Thursday, March 29, 2007 Older Editions

Incumbents reelected; new faces join town hierarchy

By Brian Messenger

A new town moderator and first-time selectman will join the ranks of Andover's elected leaders, after almost 4,500 residents cast ballots in this week's annual town election.

The voter turnout was 22 percent - nearly double last year's.

"It's a pretty good (turnout) ... almost double," Town Clerk Randy Hanson said. "But there were a lot of people running - you'd expect that."

Two seats each on the Board of Selectmen and School Committee were up for grabs, as well as the town moderator position and a spot on the Andover Housing Authority.

The ballot listed a total of 15 candidates and 4,496 ballots were cast.

Sheila Doherty, daughter of longtime Town Moderator James Doherty, will take her retiring father's place next month as moderator at Town Meeting.

The younger Doherty - with 1,984 votes - beat her closest competitor in the moderator race by nearly 1,000 votes.

Eric Nadworny, with 987 votes, finished second, followed by David Samuels (966), Lawrence Morse (276) and Kenneth Ozoonian (200).

"I'm grateful for all those who came out to support me," Sheila Doherty said after the results were announced. "This feels wonderful."

All three incumbents running for the six open positions on the ballot were reelected. School Committee members Debra Silberstein (3,303 votes) and Richard Collins (2,700) beat out challenger Robert Coffill Jr. (1,485), while Selectmen Chairman Alex Vispoli defeated all four of his competitors.

"A lot of work still has to be done, but it feels good to get validation," said Vispoli, who received 2,680 votes. "The town of Andover put up extremely good choices."

New Selectman Jerry Stabile - with 1,720 votes - beat out 20-year Finance Committee and School Committee veteran Don Robb by 39 votes.

Robb finished ahead of candidates Mary Carbone and Frederick Livingstone Jr., who received 726 votes each.

"I thought we did an incredible job of running a campaign," Robb said. "I'm really very proud of the people we worked with. I wish that I would have had 40 more (votes)."

Carbone, a fixture in the audience at selectmen meetings for years, said, "I'm happy either way, because I'm still going to be there. I'm more valuable on the other side of the (selectmen's) table and I know that. ... I gave it my best and I appreciate the people that turned out to vote."

Janice Burkholder was elected to the Housing Authority, defeating lone competitor David Linquist, 2,286 votes to 1,087.

Burkholder was unavailable for comment before presstime.

"It's been a brisk turnout," said moderator candidate Ozoonian minutes before the polls closed. "I would hope we've set some (turnout) records. There was a lot of enthusiasm amongst all the candidates for all the races."

Last year's election had a 12 percent turnout. In 2005, only 2 percent of town voters came to the polls, and in 2004, 16 percent.