HALIFAX — Halifax achieved a 7.8% voter turnout as 451 voters came out to choose the next member of the Halifax Board of Selectmen Saturday, May 18, the only contested race on the ballot in either Plympton or Halifax. In that contest, Gordon Andrews beat Melinda Tarsi 253 to 195.
Tarsi was disappointed with her loss, but said she was excited she did well. She plans to continue to serve the town on the Finance Committee, she said.
Andrews was sworn in to office in front of family and friends Monday, May 20.
His first official act as Selectman was to sign vendor warrants.
The board will reorganize at the next regularly scheduled meeting, May 28, and talk about their summer goals, Andrews said.
One of the policies he campaigned on, regionalization of the Council on Aging, received a warm welcome in Plympton Monday night, where Plympton Selectman Mark Russo noted that he’d be interested in exploring a similar concept.
Andrews also spoke about reopening talks for regionalization of the fire department and noted that most of Halifax’s mutual aid calls go to Plympton and Hanson, which would be logical places to start up talks or restart talks in the case of Plympton.
As for the shortage of volunteers in town, “I think we need to start walking around baseball fields and softball fields and asking around,” he said. “I’ll do it,” he added.
“If we don’t have volunteers, we have to pay for employees to do jobs,” he said.
He also said he will bring up with the board the idea of changing Town Meeting to a Saturday in an attempt to increase turnout, a change that would have to be voted on by Town Meeting. The board could place an article in the warrant, though.
Andrews plans on continuing to sit on both the Halifax Elementary School and Silver Lake Regional High School committees.
“I think I should be able to handle it,” he said. “I’ll see how it goes.”