamstown Elementary School Committee (two elected)

Margaret McComish 910

Valerie Hall   845

Huff Templeton III  453

Northern Berkshire Regional Vocational School Committee (one elected)

James Gazzaniga   863

Daniel Collyer  354

 1,632 people voted (36.2 percent of registered voters)

 WILLIAMSTOWN — Voters overwhelmingly backed two debt exclusions Tuesday, while the incumbents held on in the Selectmen race and Mark Gold won in a landslide for the open town moderator seat.

In response to a pair of ballot questions regarding the passage of Proposition 2 1/2 debt exclusions to fund repairs at Mount Greylock Regional High School, voters answered with a resounding 'yes.'  According to unofficial results Tuesday night, 65 percent of voters answered 'yes' to Question 1 while 66 percent backed Question 2.

"It's a great thing," David Archibald, chairman of the Mount Greylock School Committee, said Tuesday night. "I think it's important for the school, the teachers, the parents and the students when the town supports them like this."

Gold, who will replace longtime moderator Stan Parese, received 77 percent of the votes against Frederick Leber. The moderator position is a three-year term.

"I'm really flattered by the margin," Gold said. "I'm looking forward to running a fair and open town meeting. I thought [Parese] was an outstanding moderator, and I hope I can serve the position as well as he did."

Leber, who ran on the platform of a more aggressive approach when selecting the Finance Committee, was disheartened by the margin of defeat.

"I'm very surprised," he said. "I thought I was going to win. Oh well, that's democracy in action."

In the Selectmen's race, incumbents Tom Costley and Ronald Turbin were re-elected to serve another three years. They each eclipsed 1,000 votes while challenger Richard Haley Jr. tallied 690. Haley said that running for public office was an exhausting process, admitting that he had trouble sleeping during the nights leading up to the elections.

"It felt like it was the beginning of a road race before the results came in, just all the nerves," Haley said. "It's worth standing up and saying what you believe. I did it for people who needed it to be done. I'm glad I did it."

Costley and Turbin both expressed excitement after Town Clerk Mary Kennedy announced the preliminary results Tuesday night at Williamstown Elementary School.

"I love being a Selectmen, and I look forward to serving for three more years," Costley, chairman of the Selectmen Board, said.

"I'm very gratified that the voters thought I did a good enough job in the past three years to give me another term," Turbin said. "[Haley] made it an interesting race. It's healthy to have contested elections. It encourages people to participate, and it brings out the issues."

In the other contested races:

-- Incumbent Margaret McComish and newcomer Valerie Hall won the two available spots on the Williamstown Elementary School Committee.

-- Incumbent James Gazzaniga was reelected to serve on the Northern Berkshire Vocational School Committee.