FERRISBURGH — Residents of Addison County’s third-largest town will have a choice on Town Meeting Day that could unseat a 12-year veteran of its selectboard.
Ferrisburgh selectboard chairwoman Loretta Lawrence is in Ferrisburgh’s only contested race: She is facing a challenge from Arabella Holzapfel, whose most recent appearance in the public eye came in 2012 as a losing candidate for the district of the Vermont House that includes Ferrisburgh, Addison, Panton, Vergennes and Waltham.
Lawrence, a longtime town resident who for years has worked as the administrative assistant at Ferrisburgh Central School, was first elected to the Ferrisburgh selectboard in 2001. She has served as chairwoman for the past several years.
Holzapfel has twice run for the House as a Democrat, first in 2000 and then in 2012. Holzapfel came to Vermont in 1986 as a University of Vermont graduate student and has worked at the Middlebury College library for two decades. There, she oversees the college’s database of on-line publications.
Lawrence and Holzapfel will each be seeking a three-year term.
The terms of two other Ferrisburgh selectboard members will also expire in March. Sally Danyow, who has served since 2005, is running unopposed for another two years. James Benoit, who the board appointed in 2012 to fill a seat left vacant when Kieran Kilbride moved out of town, is unopposed for the final two years of Kilbride’s term.
Four terms on the Ferrisburgh Central School board are also expiring on Town Meeting Day, and one candidate for each opening filed petitions by Monday’s deadline.
Incumbent Bill Clark is seeking two years, while two board members who were appointed last year to fill vacancies are seeking election for the first time, Katie Boyle for two years and Julie Gramling for three years. Newcomer Christopher Kayhart filed for the fourth opening, a one-year term.
Two openings for town auditors went begging on Monday, while auditor Joseph Blasius filed to retain his position.
All positions will be decided by Australian balloting on Town Meeting Day.
Andy Kirkaldy may be reached at [email protected].