Thursday, February 22, 2007 Older Editions

Town Meeting: Attendance counts

By April Guilmet

All five candidates in this year's town moderator race say they are firm believers in Town Meeting. But some attend the annual event more than others.

Town Clerk Randall Hanson's records indicate candidates have attended anywhere from 100 percent to 43 percent of the Annual Town Meeting nights during the past five years.

The most attentive to Annual Town Meeting between 2002 and 2006 was Sheila Doherty, Planning Committee member, who never missed a night during that time.

"With the exception of the several years I taught school out of town, I've been living here my whole life. In 47 or so years, I've attended between 30 and 32 Town Meetings," said Doherty, daughter of current Moderator James Doherty.

Current School Committee member David Samuels has had the worst attendance of the moderator candidates during the last five years. Records show Samuels did not attend Town Meeting at all in 2002, '03 or '04. He did attend the three nights during both 2005 and '06, after he became a School Committee member. In total, he was present for fewer than 43 percent of the Annual Town Meeting nights between 2002 and 2006. Samuels estimated he has attended about five Town Meetings during his 17 years in Andover.

"I've become more acutely involved in town politics over the past couple years," he said. He said his goal as moderator is to get more citizens interested in Town Meeting. "

My goal is to reach out to citizens and encourage them to attend local elections, as they affect our everyday life much more than national elections," he said.

Kenneth Ozoonian, who has lived in Andover his entire life, said he's been following Town Meeting faithfully for "at least 15 years, though I must have missed a few over the years."

He attended 71 percent of recent Town Meeting nights. Records show Ozoonian attended at least one night during each of the last five Annual Town Meetings, and missed four days in the past three years.

Former Ipswich Town Moderator Larry Morse has lived in town for nearly 17 years. "I'm guessing I've attended between half to two-thirds of them," Morse said. Morse did not attend Town Meeting at all in '02 or '04. He did attend Annual Town Meeting in '03, '05 and '06, and did not miss any nights at those meetings.

Eric Nadworny said he's attended around 15 Town Meetings in the approximately 17 years he's lived in town. Records show Nadworny was present at each Town Meeting during the past five years, but he missed one day in '04, and two days each in '05 and '06.