Supple wins Selectboard seat by wide margin – Budgets and articles all pass

Longtime Shelburne resident Toni Supple campaigned in front of Town Hall on Town Meeting Day, Tuesday, March 5. Supple defeated incumbent Bill Smith for the two-year Selectboard seat.

By Sheri Duff

With 1,652 ballots cast in Tuesday’s election, Shelburne Selectboard candidate Antoinette “Toni” Supple defeated current Selectboard Chair William “Bill” Smith by a decisive margin 907-640. When reached for her thoughts on the election’s outcome, Supple stated, “I am stunned I won. I really am. I think there was a lot of controversy and a lot of dialogue on Front Page Forum. The Shelburne merchants got energized and there was a much higher turnout for a local election than usual.”

Candidate Allison Cranmer, shown campaigning outside of Town Hall on Tuesday, March 5, narrowly defeated opponent Bob Lake for the three-year Selectboard seat.

Allison Cranmer narrowly defeated Robert “Bob” Lake by a 30-vote margin to win the three-year Selectboard seat (768-738). CVU School Board candidate Joan Lenes won a three-year term with 1,315 votes. Shelburne School Board will include Robert Finn (1,303 votes) and Tim Williams (1,308 votes) who each mounted successful campaigns for the three and two year terms respectively.

Overall, budgets and articles were passed by relatively substantial margins by the 33.1 percent of registered voters who turned out on Tuesday (Note: 283 absentee ballots were submitted).

Susannah Kerest of Shelburne, at right, brought her daughter, Lena, to Town Meeting for a social studies lesson Monday, March 4 at the Shelburne Community School.

Specifically, the town budget of $7.245 million, up 1.5 percent from last year, was approved 1,035 to 530.  The school budget of $11,995,493 also passed 1,000 to 604.  Voters approved $113,000 for a new school bus and approved of borrowing up to $50,000 for lighting upgrades at the school.

By the (unofficial) numbers: