BRISTOL — The number of candidates running for the Bristol selectboard dwindled to two last week. Bristol Planning Commission member Kris Perlee withdrew his petition for his candidacy on the selectboard before the ballot was finalized at 5 p.m. Wednesday, after press time for the last issue of the Independent.
“Due to possible conflicts with planning commission, other commitments, and time with my family, I do not believe this is the best time for me to run,” Perlee said on Thursday.
Perlee, who has served on the planning commission for three years, took a lead role in brokering the commission’s compromise over the gravel extraction issues that had stalled the passage of the Bristol Town Plan. He told the Independent in a past interview that he was holding off on submitting his selectboard petition for candidacy while trying to ascertain whether he could retain some of his planning commission duties.
“I’ve poured my heart and soul into this thing for three years,” Perlee said at the time, adding that he believed that vacating his seat at this time would be a “disservice to the town.”
With Perlee’s withdrawal from the race, Brian Fox and John Moyers are left to duke it out over the three-year seat currently held by Carol Wells, who announced in December that she would not seek re-election. Fox, a police officer in Hinesburg and president of the Bristol Rescue Squad, is running for the first time. Moyers, a downtown real estate owner and founder of the group Smart Growth for Bristol, made one previous unsuccessful bid for the selectboard in 2011 against John “Peeker” Heffernan.
Heffernan, whose two-year seat will expire this year, is running for re-election unopposed.