Marblehead experiencing slow election cycle

MARBLEHEAD – Will May 11 be a repeat of last year’s low-interest town election, with only one race contested and a 9.2 percent turnout?Or are fresh candidates just waiting for the snow to melt a little more before they take out their nomination papers?"It’s still early," said Town Clerk Robin Michaud.All five selectmen and all five members of the Recreation and Parks Commission are elected to one-year terms. Those terms end May 11 and those board members must run for re-election if they want to keep their seats.In addition, the terms of the town moderator and one member each of the School Committee, Assessors, Cemetery Commission, Board of Health, Housing Authority and Water and Sewer Commission will expire May 11, along with the terms of two members each of the Trustees of the Abbot Public Library, Municipal Light Commission and Planning Board.There is also a vacancy on the School Committee this spring. School Committee member James Dearborn announced a month ago that he will not seek re-election to his three-year seat.Board of Assessors member Douglas Percy was appointed to a term on that board by a vote of the selectmen and assessors last year. Percy was named to a term that expires May 11.Library Trustee incumbents Peggy Blass and Susan Indresano must seek re-election in May, along with Maura Phelan Murnane, who was named by a vote of the selectmen and library trustees last year. If she is elected this year, she will serve until 2010 and have to run once again.So far no one has taken out papers for any of those seats. The deadline for returning nomination papers to the town clerk’s office is 5 p.m. Monday, March 23.The officials up for re-election include Town Moderator Gary Spiess, Selectmen Jackie Belf-Becker, Harry Christensen, Judy Jacobi, James Nye and William Woodfin, Rec and Park Commissioners Derek Norcross, Linda Rice Collins, Sam Ganglani, Charles Osborne Jr. and David Rodgers, Cemetery Commissioner Dexter Gillis, Board of Health member Carl Goodman, Housing Authority member Pamela Basso, Municipal Light Commissioners Phillip Sweeney and Wilbur Bassett, Planning Board members James Bishop and Karl Johnson and Water and Sewer Commissioner Emerson Brown.According to the record at the town clerk’s office, Spiess, Sweeney, Osborne and Brown have taken out papers for re-election. Perennial challenger Rose Ann Wheeler McCarthy has taken out papers for a seat on the Rec and Park Commission.