Thursday, March 29, 2007 Older Editions

New selectman jumps into political fire

By Brian Messenger

Selectman Jerry Stabile was sworn in Wednesday and will get his first taste of action with the board this weekend.

Stabile, 47, will join current Chairman Alex Vispoli and the rest of the selectmen in budget discussions and a review of warrant articles on Saturday when the Board of Selectmen meets at 1 p.m.

Both Stabile and Vispoli, 49, were elected by voters this week to serve three-year terms.

With 2,680 and 1,720 votes respectively, Vispoli and Stabile defeated candidates Mary Carbone, 68, Frederick Livingston Jr., 49, and Don Robb, 69, for the board's two open seats.

Stabile beat out Robb, a former Finance Committee and School Committee member, by just 39 votes.

It will be a spot Stabile says he'll have to prove he deserves right at the start, with Town Meeting about three weeks away.

"Fortunately, I'm current on the issues,'' said Stabile, a Blueberry Hill Road resident who is married and a father of four. "However, I'm being thrown into the frying pan given the budget situation, so I think I'll be put to the test right away."

Selectmen must work with the School Committee to close a multi-million dollar budget deficit before Town Meeting April 23.

"To close the deficit between the requested expenditures and the actual funds, that's the task at hand that must be achieved in the next 30 days," Vispoli said.

Both Vispoli and Stabile are executives with local software companies.

"I know Jerry very well. I look forward to working with Jerry," said Vispoli, who lives at 7 Alison Way. "Jerry is a hard worker and I think we'll work well with him.''

Vispoli said long-term goals for his next three years in office will be to develop master plans for town technology expenditures and its communications systems, and to continue revising Andover's vehicle policy - work he has undertaken since the summer with Selectman Mary Lyman.

"I think we pretty much ran the campaign on my record,'' Vispoli said. "We tried to talk to as many people and reach as many citizens (as possible). It was certainly thrilling to get the validation and the approval of my first three years on the Board of Selectmen. I made commitments three years ago... I wanted to make sure I delivered on those."

Stabile's first attempt at public office proved to be a successful one, though not all the candidates he ran against saw his victory as a move in the right direction for the town.

"It was a clear referendum of the old, status-quo townie vote, as I would put it," said Livingstone of both selectmen winners.

"I don't think we're going to see much different. We could be in an even more challenging position."

Livingstone, who like Carbone gained 726 votes, questioned the wisdom of electing a candidate with relatives on the town payroll.

Stabile has two brothers working for Andover's Fire Department.

"The town has elected a selectman that cannot bring 100 percent to the table because he's forced to recuse himself. I don't think that's good," Livingstone said.

"You've still got these outstanding contract issues, and more coming up."

After the election results were tallied, Stabile identified the outstanding contract issues involving several town employee unions as a priority in need of resolution.

"I think the board has to act as a catalyst to bring the employees and the town together on these contracts immediately, and I think we have to take a leadership role in resolving this budget gap," he said.

Robb agreed the immediate challenges ahead for the board will not be easily solved.

"I think you've got a huge problem to deal with and you basically have two solutions - cuts versus override - and nothing else is going to work," he said of the current deficit.