The voters have spoken. Well, about one in ten of them anyway.
Just over 10 percent of Westford voters, 10.2 to be precise, came out to the polls on Tuesday for Westford’s 2015 municipal election.
In the only contested race of the day, the race for the School Committee, incumbent Terence Ryan led all candidates with 1,174 votes.
Ryan was also the top vote getter during his first election in 2012, but this time he got more than twice as many votes due in part to the fact that it was not a contested race then.
“I feel great,” he said, shortly after hearing the results. “I just want to thank everybody who came out to the polls and I’m excited to work with Avery and Chris on the School Committee.
First-time candidate Chris Sanders was also victorious, garnering 1,021 votes. The final seat available was obtained by second-time candidate Avery Adam, who missed a seat on the board in 2014 by only 49 votes.
This time, Adam got 947 votes, just over 100 less than last year, but all that mattered in the end for her was the result.
“I feel relief,” she said. “ It’s been a two-year fight and we’ve got there.”
Westford Academy Senior Pranav Mulpur could not make it onto the board, finishing with 586 votes.
Despite the result, he was pleased with what he was able to accomplish during the race.
“We ran primarily to get the student voice heard. That’s what we set out to do. We did that in the debate and in other social media platforms we were on,” said Mulpur. “We lost, but we didn’t lose our goal, and that was to get people out there talking. I think it’s good that we made it a contested race and brought greater discussion on the issues.”
Voters also narrowly approved the final step in bringing a new fire station to Boston Road, allowing debt exclusion for bonding by a vote of 767 to 726.
The funding itself was approved by voters earlier this year at Town Meeting.
Following the counting of the votes in a meeting of the Board of Registrars, discussion was held over reports that advocates against the asphalt plant proposed just off Groton Road were soliciting voters within the no electioneering area 150 feet from polls.
As the proposed plant is not an item before voters, it was unclear whether the solicitation violated electioneering laws and the board agreed to seek counsel from the Secretary of State’s office on the matter.
In the non-contested races, Selectman Candidate Mark Kost was the top vote getter with 1,280 votes, followed by Library Trustee Candidate Susan Flint (1257) Board of Health Candidate Helen Fu (1246), Library Trustee Candidate Marianne Fleckner (1242) and Planning Board Candidate Dennis Galvin (1240).
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