BOS, Planning Board races headline April 4 election

Canton’s annual town election is this coming Tuesday, April 4, and voters will have some important choices to make with four candidates vying for two Board of Selectmen seats and two newcomers going head to head for a Planning Board vacancy.

Board of Selectmen candidates participate in a recent forum at town hall. (CCTV photo)

In the BOS race, Selectman Victor Del Vecchio, a retired attorney and corporate executive, is the lone incumbent in the field and is running for a sixth consecutive term on the board. The other incumbent with an expiring term, current BOS Chairman Bob Burr, announced in January that he would not be running for reelection this year, and the surprise move sparked a wave of early interest in the seat and ultimately produced three challengers: Jeremy Comeau, the current Planning Board chairman and head of the Paul Revere Heritage Commission; Chris Connolly, a former two-term Planning Board member and local attorney; and Tom Theodore, the current chairman of the town’s Playground & Recreation Commission.

Voters will be able to select up to two selectmen candidates on Election Day, and the two with the highest vote totals will each be awarded a three-year seat.

Profiles of all four BOS candidates, including a chart comparing their views on a number of key community issues, can be found in the March 23 edition of the Canton Citizen. Additionally, two separate candidates forums — one presented by the Canton Citizen/Canton Community TV and the other hosted by the Blue Hills Civic Association/CHS Junior State of America — will air throughout the week on CCTV’s Community Station.

The other contested race in this year’s election is for a one-year term on the Planning Board and features two political newcomers: Patrick Manning and Patricia McDermott. The winner would serve the final year of the original five-year term held by Tori McClain, who resigned last April.

Manning, who grew up in Canton, is a veteran of the Army Corps of Engineers, a former firefighter, and was recently appointed to the town’s Open Space and Recreation Plan Committee. McDermott is a longtime Canton resident and has extensive volunteer/civic experience with groups such as the Friends of the Canton Public Library and the Friends of the Little Red House. She is the wife of town historian and Library Trustee George Comeau.

In addition to the one-year seat, there are two other Planning Board seats up for grabs in Tuesday’s election, and both are uncontested. Robert Panico, who was appointed to fill the fourth year of McClain’s term, is now running for a full five-year term of his own, and David McCarthy, who recently joined the Canton Center Design Review Board, is running for the three-year seat created by the departure of George Jenkins, who resigned in October after many years of service, citing health reasons.

The remaining seven candidates on this year’s ballot are all running unopposed, including incumbents John Bonnanzio and Reuki Schutt for School Committee, Dr. Julie Goodman for Board of Health, and George Comeau, Dorothy Shea, and Susan Cogliano for Library Board of Trustees. Gene Manning, a veteran of several town committees, is also running unopposed for the Board of Assessors seat last held by Dan Flood, who passed away in February at age 79.

Polls will be open to all registered voters on April 4 between 7 a.m. and 8 p.m. at four locations: Canton High School for precincts 1 and 6; Dean S. Luce School for precinct 2; Blue Hills Regional for precinct 3; and John F. Kennedy School for precincts 4 and 5. An updated precinct map is also available at town.canton.ma.us.

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Posted by Jay Turner on Mar 31 2017. Filed under Town Election. Both comments and pings are currently closed.