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Incumbents keep selectmen seats Wednesday, March 31, 2004
D. Craig MacCormack (508-626-4429) Metrowest Daily News
FRAMINGHAM -- Incumbents Ginger Esty and Charles Sisitsky yesterday cruised to re-election in a three-way selectmen's race, with challenger Harold Wolfe losing out on a day when voter turnout was higher than expected.

Wolfe looked ahead to next year, while Esty and Sisitsky focused on the work at hand for the board in the immediate and long-term future.  Esty was backed by 2,686 of 3,835 voters while Sisitsky received 2,150 votes.

"A lot of people can take a message away from this," said Esty during a post-election celebration last night at Ken's Steak House.  "The message to me is people are encouraging me to keep going.

"We've got some immediate work to be done, including on sex offenders and water and sewer billing.  Hopefully other people on the board will realize a majority of voters like my efforts and will pay more attention to the issues I've raised," she said.

Sisitsky is looking at finishing work on the new Callahan Senior Center and closing out the sewer agreement with Ashland as among the board's top duties during his next term.  He said he was happy to see the Arcade project pass last week.

"There are a lot of exciting things going on, and I'm glad to continue for another three years," he said.  "I'm pleased with the result.  I got re-elected despite all the negative campaigning."

Wolfe took solace in his higher-than-expected vote total (1,307).  He was "pleasantly surprised" to see more than four times the number of votes he garnered last year.  He is planning to run again next year, he said.

Esther Hopkins and Chris Ross are up for re-election in 2005.

"The word is slowly but surely leaking out," said Wolfe.  "Obviously I'm disappointed I came in third, but I did better than I thought.  There must be something to be said about name recognition."

Other winners in the townwide election included incumbent School Committee member Dick Weader, who will be joined by Cesar Monzon on the panel.  The pair outdistanced first-time politician Mathew Helman for two seats.

The other big race saw challenger John Kahn and incumbents Linda Fobes and Larry Cooper emerge from a five-person field for three seats on the Keefe Tech School Committee.  That left longtime member Ed Weinberg out in the cold.

Town Clerk Valerie Mulvey was taken aback by the townwide turnout of more than 10 percent. Most projections were well below that number.

"I never expected this," she said.

Town Meeting member Andrea Carr-Evans, earning her first townwide office, and longtime member Sue Bernstein were elected to the Planning Board.  Bernstein had been voted out last year.  The winners replaced Chairwoman Helen Lemoine and Vice Chairman Larry Marsh who did not seek re-election.

Robert Dodd, Donna Howland and Phyllis Jachowicz retained their seats on the Board of Library Trustees, while Arsene Bajakian ran a successful write-in campaign for the seat being vacated by Susan Raskin Abrams.

Other uncontested races saw Moderator Ed Noonan, Housing Authority member Ed Convery and Edgell Grove Cemetery Trustee John Silva retain their posts.

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