Chatham Town Election Thursday

CHATHAM – Voters go to the polls today (Thursday, May 15) to decide a race for the select board as well as two ballot questions.

Voting happens at the community center from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Four candidates are seeking two three-year terms on the select board. Incumbents Jeffrey Dykens and Michael Schell are being challenged by Stuart F.X. Smith and Brian Phillips. 

One candidate is seeking a single seat on the housing authority. Katherine Nickerson is seeking the single five-year term on the ballot.

No one took out nomination papers for a single three-year term on the Monomoy Regional School Committee. If there are no write-in candidates, the remaining Chatham members of the committee and the select board will meet to elect a resident to fill the seat.

Question one on the ballot seeks authorization for the town to borrow $32 million for continuation of the sewer expansion project and to exempt the borrowing from the provisions of Proposition 2½. Question two is a non-binding referendum asking residents to urge the state to prevent Holtec from discharging radioactive wastewater into Cape Cod Bay.

Last Thursday was the deadline for candidates to file campaign finance reports prior to next week’s election. All four candidates for the select board filed reports.

Dykens reported that he spent $2,033 on signs, fliers and advertisements, all of it self-funded. Schell also took no contributions but funded the $2,027 he spent on signs, fliers and advertising out of his own pocket.

Smith’s campaign committee, Friends to Elect Stuart F.X. Smith, reported raising $750 from four contributors: David Farrell, Elaine Gibbs, Judy Patterson and Cheryl Nelson, who is also chair of the campaign committee. Total expenditures on fliers and signs was $665, with another $1,280 in out-of-pocket expenditures for signs.

Phillips reported $165 in out-of-pocket expenditures for signs.