This is a printer-friendly version of an article from Zip06.com.
11/09/2021 02:05 PMOn Nov. 2, Westbrook voters turned out to elect Republican John Hall to be first selectman. Hall will be joined on the board by Republican Joseph Campbell and Democrat Chet Bialicki. Hall beat Bialicki in the race for first selectman by a margin of 1,401 votes to 917 votes.
In the race for second and third selectman, Campbell received 1,400 votes while and Democrat Vince Gentile got 906 votes. Since Bialicki got more votes than Gentile, Bialicki earned a seat on the Board of Selectmen (BOS) along with Hall and Campbell.
Reached for comment after the election, all the candidates were all cordial and thanked the voters.
“I’m eager to get to work and keep moving things forward,” said Hall.
As a first priority upon taking office, Hall pointed to strengthening the police force as well as continuing work on ordinances the town had previously tabled.
Campbell said, “I thank the supporters for coming out and I thank my competitors, too. It was a clean race, it didn’t get nasty; there was no reason to. I’m looking forward to working with John and Chet,” said Campbell.
Bialicki called running for first selectman an “incredible experience” as he got to meet residents and learn what issues were important to them. Bialicki said that he was excited to move forward from campaigning and get to work with Hall and Campbell.
“I feel very strongly we will have a strong working relationship. Both of them have said there’s no politics. It’s about the town,” said Bialicki. “Over the last couple months if you look at what I said and what John Hall said, our vision for the town has both moved much closer together and isn’t so different. I really believe that will help us work tighter on priorities.”
Gentile said he was “proud of the [Democratic Town Committee] and the members that ran. Unfortunately, the results weren’t what we wanted, but we’ll continue to work to try and move the town forward.”
The Rest of the Ballot
Besides the race for the BOS, voters decided some other important races as well. For the position of town clerk, voters chose incumbent Democrat Joan Angelini over Republican Nancy Giannini by a margin of 1,373 votes to 957 votes.
Republican Jane Spanilo Butterworth ran unopposed for the position of town treasurer and got 1,666 votes.
Republican Kimberly Bratz ran unopposed for tax collector and got 1,695 votes.
For the Board of Finance, voters seated Republicans Karl Gelotte with 1,247 votes and incumbent Paul Winch with 1,276 votes. Democrats Greg Farnoli (996 votes) and Tommy Burns (979) will not be seated.
For the Board of Education, Republicans Andrew Miesse with 1,167 votes and incumbent Donald Perreault with 1,319 votes will be seated alongside incumbent Mary Ella Luft with 1,080 votes. Democrat Haifa Jalil was unsuccessful with 979 votes.
Republican Linda Nolf ran unopposed for the Board of Assessment Appeals and won 1,543 votes.
Republican Phillip Basset ran unopposed for the Planning Commission and got 1,532 votes.
Republican Harry Ruppenicker, Jr., ran unopposed for the Zoning Commission and got 1,520 votes.
Democrat Jack Boehme ran unopposed for the Zoning Board of Appeals and got 1,171 votes.
For the Library Board of Trustees, Democrat Kathleen Cietanno got 1,114 votes and Democrat Jodie Oshana got 1,147 votes. Republican Katherine Holbrook Richard got 1,351 votes. All will be seated.
Polls were attended by 2,346 voters, which is a turnout of 48 percent.