ROCKPORT — Current chairwoman Sarah Wilkinson has been elected to a third term on the Rockport Board of Selectmen and local attorney Wilhelmina Sheedy-Moores has earned a seat as a write-in candidate, ousting incumbent Wendell "Sandy" Jacques in Rockport's town elections last night.
Wilkinson, who first captured a board seat in 2006, then was re-elected in 2009, when Jacques ousted then-incumbent Armand Aparo, proved to be the town's top vote-getter with 1,633, while Sheedy-Moores took the second available seat with 1,119. She essentially ousted Jacques, who will bow out after one term as a selectman but also served for years on the town's Finance Committee. He finished out of the running with 736 votes.
In the race for town clerk, current Acting Clerk Patricia Brown outpolled John Arnold to win that office by a margin of 1,313 to 820, while Timothy Good took a contested race for the Board of Assessors, topping Diane Lashua by a count of 974 to 614.
Cameron Smith earned a seat on the Planning Board with 406 votes, besting Patricia Pierce by a count of 406-234 in a battle of write-ins after no one took out papers for a place on the ballot.
Voters also cast their choice for keeping the town clerk's position as an elected, rather than appointed, office. On a non-binding referendum, just 763 voted for changing the job to an appointed post, while 1,225 opted for maintaining the lected status quo.
A total of 2,162 of the town's 5,542 voters turned out for the elections, a turnout percentage of 39 percent.
We will update this story later today here at gloucestertimes.com with more information and reaction. For full coverage, look to tomorrow's print and online editions of the Gloucester Daily Times and gloucestertimes.com.
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