MONKTON — Monkton residents looking ahead to March town meeting will be encouraged to know that a familiar face will be back at the helm.
Ken Wheeling, Monkton town moderator for 40 years before missing the 2016 meeting, will return to the front of the Monkton Central School gym to lead the meeting.
Last year, just weeks before town meeting, Wheeling suffered a stroke and was hospitalized for months of rehabilitation. In a show of support, Monkton residents re-elected him as 2017 town and school moderator and signed a giant get well card, accompanied by a photo of the waving crowd of well wishers taken on the floor at town meeting.
Voters considering what choices they will make in Town Meeting Day voting will see that Monkton’s ballot holds no contested races for elected positions.
Incumbents are on the slate with no challengers for almost all positions, including: the two selectboard seats up for a vote (Anne Layne and John McNerney), two of the three elementary school director positions (Kristin Blanchette and Marykate Kelley), town clerk (Sharon Gomez) and town treasurer (William Joos).
A one-year seat on the Monkton Central School board remains unfilled. If no one wins a write-in campaign, the selectboard will appoint a person to the position.
One of the few new faces on the ballot is that of John Brace Sr. Following Jay Frater’s resignation from the Monkton Planning Commission in January, Brace is running for the remainder of Frater’s three-year term, which ends in March 2019. Also running for an elected position for the first time are new Russell Memorial Library trustee candidates Melanie Cote, Jo-Anne Wisniowski and Sandra May. May was appointed to a vacant trustee position in 2016.
Reporter Gaen Murphree is reached at [email protected].