MEXICO – It’s official: referendum town meeting is in for next year, open town meeting is out.
By a 269 to 188 tally at Tuesday’s polls, residents chose to vote by secret ballot on all warrant articles the day after the June 2007 annual town meeting, and to raise and appropriate $4,500 to make the change.
That ended months and months of discussion and angst generated by selectmen and secret-ballot proponents.
It also made Marjorie Richard quite joyful.
“I’m happy with that. It means a lot,” she said Tuesday night after learning the results. It was Richard who gathered 400 signatures last fall on a petition to change the way Mexico votes at town meetings.
“I had confidence that people would come through, and, when the selectmen said the 400 didn’t know what they were signing, well, this proves they did,” she said.
“I expected it to pass. Now, people won’t be intimidated. They can vote in confidence,” Richard added.
In the three-way race for one selectman’s seat, voters overwhelmingly went with incumbent Richard “Richie” Philbrick.
Philbrick tallied 291 votes, Arthur Bordeau had 117, and newcomer Gary Coffin garnered 64.
This will be the first full three-year term for Philbrick, 35, who was elected in 2004 to fill the remaining two-year term of Louise Waterhouse, who died.
Like his running mates, Philbrick said he sought re-election to keep the tax rate in check while still maintaining services, and, to bring more businesses and needed jobs to the area.
But just who gets the nod for a three-year term on SAD 43’s board isn’t known. No one ran for that seat.
A majority of voters did validate SAD 43’s $14.5 million budget, which was accepted by the district on June 8. Mexico residents voted 341 in favor of it, with 115 opposed. And, in a nonbinding opinion, 224 residents said the school budget was too high; 66 said it was too low.
If Roxbury, Byron, Mexico, and Rumford voters validate the June 8 vote, then the budget will go into effect at the end of June. If not, the SAD 43 board is to likely meet soon after the election to decide whether to make changes to the budget, then begin the districtwide budget validation process all over again.
Although the budget is 2.6 percent higher than this year’s, each of the four member towns will pay fewer dollars because of a $1.27 million increase in state aid to education.
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